Well it's that time of year again for the annual roundup of crime fiction markets. First up the ones that closed their doors.
Crooked Holster
Manslaughter Review
Crime Syndicate
Spinetingler
Pulp Metal
Solarcide - hasn't opened for submissions since February
Snubnose Press
Midnight Ink
Betty Fedora - Listed as closed last year but the website came back and noted that they'd open in 2018 for issue five - didn't happen.
Noir Nation announced a comeback this year but so far no call for submissions or new issues published.
Iridium opened in May and closed down a month or so later with only one issue published.
And finally Down & Out Books announced a new imprint called New Wave Crime in June then in December Polis books announced that the editor was heading a new imprint call Agora for them. And yes the New Crime Wave imprint had been pulled from Down & Out. So one loss, one gain.
Since our crime short story market seems to be shrinking I'll make this one post this year and list the markets that opened here as well.
I don't know if Bouchercon will make this an annual contest but this year they announced The Bill Crider Prize for Short Fiction. Very cool of them and a great tribute to a wonderful man.
Who Knocks? - pays 1cent word still waiting on the first issue.
Serial - this market is seeking pulp type stories and pays $1.60 per page plus royalties. The first issue is due out this month.
Dead Gun Press - reopened this year and published a new anthology. Their ezine is open for submissions, but is non-paying.
Thriller - is currently open for submissions for issue three. This is a non-paying market.
Retreats from Oblivion - is a non-paying noir market associated with Noir Con.
And with the closing of Spinetingler editor Sandra Ruttan opened a new site called Toe Six Press. While they publish regularly online there is no short fiction published. They opened a fiction submission call in April for a print issue but it hasn't been published as yet. They also opened a site called Zombie Cat for reprints that are no longer available online.
Sorry to say it hasn't been a great year for crime fiction markets.
6 comments:
I suspect it is going to get worse for a while. I hope I am wrong.
One of the things I pay attention to is when retail storefronts start becoming available for lease. That seems to start happening before things like home sales start trending down. Here in my little part of Dallas, vacant storefronts are sprouting up like mushrooms after a rain. It began in November and has just exploded in these parts the last couple of weeks. And houses that are up for sale are now sitting with sale signs for weeks.
And maybe the most telling of all--I moved back to the house I grew up in August 2017 after my Mom's passing earlier in the year. Up until just before Thanksgiving, I had been getting at least 10 and sometimes as many as 20 mailings from the various WE BUY UGLY HOUSES types who refused to take NO for an answer. Houses like my Mom's, valued at around 160K were being snapped up, gutted and flipped, and somehow sold for 450K and up.
I have not gotten one such mailing since the week of Thanksgiving. The market has crashed.
When things like this happen, I see pubs close soon afterwards. So, this is why I think things are about to get way worse. I suspect a lot of the recent startups will be shortly folding up. I very much hope I am wrong.
K
I have that same feeling, Kevin. While there are more paying markets for crime fiction, the number of markets is shrinking.
I think you both have good points, but I see a lot of political correctness in the calls from publishers. Could this be slowing submissions from writers down?
It could be, but I think all the specifying of wanting diverse writers might be the bigger reason. It's pretty hard to submit when you know there's a bias towards who the author is instead of how good a story is. Of course that is also true with anthologies when big name writers are submitting :)
I don't see a lot of political correcness in calls. I do see a lot of calls that are specifying those in charge are only interested in women or authors of color. While I can sunburn better than just about anyone, I also know that is not what they mean and this fat white guy is not welcome.
That annoys me. It is also what it is and not something I can fix.
Kevin
Sandra and Kevin, I agree with both of you. I may be calling specifications political correctness. Maybe there's a chance I can find a publisher that's looking for stories from straight white men over seventy years old, but I may forget what they'er looking for.
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