It’s been two years since I launched The Great American Western YouTube Channel. At the time, I never intended to launch a podcast, I just wanted a way to share my love of Westerns with the world. As the channel grew, I noticed that a lot of people were leaving comments on some of the videos that there weren’t many new Westerns being made any more.
I agreed with them, but what most of them didn’t realize is that there are, all the time. New Westerns are always being written, much better Westerns than anything found in Hollywood nowadays.
Seventeen years ago, on September 5, 2009, I launched a website called The Western Online. It’s now defunct, but I ran it with my uncle, Mike Pizzolato, (who will be onboard for this endeavor) and we published Western short stories, historical articles and artwork. I started it, because at the time, I was looking for places to publish my own short stories and found that there weren’t very many places for it. So, I decided to create opportunities for other writers that I couldn’t find myself. Over the years the website operated, we received thousands of submissions, and I met many great Western writers. Another feature that we did at The Western Online was to publish written interviews with some of our authors.
As I was reading video comments on the YouTube channel, it occurred to me that I could bring new Westerns to people looking for them and offer exposure to fellow Western writers. My idea was to bring back the writer interviews but in video form to fit the YouTube channel. As I looked around, there were many great podcasts on writing, but none that focused solely on Westerns and Western writers, so I decided to fill the void.
And so, the Dusty Trails & Tall Tales podcast was born. It has already grown beyond my wildest dreams. Not only have I spoken with many Western writers, but actors, musicians, screenwriters, editors, publishers and people involved in all forms of the Western from fantastic writers like Elisabeth Grace Foley to Western greats Beau L’Amour and Peter Sherayko.
Now, after two years we are expanding again, because I’ve noticed that while Western fiction is thriving with some great publishers, there still aren’t that many markets for Western short stories.
On September 5, 2026, The Great American Western will become a paying market for Western short stories and historical articles. The name will be: The Pony Express – A Publication of The Great American Western and our monthly newsletter will be renamed, The Monthly Dispatch. Our rates will start at 1 cent per word. We plan to increase rates as we grow, but I would rather begin with payments that we can sustain rather than something that is beyond our means.
We will use Substack as our means of publication. There will be submission periods that will open and close as we need content. We will publish one short story and one historical article per month. Each submission period we will select up to six short stories and six articles. Everything we publish will be online on our Substack and emailed to all of our subscribers as well as shared on our social media channels with over 75,000+ followers. Subscriptions are free and nothing will ever be hidden behind a paywall. We plan to begin publication during Winter of 2026/2027.
Writers will be paid upon publication. For more information, check our Submission Guidelines. I look forward to reading your work. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Pony Express – A Publication of The Great American Western on Substack.
Keep your powder dry,
Matthew Pizzolato
Editor & Publisher – The Pony Express
The Dusty Trails and Tall Tales Podcast
The Great American Western YouTube Channel
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