Just a couple of late day market notes for everyone.
Beat to a Pulp has closed to submissions until September 15.
Scalped has disappeared into the ether without a word. I've been checking almost daily to see if they'd opened to submissions yet, but apparently they're shutting down.
And Pine Tree Mysteries has popped back up! Don't know why the disappearing act, but I'm glad they're back, hopefully to stay.
***This is a late addition. Shroud Publishing has announced that in August they'll start doing monthly digital issues of Shroud magazine to compliment the quarterly print magazine. You can read the details here http://shroudpublishing.blogspot.com/2010/06/news-coming-in-august-shroud-digital.html Their submission period is still open until July 31 and stories submitted will be considered for the digital issues. This is a paying market. $10 for flash, $25 for shorts to 5000 words.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Future of Publishing?
Well, this look at the future of the publishing industry was just too good not to share. http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2010/07/04/the-future-of-publishing-small-presses/ You just have to love a sci-fi writer's take on our changing industry. And it sure beats all the doom and gloom articles that I've been reading of late.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Chimera, Anyone?
One of my favorite stops around the blog world is Dr. DP Lyle's, Writer's Forensics Blog. He's starting a new series of Q&A posts with cool questions that writers send his way. Today's post is about Chimeras. Could make an interesting story no matter what genre you're writing in. http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/qa-how-could-my-sleuth-recognize-a-chimera
Rambling Post 4th Links
I hope everyone is enjoying their 4th of July holiday and for those of you not in the States, I hope you had a great weekend. I lost my Internet server yesterday afternoon so I didn't get a post up. And yes, I'm rambling a bit here today as my mind is lost to a pair of stories I've been piecing together in my head and jotting down notes for before I start tapping away at the keyboard, and one flash story that's finished and in need of a market. And in the spirit of my rambling mind here are a few links that are all over the place.
Chuck Wendig has an interesting post on his blog this morning about art vs craft. http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2010/07/05/beyond-art-and-ego/
Patti Abbott has started a discussion about genre fiction vs literary fiction that's quite interesting. http://pattinase.blogspot.com/2010/07/is-so-called-genre-fiction-as-good-so.html
A few posts back I mentioned a new zine called Basement Stories. If you're considering submitting to this market you might drop on over to DL Snells Market Scoops blog for an interview with the editors to find out what they're looking for. http://marketscoops.blogspot.com/2010/06/basement-stories-magazine.html
And for a great round-up links, drop on over to David Cranmer's blog. He's got links to Alec Cizak's new zine "All Due Respect", links to the new Western Fictioneers Organization, an entertaining interview with Bill Crider over at Gutter Books and that's just naming a few. http://davidcranmer.blogspot.com/2010/07/missed-links-perhaps.html
Oh yes, and Paul Brazill dropped me an email to say that Pulp Metal is now publishing short stories as they come instead of publishing quarterly.
Chuck Wendig has an interesting post on his blog this morning about art vs craft. http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2010/07/05/beyond-art-and-ego/
Patti Abbott has started a discussion about genre fiction vs literary fiction that's quite interesting. http://pattinase.blogspot.com/2010/07/is-so-called-genre-fiction-as-good-so.html
A few posts back I mentioned a new zine called Basement Stories. If you're considering submitting to this market you might drop on over to DL Snells Market Scoops blog for an interview with the editors to find out what they're looking for. http://marketscoops.blogspot.com/2010/06/basement-stories-magazine.html
And for a great round-up links, drop on over to David Cranmer's blog. He's got links to Alec Cizak's new zine "All Due Respect", links to the new Western Fictioneers Organization, an entertaining interview with Bill Crider over at Gutter Books and that's just naming a few. http://davidcranmer.blogspot.com/2010/07/missed-links-perhaps.html
Oh yes, and Paul Brazill dropped me an email to say that Pulp Metal is now publishing short stories as they come instead of publishing quarterly.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Friday Linkage
First up this morning are two market notes.
Issue 5 of 10Flash has gone live. http://10flash.wordpress.com/ and they've also changed their submission guidelines. Editor, KC Ball, has listed the themes for the next three issue and posted the dates for submitting to each of those themes. This will give you a lot of lead time for writing your stories, just remember to mark the dates on your calendar. Here's the new details and themes http://10flash.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/a-new-submissions-policy This is a paying market and accepts flash stories up to 1000 words in various genres.
And Necrotic Tissue has opened for submissions as of July 1 through the 31st. http://www.necrotictissue.com/ This is also a paying market. I'm making a correction here as I remembered the payments wrong. 100 word stories are paid 5cents. Short stories up to 5000 words are paid a penny plus a contributor's copy and the best story chosen by the editor will receive 5cents a word with a $250 cap. This is basically a horror market but they accept other genres so long as they include dark horror at the core of the story.
And I found this essay by Mark Charan about combining mystery and fantasy very interesting. http://www.omnivoracious.com/2010/07/guest-blogger-mark-charan-newton-on-the-mystery-of-fantasy.html
I think too many writers build fences around their stories by trying to stay within the confides of a certain genre. Be brave, explore your options, unless, of course, you're writing for a specific market. By pushing beyond the boundaries of your chosen genre you'll be able to find more markets to place your work. Don't believe me? Think about this. You can place your Western in outer space and you've got a sci-fi market. Make your PI a vampire and you can find a horror or spec-fiction market for your work. The list goes on and on. How about you? What's the weirdest story combination you've come up with and did you have trouble placing it with the twisted themes?
Issue 5 of 10Flash has gone live. http://10flash.wordpress.com/ and they've also changed their submission guidelines. Editor, KC Ball, has listed the themes for the next three issue and posted the dates for submitting to each of those themes. This will give you a lot of lead time for writing your stories, just remember to mark the dates on your calendar. Here's the new details and themes http://10flash.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/a-new-submissions-policy This is a paying market and accepts flash stories up to 1000 words in various genres.
And Necrotic Tissue has opened for submissions as of July 1 through the 31st. http://www.necrotictissue.com/ This is also a paying market. I'm making a correction here as I remembered the payments wrong. 100 word stories are paid 5cents. Short stories up to 5000 words are paid a penny plus a contributor's copy and the best story chosen by the editor will receive 5cents a word with a $250 cap. This is basically a horror market but they accept other genres so long as they include dark horror at the core of the story.
And I found this essay by Mark Charan about combining mystery and fantasy very interesting. http://www.omnivoracious.com/2010/07/guest-blogger-mark-charan-newton-on-the-mystery-of-fantasy.html
I think too many writers build fences around their stories by trying to stay within the confides of a certain genre. Be brave, explore your options, unless, of course, you're writing for a specific market. By pushing beyond the boundaries of your chosen genre you'll be able to find more markets to place your work. Don't believe me? Think about this. You can place your Western in outer space and you've got a sci-fi market. Make your PI a vampire and you can find a horror or spec-fiction market for your work. The list goes on and on. How about you? What's the weirdest story combination you've come up with and did you have trouble placing it with the twisted themes?
Thursday, July 1, 2010
On Violence and Branding
Back a few posts ago, I ranted on about people complaining about violence against animals in fiction, so when I stumbled across this essay by Chaz Brenchley over at the Book View Cafe I decided to post a link. http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2010/06/30/violence-in-fantasy/ While the essay deals with violence in fantasy, the discussion in the comments that follow can just as easily be applied to any genre that you write in. And no, there's no violence against animals discussed, at least not the last time I read the post.
Deborah Elliott-Upton has an interesting post over at Criminal Brief this morning that deals with authors and their web sites. http://criminalbrief.com/?p=12941 The essay is entitled "It's Not All About Me?" and takes a look at why your site, or your blog, shouldn't be all about the me-me-me of being a writer. I know that when I drift around the blog world, I look for blogs that have interesting topics. The ones that are only about the author, their Amazon ranking, and their reviews are a pass for me. Besides, I'm more apt to purchase a book recommended to me by a reader than by the author, because every one knows that a writer believes everything they write is great. ;-)
Deborah Elliott-Upton has an interesting post over at Criminal Brief this morning that deals with authors and their web sites. http://criminalbrief.com/?p=12941 The essay is entitled "It's Not All About Me?" and takes a look at why your site, or your blog, shouldn't be all about the me-me-me of being a writer. I know that when I drift around the blog world, I look for blogs that have interesting topics. The ones that are only about the author, their Amazon ranking, and their reviews are a pass for me. Besides, I'm more apt to purchase a book recommended to me by a reader than by the author, because every one knows that a writer believes everything they write is great. ;-)
Market Tidbits
The new issue of Mysterical E has hit the virtual streets today and, if you haven't already heard, the all fiction issue 3.5 of Crimefactory is out there for your reading pleasure. You'll find the urls to the left. Lots of familiar names and great stories in both issues.
Crimespree http://www.crimespreemag.com has opened for fiction submissions today until the end of the month. Click on the contact link for submission details.
I ran across a couple of new markets over at Duotrope that might be of interest.
First is Basement Stories. http://basementstories.org/submissions Their first issue is closed to submissions and will be published on July 15, but as of today they're open to submissions for their second issue. They're basically looking for sci-fi/fantasy stories, but will consider other genres, under 6000 words. The pay is a penny a word. They also take reprints and publish poetry, non-fiction, and comics. To get a feel for what they want in a story, check out their about page link which gives you a good look into the types of stories they want. They also have a blog that keeps you updated on their progress and gives you a feel for how serious these folks are about the new zine. http://basementstories.wordpress.com/
The second is a horror market called The Dark Fiction Spotlight http://thedarkfiction.com/?page_id=9 They are accepting stories in all the sub-genres of horror with a word count of 2000 to 6000 words. The submission period is July 1 to September 1 for the October issue. This is a paying market but only for the top three stories based on voting by the readers. The pay is $50, $25 and $15. They are also open to poetry and flash up to 666 words. The top flash story receiving $10.
Crimespree http://www.crimespreemag.com has opened for fiction submissions today until the end of the month. Click on the contact link for submission details.
I ran across a couple of new markets over at Duotrope that might be of interest.
First is Basement Stories. http://basementstories.org/submissions Their first issue is closed to submissions and will be published on July 15, but as of today they're open to submissions for their second issue. They're basically looking for sci-fi/fantasy stories, but will consider other genres, under 6000 words. The pay is a penny a word. They also take reprints and publish poetry, non-fiction, and comics. To get a feel for what they want in a story, check out their about page link which gives you a good look into the types of stories they want. They also have a blog that keeps you updated on their progress and gives you a feel for how serious these folks are about the new zine. http://basementstories.wordpress.com/
The second is a horror market called The Dark Fiction Spotlight http://thedarkfiction.com/?page_id=9 They are accepting stories in all the sub-genres of horror with a word count of 2000 to 6000 words. The submission period is July 1 to September 1 for the October issue. This is a paying market but only for the top three stories based on voting by the readers. The pay is $50, $25 and $15. They are also open to poetry and flash up to 666 words. The top flash story receiving $10.
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