Short Story Competition?

[Daddy Darth]

I am constantly reminded of how great everyone is around here. Thanks Super and TMSO (Always feels like we are communicating with our super hero names doesnt it). Hobbie is the right word for me too - but I dream of 1000s of people reading that book I write sometime in the future. The flash fic really took me out of my comfort zone - sharing with others. Imagine that. A short story would be great for taking it further.

Hoodwink you are too funny - doesnt seem to matter where I read a post of yours I laugh.

 

[Sterling13]

Ah, yes, of course the fun part too . I wouldn't get past page 1 if I didn't enjoy it.

And I think a lot of you are underestimating just how "publishable" you are.

 

[Susan Boulton]

The "some places consider any form of prior online publishing as disqualification" is a potential dealbreaker for me... I write so infrequently as is, I really want whatever my final product is to at least be submit-able.

I seem to remember Katg or Holbrook mentioning something about this in some other thread... I was hoping, though, as long as I deleted my story from the site after the competition, I would still be able to submit it elsewhere. Do you have specific feedback regarding this, zachariah, or is this regarding the same post and just general experience? Anyone "in the know" care to comment?

If such is the case... well, that takes us to posting our stories where its not in the public domain (ie, some shared google group), rather than SFFWorld... which then a voting thread here would look a little silly... and, by that point, why not all just participate in some outside writing group? (which is really NOT what I want)


The wet blanket has been thrown!

Personally, I think if a work is taken down well before submission, and edited/altered from the original, then I think there will be no problem. (This is my personal opinion). I don't think mags/anthologies have the time to check online to see if all their submissions have been put up. The editor of Clockwork Phoenix stated in his blog he has had over 700 submissions for 6-12slots in Clockwork Phoenix 3. I also received a email from the editor of Horror library 4 saying they had over 1,000 submissions, again for 12 slots, so the notify date had been put back. An editor might run his final choices through google, then again he might not, and if your story is taken down *shrugs shoulders*

The odds of getting a short story accepted at the moment is twice as hard as it was last year, there seems to be three times the amount of submissions chasing about half the publications. I just submitted to Alienskin and they are reading for Feb/March issues at the moment.

 

[SuperFede]

And I think a lot of you are underestimating just how "publishable" you are.

i am not sure who you are thinking of... but my ego is skyrocketing just by the posibility of being in that group!!!!

Maybe all we need is a quick how to on publishing short stories in magazines or such.... I don't even know what magazines are there. As for my books, one is in need of hard editing (although i don't think it is that bad as it is, just not edited enough for publishing) and the other is in progress.

I must confess that i have read best sellers that are without any doubt worse than most of the things I write. So I wonder...

 

[Sterling13]

Personally, I think if a work is taken down well before submission, and edited/altered from the original, then I think there will be no problem. (This is my personal opinion). I don't think mags/anthologies have the time to check online to see if all their submissions have been put up. The editor of Clockwork Phoenix stated in his blog he has had over 700 submissions for 6-12slots in Clockwork Phoenix 3. I also received a email from the editor of Horror library 4 saying they had over 1,000 submissions, again for 12 slots, so the notify date had been put back. An editor might run his final choices through google, then again he might not, and if your story is taken down *shrugs shoulders*

The odds of getting a short story accepted at the moment is twice as hard as it was last year, there seems to be three times the amount of submissions chasing about half the publications. I just submitted to Alienskin and they are reading for Feb/March issues at the moment.

Great info, Holbrook! That was my thought on the matter as well - No publisher is going to scour the internet trying to find deleted files.... but yes, I'd definetely delete any entries before submitting elsewhere.

Hmmm... just did a google search of my name and one of my recent entries. It not only picks up the link to the story (obviously the link doesn't take you anywhere because I've deleted the story), but also the "Site Update" post on SFFWorld, plus a link to the voting thread comments. That's a little concerning.

Maybe the smart thing to do is not only take it down, but, when you go to submit, change the title. No attempt to be dishonest there, but I'd hate for them to do a quick search, see my name attached to the title, and pass the story by.


That is harsh news about the sheer quantity of submitted stories... I knew it would be high, but I didn't think quite that high.

 

[Sterling13]

i am not sure who you are thinking of... but my ego is skyrocketing just by the posibility of being in that group!!!!

Maybe all we need is a quick how to on publishing short stories in magazines or such.... I don't even know what magazines are there. As for my books, one is in need of hard editing (although i don't think it is that bad as it is, just not edited enough for publishing) and the other is in progress.

I must confess that i have read best sellers that are without any doubt worse than most of the things I write. So I wonder...

How to (or at least how I'm going about it) - Go to Duotrope, Ralaran, or Quintamid, do a search based on the story you're looking to submit, choose a magazine, and follow their guidelines. Submit each story to only 1 magazine at a time, and never more than 1 story at a time to each magazine (some magazines have different rules than this... but they are few and far between). Then, wait the 1-3 months for the magazine to respond.

I'm using Duotrope currently, haven't done much with the other two. They have a "Submissions Tracker" section that I just discovered yesterday that seems like a handy deal. Of course, I had already put together an excel spreadsheet detailing all of my stories, where it was submitted to, submission date, estimated response time (heck, I've got color coded tabs telling me which stories are in submission, which need edited, etc.).

From what I've seen, there are a lot (and I mean A LOT) of really good stories out there... but sprinkled amongst them are the few that make you think "I've got a shot."

I did my 2-3 submissions to the Pro and Semi-Pro guys, received my anticipated rejections, and am now moving on to the "Token" guys (though I'm really not seeing a decrease in quality as I move down the ladder, truth be told).


(Sorry for hijacking your thread a bit Foo)

 

[SuperFede]

How to (or at least how I'm going about it) - Go to Duotrope, Ralaran, or Quintamid, do a search based on the story you're looking to submit, choose a magazine, and follow their guidelines. Submit each story to only 1 magazine at a time, and never more than 1 story at a time to each magazine (some magazines have different rules than this... but they are few and far between). Then, wait the 1-3 months for the magazine to respond.

I'm using Duotrope currently, haven't done much with the other two. They have a "Submissions Tracker" section that I just discovered yesterday that seems like a handy deal. Of course, I had already put together an excel spreadsheet detailing all of my stories, where it was submitted to, submission date, estimated response time (heck, I've got color coded tabs telling me which stories are in submission, which need edited, etc.).

From what I've seen, there are a lot (and I mean A LOT) of really good stories out there... but sprinkled amongst them are the few that make you think "I've got a shot."

I did my 2-3 submissions to the Pro and Semi-Pro guys, received my anticipated rejections, and am now moving on to the "Token" guys (though I'm really not seeing a decrease in quality as I move down the ladder, truth be told).


(Sorry for hijacking your thread a bit Foo)

Wow!!!!!

Thanx seems to be an understatement to what i really want to say!!! This is great.... I'll go and check it out tonight.


I too apologize to Foo for loosing focus on the thread. If I need to discuse this further I'll open a new thread.

 

[Hereford Eye]

Dear Great Northern Dyslexic Person:
It appears that sufficient masochists have an interest in the putative project. What seems to be lacking is an oprganizing principal. I hereby nominate you as the first principal-moderator-tzar-instigator with December 1, 2009 as good a start date as any.
Look forward to seeing what it is your notoriously offbeat imagination egests as theme for the inaugural squabble.
Your Distant Co-Conspirator
HE

 

[Sterling13]

Dear Great Northern Dyslexic Person:
It appears that sufficient masochists have an interest in the putative project. What seems to be lacking is an oprganizing principal. I hereby nominate you as the first principal-moderator-tzar-instigator with December 1, 2009 as good a start date as any.
Look forward to seeing what it is your notoriously offbeat imagination egests as theme for the inaugural squabble.
Your Distant Co-Conspirator
HE

I hereby second the motion... with much less word skill and an overuse of ellipses...

 

[Fung Koo]

STOP ALL ATTEMPTS AT DEMOCRACY NOW!

I'll preempt the vote on the motion like the despot that I am and tell y'all that I never intended to let anyone else run the first month



Some good points being presented.

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Re: Concern re: the reading/reviewing duly noted. I, too, was concerned.

Hoodwink's idea might be worth thinking about. However, I don't want to create too much work for the contest master, nor do I want to overburden the comp with additional rules and policies. That said, I also don't think it must be required to give feedback -- but it's worth pointing out that giving feedback is often a much more informative lesson than receiving feedback.

Thus, with the KISS principle in mind, I can imagine a policy that operates such that the stories are posted in order in the voting thread. Each entrant should read all the stories submitted, per just general-niceness-and-respectability, and is then requested to comment on/review the three stories immediately following yours on the list (looping back to the beginning if you were the last entrant).

You are also requested to comment on/review as many more stories as you would like/are able to, but at a minimum each entrant would be requested to try to at least put down a sentence-or-two impression about the other stories. That way, everyone should get and give at least 3 reviews, and several impressions.

We'll see how many entries there are, but what do y'all think of such a system? Is 3 stories too few? Too many?

---

I'm maybe a bit more concerned about imposing a genre restriction than the rest of you. We're not all multi-genre writers here, after all, and I wouldn't want it to get to something ridiculous specific like "post-feminist new weird." That could be off-putting to potential entrants.

However, the rules are subject to change per the contest master, so I guess we can leave that as optional. But is it recommended? Should it be limited to the master sub-genres represented at the site (i.e. Horror, Sci Fi, and Fantasy [and Alt. History, too])? Or are more specific sub-genre limitations desired?

---

Re: editing and general fix-ups, I think that it's perfectly OK to use the Writing forum same as -- stories can of course be posted outside of the contest thread for authors to ask for critique/edit/workshop/etc. Once the author is satisfied, s/he then posts the link to final story in the contest entry thread. After this point, minor tweaks for typos, punctuation, etc., will be politely tolerated up-to the entry deadline, but substantial edits will be disallowed -- honour system only. Mutha-eff tha po-leese.

Follow-up editing reverts to the general writing forum following the contest if people want to work on their stories prior to submitting elsewhere.

I'm going to suggest we all be hard-line on this one.

---

Re: Holbrook's point about publishers probably not trawling the internet for your work -- agreed. No one seems too concerned about this over in the flash fic. I doubt the longer format will really make a difference in whether or not the Publishers Compliance Office hunts you down.

Just be smart and remove your stuff before you submit elsewhere.

If anyone ever asks you about it, just mumble something incoherent at them about international digital peer content-sharing law versus publication copyright and public domain law. That would confuse anyone. So long as its not there, and the actual content isn't hosted anywhere that can be back-linked, then it doesn't exist.

Surely they can't fault you for having published your own title.

 

[Sterling13]

Surely they can't fault you for having published your own title.

To paraphrase one of the greatest pieces of cinema ever produced: I should hope not, and don't call me Shirley.

 

[Hoodwink]

I'm much relieved for the reassertion of tyranny I hate democracies. In democracies, I'm expected to express opinions, which leads to me getting found out.

I have one lingering opinion that fortunately reinforces the view of the Fung-Lord (marking me as a front runner for the position of Prime Myrmidon). Specifically, I'm most unlikely to enter competitions where the genre is further defined beyond those high level SFF/Fantasy/Horror/Alt fiction definitions because I think "why shorten the canvas that our imaginations can paint on?" The periodic variance of topic/theme brings fresh inspiration each cycle without the need for further restriction.

With one exception: the periodic tyrant decides that it would be a rewarding exercise to tackle a well worn, genre specific sterotypical topic, to see who can bring some new life to it. That kind of restriction I would be interested in.

1st December... I'm so excited I've made a little coloured appointment window in my Outlook at work. I'd define its color as "peuce".

 

[Tristis]

wowser! Great get-up-and-go Fung!

I'm in. It happens to be this length that I've been trying to work on for the past while.

As soothing as the opinions have been regarding "publishing" in this forum, I've already encountered the limitation in magazines and even though I think it's rotten and limiting, am loathe to try to "get away with it" in case the ol' adage is true and something once sent to the internet is there forever.

I've seen most of my competition stories for sffworld show up on other sites. They're mostly in digests of what's out there in SF. These links contain snippets or something because content is right there with the title. Even though they inevitably lead back to the stories section here, and therefore would be inactive once deleted, I can't help but think it's as easy for them to copy and paste as us.

But set all that negativity aside, Tristis, pour yourself a whisky and wash down that lump of noobie everything-I-write-has-to-be-for-my-legacy terror in one gulp. The point of the contests is to write, and that's just never a bad thing. If something is so appealing after as to warrant submission, deal with the publishers who can cope!

 

[Daddy Darth]

SO...Fung I guess I'll wait for you to pull the trigger. Sounds like there is lots of interest. Cool!

 

[Sterling13]

As soothing as the opinions have been regarding "publishing" in this forum, I've already encountered the limitation in magazines and even though I think it's rotten and limiting, am loathe to try to "get away with it" in case the ol' adage is true and something once sent to the internet is there forever.

Care to elaborate on this one? Did you have something you've posted here denied submission elsewhere (or am I reading this statement wrong?)?

 

[Tristis]

Care to elaborate on this one? Did you have something you've posted here denied submission elsewhere (or am I reading this statement wrong?)?

No, I've found "cannot have been published on the internet in any form" on the list of restrictions on submissions at magazines.

In much the same way that I utterly fail at going across the border with more purchases than declared (think deer-in-headlights as the border guard asks the simplest questions), I would also fail at submitting a story that had been up anywhere because I too nervous about what the publisher might find out.

 

[Hoodwink]

I so want to play Tristis at poker

 

[Tristis]

I so want to play Tristis at poker

Yeah. It's all fun and games for everybody 'til the whiskey hits.

 

[SuperFede]

Yeah. It's all fun and games for everybody 'til the whiskey hits.

Forget the card games.... gimme the whisky!!!! and maybe a nice cigar.... and while we are at it some nice music.... perhaps some jazz (or some swedish death metal, in particular In Flames or Dark tranquillity or Arch enemy..... ).

 

[Hereford Eye]

Swedish death metal at a card game? No, I remember, you were just drinking the whiskey.
The card game needs ambiance: background music to soothe the nerves, say Clannad or Altan, good carpet, plastic cards that resist clumping, and, yes, a good cigar. Jack Daniels always struck me as a proper poker drink. All catering should be accomplished by Geisha as they do their damndest not to distract from the primary purpose of the gathering.