For those of you who submit on a regular basis, how much market research do you do? It seems to me that after a certain point -- namely, after studying the major markets -- one can spend (waste!?) a lot of time (and money) reading twenty or thirty smaller market magazines. It seems to me that if one carefully studies the major markets -- e.g., Analog, Asimov's, F+SF, Interzone, SCI FICTION, Realms of Fantasy, and the yearly "best of" anthologies -- you're going to be studying the kind of speculative fiction that all markets want. And besides, if a smaller market says, "All kinds of science fiction and fantasy, but no sword and sorcery," what more do you really need? Send them anything but sword and sorcery.
Any comments from those of you who do this kind of thing on regular basis would be most appreciated.
[This message has been edited by Balthasar (edited April 19, 2003).]
Posted by srhowen (Member # 462) on :
In one sentence:
"Sorry, but we published something like this recently."
Shawn
Posted by teddyrux (Member # 1595) on :
Actually, I've never gotten up the nerve to sumbit anything. Afraid of failure, I guess.
Posted by Balthasar (Member # 5399) on :