A friend recently tipped me off to a limited open invite for a shared world anthology paying pro-rates. The trick was that they wanted a writing sample of your best work, and, as much as my Writers of the Future winning piece still ranks among my best, the anthology is Sword & Sorcery, and “After the Final Sunset, Again” is magic realism.

So I went to the Trunk, meaning stories that I’d written before I decided to switch to writing screenplays and graphic novels. These weren’t “real” trunk stories that had made the rounds already and been rejected everywhere. Rather they were good stories that I decided not to waste time on submitting, because I had moved on from short story writing. I wrote six stories at Clarion West and never even looked at them again. Several stories I’d written since CW had only gone to one or two markets.

The closest thing to S&S that I felt showcased my best work was an Asian-themed Magic & Mechanica piece that was my fourth story at Clarion. I’d always liked the piece, and David Hartwell of Tor (that week’s instructor) said that if I expanded it to novel length, it would probably sell. Thing is, I’m a much better writer now than I was at CW and the story needed work. However, I found out from Steve that the call for submissions had an overwhelming response and that the submission window was probably open for no more than a day, so I stayed up all night and wrote a new draft, and darn it, it turned out pretty well (and won me a spot in the antho. Yay!)

That got me thinking about my other CW pieces. I was pretty down on myself after the workshop ended and hadn’t bothered to look at them again. I even went so far as to throw out the crtis I’d gotten. But I feel like I’m a good enough writer now to see what’s wrong with them and fix them. As much as I’m still committed to writing long, I’m probably going to polish these up and get them into circulation.

Looks like I’m going to be a short story writer, novelist, screenwriter, and graphic novel writer by the end of the year. I’ll be a slog, but with my fingers in so many pies, something’s gotta hit!

I found this editorial over at Baen’s Universe. Mike Resnick talks about Slush. It’s a fun article, but also pretty intimidating. In one section, Resnick talks about asking Dozois, who was the managing editor of Asimov’s at the time, how many stories he’d accepted from the slush pile, and his response was three. Congrats if you’d been published out of the slush at Asimov’s. You’ve won the lottery. The number at F&SF was slightly better–7. Notice I said slightly. Of course that doesn’t dissuade the manaical masochists like yours truly.

The whole article is illuminating, funny, and depressing. A weird combination, but it’s worth the read.

As long as I’m talking about Baen’s Universe, I have to mention my experience in their “slush pile”.

They have two slush piles. They accept stories that are submitted to them like many other magazines–through a web form. This is method number 1. Method number 2 consists of a private forum where you post your work and ask for comments. Great stories get comments, and may draw the attention of Gary Cuba, Edith Maor, or Sam Hidaka, who are the assistant editors. One of the best things about the bar is that if a story doesn’t cut the mustard, you can rewrite and resubmit it. My current submission is in its fourth (and hopefully final) revision. The fact is that it simply wasn’t ready for primetime when I first submitted it, and now it’s much, much better. Who knows? It might even make it into the magazine. A man can dream, can’t he?

Baen’s reserves two to four “Introducing” slots an issue to beginning authors. This means you can actually get into the magazine through the slush since you aren’t competing with big names for these spots. The requirements are the same for WotF, and since that publication is my only major credit (Sails & Sorcery paid pro-rates, but I doubt the print run was 5K), I’m good.

My experience at the bar has been extremely positive. I feel like I’ve really learned some lessons about craft from the guys (and gals) there. I’d recommend the experience to anyone.

Tags: Baen's Bar, Edith Maor, Gary Cuba, Jim Baen's Universe, Mike Resnick, Sam Hidaka

Music to write by: “Crazy” by Gnarles Barkeley

Welcome to post 7 in the Markets for New Genre Writers series. If you missed it, the previous post was on the print and e-zine DKA Magazine.

Next up: Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.

Background

Australian short fiction magazine Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine was founded with the goal of publishing stories that are light-hearted and ‘un-serious’.  They also focus on helping first-time authors get published, which is a big reason why they made this list.

It was difficult to track down any information on the magazine’s founding, but they’ve been in business since at least August of 2002, and in that time they’ve won several awards, including the “Tin Duck Award”, the Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award (Ditmar), and the Aurealis Peter MacNamara Award for Publishing and Editing. The blog, 101 Reasons to Stop Writing, recently conducted an excellent three part interview with the slush readers. It gives a lot of insight into the process of reading slush, which, in itself, makes it a great resource.

Instead of listing all the names of the staff at this awesome little print magazine, I’ll just point you at their staff directory.

Why is the magazine attractive to you?

This magazine should be one of a new writer’s first stops for submissions. Here’s why:

• The magazine looks beautiful, as you can see from the above cover.
• They’re a paying market,
• They (sometimes) offer limited feedback on submissions.
• The magazine also publishes a Best-Of Anthology, so there’s a possibility of double exposure.
• Best of all, they submit all their stories to award committee, so if you’ve got a real gem, here’s where it’ll get noticed.

Genre

Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Light-hearted only.

Max Word Count

10,000. Query for longer.

Payment

1.25c / word AU. Min $20 per piece.

Submission Guidelines are here.

Hey guys,

Music to write by: “Judith” by A Perfect Circle

Welcome to post 6 in the Markets for New Genre Writers series. If you missed it, the previous post was on the ezine, Bewildering Stories.

Next up: DKA Magazine.

Background

Founded in 1999 by Rebecca Shelley, DKA magazine walks a fine line. Like other Double-Edged Publishing‘s ezines, they believe in offering speculative fiction with a Christian slant, but they also aim to appeal to a broad market. The full name of the zine is “Dragons, Knight, and Angels Magazine” and that’s what they want to see. In their DKA Vision section, they clarify:

The powerful, mystical dragon, traditionally representing evil or the thing feared or the threat to the land. Also standing for that wide-open land populated by astounding creatures of imagination.

The knight, traditional hero, the rescuer, the Messiah-figure, the undaunted human facing enormous challenges and carrying on with faltering or hardy faith, flawed or virtuous, always intrepid and often blessed.

And the angel, the messenger of God, the spiritual being that guards and intervenes and fills its space with holy light and power, who lets us know we are not alone and that we ought not be afraid, for God is with us.

Despite the tone of the above page, DKA magazine isn’t in-your-face about their Christianity. They are interested in stories with Christian morality with great storytelling. Period.

EDIT: Mir, assistant editor at DKA magazine, commented in record time. She wanted to clarify what kind of fiction they are looking for. She writes:

A couple of clarifications (as the one who wrote up that vision statement):

We aren’t looking for 1. dragons, 2. knights, and 3. angels. We will look at stories with those elements, but we use those elements as symbols (hence the “stands for” and “represents”). The elements are symbolic, ergo we take science fiction, but don’t have to be.

I say this to hold back a slew of dragon stories, knight stories, or angel stories. We take all types of speculative fiction and poetry that FITS the vision. And we are a “Magazine of Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy”, which is more narrow than the other DEP imprints. We actually call ourselves a “Christian” magazine, whereas they do not.

What we seek, above all, is quality and surprise. We don’t want a typical story rehasing the same old knight/dragon scenarios. If you use these archetypical elements, use them in a fresh way or we will not be bouncing over it.

Why is the magazine attractive to you?

DKA magazine is available online and also in a new printed format, which offers the potential for double exposure. They are open to new authors (it’s the magazine where this author got his start), and even reserve a special slot in every issue for student contributors.

In my experience, Double-Edged Publishing works very closely with new authors to help them develop their careers. You see many authors being published again and again in any of their five publications. My own work has appeared in Raygun Revival, DKA  magazine, and is upcoming in The Sword Review.  This philosophy gives you the potential to really get your name out there in the Christian Speculative market (which judging from DEP’s pageviews is quite large) as well as opening the door to multiple sales to their other magazines.

Genre

Fantasy, but open to Sci-Fi and Horror. A family market, so no cursing.

Payment

1/2c per word up to $25.  Asks for First North American Rights.

Max Word Count

3000, but will accept exceptional works up to 5000 words.

Submission Guidelines are here.

Hey guys,

Music to write by: “Butterfly” by Crazy Town

Welcome to post 5 in the Markets for New Genre Writers series. If you missed it, the previous post was on the print magazine Prism Quarterly.

Next up: Bewildering Stories.

Background

Founded in “Jaugustuly” of 2002 by Don Webb and Jerry Wright, Bewildering Stories aims to be a meeting place for new writers as well as a fiction ‘zine. The magazine is published in an aggresive weekly format (they’re at issue 249 as of this “printing”). They boast an impressively well attended and active forum, as well keeping links to an array of writer’s resources.

Why is the magazine attractive to you?

One of the biggest reasons you should submit here is their weekly format. Your story is not likely to languish in the slush pile for too long. Because they’re a donation only site, you also won’t have competition from snobs that only submit to paying magazines. The site also recently started up Bewildering Press which publishes anthos and books, so it’s possible to double-dip and get your story published twice (there’s talk of a Best-Of antho).

Genre

Any. Really.

Payment

Exposure, but only asks for one-time non-exclusive electronic rights. Works up to 9,000 words are accepted but longer pieces may be serialized.

Submission Guidelines are here.