Usually fantasy (and primarily heroic fantasy and weird westerns), sometimes other genres of speculative fiction. I don't have anything to swap at the moment (all the stories I'm aiming to get published are on submission right now, and I prefer to process feedback and do revisions all at once after I get responses so there aren't multiple versions of the story floating around), but I'd be glad to take a look at yours anyway. Next month I'll probably have some new material I could swap. Now, I'm not as familiar with the sci-fi side of the market, so I can't tell you what the publishers are really going for, but I can give you a reader's perspective.
I would love it if you want to give it a read. Remember I'm still new with genre. But send me your email. And I can owe you a read whenever you are ready. Thanks.
Quite sick with my draft. I gave up on it - now it's back, aiming for the Raymond Carver prize, maybe also Ditchwater/Bridgend/Bayface? - the big British competition
I know of The Raymond Carver Prize. Are the other ones just for UK writers? Contests always seem to cost so much money and add up quick, and I never win. Good luck @matwoolf. Cheering you on.
It's the Bridport prize - worldwide entry. One for the back pocket, send something away in the next 4 weeks. It's the top one. Raymond Carver - 3 weeks to go. Check out previous winners, frustratingly ordinary. ... Delete this bit, too complicated...
Got a high-tier form rejection from one of the places I sent a story to Monday, so I'll be working my way down the list I drew up for this story starting tomorrow. This was one of the more vexing ones, since I've read this market and got a good feel for its tone. I'm guessing one of their regular contributors sent in a piece that was similar, and they picked that one.
Another close one for you. It only makes sense that you'll land a sale soon. I know it's frustrating to feel like you really know a publication and still can't seem to get in. The competition is just super fierce everywhere. But it would seem that knowing this publication shows in your work or you wouldn't have gotten a higher-tier rejection. So, keep trying them with new stuff. If they like your writing, it's only a matter of time before they love one of your stories.
Eventually, perhaps. I doubt I'll be able to send another story their way before their submission period ends, so I'll have to wait until next year for another shot.
They're all different - writer needs a marketing manager, and editor crammed with thievable anecdote. It's the only way.
I guess you also have to be able to afford one, unless you do it yourself, then you have no time to write. It's an endless circle.
What I meant was: You have to hone a piece to the right moment and market - and fire it away to ten locations - all tracked on your spreadsheet. Do that ten times with ten articles, or stories, so you are in a state of momentum, in business, day 1. But I, for one, am too stupid. I write pretty, send half a cake with a shitty post-it note attachment letter to one random organisation found on google five minutes before. One endeavours to reach the professional method/methodology[?] ... But then...it does mean all the bore-farts are reading and writing to each other, grr, heh...world issew.
This market was a (very well paying and noteworthy) annual themed anthology. They only open for half a month every spring. Other markets are different. Some are open all the time, some open quarterly, it varies a lot.
A story has to be electric. But there's 26 pages. 19 are electric. 20 - 24 are pathetic, the whole point of the write is on page 25/26. It's a gap to bridge - at present. Sometimes, it's a great revelation to the writer when you can simply delete the four pages and it makes no difference. Distance helps for that. Actually, I'll go see now.
For literary and general fiction, I think fall is the big time of year to submit. That's when everyone seems to open for at least the month of September. Places like Tin House are opened one month in the fall, though, this year they opened a for a month in the spring too. But since Tin House takes forever, I'm still waiting on my fall submission so I missed getting another chance in with them for now. Who knows, in my experience the longer a piece is held the more likely it is to be accepted. Granta was opened last fall as well. I would say that's one to watch because I don't think they even open to submissions every year. Then there are a few that only have spring submissions like Threepenny. Others close for the winter and reopen in the spring, but I still think fall is the time where a writer can feel like they have the most options when it comes to submitting. Summer is the worst. Since a lot of journals and magazines are housed at universities, they take summers off. A lot of those have "review" in the title. The really big guys seem to stay open year round like The New Yorker and Harper's. I try to submit at least one story a week. In the fall this is quite easy to do and I often send out more than one a week. Now that we are nearing the end of spring, it's getting harder to keep up with this practice. I've been known to slip a bit in the spring and summer but never in the fall. After a while you sort of know the reading periods for a lot of places and how long they take to respond. This can help sort of put you on a schedule of just who to try when. In August, I read through my best stories and try to make them even better so I'm ready when September hits. That's actually the reason I think I sold anything that I submitted last fall. And it was my best season yet.
I hate to admit it and I hate that I think it's true, but distance can do wonders for someone's writing and the only way to allow that to happen is to let time pass. If a story doesn't sell in a year or two, I think it can help to revisit it and possibly do some rewriting. The newer something it, the more I think I like it. It's good because it helps me produce new work all the time. I love the rush or the high that comes with finishing something new. And not every new story is going to be my best, but it just writing them adds to the process of getting better. And now I write genre (or make an attempt). I wanted to branch out and try new things and new markets. I think a lot of that comes down to the time of year, and the fact that my best work has been submitted to all the places I really want in and I think are worth waiting for. I needed more stories. I have tried some science fiction in the past, but I always seem to give up on those stories a lot sooner than my others. Maybe it's because I don't know the markets as well. Special thanks to all of you who volunteered to read my latest story. The comments I've gotten so far have been really helpful. I hope those who I sent it to and haven't had a chance to read it, will get back to me soon. And please take me up on returning the favor to any of you anytime. I'm hoping to get that story ready to submit by the end of the weekend. That's not too much distance, but working on new things helps of give distance to other things.
I think it's important as artists to experiment and try something new. Get outside of your box and see what the view is like, if you don't like it you can always climb back in. Talking about distance, I've read of so many authors who give their works months, if not years, before going back and taking another look at their first draft. It's great to finish something, but giving it room to breathe may be the best thing you can do to your baby.
At first I was going to try and bang out a novel super fast. Now, I am taking my time with it. I've taken more time off than I've spent writing the novel, but I think the story is turning out better for it. I've got a handful of new short stories written during my breaks. If I take a break from writing completely, I get rusty. But it's so true that our babies need breathing room.
I think my writing style could be called frustratingly ordinary. Maybe that contest was meant for me... Nope, a $17 entrance fee. I'm not that confident that I'm ordinary enough to pull off a win. I have been paying the $3 reading fees a lot of places charge. And those add up enough.
