Woo! Story sale! 🎉 It's been a few years since my last in ANALOG, but I also don't send out stories unless I think they're a good fit. This one, at the edge of our solar system, features an oddball crew, its superstitions, & a mystery in the Oort. Figured it'd be just right for the hard-SF space-action-loving mag, & they agreed!
This'll probably be my last sale for a bit, while working on Novel #4, but it's always a joy when a story finds a home. 👌 The market's fierce, folks!
@MLClark That's awesome, congrats!!!
@Apocryphiliac Thanks, Apocryphiliac!
@MLClark Do you think the market for short stories, or fiction in general, has shifted at all post-covid? I have been wondering if there is more competition, or if there have been more or less publications persisting since pre-2020.
@Apocryphiliac Interesting question! I wouldn't mark the shift as pre- or post-COVID. SFF in the last few years has put a lot of effort into being more internationally friendly, and that's yielded a huge uptick in monthly submissions rates for publications like F&SF, Asimov's, Analog, and Clarkesworld. Some publications offset that intensity by having very narrow submissions windows (e.g., Uncanny), while others, like Tor.com, don't accept unsolicited work at all: everything is editor-curated.
@Apocryphiliac Oh, it's supremely unfortunate. I never submit work to a publication that doesn't have open calls (even if solicited, or allowed a backdoor entry because I published there in the past; that's why I stopped submitting to Lightspeed early on), because I don't like the insularity. Tor's editors often pull from pre-existing networks, & those folks then get the benefits of a phenomenal platform. Give me an honest competition with the wealth of talent in a wide open slush pile any day!
@Apocryphiliac *Though I should add that Tor.com's short story and novella/novel spheres are very different, and the publisher isn't at all atypical for refusing unsolicited long-form work. SOP in the industry today!
@MLClark Respect! 👊
I guess they are trading in an attempt to promote certain names, or they just don’t want to invest in readers or do the work to find new voices. That’s shitty. TBH, knowing that I’ve lost some respect for them. And Lightspeed magazine does the same?
I’ve gone back and forth on how I will attempt to sell my first novel when it’s finished. The industry is so intimidating to me. I figured I would just try to get a good agent and go from there, but that’s not much of a plan. 😅
@Apocryphiliac With Tor.com, it's gotten a bit absurd on the award side, with the well-funded publisher sweeping the novella category and making it nigh on impossible for smaller imprints and mags (with slush piles, curating new voices) to have work in the running - with the multiplying effect on sales that this situation yields.
Yay for writing a novel! An agent is a good bet if you can get one, but no guarantee. Here's the mess in publishing right now:
@MLClark Oh God. Yeah my “plan” is to write a *really good* first novel with plans to expand it into a series so an agent will want to take me on. Lol.
@Apocryphiliac Hella rootin' for you, and please hit me up if you need any help with the weird world of agent pitch materials that comes after getting your novel ready!
@MLClark Thank you! ☺️
@MLClark Interesting! Thanks for the insights! I remember that Tor used to have a contest with a very small window for manuscripts. Sad to hear that isn’t the case anymore.