Submitting short stories to mags?

[BlueAngel]

I have one complete short story done so far, but I have others in the works and I'd like to submit it to a scifi genre magazine that takes them. But I don't know where to start, or which mags wuld be best to submit to. I'm also unsure of the fees that they might pay an author if they decide to publish the work. Anyone familiar with this, and how to go about it?

I would like to get it in print somewhere so at least it will be exposure and publishing experience, but as a said before I don't want to go into it blindly.~Angela

[JamesL]

Best place to start is probably www.ralan.com - this lists most of the speculative fiction markets, with payment and submission details.

[MrBF1V3]

If that doesn't help, go to your nearby library and borrow the Writers Market for this year.

B5

[mistri]

Duotrope.com is also very useful (it's a market search engine)

[BlueAngel]

I looked through the ralan site, but I'm still unsure of some things and unsure of who to go through. What amount should I accept as payment? What are some of the publishers that you guys have gone through for short story submission?

[JamesL]

Payment is not something you should really be concerned with, and it varies from publication to publication. I was paid a modest $10 each for the two stories that I sold, but I was simply glad to be paid anything at all because I write for the enjoyment and the challenge, not for monetary gain. There is no negotiation concerning fees. If you don't like the payment offered by a magazine, don't submit to them.

The two stories I have sold were both purchased by Nocturne magazine, published by Lighthouse Media One (a British indie press). To be honest you are best off submitting to similar, small magazines. There's nothing stopping you from submitting to the big guns like Interzone, Asimov's, etc, but be warned the standard is very high. Ultimately which magazine/ezine you target should be one that caters for your specific genre. Shop around using Ralan's listings and make a list of suitable magazines.

[BlueAngel]

It isn't about what I want to be paid, but rather what I should expect. I just would like to get it out there so it'll at least be an experience in publishing and for my name to get out. I appreciate your honesty, after all, I know from what I've read and heard that beginning to publish any work is often done in small steps.

I'm having some confusion navigating the ralan site though, there are category terms I don't quite understand completely. Is there anyone who can explain it to me?

[BrianC]

BlueAngel, what is that you're not getting? I'll try to help.

[BlueAngel]

What are anthology, 4theluv, semi & pro markets? I'm guessing, but 4theluv is romance?
The other thing is on submission formats. Apparently some want text files or rtf files. For text, is that just copying into an email or the msword format?

[BrianC]

An anthology is a special collection of short stories, usually issued one-time or perhaps annually as opposed to a regular magazine, sometimes organized around a specific theme. For example, The Year's Best Fantasy is an anthology. So would, oh, a collection of stories about lycanthropes, or pirates. If you want to submit to an anthology, make sure you understand what the editor is looking for, and that your story fits, so that you don't waste your time and hers.

For the Love (no it's not romance specific, but that gave me a chuckle) is a market that does not pay any compensation to submitting writers, perhaps not even a complimentary issue. In other words, having something published in this market is "for the love (of writing)", rather than for payment. Not considered, to my knowledge, as a professional sale for purposes of SFWA* membership.

Semi-pro and Pro markets are the ones that compensate the writers that they publish. Semi-pro may be only a copy or two of the issue and a bio, or maybe a small payment. Pro gets paid more, whether per word or flat fee. Depending on the type and amount of compensation Semi-pro may qualify toward SFWA; Pro will qualify.

(Edited to defer to superior knowledge re: text files. *genuflects* See Dawnstorm's entry below).

*SFWA=Science Fiction Writers of America, a professional association of, well, science fiction, fantasy and horror writers.

[Holbrook]

4theluv means no payment, just published in the mag or e-zine, as in doing the writing for the love of it.

Anthology is a collection of short stories either in hard back or paper back, sometimes a mag.

Semi & pro markets are mags/publishers that pay the going rate 4 cents a word (I think) or a set fee per number of words.

Text, like RTF is an msword format, drop down your file type box on save as and you should see it.

Hope that helped.

[Dawnstorm]

RTF stands for "real text file". Lots of markets wants this type of file because it is supposed to be readable by just about any word processing application. (An rtf file created in Word should be readable in Wordperfect without problem, for example). It's pretty safe to assume that an rtf file would fulfill a generic "text file" submission requirement.

A "text file" ends in .txt. The difference between txt-files and rtf-files is that txt-files contain nothing but ASCII-signs (standard coded letters, numbers and symbols). Some publishers prefer txt-files to rtf-files, because their less vulnerable to viruses.

If they ask for a text-file, I'd assume their asking for a txt-file; which means that I'd have to find a way to indicate italics (not even underlining is possible in txt-files).

[BlueAngel]

Thanks guys, I've already listed several that I could submit to. Should I submit to all of them, or only a few at a time?

[BrianC]

It depends on whether they accept simultaneous submissions to more than one market. If not, then you should only submit to one at a time. If two or more do take simultaneuous submissions, then have at it. Ralan or Duotrope should have an entry for simultaneous submissions (either yes or no); but I can't say that for certain because it's been sometime since I looked them over..

[Ward]

You're better off avoiding simsubs entirely from my experience, and most places don't like it anyway.

Don't confuse simsibs (subbing the same story to more than one place simultaneously) with multi subs (sending more than one story to the same place at the same time).

I recommend you check out Ralan's links page to read articles about fiction writing and the submissions process, etc. There's a lot to be learned. Above all make sure you follow manuscript format and whatever formatting rules the market requires (you'd be surprised how many people ignore these things...and how many editors are ready to shred their manuscript because of it).

You should also know that you stand a much higher chance of getting pubbed as a first timer at a small press magazine than a pro mag, though the process (and maybe feedback) of subbing to the pros is invaluable. Just know that they publish a very small number of unsolicited stories a year and recieve a tremendous volume of the same.

Also, if you are at all serious about publishing short fiction in magazines, you need to read those magazines to have some idea of what the editors want...and to help keep those magazines alive.