Brief glance at markets
Yesterday I decided to look at my trunked stories and dust them off and throw them back out into the wild. In doing some preliminary market research, I discovered the following:
- Magazines I already knew had shut down: Fortean Bureau and SciFiction - very sad.
- Magazines I was not aware had shut down: Shadows of Saturn and Amazing Stories (The funny thing is Piazo *just announced* its official closing of Amazing Stories - I thought it was old news, but Locus revealed it as news this morning.) Further sadness. Not sure why they closed Amazing Stories; it didn’t seem to be out long enough to give it wings to fly. Like cancelling a show after, say, 13 episodes.
- New trend: Tons of anthologies using PoD technology and paying authors shares of revenue. (I submitted to one)
What surprises me is that I didn’t think I’d been out of the short fiction market that long, but it seems that lots have changed in the less-than-a-year. I haven’t scoured the magazine market yet, yesterday was just looking for anthologies. I’ll give a report later after I look there.
About the Author: I am a writer and podcast producer, writing for magazines and RPGs. I am a wanna-be fiction writer with several short fiction, comic scripts, and one novel sale. Playing For Keeps will be out August, '08.
Phronk | Mar 24, 2006 | Reply
Was that a Firefly reference?
Because that was one of the saddest cancellations ever. At least we have Serenity.
P.S. This is my first comment ever and I just started listening…I love the podcast. It makes me feel like I’m a real writer because I’m getting all this wonderful information about writing. Thanks!
Rick | Mar 24, 2006 | Reply
Yes, Firefly reference. So sad.
Mur, could you post a link to any of the POD anthologies that you found. That sounds like a cool idea and I’d also like to submit to something like that, and perhaps buy to help support that sort of thing.
Did you find all this on Ralan?
Mur Lafferty | Mar 24, 2006 | Reply
Yeah, Rick, they were all on Ralan in their anthology section.
And yes, it was a Firefly reference. Good catch.
JRMurdock | Mar 24, 2006 | Reply
During my short story spree, I saw no less than 15 magazines (e-zine and mag alike) close up shop. It’s kinda depressing when you send that ‘Hey where’s my story’ letter only to get the e-mail or letter returned.
But that’s the facts of life as a writer and ralan.com keeps us apraised of what’s up and is the best resource out there.
Paul Campbell | Mar 25, 2006 | Reply
Amazing Stories, from what I read on Sci Fi Wire, was shelved about a year ago while they tried to figure out how to keep it viable. Their recent announcement is that they haven’t succeeded and have officially cancelled the magazine and can now resolved issues like paid-up subscribers.
Mur Lafferty | Mar 25, 2006 | Reply
Yeah, Paul, I knew they were on hiatus, I just didn’t know they were officially dead. Sad.
Stijn Hommes | Mar 25, 2006 | Reply
I was sad to see “Plots with Guns” fold. I enjoyed reading them. I did a market search recently and I came across a lot of dead zines too.
It’s sad indeed.
Rick, does the story you wish to submit to an anthology include animals integral to the plot by any chance?
Jeff | Mar 25, 2006 | Reply
Amazing Stories being cancelled is also frustrating: when I submitted a story there a few years ago I just got a form statement of the magazine being on hiatus while they figured out what to do with it.
The story was somewhat time-limited (you can’t deal with Y2K in 2002, after it whimpered past), and it was my 3rd and final try for that story. I hoped they got their butts in gear after that.
Rick | Mar 25, 2006 | Reply
Stijn Hommes
No, no animals, sorry. Why?
Jesus, space, and spaceships.
Ha, raised eyebrows!
Stijn Hommes | Mar 25, 2006 | Reply
I was thinking about creating an anthology with stories that have animals (preferably uncommon ones) as a central part of the plot. I want to write a few myself, but if I got a few people together we could split the cost of a distribution (ISBN) and of course the royalties evenly.
Stijn Hommes | Mar 25, 2006 | Reply
Then again, perhaps I should wait either until I’ve got enough money to pay for it myself and/or until I’ve got enough stories of my own…