Enemy Within asked where he should try to publish his contest story, and It thought I would create a new thread to discuss this topic so everyone will get a chance to see it.
The first thing you need to do after finishing a story is take a break from that story for at least a week, two or three if you can. Then, read through it again and edit, re-write, re-do those parts that don't work. If you have someone you trust (who knows something about good writing) who can read it for you, that can help. but remember, one person's opinion (even a professional) isn't the entire readership. only change those things you really think need to be changed. If, however, you get several people who all say the same thing (This part doesn't work. I was confused here. Etc.) then you seriously need to look at those parts and consider revising.
Now, the reason I said put the story away for a week is because you know the story better than anyone and you will tend to read right over misspelled or missing words because you know what's supposed to be there. Also, a little distance helps break the bond you have with the story. Helps you get away from the "It's my baby and I'll never change a word" mentality. Sometimes, parts of your story have to get cut out to make the rest of the story better. You're more likely to see these and be willing to cut them after you have taken some time away.
Okay, next. Sending it out. Before you send it to anyone, you have some homework to do. It's obvious that Realms of Fantasy won't take a Science Fiction story, but I'm sure a lot of writers send their SF stories there. Read a copy of the magazine you want to send to. Get a copy of their writer's guidelines and read those, too. You need to send your story to the market that is most likely to publish it. If you have a vampire story, send it to the vampire markets. If you have a hard SF story, send it to Analog or Asimovs. If you're not sure what they publish, read a few copies. Editors will tend to pick the same type of stories every month. I will probably never send a story to F&SF magazine because they seem to prefer very literary fiction right now, and I like to write adventure stories.
So, reasearch. Where you ask? The internet is a great place to start. A couple of my favorite sites for finding markets are:
There are others. You can also go to the library and take a look at the Writer's Market book. Find the most recent copy you can. They come out every year. Inside you will find listings of book and magazine publishers in various genres. The listings have contact names and addresses, pay rates, submission guidelines, etc.
The first sale is the hardest. I would recommend sending the top of the line markets first and then working your way down. A few publishing credits in small press anthlogies or even PAYING online markets will go a long way to help you get those better markets later, but why not try there first and see if you can make it. Once you have an editor who likes your stuff, it's much easier to get those next stories published. But that first one may take a long time. It will take a few months for them to get back to you.
But, before you send it out, make sure it is as perfect as you possibly can. In this day of spellcheckers, a misspelled word in a manuscript is a dreadful sin (especially when you're looking for your first sale). But don't rely on the spellchecker completely. It can't tell you if you used the right "to" or "there." So read it carefully and make sure you don't have any typos.
Editors get a lot of submissions and they aren't looking for reasons to keep them and publish them. They are looking for reasons to move on to the next story in the pile. don't give them that reason.
One last thing - simultaneous submissions. This is where you learn about the waiting game. You should only send your story to one publisher at a time. Unless the Writer's Market or their own submission guidelines state that they acceept simultaneous submissions, you should never send your story to more than one publisher. Even then, let them know in the cover letter that you are sending it to other people.
When you get it back with a rejection letter, send the story out right away to the next publisher on your researched list. Don't let it sit on your desk and don't revise it and send it back. They rejected it. they don't want to see that story again. Send them another one instead and send that one on to somebody else. Like I said, editors pick those stories that interest them. A lot of the time, it's just a matter of finding the right editor who likes your style.
That's all for now. If I remember any other tips, I will post them. Feel free to ask me questions in this thread about the business side of writing. I will try to answer them as promptly as I can.
Ah, that helps a lot. I'll at least wait until the rest of the judges submit their responses before revising, and I may show my story to some others as well, to get more feedback. I'll do some research in the meantime, though, and compile a list of potential publishers. Thanks for the advice and information, I'll be checking out those websites, and I'm sure the local library has the latest copy of Writer's Market.
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Currently playing:
In Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: Holy Rollers (Geist Tempo)
" I came to them in a flock of ravens that filled a northern sky at dawn...
Magic shall be written upon the sky by the rain but they shall not be able to read it;
Magic shall be written on the faces of the stony hills but their minds shall not be able to contain it..."
Sending "Low Points in High Fantasy" to Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine, and I'll send "Lucifer's Fall" to Asimov's in a few weeks (after its old enough for me to effectively edit). Wish me luck!
Wow, already got my rejection letter - that was fast! It doesn't look quite like a form letter, says "High Fantasy is ripe for parodying, but this attempt didn't quite work for me, I'm afraid. Good luck to you with this one, and thanks again for sending it our way."
--from their assistant editor.
So, alright, need to find next target, heh. Those guys said they never get enough comedy, thought I had a good shot. So... just gotta find the next publication that'd take this sorta story.
Okay, just submitted my SSCII entry Gargoyle to Dark Discoveries magazine, after revising it quite a bit. I also submitted The Obsidian Window to an anthology called Triangulation: End of Time, also after some revision and further proofreading. The latter was very vague with their theme guidelines, so I hope it fits. Ah, well, the worst that will happen is that It'll get rejected. I formatted my stories acccording to the instructions given on ralan.com, and submitted electronically (both the magazine and the anthology accept and even prefer e-subs). Now it's time to cross my fingers and hope for the best.
I do have one question though. Is it necessary to mention in the e-mail or cover letter any places that the submission appears publicly, like this site or fictionpress.com, a free, nonprofessional site where writers put their stories up to be read and reviewed?
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Generally you only have to mention it if the site (or your story specifically) receives more than a certain number of hits a day. Once you sign away your first publishing and anthology rights, you'll probably have to take them down -- but it isn't something you have to worry about right now.
Unless you're getting 10,000 hits a week, you have nothing to worry about. And even if you were, you can spin that as a platform, which is delicious.
Ah, that's a relief. In my cover letter for my submission of The Obsidian Window to Triangulation, I mentioned it and said that I would be willing to take the story down from both sites upon request, and in my submission of Gargoyle to Dark Discoveries I didn't mention it. 10,000 hits? I have yet to reach 10 hits for either story on fictionpress (on the stats page it keeps track of hits), so I think I'm all right. On this site there's a few more, but nowhere near 10,000. Thanks for putting my mind at ease.
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In Modern:
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I ignored everything here, and have sent a story to McSweeneys, mainly because I like the collection, and because nobody prints novellas. Seriously. It is nothing anybody here has read. If it is printed, I will most likely [and involuntarily] spam up the entire front page with 'I GOT PUBLISHED!!!' threads.
That is all.
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my mouth is full of winsome lies -
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan
I'm more curious about a mental block I have personally: I find I'll write, or record on this tape player my girlfriend got me, a ton of stuff, but i can never bring myself to do much with it. I've had people telling me since I was in school, a mere six years ago, that I've got wonderful ideas and i can tell a hell of a story, but i have this weird fear of success. Now while that's a personal issue, and one of many my therapist gets paid to deal with, my less personal question (and one that's open to anyone to answer) is how do you know when you're really ready? I always feel like i'm missing something, so i either never finish or i'm still working on a story from middle school.
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Teroza Veg'Ra, Druidic Archmage :4mana::symg::symu::symug:
Planeswalker- Teroza
{+2}: Reveal the top card of your Library. If a Land card is revealed this way put it into the Battlefield. Otherwise put it into your hand.
{-3}: Put a 1/1 Blue-Green Frog token into the Battlefield for each card in your Hand.
{-11}: For each opponent choose a creature that player controls. Put three +1/+1 counters on and gain control of each creature choosen this way.
{7}
The first thing you need to do after finishing a story is take a break from that story for at least a week, two or three if you can. Then, read through it again and edit, re-write, re-do those parts that don't work. If you have someone you trust (who knows something about good writing) who can read it for you, that can help. but remember, one person's opinion (even a professional) isn't the entire readership. only change those things you really think need to be changed. If, however, you get several people who all say the same thing (This part doesn't work. I was confused here. Etc.) then you seriously need to look at those parts and consider revising.
Now, the reason I said put the story away for a week is because you know the story better than anyone and you will tend to read right over misspelled or missing words because you know what's supposed to be there. Also, a little distance helps break the bond you have with the story. Helps you get away from the "It's my baby and I'll never change a word" mentality. Sometimes, parts of your story have to get cut out to make the rest of the story better. You're more likely to see these and be willing to cut them after you have taken some time away.
Okay, next. Sending it out. Before you send it to anyone, you have some homework to do. It's obvious that Realms of Fantasy won't take a Science Fiction story, but I'm sure a lot of writers send their SF stories there. Read a copy of the magazine you want to send to. Get a copy of their writer's guidelines and read those, too. You need to send your story to the market that is most likely to publish it. If you have a vampire story, send it to the vampire markets. If you have a hard SF story, send it to Analog or Asimovs. If you're not sure what they publish, read a few copies. Editors will tend to pick the same type of stories every month. I will probably never send a story to F&SF magazine because they seem to prefer very literary fiction right now, and I like to write adventure stories.
So, reasearch. Where you ask? The internet is a great place to start. A couple of my favorite sites for finding markets are:
http://www.ralan.com/
and
http://gilaqueen.us/
There are others. You can also go to the library and take a look at the Writer's Market book. Find the most recent copy you can. They come out every year. Inside you will find listings of book and magazine publishers in various genres. The listings have contact names and addresses, pay rates, submission guidelines, etc.
The first sale is the hardest. I would recommend sending the top of the line markets first and then working your way down. A few publishing credits in small press anthlogies or even PAYING online markets will go a long way to help you get those better markets later, but why not try there first and see if you can make it. Once you have an editor who likes your stuff, it's much easier to get those next stories published. But that first one may take a long time. It will take a few months for them to get back to you.
But, before you send it out, make sure it is as perfect as you possibly can. In this day of spellcheckers, a misspelled word in a manuscript is a dreadful sin (especially when you're looking for your first sale). But don't rely on the spellchecker completely. It can't tell you if you used the right "to" or "there." So read it carefully and make sure you don't have any typos.
Editors get a lot of submissions and they aren't looking for reasons to keep them and publish them. They are looking for reasons to move on to the next story in the pile. don't give them that reason.
One last thing - simultaneous submissions. This is where you learn about the waiting game. You should only send your story to one publisher at a time. Unless the Writer's Market or their own submission guidelines state that they acceept simultaneous submissions, you should never send your story to more than one publisher. Even then, let them know in the cover letter that you are sending it to other people.
When you get it back with a rejection letter, send the story out right away to the next publisher on your researched list. Don't let it sit on your desk and don't revise it and send it back. They rejected it. they don't want to see that story again. Send them another one instead and send that one on to somebody else. Like I said, editors pick those stories that interest them. A lot of the time, it's just a matter of finding the right editor who likes your style.
That's all for now. If I remember any other tips, I will post them. Feel free to ask me questions in this thread about the business side of writing. I will try to answer them as promptly as I can.
Will
In Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: Holy Rollers (Geist Tempo)
My NovelJoy author profile: http://www.noveljoy.com/userInfo?wid=189
I write mainly horror/scifi/fantasy type short stories. Please read and feel free to send me feedback.
Your advice is very sound.
Magic shall be written upon the sky by the rain but they shall not be able to read it;
Magic shall be written on the faces of the stony hills but their minds shall not be able to contain it..."
COLOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
--from their assistant editor.
So, alright, need to find next target, heh. Those guys said they never get enough comedy, thought I had a good shot. So... just gotta find the next publication that'd take this sorta story.
Trades
Articles
Winner of SSC 1 & ">3 & 6
I do have one question though. Is it necessary to mention in the e-mail or cover letter any places that the submission appears publicly, like this site or fictionpress.com, a free, nonprofessional site where writers put their stories up to be read and reviewed?
In Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: Holy Rollers (Geist Tempo)
My NovelJoy author profile: http://www.noveljoy.com/userInfo?wid=189
I write mainly horror/scifi/fantasy type short stories. Please read and feel free to send me feedback.
Unless you're getting 10,000 hits a week, you have nothing to worry about. And even if you were, you can spin that as a platform, which is delicious.
In Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: Holy Rollers (Geist Tempo)
My NovelJoy author profile: http://www.noveljoy.com/userInfo?wid=189
I write mainly horror/scifi/fantasy type short stories. Please read and feel free to send me feedback.
That is all.
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan
Planeswalker- Teroza
{+2}: Reveal the top card of your Library. If a Land card is revealed this way put it into the Battlefield. Otherwise put it into your hand.
{-3}: Put a 1/1 Blue-Green Frog token into the Battlefield for each card in your Hand.
{-11}: For each opponent choose a creature that player controls. Put three +1/+1 counters on and gain control of each creature choosen this way.
{7}