posted
Alright, before I go hip deep in the world of actually submitting my work, I need some guidance.
I look at Duotrope, and I see about a gazillion markets. I am aware of the bigger ones because I read them, but all the others... wow.
How do you all go about figuring out which markets are best suited to your various stories. What's your process? Just submit to the big boys, get rejected, then... what?
posted
This is a subject that has incited passionate discussions here at Hatrack in the past.
My suggestion is to send to where the story is most suited and most desired for publication. Me, I'd try out one that responds fast. I'd consider the publishers subsequent response, rejection or acceptance, a good trying of a story's publication legs. If it's rejected, I'd revise or rewrite accordingly and send it out to another house, or turn it right around and send it out to another house, or shelve it and work on another.
Another submission strategy might be submitting to a house that a writer prefers a first crack at, according to whatever reason matters most to the writer: pay rate, circulation, name-brand recognition, acceptance rate, creative slant, digital or paper digest, and so on.
[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited July 14, 2009).]
posted
Wouldn't it be best to just submit to a whole bunch of publishers at the same time? That way you don't have to wait for a year to get a reply.
Posts: 1271 | Registered: May 2007
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posted
Seems like a lot of them don't like the simultaneous submissions thing.
I just have no sense of what markets my work would be well suited for.
Maybe we should have a thread where people knowledgeable in the markets can suggest a market for a work they've critted. Then us newbs can learn the ropes and do the same for the new newbs.
posted
As regards simultaneous submissions, I got a good tip from a book about preparing your work for submission called "Give 'Em What They Want." Basically it's that mailed submissions take a while to get where they're going, and since the publisher/agent is probably swamped they take a while to get read, and then a reply takes a while to get back to you. If you submit to publishers one at a time you could spend an entire year querying 2 or 3.
Send it out to as many people as possible. Most publishers understand this and don't mind if you're casting a wide net, as long as you let them know. I would be more wary about sending the same publisher multiple stories at the same time.
Edit: I'm thinking of the novel market. The short story market is likely quite different so I'm probably wrong.
[This message has been edited by Natej11 (edited July 15, 2009).]
posted
In practice and on principle, I never do simultaneous submissions. Most markets don't accept them. If you're thinking of doing it, make sure you check the Guidelines first; if they are okay with it, they will say so.
Posts: 214 | Registered: Jun 2005
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As Troy said, I don't think many markets accept simultaneous submissions in the short story market. In terms of querying agents for novels, it's obviously very different. IMO, the trick is to keep sending stories out, so you're not thinking about what has happened to an individual story.
posted
Yeah, they're usually against simultaneous submissions---besides, think how embarrassing it'd be to have your story accepted and published by two different markets. (I know of one case, back in the 1930s, in the SF magazines, where this happened...anybody remember another one?)
I gave up on trying to figure out what the markets wanted not long after I started writing. Usually it was something I didn't feel I could write---too literary or too technical-minded, usually. So I wrote what I wanted, and then looked later to see if it matched what the markets wanted. (Lately I get two matches out of three---the "technical" side of Analog usually doesn't match what I've written.)
posted
Interesting. I'm just always fascinated when I see posts in the publication thread about getting accepted to various anthologies, online pubs, etc. and I think "How did they even find that place?"
Do most of you have a list of places that you consistently sub to? Or just start with the big ones and work your way down until it sells?
posted
Well, I generally stick with the Big Three and leave it at that. If there were more professional print publications, I'd expand my submission list...right now, that's all I'm interested in doing, and not so much in that anymore, really.
Right now, submitting to the online publications or the amateur print stuff doesn't appeal to me...but I'm going on my thirty-fifth year of trying to crack the markets and I've gotten sour and cynical about the whole experience. I can't stop writing the stuff...but submitting stuff no longer has any thrill for me.
posted
Oh. You needn't let my cynicism and bitterness stop any of you from submitting to whatever. Just because I can't make sense of doing it right now doesn't mean there isn't some sense in doing it.
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posted
That's good to know, Robert. Why the reluctance to submit to lesser markets? Just a prestige thing, or is there some downside to getting pubs there first?
posted
I've described it before, and it tends to irritate people, but, what the hell...when I got into this racket, my goal was to get stories into a print magazine. There was no online publishing in those days. There were, however, assorted amateur publications that, basically, occupy the same niche in SF publishing that the online sites do these days.
For years, I sent some stuff that way from time to time. I did get a couple of things published that way---these involved no money, no prestige, and, essentially, no audience. It didn't seem worthwhile for me to keep at it, and it still doesn't.
Truth be told, I'm not as interested in sending stuff to the print mags anymore, either. My foray into Internet Fan Fiction, at least, brought me an audience---people who read my stuff, and, often enough, said they liked it. I sure wasn't getting that from submitting to print mags, or anywhere else. (I still get occasional comments, though I haven't written any fanfic for some five years now.)
Let's face it, there's very little money involved in getting something into any of the Big Three magazines. And once you get past the Big Three, for the most part, there's even less money. (There are a few well-paying places, of course.)
Right now, a website can't give me one of the things I wanted out of writing---print publication. I can put stuff up on websites myself---I maintain one for that purpose, at least so people here can look at something of mine that's not Internet Fan Fiction---so what do I need with them?
posted
Does getting publications in lesser markets increase your chances of publication in bigger ones? Do editors of print mags consider the online stuff inferior?
[This message has been edited by alliedfive (edited July 15, 2009).]
posted
I should point out that there are several online-only markets that qualify you for the SFWA professional membership. (::cough:: FFO ::cough: (not that I'm biased or anything)
I think it takes a LONG time to find the right group of markets for you and your work, especially since (for me at least) a zine that's perfect for one of my stories might not be for another.
Over the past days, I've slowly started to do an extensive read-through of a lot of the markets out there. My main criterion is to read as many of the stories as possible, and ask "Would I be proud to see my work here?"
Yes, it's time intensive. But for me, it's worth the effort.
posted
Robert Nowall: I point you to Michael A. Stackpole's web site and blog. If the online fan fic brings you an audience, you might be the right kind of writer to cut out the middlemen and sell your fiction directly to the public. Sure, it would take some marketing and time to build up an audience, but it's an option that wasn't available when you started out.
posted
Actually, on reconsideration, my statement above reflects my views, but is wordy and disjointed. (That's what you get when you post while thinking.) I spent some time chewing it over, and can boil it down to this:
Neither online publication, nor semi-pro print publication, can give me what I need out of publication at this moment.
posted
There's never a sure-fire way of knowing which market is best. I submitted a story to any market that took reprints (there aren't many) and was shocked when Kaleidotrope accepted. My thought when I submitted the story there was, No way it's right for this mag. When I ordered a copy just to see how my story would fit in with the rest, I'm still shocked that the editor picked it up. My stuff is like nothing else in his magazine. So my advice is, send your stories everywhere, even when it doesn't seem to be a perfect match. You just never know.
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(not that I'm biased or anything) 
