Inspired Author

[hyperintensity]

Greetings and Happy New Year!

As a longtime listener to the podcasts featured at this site, I have decided to make a dream come true this new year. Inspired by the wonderful stories and terrific hosts of the podcasts, I decided that I should try my hand at sharing the stories that have been bouncing around in my head for years. Since my initial offering will be science fiction, I chose to post this message to the escape-pod forum.

As I venture into the world of online publishing I would like to get some suggestions as to what publications, online or in print, I should start with. There are dozens of possibilities as referenced in the podcasts, themselves. I can think of no other experts than the audiences of these podcasts for advice.

Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Scattercat]

I'm a little confused.  Are you wanting suggestions for places that can help you produce and distribute your own podcasts, or are you asking what the best places to submit stories for publication would be?

If it's the latter, then the standard answers of Ralan and Duotrope should serve you in good stead.  They're both listings of open markets for fiction with varying additional tools to assist authors in submitting efficiently and intelligently.  If the former, I have no idea.

[hyperintensity]

Thanks for the reply.

I apologize for not being clear. I would like to write short stories for publication. There are so many websites and magazines, such as Asimovs, Strange Horizons, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Clarkeworld, etc.; I was just looking for some guidance as to where to start and how to go about submitting stories?

[Scattercat]

Every market has their own guidelines.  Find a link called "Submissions" or "Submission Guidelines" or something along those lines.  Then follow the instructions carefully.  Please be sure that your story is of the right genre, wordcount, and format.  Most of those rules are in place for a reason, and the ones that aren't are there to make sure people have read the guidelines before submitting.

In general, double-spacing, 12-point font, and a nice standard font like Times New Roman or Courier would be a good default format.  Put your name, address, contact information, and wordcount at the top, since most places want that anyway.  (I can only think of one off the top of my head - Flash Fiction Online - that explicitly doesn't want author name and info at the top of manuscripts.)

Go to Duotrope and/or Ralan.  Take some time to figure out how they work and then use them.  You might also want to keep a database yourself of what stories you've submitted to which markets when.

Write a polite and professional cover letter in which you provide your name, the title of the story, and the wordcount of the story.  If you have any *notable* publications, then include those.  (That means that no-pay or token payment markets, with only a few rare exceptions, are at best irrelevant as publication credits.)  Please do NOT include advertising copy, nice reviews your mother wrote, or any other extraneous information.  DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BE FUNNY.  Copy and paste it when you submit, altering details where appropriate.  That way you don't end up with awkward goofs when submitting.

[Sgarre1]

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BE FUNNY.

heh....

[DKT]

Go to Duotrope and/or Ralan.  Take some time to figure out how they work and then use them.  You might also want to keep a database yourself of what stories you've submitted to which markets when.

Write a polite and professional cover letter in which you provide your name, the title of the story, and the wordcount of the story.  If you have any *notable* publications, then include those.  (That means that no-pay or token payment markets, with only a few rare exceptions, are at best irrelevant as publication credits.)  Please do NOT include advertising copy, nice reviews your mother wrote, or any other extraneous information.  DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BE FUNNY.  Copy and paste it when you submit, altering details where appropriate.  That way you don't end up with awkward goofs when submitting.

Seconding all of this, but particularly - Duotrope is definitely your friend, and incredibly easy to use. Run a search for markets for your stories there and it'll give you more results than you know what to do with.

[hyperintensity]

Thanks for the advice. I checked out the websites and they appear to be great resources to start.

[kibitzer]

...it'll give you more results than you know what to do with.

...which, naturally, guarantees a sale ;-)

[Scattercat]

...it'll give you more results than you know what to do with.

...which, naturally, guarantees a sale ;-)

Well, if you seriously submit to EVERY Duotrope listing you find, I'd be comfortable guaranteeing a sale in there somewhere.  Some of those markets I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot cattle prod, though.

[Talia]

...it'll give you more results than you know what to do with.

...which, naturally, guarantees a sale ;-)

Well, if you seriously submit to EVERY Duotrope listing you find, I'd be comfortable guaranteeing a sale in there somewhere.  Some of those markets I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot cattle prod, though.

Why?

Just curious what renders a market unpalatable. Or is it just from a quality perspective?

[Scattercat]

There are markets out there that pay nothing, have really amateurish web design, and perform no editing to speak of.  There's a lot of turnover in the bottom ranks, with new ones blossoming and old ones fading after their two-issue honeymoon is over and the "editors" realize how much work it is to run a fiction 'zine.  Getting published at such a place is kind of pointless on several levels.  On the one hand, they usually don't get a lot of submissions, so even halfway coherent claptrap seems decent by comparison, and thus having your story selected doesn't mean much.  On the other hand, you get no money, so your profit has to be solely in "exposure," which is undercut by the fact that they're new and don't have a reputation, and thus usually have very low readership.  There are also a fair number of less-than-ethical publishers who are basically using would-be authors as free content generators for some sort of hare-brained SEO nonsense.

This is not to say that all non-paying or token-payment markets are worthless, but for a non-paying market to be a good place to submit, it needs to provide some other intangible benefits, like name recognition or a high-quality production.  A very famous non-paying market (like, say, Starship Sofa) can indeed provide returns in "exposure" that are akin to actual payment.  However, it takes a long time for a market to become sufficiently established that their name on a publication credit is as good as money in the bank.

[jrderego]

This is not to say that all non-paying or token-payment markets are worthless, but for a non-paying market to be a good place to submit, it needs to provide some other intangible benefits, like name recognition or a high-quality production.  A very famous non-paying market (like, say, Starship Sofa) can indeed provide returns in "exposure" that are akin to actual payment.  However, it takes a long time for a market to become sufficiently established that their name on a publication credit is as good as money in the bank.

Just to follow up, these markets described here very well by Scattercat are typically edited by a bigfoots (bigfeet) with the Loch Ness Monster working the slush pile, and the whole operation is financed by Ouija board using Roswell aliens fresh from the hollow Earth cryogenic chamber. I can't think of a single market that doesn't pay or pays in "exposure" that has any value at all to the writer other than ego stroke.

Writing for free hurts writers who write for money. Markets who don't pay should be shunned, and their editors hunted down with torches.

[Scattercat]

I wouldn't go quite that far.  (But then, when it comes to jrderego's patented rants, I rarely would. :-P)  There are a few token/non-payment markets that I think are high enough quality to be worth submitting to, either because they do provide skillful editorial curation or strong production values.  It's only that I can just about count those on the fingers of one hand, and chances are anyone who's at all into short speculative fiction has already heard of them (by virtue of the merits that make them worthwhile.)

The markets I'm thinking of as the "bottom-feeders" at Duotrope tend to be more the result of overenthusiasm on the part of naifs who think that operating a fiction market means two hours of work once per month.  I wouldn't pursue them with implements of destruction, but neither would I submit fiction to them until they've upgraded themselves a bit.