Starting out - some good publications?

[lunchboffin]

Hi all,

I've been listening to Escape Pod for a couple years, and I've just realised that I can BUY short fiction to read! I've been having a quick poke around for short story collections, magazines, etc. and the choice is overwhelming. I'm hoping to get some recommendations for scifi short story collections that I can order from Amazon, magazines that might be worth subscribing to, etc. I'm really after a reading list to keep me going for a while.

I know about Asimov's, Clarkesworld. I'm sure I'm missing plenty of elephants in the room though.

Looking forward to your responses!

Kind regards,

Your first-time poster, LunchBoffin.

Edit: I should mention my extra criteria - I'm in Australia, and I like the feeling of a book or magazine in my hands. I know I can get a bajillion digital editions from everywhere, but I'd rather something made of paper turn up at my house every now and then.

[Listener]

duotrope.com

As an Australian, on there you'll find several pubs that prefer Australian authors or only publish stories by Australians. Take advantage.

Here's the general order I sub in:

1. Fastest RT pro-paying markets (ie: Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Nightmare, Fantasy).
2. Asimov's & Strange Horizons.
3. Fastest RT semi-pro markets, usually starting with Daily Science Fiction.
4. The other semi-pro markets.
5. F&SF and Interzone, since they still require submissions via post (PS: Andy Cox is a man. It took me quite a bit of googling to figure this out. Would've felt really silly saying "Ms Cox" to him in my cover letter.)
6. Anything else that looks like they might take my story.

[eytanz]

He's not looking for markets to sub to, he's looking for recommendations of good reads.

I'm afraid I'm not very knowledgable in this field - I basically get my SF short stories from EA, and from anthologies I buy based on themes I'm interested in. My general rule of thumb is that if I like the title of an anthology and it features at least 2-3 authors I know I like, I'll probably buy it. If it's all authors I never heard of, I'm unlikely to buy it unless it comes with a recommendation from someone whose opinion I trust.

[Listener]

Oh. Duh. I totally read that wrong. My bad.

Most of the best fiction is electronic these days. You may just want to get a Kindle or other e-reading device of your choice.

[Umbrageofsnow]

I own a ton (sadly a figurative ton, but I'm getting there) of short story collections. I also get all kinds of short story magazines, and I know that some will ship international. I get Interzone internationally (I'm in the U.S., Interzone is British). If you give us some more detail on what you like to read (top 5 authors, favorite EA podcast so far, etc.) we could makes some educated guesses based on your tastes, otherwise it is just a shot in the dark whether you like the same things as any particular poster.

Without knowing anything about your reading taste, and assuming you want to broaden your horizons, here are my suggestions:

1. Look up your favorite author on her/his webpage, interviews, etc. Find out what their favorite author or biggest influence is. Maybe see what influences your favorite authors have in common, then read that older, possibly dead author. Often there is a "Complete Works" and these can be very interesting to study, but usually a "Best Of" is better if you don't know you already like the guy. If you want my favorite single-author collection, I'll say Roger Zelazny's "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth." Great story, great collection.

2. Read the yearly "Best Of" collections to find authors you like. If you like Horror, I recommend Ellen Datlow's "Best Horror of the Year," for science fiction/fantasy, I'd go with Gardner Dozois or Jonathan Strahan. Pay attention to what magazines/anthologies your favorites of these collections are originally published in and eventually go look at those magazines/anthologies/editors.

3. You already know about Asimov's, but my other two favorite print magazines also ship internationally: F&SF (a.k.a. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) and Interzone. They cost a bit more, but as I said, I get Interzone internationally myself, and I find it worthwhile. But I'd buy one issue first, to see if you like it.

4. Post more about your tastes, and we'll swamp you in recommendations.

[lunchboffin]

Thanks for the details Listener - not quite what I was after, but always interesting to hear a little insight into that area.

Eytanz - that's a good rule. Looks like I'll have to do the legwork and look back at the stories I enjoyed. I suppose I'm fishing for random opinions at this stage.

Umbrageofsnow - I've subscribed to Asimov's, and I've had a crack at subscribing to Interzone for 6 months (Interzone's online checkout didn't play nice with my bank, so following that up and hopefully I'll get my first issue soon).

In the meantime, Tim Pratt and Will McIntosh are 2 names that spring to mind which I've heard a lot with stories I liked, but there are tons of others. SciFi is what I'm exploring at current (horror and fantasy aren't on the list... yet). I'm still pinning down my taste / what I'd like to explore next - also making sure I cover off anything which is considered the "gold standard" regular anthology - anything that's widely regarded as having a good collection of stories.

I like pretty much anything - haven't listened to a story yet on Escape Pod that hasn't got me intrigued, my algorithm for finding stories at the moment is that I read anything that I don't dismiss because it "smells" in the following ways:

• symbolic stuff or thinly-veiled stuff that tries to "focus on current world issues" often feels like it's over-stating a message and bugs me a bit (I don't read to feel bad about not fighting pollution, eating meat or not caring about racial tensions in some far-off country, I'm not reading to find the motivation to fight for someone's cause, I'm reading to explore the ideas, reflect on them a little, add to myself and move on - I'm not averse to depth at all, but give me the concepts in abstract through an entirely different lens, don't give me humanist tear-jerking),
• and I find hacker tropes (cyberspace, etc.) tend to put me off too.

Thanks again! Looking forward to hearing more suggestions!

Edit: fixed a couple of grammar errors.

[DKT]

Well, if you're a Pratt fan, he's got two collections out already with a third on the way (and you can get hard copies of them, if that's what you're after).

Hmmmmm. Other SF collections. Lightspeed: Year One springs to mind. And John Joseph Adams does like three anthologies a year, usually packed with excellent authors. Some are SF (Federations, Brave New Worlds, Wastelands, Armored, Under the Moons of Mars), some are Fantasy, some are horror.

If you like Steampunk, you could go with one of the VanderMeer anthologies, or Ghosts by Gaslights (which, IIRC, is labeled steampunk supernatural suspense).

That's maybe the best I can offer for SF right now. If you want to branch out to Fantasy and Horror, say the word

[darusha]

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine is an Australian print and e-magazine. They can make something made of paper turn up at your house every now and then.

They tend to publish lighter/comedic SF, but they have darker, more literary stories, too.