Friday, November 02, 2007

Quickie: Story Market

This doesn't pay very well (actually, hardly at all), but the subject matter amused me so I thought I'd pass it along to interested parties:
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Title: Bad-A$$ Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad

Premise: Urban Fantasy stories about tough faeries. Basically in professions or with interests that you would least likely expect faeries to be in. For this volume a faerie must be the antagonist. In other words, both bad-a$$ and bad. This is not to say there can't be good faeries in the story as well. (for those that aren't sure what constitutes urban fantasy, it is a story in a modern setting with fantasy elements).

Word Count: approximately 5000 to 7000 words

Payment: One comp copy per author and a pro rata portion of $1.25 each book sold

Deadline: November 30, 2007

Submission Guidelines: Please see website at www.sidhenadaire.com/submissions.htm Ideas to Avoid:(Used in first volume) Biker Faeries, mob faeries, detective faeries, ghetto faeries, assassin faeries, ossuary faeries, cowboy faeries, indian faeries, street urchin faeries, Puck, gang faeries (Submitted for second volume) Nazi elves, world war two faeries, faerie reaper, pirate faeries, heavy metal faeries, faerwolf, corporate raider faeries, repo faerie, evil tooth faerie Stories We Might Like to See:bounty-hunter faerie, hocky or rugby player faerie, mercenary faeries, teamster faeries, construction worker faeries, robber faeries/bandit faeries...that kind of thing. And one thing I'd really like to see...a cops-and-robber faeries' story. Keep in mind, though a faerie has to be a bad guy, that doesn't mean their can't be good faeries in the story too...

Second Anthology: Title: Cry Havoc - Stories of Conflict Between Men, Monsters, and Machines

Premise: collection is broken into section: Pure Fantasy (Men vs. Monsters, no tech), Historic Fantasy (any combination of the three, primitive tech (like DiVinci or such), Urban Fantasy (any combination of the three, modern-day tech), Soft Sci Fi (any combination of the three, future projection tech based on current design or theory), and Hard Sci Fi (Men vs. Machines, anything you can imagine, even if the science doesn't yet support it)

Word Count: approximately 5000 to 7000 words

Payment: One comp copy per author and a pro rata portion of $1.00 each book sold

Deadline: November 30, 2007

Submission Guidelines: Please see my website at www.sidhenadaire.com/submissions.htm We have an off balance amount of submissions for Historic and Urban Fantasy, and Soft Sci Fi, so focusing on one of the other sections might be advised. Thank you and best regards, Danielle Ackley-McPhailAuthor of Yesterday's DreamsAuthor of Tomorrow's MemoriesEditor of Bad-A$$ Faeries

8 comments:

Michael Damian Thomas said...

Thanks, Lyda.

I have another quick question for all of the pros. Once you’ve written a short story, how do you choose a market for submission? What factors go into that choice?

Kelly McCullough said...

Personally I start with the highest paying appropriate market and work my way down from there, though I do weigh prestige of market and response times as well which will occasionally bump things out of strict payment order.

Also, I recommend to new writers that they give added weight to the two markets that preference the unpublished–less than 3 pro sales–Writers of the Future and Jim Baen's Universe.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Michael. What I've been doing is keeping a list of markets that have mental "tags" associated with them--prestige, response time, genre-focus, word limit, etc.--and then ranking them for each story that I send out. For "Just Right", a modern horror with vaguely fatastical elements (murderous teddy bears), here's the list I have started with:

"Just Right"
F&SF
Weird Tales
Realms of Fantasy
Talebones
Writers of the Future

But for "Seduction of Ashtonville", which is more of a modern day (1950's) fantasy (dragons, shapeshifters), the list is different:

"Seduction of Ashtonville"
Realms of Fantasy
F&SF
Weird Tales
Writers of the Future

And "Fires Unabating", a social commentary SF short, looks like this:

"Fires Unabating"
F&SF
Analog
Writers of the Future
Asimov's
Weird Tales

So it really differs for each story.

Kelly McCullough said...

Sean,

I'd Asimov's into both those upper lists as well since they do buy some fantasy. Probably down at the bottom, though I'm not about placing Talebones above WOTF or Asimov's. They're a great magazine with a good rep, but they're a notch down I think.

Anonymous said...

If I can step in here a moment. ;)

If anyone here writes dark scifi, or sci-flavored horror, we enjoy being able to accept first-time writers at Apex Digest. (We do established writers, too, but we do like to give people looking for their first sales a bit of a boost when we can.)

http://apexdigest.com/ is us.

Anonymous said...

:popping in again: I do hope that made sense. I've been sick all week and am kind of Hellen Kellering my way around right now. Oy!

Michael Damian Thomas said...

Thanks! You guys are great. I was surprised about how high you should try to initially shoot. I would never have thought of submitting to the “big three.”

Kelly McCullough said...

Michael,

Absolutely start at the top. This post addresses the way I feel about sending work out: Never reject your own story.