Also, they all have almost identical websites, but none of them mention the other publications. All have email addresses under the astrapublications domain name. All are rather hard to find by Googling: 3 have common phrases for names (nth Dimension, Desert Rose, and Pulp Fic). The 4th name isn't one I thought was common, but after doing a search apparently it is (Atomic Squirrel).

The rates are attractive, but the guidelines vague (nothing on previously published material, for example).

Someone pointed out to me they have a Facebook page which lists 7 upcoming publications, they just haven't all made it onto Duotrope yet.

Even stranger, the 7 are not mutually exclusive. There are 2 dedicated to SF (Readshift and nth Dimension) only with very vague guidelines in both. If you're going to risk money starting up a magazine, why start two that are essentially identical? Why not put all the stories in one SF magazine instead?

"Of course, you could be right that it's a scam because they want pre-orders ...when there's no real product as yet."

It doesn't sound like a scam, actually. It doesn't sound like something that will work in the marketplace either. I hope he proves us wrong.

That said, skepticism is called for with any new market, and if anyone does have actual evidence of misconduct, please share widely and well. We need to watch out for each other. Frankly I'd be a lot more suspicious if these markets were accepting a bunch of trunk stories as soon as they opened. So far they seem selective (two accepts, I saw somewhere), which is what I would expect for a pro-paying market.

The evidence (m'lord):

1) 10 publications all with high rates of pay.

2) Established magazines with great reputations are folding or struggling.

3) Various editors are named in this venture...yet it appears to be a single person behind all the mags in reality.

4) No explanation of the business model--I admit you don't need to feel secure just to buy a copy, but if you sub--they may accept and tie up your story contractually for a few years while the magazine sits doing nothing. Recent new mags I have seen explain how they plan to make the venture sustainable to alay authors concerns (and they are only a single title!).

The magazine you (SteveR) bought appears to be his previous venture, but it is one thing to produce something with $10 a story rate, quite another to produce 10 mags with pro-rates. I appreciate you are a magazine editor and so may feel a kinship with said dude, but he is going about it all wrong, isn't he?

I don't disagree with the points you make. I do, however, reserve judgment until we have actual evidence one way or the other. Time will tell.

If you do sell a story to one of these markets, certainly review the contract carefully to make sure rights revert to you if the piece is not published within a reasonable time frame. That should be standard practice.

Also the data points of evidence that you are advising us to wait for--I assume--are the corpses of other writers (writers who embrace risk) who have been cast from Astra's cliffs by the publishing God hidden in clouds up there. Of course, I admit, it's possible the writers may soar into the sky...but you take my point--you're waiting to see how it goes with others first.

Me too.

Perhaps he is selling the publications/websites...or perhaps he accepted stories before 'folding' the mags (who owns the stories?)--who knows. I am not saying he did anything nefarious, but in a vacuum of knowledge, and with markets cropping up and disappearing in a week or so, I would be wary even subbing.

Some interesting smoke and mirrors uncovered here.

In some ways, that isn't a bad way to go - if you can get the readership, the credibility will follow. And paying pro rates is one way to hasten better stories into (potential large volumes of) slush pile. However, without the connections to the current industry, credibility may be slower, and the operation will therefore be higher risk.

Dear Agent,

Frankly, I am very very sceptical about this. Looks to me as if someone is actually reporting false acceptances to duotrope (note that the overall acceptance on nth dimension is still showing as 0%, which means the acceptances are being discarded, which duotrope do if the individual in question has an "unrealistic" acceptance/rejection ratio). So they are trying to game duotrope, but not doing it all that well.

I've heard of nth Dimension and sent one story to them. Seems like it took a day or two to get a rejection back. Could have been two hours. Adams over at Lightspeed has been as quick or maybe even faster.

But the strange thing is that I'm sure I saw it listed on ralan.com. A day or two later when I went back to double check their guidelines I couldn't find it. I figured I saw it some where else but now maybe I should shoot Ralan a note and ask.

And I didn't read every note here but if no one else has done it I think I can send Gary Cuba a note to ask him about the anthology.

http://www.duotrope.com/recentupdates.aspx

I suggest you scroll down to the Fiction Market Update section.

Do you think this will be the last we hear of Astra?

I recently sold a story to Alex Korovessis, ed. of Kasma SF. It appeared in their issue 1.75 on Sept 1, which I believe was their 4th published (quarterly) issue. My dealings with Mr. K were top-notch, and I was paid promptly. Apparently, my story was immediately incorporated into their annual compilation pdf (which was one of the several rights he'd purchased with the original story payment, per our contract terms).

Naturally, I was a bit saddened to see the Kasma SF website disappear so quickly after my story appeared there. I truly hope that is only temporary, and that Kasma SF remains viable.

Incidentally, I know of one person (not me) who recently received a refund the other day on a pdf he ordered--I assume that was the Kasma annual collection, but I don't know if he ordered it through Kasma SF or from Atomic Chipmunk (or whatever the heck that new Astra pub was called). He'd not even requested the refund, it just "showed up" in his account.

May we all follow our personal bliss and reap the fruits we seek.

So can I assume from what Gary said, that if they do come back, we can go ahead and send in stories.

Of course it would probably only matter if they bought one of our stories. Even when we weren't sure of them they seemed to have the same judgement on writing as any other pro market.

Skadder, You could very well be right about the craftiness.

I know of one market, even though I can't think of the name, where the main purpose was as an outlet for the creator's writing but he let others join him, with pay.

But there's another one where I wondered if the main reason was so the market's creator could have a place to publish his own writing but this guy didn't say it like the first one.

I hope that last made sense.

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189989

I only responded about my recent dealings with Kasma SF, a token-paying market that has been publishing for a year now--all of which predated the sudden proliferation of the "Astra Publications" spinoffs. They are gone now, and likely will not reappear. In any case: Let the seller beware--as has been the theme of this thread.

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Louis, see this:
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189989

I only responded about my recent dealings with Kasma SF, a token-paying market that has been publishing for a year now--all of which predated the sudden proliferation of the "Astra Publications" spinoffs. They are gone now, and likely will not reappear. In any case: Let the seller beware--as has been the theme of this thread.

Gary

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Thanks, haven't heard of that one. For some reason I was thinking of sometype of saying or some such.

quote:

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I know of one market, even though I can't think of the name, where the main purpose was as an outlet for the creator's writing but he let others join him, with pay.

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However, I look at the market as a vanity market. I wouldn't have a problem submitting if their turnaround time was reasonable.