Hey guys,

Music to write by: “Bang Bang” by The Armchair Cynics

Welcome to post 2 in the Markets for New Genre Writers series. If you missed it, the previous post was on the Space Opera e-zine Raygun Revival.

Next up: AlienSkin Magazine. Warning: The home page has sound! May not be office friendly.

Background

Published by Froggy Bottom Press, a publishing company founded in May of 2002, AlienSkin magazine focuses on Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy short fiction. Staff includes K.A. Patterson, Kevin Hillman, Elaine Isaak, Rob Shelsky, and Phil Adams. Their goal is to “help fellow writers gain publication for stories that might have been overlooked by other editors, or that might’ve fallen through the cracks of this highly competitive market”. Of course, the site focuses on fiction, but the magazine also highlights writing resources through their non-fiction articles and writing related links.

Why is the magazine attractive to you?

AlienSkin magazine’s site is professional looking and has a great home page, one that your readers will appreciate. They have a growing reputation in the industry and a reliable publication schedule.

One of their best features is that, like Raygun Revival, they tend to offer a few sentences of feedback even on stories that they reject–a definite plus for the author that’s sick of form rejections.

Payment

AlienSkin does pay its contributors 1/2 cent per word up to 3500 words for fiction, well below pro rates, but still respectable.

Submission Guidelines are here.

Hey Guys,

Music to write by: “Lazy Eye” by The Silversun Pickups

Welcome to the first post in my “Markets for New Genre Writers” series. First up: Raygun Revival.

Background

Raygun revival was founded by Johne Cook, Paul Christian Glenn, and L.S. King in April of 2006. They founded the magazine because they believed that “space opera has fallen on hard times, and [they] intend to revive it.” Although the magazine falls under the umbrella of Double-Edged Publishing and its editors are Christian, don’t be afraid that your story must focus on religious themes. They admit that their preference is on good storytelling rather than religious overtones. In fact, I cannot recall any overtly Christian stories being published in the magazine.

Why is the magazine attractive to you?
They are always putting out calls for more submissions and have been known to publish debut stories from a variety of authors.

As a plus, their magazine covers look awesome and your name goes right on the front. Definitely something you can brag to your friends about.

Final words
My one caveat about the magazine is that they run serial fiction written by the editors, which is usually a negative. The quality of the serials runs from “needs improvement” to “quite good”. I’m not sure how many readers come back from week to week just for the serials, but your story is sure to get some “spill-over” from those that do.

Since the magazine is published in an aggressive bi-weekly schedule, your story won’t languish for too long before seeing print, and might even get podcasted by Raygun Radio. All of these bonuses make this magazine a great market for new writers

Hey guys,

Music to write by: “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” by The Headstones

Being a first time writer is daunting. There are lists of markets available online like Ralan’s Specfic and Humor Webstravaganza or Duotrope, but they contain precious little information about the market itself. Writers don’t want their babies to disappear into some webzine that is only seen by a handful of people. They want a professional looking product, exposure, and most of all, a market they can brag to their friends about.

The purpose of these posts is to highlight markets that accept work from unpublished writers, that publish material that is entertaining rather than literary, and that look professionally presented and edited. I’m going to start with the three webzines hosted by Double Edged Publishing simply because I’ve been published in all three, but I’ve made myself familiar with a vast number of other magazines over the years, so you can look forward to quite a few posts.

If you’re the editor of a small market magazine that accepts work from new writers, please e-mail me the address of your site, the names of a few authors that have debuted at your site, and any statistics you might have, and I’ll make sure to post about it. If you’re actively soliciting submissions, you might even get some traffic from this blog.

Next post: Raygun Revival! See you then!