Market Day

Over at newpages.com they've put up the May call for submissions http://www.newpages.com/literary/submissions.htm There are quite a few calls for poetry included for the poets among us. I also discovered a fledgling quarterly on the list called Southern Grit that might be of interest to our Southern writers. They're looking for short stories of 1500 to 6000 words for their September debut issue. This is a non-paying market. You'll find the details here http://www.southerngrit.org/home

There were two markets listed on the SMFS list this week.

The first is a zine called Pulp Empire http://pulpempire.com/mag They're looking for shorts of 2500 to 15,000 words in all the pulp genres from sci-fi to westerns. Your story will be posted online for three months then collected into a print copy from which you'll receive royalties. Be aware that when they accept your story you're giving them 1st electronic rights and 1st North American print rights. If I understand print rights correctly, if they don't print your story, you still don't have the right to have it printed elsewhere without their permission and you might have to give them the money you receive. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this point. Just something to be aware of if you decide to submit here.

Pulp Empire is also looking for reviews of pulp related work and they publish press releases from pulp publishers and websites.

The second market was Wicked East Press http://sites.google.com/a/wickedeastpress.com/wicked-east-press/ This is a small press specializing in anthologies. They have 5 short story calls for horror, mystery and pirate themes and 2 flash calls listed. There is no pay here, except for a copy of the book you're story is in. And nothing for the flash themed books.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm having a problem with some of these small press anthologies. On one level it's great to have a market, but to not pay the writer, at least with a copy of the anthology, when you're depending on them for sales doesn't quite sit right for me.

When you don't give the writer a copy, the press is depending on the writers to purchase at least one copy each which guarantees X number of sales ( in the case of some flash anthologies, at least three hundred ) and that seems just a tiny bit shady to me. And yes, I know, I give my work away to the ezines, but I think there's a difference between an online zine and a publishing business which is looking to make a profit on their books. That's my opinion, yours may vary, just be aware when you're submitting.