I am getting close to the point where I will want to submit a short story for publication. I have found on-line submission guidelines for Asimov's, Analog, and Science Fiction & Fantasy. I am looking for the following input:
1. Does anyone have any experience with any of these publications that has been either positive or negative?
2. Are there other potential mainstream magazines that I should also consider?
3. Is there a good place to find lists of such magazines and/or their submission policies?
4. For an unpublished author, is there a better way to proceed than just sending a first story in, carefully following submission guidelines? I do have one published book of a technical/nonfiction nature. Does that help at all? And if so, how can I take advantage of that?
Posted by Rahl22 (Member # 1411) on :
Those are hard to break into.
Check out www.ralan.com or "Novel and Short Story markets" -- a book.
Good luck.
Posted by Gen (Member # 1868) on :
I've found Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF) is eerily fast at sending pleasant macro rejection letters- not for nothing are they known as the gold standard of rejection. Analog and Asimov's are less fast at sending rejection letters. And all three markets tend to send a lot of them...
There's a lot of other markets out there beyond the Big Four (the three you mentioned plus Realms of Fantasy), and many of them may be far more fitting for your submission depending on what it's like. Two I've heard good things about are Strange Horizons (if I have to be rejected, theirs are lovely) and the Writers of the Future contest.
In general people say the properly formatted (and some pubs, especially online ones, will have their own format guidelines listed) short story with or without cover letter probably is more impressive than anything else. If you have a nonfiction writing credit, you could put it in your cover letter, but a lot of editors say they don't read cover letters, and many of them say they only care about non-story *anything* where it relates directly to the story (eg, a "Stars are Sentient Goldfish" story will only fly if you've had a paper on the topic in Journal of Star Formation recently and can defend the science. Sentient goldfish borrowed from Myrtle here).
Good luck. And in conclusion, Ralan rocks.
Posted by Jules (Member # 1658) on :
I would also suggest Interzone as a target for the pro markets; it may not be big in the US (being a UK based magazine) but it's a very professional magazine, pays good rates and receives a lot less submissions than the others you've listed...
Posted by Alias (Member # 1645) on :
Rather than simply ebbing titles and names could someone post specific links and directions for locating these publishers. I am interested in trying may hand at some of the short story end, mostly as a way of building my name...
Any help would be appreciated.
Posted by EricJamesStone (Member # 1681) on :
I would suggest going to http://www.ralan.com , which was mentioned above by Rahl22. As far as I know, it's the most complete and up-to-date resource detailing speculative fiction markets. (And it's free!)
Posted by Gen (Member # 1868) on :
Go to Ralan, click on "Semi- and Pro Markets" on the right hand nav bar, and all of the markets we mentioned and a number of bright shiny new ones we've maybe never heard of are there, with links to guidelines and the latest market news added. Seriously, we could try linking to markets here, but Ralan does a far better job than we could ever hope to. (His definition of pro market is different from the updated SFWA definition, but he goes over that on the page.)
