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?
Any help is appreciated.
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).]
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.
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).]
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.
Nick
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.)
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?
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.
Anybody else have any thoughts?
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?
[This message has been edited by alliedfive (edited July 15, 2009).]
quote:
Does getting publications in lesser markets increase your chances of publication in bigger ones?
Maybe. I think it gives you a more considered look if you've got some credits to your name, but, in the end, it's the story that matters.
quote:
Do editors of print mags consider the online stuff inferior?
Not anymore. Or, rather, as a general rule of thumb, online isn't quite the red-headed stepchild it was say, five years ago.
(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.
Check the blog posts for the past month or so.
Neither online publication, nor semi-pro print publication, can give me what I need out of publication at this moment.
That's really all it is.