… for one thing, were do you submit your work?
I spent some time browsing Duotrope today searching for a potential home for one of my stories, and I noticed just how many markets are temporarily closed. A database search with “Horror” chosen as Genre, “Short Story” chosen as Length, and “Semi-Pro and up” chosen for Payscale, results in about 100 listings. Out of those, about a third of them are currently closed, mostly to catch up on submissions and clear out the slush.
I also have a Favorites List with about a dozen markets that are more relative to what I tend to write (and which don’t lean more toward fantasy or science fiction), and of those, about 60% are temporarily closed.
So strangely enough, given how I usually lack any patience, I’m actually sitting on a couple stories, waiting for markets to open back up.
It’ll be interesting to see how quickly some of these magazines get flooded again when they finally do re-open to subs. I suspect there’s plenty of water behind the dam.
Anyone else having trouble finding potential homes for your work? Do you have any favorite markets that are actually still open?
September 11, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I’ve noticed that there are a lot of fledgling magazines springing up lately, but when you go to check out the website, the standards seem pretty low. They don’t seem to have much in the way of criteria, either, as opposed to the pro markets which seem to be extremely picky about what they want. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not necessarily opposed to sending my stuff to a non-paying market if it means that more people will get a chance to read it. But I am opposed to sending it to a magazine where it will be sandwiched between two unedited pieces of crap.
I tried to check out your website, but when I clicked on the link I got a 404 Page Not Found error. Just thought you’d want to know, if you don’t already.
September 11, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Ah great! The site is back up. You are a fast worker
September 11, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I agree. It’s very hard to know where to send your work. Let’s face it — coming up with a good story is hard enough. If you’re producing 20 quality stories a year, than sure, you can spread them around and maybe not be so picky about where they go, as long as people get to read them. When you’re writing just a few, then you really want to get the most out of each one.
And thanks for the heads-up on my site! It’s back up now, though I’m not sure why it went down.
October 7, 2008 at 1:44 pm
It’s hard finding new places to submit your work. You want your work to appear in many places, because let’s face it, that is how you become known. But with todays markets one is almost hesitant to send it anywhere.
By the time you find a market for you story, you find out it closed down two months later due to improper management, or it was run by a 16 year old who thought it would be a good idea without thinking about how to run a magazine.
Those few and far between mags that are known to be up to par have so many submissions sent to them, they can hardly accept all the good stories that pass by their hands. “Good” stories are no longer acceptable. They can only print the “Great” stories. And with every right they should. But where do all the “good” stories end up? Where are beginning authors supposed to go to get their feet wet and begin building a reputation?
What we need is a committee for online horror mags. They should be certified and sign a release that they are commited to the genre and their business and will not fold once the going gets tough. Following a set of guidelines will allow authors to know that the place they are submitting is not a fly by night project, but is run by people that know the business and have credentials to keep the mag running.
October 17, 2008 at 8:53 am
I’m not personally associated with the Magazine, but i’ve got to know the guys that have set up ‘Shock Totem’, a new horror publication due out next year. I met them through the monthly Horror challenge on writersbbs.com. They seem pretty dedicated to putting out a quality magazine and have connections within the industry. Their site is at Shocktotem.com (obviously
) and they have a forum where you can ask questions and get to know other horror weirdo’s.
Reading this through, it sounds like i’m spamming, but i’m not…honest..
Paul