I am making this thread as an attempt to bring a positive resource to us all, while I certainly would appreciate such a list it is not entirely for my benefit, and I hope that we can all more effectively find places to submit finished short stories and poetry.
The question of the thread is, when you have a finished short story and you are prepared to see it off, who do you send it to? I am as interested in paying as in non-paying, although to be honest most of the articles and stories I've been paid for have been more locally focused in their market so most of the sites I list are probably not going to be paid sites.
For me this is not a problem, I have this massive portfolio, more time than I know what to do with and enough food to eat, I can afford not to get paid for my writing and I feel like the non-paying sites do still help me reach an audience with my writing as well as serving to pad my resume (which was a big concern when I was sending out 8 query letters a day, but for now I am mostly interested in such markets for the former purpose, some place where I can put a short story and the bio has a mention of my novel).
Fear of Monkeys: http://twinenterprises.com/the_fear_of_monkeys/submission_guidelines.htm
Non-Paying
Fear of Monkeys works primarily with "Politically and Socially Concious" writing, so its pretty much a niche market. I don't know how many of you are familiar with AdBusters, but Fear of Monkeys is a low budget version of AdBusters, with more fiction and slightly less DaDa. My writings there go on my resume, but I don't know how well-reputed they are in the literary world, I suspect not much. For one, "Politically and Socially Concious" writing doesn't neccesarrily get top billing these days and also sometimes when I read the descriptions they put for my stories I wonder if they understood them, which might be indicative of a suboptimal evaluation procedure.
Splash of Red: http://splashofred.squarespace.com/submissions/
Non-Paying
Sadly I am less experienced with Splash of Red, and what I can tell you is this, if you were to write your first Fantasy story, and it is some sort of middle-fantasy weirdness that serves as a parable for Trotskyist philosophy, well they wouldn't be interested in something like that. That story is a mess in any event, keeps me clear of fantasy for the immediate future. But if you would like to try your luck Splash of Red is good with poetry and their rejection letters are very polite.
Blood Lotus: http://www.bloodlotusjournal.com/p/submit.html
Non-Paying
Another magazine that has never done anything but reject me (the ezines I have mostly gotten published in have since gone terribly bankrupt, places like Apathy is Easy and changingthetimes.co.uk, which is probably not a ringing endorsement of my prose). Passed on Do Unto Others, but now that I realize that I'm probably going to find something newer to fire off at them. (Wow, this process is extremely nice, going through my sentbox and updating this submission graph in my notebook, I hope that you can also benefit),
Dark Sky Magazine http://darkskymagazine.submishmash.com/submit
Non-Paying
Good turnaround, efficient editors. 3k word limit.
-
This of course does not include contests or my experiences with Asimov's, but Asimov' in't an eZine anyways, and in any event I was hoping to illuminate new territory and to be honest when I first started thinking about literary magazines Asimov's was personally the only one I knew about because it's Asimov's and I assume that everyone is always working on a "sci fi story good enough for Asimov's." If that isn't on your writer bucket list I don't know what is.
I also have submitted to madhattersreview, but their submissions are closed for the rest of the year.
Your turn. What magazines do you submit to?
The best thing to do is to go to duotrope. It's basically a masterlist of all this stuff.
Splash of Red is one of my favorite mags -I would love to be published through them. Check out the story "Red Barn People" by Hunter Liguore. That's on their front page right now, I believe.
Hey, nkwilczy -what was the response time for them?
Here are the places I've submitted my work to:
- F&SF
- Weird Tales
- Electric Literature
- Asimov's
- Dark Discoveries
- Writers of the Future (contest)
- Strange Horizons
- Clarkesworld
- Lightspeed
- Ideomancer
- Brain Harvest
- Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine
- Bull Spec
- Analog Science Fiction & Fact
- Abyss & Apex
- The Pedestal Magazine
- GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator
- Every Day Fiction
- Daily Science Fiction
- Apex Magazine
- Electric Velocipede
- Pseudopod
- Shimmer
- Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show
- Tor.com
- Shock Totem
- M-Brane SF
- GigaNotoSaurus
- Dark Highlands Anthology
- Ray Gun Revival
- Crossed Genres
- Contrary
- Basement Stories
- Redstone Science Fiction
- Nil Desperandum
- Cosmos
- Tin House
- Digital Science Fiction
It's probably worth noting that they all pay -- many of them, professional rates (5 cents/word or more). I'm one of those writers who preach the gospel of Harlan Ellison: The writer should never work for free.
"Payment in exposure" is bullshit. Sorry. You want a career in writing, you have to have standards about who you want printing your work. That standard can change over time -- and some non-paying and token-paying markets are really great publications -- but you can't possibly make a living if you're never getting paid.
Oh yeah, that wasn't aimed at you specifically. Just writers in general; we're all on the same side. And you're spot-on about the business model. It's evolving, and the best ones are staying afloat while others are rightly falling into oblivion. Glad to help out when it comes to finding reliable markets (sometimes you're lucky to ever get a response), and especially when it comes to ones that are well-publicized and pay well.
There are a lot of themed anthologies cropping up out of thin air -- I've seen so-called "small presses" posting submission calls for upwards of 50 anthology projects simultaneously. And the one I'm thinking of offered no payment to contributors. Not even an author's copy -- just "exposure only." To me, that's just exploitation.
Alex,
Any luck with Weird Tales? I submitted something to them back in July but haven't heard back yet. I figure I'd give it till mid-October then just send it elsewhere. But did you happen to notice it taking a longer time than expected to hear back from them? I understand they're a "pro market", but still... it's been like four months.
-Bill
Plus I think "exsposure" as payment is sort of a right of passage for a lot of people here. You start there then move up to paying zines, and hopefully pro after that, if they even still exist. I don't think its bullshit, but it is something we should also eventually work our way up from.
@Americantypo
You're absolutely right about this. Those little ezines and webmags should be the bread and butter for those just starting out in the game. Having something like The Paris Review or Ploughshares as one of your first publications--although it would be nice, is going to fucking crazy difficult.
Pros get paid. Pros get printed. There's no denying that.
We all start out at the bottom rung though. My advice to anyone just starting out would be to get some of that exposure, at least for their first few pieces.
"Any luck with Weird Tales? I submitted something to them back in July but haven't heard back yet."
Bill, it's kind of a long story, but in short: Weird Tales was just purchased by a new publisher, who fired all the existing staff and replaced them with his own people. He is now the editor. From what I hear, he's a cool guy and suited for the job, but they recently posted on their website that any writer who hasn't received a response should consider their story "returned," and that they're closed to submissions until further notice.
A lot of people are really upset about this, as I was, but an e-friend of mine had sold Ann VanderMeer not one, but two stories -- his first professional sales -- and so far, they haven't appeared in the magazine. With this new editorship, he's not sure they ever will.
So send the story elsewhere. Who knows when they'll reopen.
@ Alex J. Kane
If you were to pick the 10 best sites to submit any work. What would they be?
This can apply to anyone else reading this as well.
Depends on what you write, mostly. Who are your biggest influences? What genre do you best fit into?
One method I've used to find new, additional places to send my stuff is by going to the websites of my favorite authors and looking at their bibliography pages to find all the magazines, anthologies, and e-zines that have published their work. Oftentimes you'll run into a few that don't take unagented or unsolicited submissions, or markets that don't exist anymore, but usually you'll also find some new markets you hadn't heard of that you can send stuff to.
Anthologies probably comprise the biggest chunk of the short fiction market right now, but they also generally pay less well than magazines, or are invite-only. If you can find anthologies that pay, and for which your work seems to fit the guidelines, they're the ones who need fiction now. Magazines are fewer, pay better, and so are resultantly the hardest to break into.
"Fight Club" in its original short story form was first published in a one-shot literary fiction anthology.
I've sold eight pieces of fiction, and all of them were to anthologies. One of them paid $327.00.
Here's my current list, forgive the formatting, just cut and pasted it from Duotrope.com
3 AM Magazine TEMP CLOSED Update
751 Magazine Update
A cappella Zoo TEMP CLOSED Update
AGNI Update
Alaska Quarterly Review Update
Albedo One Update
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine Update
alice blue Update
Analog Science Fiction & Fact Update
anderbo.com Update
Annalemma Update
Another Chicago Magazine TEMP CLOSED Update
Apex Book Company TEMP CLOSED Update
Apex Magazine Update
Apodis Publishing TEMP CLOSED Update
Aqueous Books Update
Arcane TEMP CLOSED Update
Artifice Magazine TEMP CLOSED Update
Atlantic, The Update
Atticus Review Update
Aurealis TEMP CLOSED Update
Avery Anthology TEMP CLOSED Update
Barrelhouse TEMP CLOSED Update
Bat City Review Update
Beat to a Pulp TEMP CLOSED Update
Beneath Ceaseless Skies Update
Berkeley Fiction Review TEMP CLOSED Update
Big Lucks Update
Birkensnake Update
Black Clock TEMP CLOSED Update
Black Heart Magazine Update
Black Lawrence Press Update
Black Static Update
Black Warrior Review Update
Blackbird TEMP CLOSED Update
Blink-Ink Update
Blue Earth Review Update
Blue Mesa Review Update
BOMB Magazine (First Proof Literary Supplement) TEMP CLOSED Update
Borderlands 6 Update
Boulevard Magazine Update
Bourbon Penn Update
BULL SPEC Update
Caketrain Update
Camera Obscura Update
Candlemark & Gleam Update
Cannoli Pie Update
Canteen Update
Capilano Review, The Update
Cavalier Literary Couture Update
Cemetery Dance TEMP CLOSED Update
Chicago Review Update
Chiron Review TEMP CLOSED Update
ChiZine (Chiaroscuro) TEMP CLOSED Update
ChiZine Publications Update
Cimarron Review Update
Cincinnati Review, The Update
Citron Review, The Update
Clarkesworld Magazine Update
Coachella Review, The Update
Coffee House Press Update
Collagist, The Update
Colorado Review Update
Comet Press TEMP CLOSED Update
Conjunctions Update
Contrary Update
Copper Nickel TEMP CLOSED Update
Crazyhorse Update
Cream City Review Update
Crimefactory TEMP CLOSED Update
Crimewave Update
Criminal Element Update
Curbside Splendor chicago Update
Dark Discoveries TEMP CLOSED Update
Dark Faith 2 Anthology TEMP CLOSED Update
Dark Horizons TEMP CLOSED Update
Dark Sky Magazine Update
decomP Update
Descant (Canada) Update
DIAGRAM Update
Dirty Noir Update
DOGZPLOT Update
Drollerie Press CLOSED TEMP CLOSED Update
Dzanc Books Update
EDGE Update
Electric Literature Update
Electric Velocipede TEMP CLOSED Update
Eleven Eleven Update
elimae Update
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Update
Emerson Review, The Update
Emprise Review Update
Etchings Update
Existere - Journal of Arts and Literature TEMP CLOSED Update
F Magazine TEMP CLOSED Update
Fairy Tale Review TEMP CLOSED Update
Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF) Update
Fantasy Magazine TEMP CLOSED Update
Featherproof Books TEMP CLOSED Update
Fence TEMP CLOSED Update
Fiction International Update
Fifth Wednesday Journal Update
Flambard Press TEMP CLOSED Update
Flying Pen Press TEMP CLOSED Update
Flywheel Magazine Update
Freight Stories Update
FRiGG Update
Fringe TEMP CLOSED Update
Frogmore Papers Update
Fugue Update
Fugue State Press Update
Full of Crow Quarterly Fiction Update
Gargoyle TEMP CLOSED Update
Gettysburg Review Update
Going Down Swinging TEMP CLOSED Update
Granta Update
Grave Tales TEMP CLOSED Update
Graywolf Press TEMP CLOSED Update
Greensboro Review, The Update
Grift Magazine Update
Grist: The Journal for Writers Update
GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator TEMP CLOSED Update
Harpur Palate Update
Hayden's Ferry Review Update
Heavy Feather Review Update
Hobart (Print) TEMP CLOSED Update
Hobart (Web) Update
Horror Zine, The TEMP CLOSED Update
Hotel St. George Press Update
Hyperpulp magical realism Update
Ideomancer Update
Ig Publishing Update
Ilura Press TEMP CLOSED Update
Indiana Review Update
Interfictions TEMP CLOSED Update
Interzone Update
Jabberwocky Update
JMWW Update
Juked (Print) TEMP CLOSED Update
Juked (Web) Update
Kenyon Review Update
Keyhole Magazine Update
kill author Update
KNOCK Update
Lake Effect Update
L'Allure des Mots Update
Leodegraunce Update
Lightspeed Update
LIT Update
Literary Fever Update
Literary Review, The Update
LITRO: Stories Transport You Update
Lowestoft Chronicle Update
MacAdam/Cage Publishing TEMP CLOSED Update
MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine Update
Manic D Press Update
McSweeney’s Books TEMP CLOSED Update
McSweeney's Internet Tendency Update
McSweeney's Quarterly Update
Meanjin TEMP CLOSED Update
Medallion Press Update
Memorious Update
Metazen Update
Mid-American Review Update
Midnight Echo TEMP CLOSED Update
Midwestern Gothic Update
Missouri Review Update
Mixer Publishing Update
Molotov Cocktail, The Update
Monkeybicycle Update
Moon Milk Review Update
Morrígan Books TEMP CLOSED Update
Moulin Review Update
Mundania Press TEMP CLOSED Update
Murky Depths CLOSED TEMP CLOSED Update
Natural Bridge Update
Needle: A Magazine of Noir Update
Nefarious Muse Update
Neon Update
Nerve.com Update
Nervous Breakdown, The Update
New England Review Update
New Genre TEMP CLOSED Update
New Horizons Update
New Ohio Review (NOR) Update
New Orleans Review TEMP CLOSED Update
New York Tyrant TEMP CLOSED Update
New Yorker, The Update
Night Land, The Update
Night Shade Books TEMP CLOSED Update
Night Train TEMP CLOSED Update
Ninth Letter Update
NO COLONY TEMP CLOSED Update
NOÖ Journal (NOO) TEMP CLOSED Update
Noon Annual Update
Normal School, The Update
Not One of Us Update
Notes from the Underground Update
Notre Dame Review Update
Offense Mechanisms Update
Omnidawn: Fabulist & New Wave Fabulist Fiction TEMP CLOSED Update
On Spec TEMP CLOSED Update
Once Was Blip TEMP CLOSED formerly Mississippi Review Update
One Buck Horror Update
One Story Update
Opium Magazine Update
Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show Update
Otherworld Publications Update
Out of the Gutter Magazine TEMP CLOSED Update
Outsider Writers Collective Update
PANK Magazine Update
Paris Review Update
Pear Noir! Update
Pedestal Magazine, The Update
Permanent Press Publishing Company, The Update
Permuted Press TEMP CLOSED Update
Phoebe Update
Pill Hill Press TEMP CLOSED Update
Pinch, The Update
Pleiades Update
PLOTS WITH GUNS Update
Ploughshares Update
Poisoned Pen Press Update
Portland Review, The Update
Post Road Magazine TEMP CLOSED Update
Prime Books TEMP CLOSED Update
Pseudopod Update
Quick Fiction TEMP CLOSED Update
Raleigh Review Update
Red Hen Press TEMP CLOSED Update
Redivider Update
Reprint, The Update
Revolution House Update
River Styx Update
Rotten Leaves Magazine Update
Salamander Update
Salt Hill Update
Scintilla Update
Sententia: The Journal TEMP CLOSED Update
Severed Press Update
ShadowCast Audio Anthology, The TEMP CLOSED Update
Shadows & Tall Trees TEMP CLOSED Update
Sheepshead Review Update
Shimmer Update
Shock Totem Update
Short, Fast, and Deadly Update
Shotgun Honey Update
Shroud Magazine TEMP CLOSED Update
Shroud Publishing TEMP CLOSED Update
Sideshow Fables TEMP CLOSED Update
Sleepingfish TEMP CLOSED Update
Slice Magazine TEMP CLOSED Update
Small Beer Press Kelly Link, Jedediah Berry Update
Smokelong Quarterly Update
Snowbooks Update
Soho Press Update
Southeast Review, The Update
Southern Review, The Update
Spinetingler TEMP CLOSED Update
Star Mill Review, The Update
Steampunk Tales TEMP CLOSED Update
StepAway Magazine Update
Storyglossia TEMP CLOSED Update
Strange Horizons Update
Stymie Magazine Update
subTerrain Magazine Update
Subtropics Update
Summerset Review, The Update
Sun Magazine, The Update
Super Arrow Update
Swink Update
Tarpaulin Sky Literary Journal TEMP CLOSED Update
Theaker's Quarterly Fiction Update
Third Coast Update
Threepenny Review TEMP CLOSED Update
Thunderdome: The Writer's Collective Update
Tin House Update
Titular Update
Tor.com Update
Torquere Press Update
Troubadour 21 Update
Twelve Stories TEMP CLOSED Update
Twist of Noir, A Update
Two Dollar Radio TEMP CLOSED Update
Unstuck TEMP CLOSED new, very cool, lindsay hunter Update
Vain Magazine Update
Versal TEMP CLOSED Update
Vestal Review Update
Virginia Quarterly Review TEMP CLOSED Update
Weave Magazine Update
Weird Tales TEMP CLOSED Update
Whitewash Dreams Update
Wild Child Publishing.com TEMP CLOSED Update
Willow Springs Update
Withersin Magazine TEMP CLOSED Update
Witness Update
Wrong Tree Review, The TEMP CLOSED Update
Yalobusha Review Update
Zoetrope: All-Story TEMP CLOSED Update
Zone 3 Update
ZOUCH Magazine & Miscellany Update
Zumaya Publications TEMP CLOSED Update
I'm pretty confused why most of the markets people are listing are print journals since "Ezine" is in the title of the thread, but ok...
I worked as an unpaid assistant editor for Weird Tales for a little while before Ann Vandermeer was its editor.
Probably my favorite Ezine is The Dream People, which publishes surreal and absurd stuff of a slightly experimental nature and pays contributors the cost of a martini.
i didn't want to limit my response to online places, bradley. and i also didn't have the time to separate out my long list there either. both print and online have their benefits.
I like Black Clock a lot, and Steve Erickson its Editor-in-Chief (who is one of my favorite authors). And it's probably the only journal that's associated with a school that I like (I think Pank is associated with a college as well and I've heard good things and enjoyed a few stories that they published that were read by their authors during live readings, but I've never actually read an issue).
But it seems like Black Clock might only have an open submissions period of two weeks per year (I submitted this year and am waiting for a response). Or maybe they have other two week open submissions periods that I'm unfamiliar with.
I just checked and Black Clock's website says it pays contributors "a token stipend when the magazine can afford it." Perhaps the pay rate is a sliding scale considering some of the contributors are big names. And Pank doesn't mention anything about payment, so I assume they don't. But I don't really care about these things since both journals have a wide readership and just as long they hook me up with a contributor copy if they publish my work. As far as publications with small readerships that don't pay, I would be hesitant to submit my work unless it was something that I had spent little time on.
BC is amazing. Erickson is great. I think, like many places that are attached to universities, they are closed part of the time, usually the summer. Sometimes more often.
Sure, it's great to get paid, but even if you get .05 a word x 3000 word story, that's only $150. It's great to get some exposure, and if you're not published, exposure is more important IMO than pay. Getting your work out there, building an audience, getting some recognition, that all matters too. Especially when the top markets are all under 1% acceptance rate. That means you have to be THE BEST story out of ONE HUNDRED submissions. How insane is that? So, online, print, send your work to places that you really dig. Of course, aim high, hit up TNY, TPR, Harper's, whatever turns you on. But it's rough when you send a story to 40 places, all with a 1% acceptance rate, and get rejected by all of the, to not start doubting your talent.
Novels, anthologies, ebooks, there are lots of ways to get your work out there in addition to online and print journals. Just start reading, hanging out, seeing what's cool, and send your work. That's how I've met so many awesome people, such as Bradley here.