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Two Chances to Get Our Stories Out

Started by SamLeeFreak, February 22, 2008, 07:02:08 PM

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SamLeeFreak


Ed

Have you read any of the first book, Ash? It all looks good, but I worry when I see the editors also listed on the authors' page - Mark S. Deniz & Amanda Pillar edit one book, and Mark S. Deniz & Sharyn Lilley edit the second, all are listed as authors, too. Likewise, the pay scale is very low - twenty Australian dollars and a contributor copy for a 2 to 5K story isn't very much for all the time and effort you put into a story.

I'm not saying it's the case there, but sometimes people who can't get themselves published elsewhere will put out their own books, slip their own stories into the publication, and the whole thing can turn out to be a big amateur hour. I've googled Mark S Dines and can't find his name associated with any publications other than his own. That doesn't necessarily mean anything, but it makes me a bit wary. The advice I got at Borderlands was to only sub to the well know, professional anthos, or those run by people you've heard of. Of course, you can still support smaller amateur ones for fun, but make sure you know what you're getting into and do it for the fun of it, rather than expecting career advancement. Could be you get good exposure out of it, but the chances are you probably won't, I think.

I'm hoping Stephen Jones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Jones_(author) will be looking for subs for a new antho sometime soon, because I'd like to try my arm at one of his.
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Geoff_N

In principle I agree with you, Ed, but it is so darned hard for a new writer to get into the big long-running journals. In my genre that means Analog, Fantasy & Science Fiction and Asimov in the US, and Interzone in the UK. All print a mere half dozen stories or less from new authors each year. They prefer a Stephen Baxter, Liz Williams, or even a really old reprint of Ray Bradbury to help sales.  I even wrote a story aimed specifically at Asimov Mag. I enlisted the help of a US writer who regularly has his stories in there - he helped edit my story, Gravity's Tears, and was convinced it would be accepted. I had to wait 9 months for the rejection with no explanation. It's now waiting for another mag publisher - been with him since September 2007, and if I poke him, he asks for patience as he is behind his reading!

Although I now co-edit EV, I feel it would be vanity press to have a fiction tale in there - I felt guilty enough having a story in the first issue, but I won't any more. So ironically, I'm back finding outlets for my own stuff. I had a chat about this to the editor of Murky Depths mag. Terry Martin is the ed and owner. I asked him about including his own stories and he doesn't. But once he submitted one of his own to his submissions editor just to check on the procedure. One of his readers gave it a 2/4 (1 is accept, 4 reject) and then after a re-read downgraded it to 3 - hah.

Contrary to what you were told at Border Camp, Ed, the writers cons I've been to recommend mass exposure to anything that is published - aiming, yes at the top, but once they reject to pass it to all the others rather than hide it on the hard drive. It's a toughy - since there are some publications so awful and tacky I wouldn't want to be associated with them. Most scifi mags though seem to be run by honest earnest folk, so I have no real problems subbing to them.

Geoff

Ed

I know what you're saying, Geoff, and God knows you've been at this longer than me, and you've been to a lot of conventions I haven't, but why would you want to put a story of yours into a publication that's 'awful and tacky'? It can't bring you any joy. I'd rather be obscure than feel ashamed for the sake of 'mass exposure', which often amounts to selling your soul for a place in a mag with a circulation of a hundred buyers or thereabouts.

Whether the eds are nice people or not doesn't really have any bearing on whether you should sub to them or not. If you've read the publication and think it's good - has a good editorial standard that makes you want to be in it - then that's great. But I've read some of the stories in small amateur presses that have been awful - I mean childish, pointless, pathetic things, riddled with errors. Getting your work published by one of these jokers won't advance your career one little bit, IMO. I won't mention any names, but there's a story in the crit section from one of them. And sure, one of your stories would shine like a gold coin in a pile of shit, but it's still in a pile of shit, isn't it? I can't see any discerning reader picking through more than one dollop.

That's why I asked Ash whether she had read the first book they've put out. If it's good and you want to be in it, then that's half the battle - it's a publishing credit you can feel justifiably proud of. If not, then you have to ask yourself whether you really want to be in it. That's the way I see it anyway.

I know it's a bitch to get into one of the big publications, but there are quite a lot of anthos around from time to time. People like Stephen Jones and Marty Greenberg have put out hundreds between them (MG is credited with editing over a thousand anthos), so although the number of opportunities is relatively small, they are out there and worth subbing to first, before you drop your sights, I think. That's the advice from the pros at Borderlands (who also put out a regular antho), and they've been in the business for thirty years or more, know all the regulars. Two of the four started out as sci-fi writers and a third is a top sci-fi editor. Of course they could be wrong, but their advice seems sound to me, so I'm going to try to stick with it and see how far I get.
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]