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.
@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.
@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!