quote: As for carving down the market list, yes, as soon as Dean Smith and Kris Rusch cautioned that a track record of semi-pro sales might actually hurt my chances with a pro-level editor -- because they might give the pro-level editor the perception that my craft had "ceilinged" beneath what said pro-level editor required -- I dropped all of my semi-pro listings out of my big market list. Currently I've got 16 markets on my "list" and any given story I write is really only suited for about 6 or 7 of them. I also think a "semi-pro" magazine like Interzone can be a valuable credit, if only because Interzone is the king of the UK genre magazines and has fabulius production values. Big names publish there all the time. Which is another thing: if you want to rub shoulders with name authors you admire, aim for the markets where you see them publishing.
From my understanding and experience some semi-pro can be just as hard to get into as pro( from experience all of them are), and they seem to count as pro. Was not Weird Tales semi-pro for a while?
[This message has been edited by LDWriter2 (edited May 10, 2011).]
posted
Semi-pro covers a multitude of sins, and there are some very good markets in that category. I'm interested, surprised and slightly suspicious to hear suggestions that semi-pro sales might actually hurt your chances with a pro editor - there are plenty of up-and-coming pros I know who have sold fiction to semi-pro markets as well.
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posted
The way it was put to me was that an editor at Professional Magazine A would only really be interested in previous publication credits from Professional Magazine B, Professional Web Zine C, and so forth. Because those credits would confirm that you, as the writer, had a track record of producing material that was roughly at the level Magazine A required.
A raft of publication credits from Semi-Pro Magazines or Web Zines W, X, Y and Z would only be telling the editor(s) from A, B, and C that while you were an ace in the minor leagues, you might not have what it takes to make it in the majors.
This was in direct contradiction to the, "Work your way up," mantra that I'd heard from various sources. It got me to thinking very hard about what kinds of publication credits I myself valued most. Was I going to settle for any kind of publication at all? Having had one story in a small college art journal in 2002, and having previously done episodic scripting (unpaid) for a community radio serial, I'd already been down the token/exposure road.
And while that kind of publication was gratifying, I still had designs on the big leagues. The writers I admired had managed to make it up to the majors -- in one way or another -- so I decided a few years back that since I'd already waited so long anyway, to attain pro publication, I was going to narrow my focus to Writers of the Future, the digests, and a handful of web and print markets like Baen's Universe, Realms of Fantasy, etc. That way when I actually did break in, it would be a bona fide big-league break in -- and I'd n ever have to wonder if putting that kind of publication credit on a cover letter would "count" with other editors.
Which is also why I don't put my Kindle and Nook novelettes in my cover letters. I do list them in my bibliography, but when I am sending work out to editors, I restrict my publication credits to only the pro-level ones. Because unless my name is Amanda Hocking, my self-publishing history isn't really going to matter to anyone who might buy me.
quote: The way it was put to me was that an editor at Professional Magazine A would only really be interested in previous publication credits from Professional Magazine B, Professional Web Zine C, and so forth. Because those credits would confirm that you, as the writer, had a track record of producing material that was roughly at the level Magazine A required. A raft of publication credits from Semi-Pro Magazines or Web Zines W, X, Y and Z would only be telling the editor(s) from A, B, and C that while you were an ace in the minor leagues, you might not have what it takes to make it in the majors.
I have heard basically the same thing but I, at least, was talking about certain semi-pro markets. As I said wasn't Weird Tales semi-pro at one time? Seems like Abyss and Apex would be one too. Even though I could be wrong. But a couple have the same reps as the pros. I know of one assistant editor of a pro mag, who talked like some semi-pros counted like a pro. It might depend on the editor.
posted
I've been following this thread with interest, more so now that I got my first ever rejection slip (hooray!). Of course I turned the ms around and shipped it right back out. What happens when you've run out of pro-paying markets that are even remotely appropriate for the piece? Is it better to trunk it for a while, send it to something outside the scope of pro markets, or just self-pub it and move on?
And what determines a "pro market" for short fiction outside of SFWA guidelines? Anyone have links to other genres, literary, etc.?
posted
Hmmm, since no one else has responded yet I will.
I don't use any other reference to what is pro even though I usually just think about pay not issues printed or hits. But depending on the market I send stuff to magazines that pay three cents a word or pay one amount for a story. Usually if you send in a short enough story that will still be pro pay even though probably not counted as such. Such as Castlepod and Lifepod that pay $100 a story. I figure out how many words it would take for that to be five cents a word, or even four cents a word.
An aside here but there doesn't seem to be any four cent a word markets, they skip from three cents to five. There might be a couple, as in one or two, but that's it.
What to do with stories where you run out of markets depends on you. Dean Wesley Smith has advised to keep them and later if you need a story for something special send in one of those, or wait for a new market to come along. New ones seem to start every few months. But now he might advise, after twenty or so rejections, to try selling it through e-publishing.
Some writers I know keep working on the story until it sells if it ever does, or they just give up on it.
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