Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me
Got Great Escape back from Asimov’s. Rejected, alas. But not unexpected. Asimov’s takes more chances with new material than either Analog or F&SF. GE is not only different but long. Hey, I brought it in at 15,000 words plus change. A work that short is a major accomplishment for me.
But it does leave me wondering WTF to do: I have two in rewrite. One at 19,000, the other hovering at the 17,000 word mark. When I’m finished, what market will take them? Yet I’m becoming highly impatient with the “short” stories I’m reviewing. The short length feels like its working against content: you have to be so selective in what you say in 6,000 words that most authors seem to have given up and settled for saying nothing at all.
June 27th, 2004 at 8:11 pm
Alan,
Sounds like you’re writing novellas, or inching into them. Why not go whole hog and pursue the novella market? I’m no expert, but although I imagine it’s smaller, I also imagine there are a smaller number of entrants. Just a thought.
Also - why not self-publish here while you send things out? Or would that be simultaneous submissions?
June 29th, 2004 at 6:44 pm
Oops! This whine was supposed to be buried on a back page.
Asimov’s will take novella length about 6 times per year, as will F&SF. Most of the other print markets don’t take stories longer than about 8,000 words.
Bit of a sticky wicket over proper placement. The story is steampunk, which has never had quite the same acceptance as alternative history, to my surprise. If any of the readers here know of a good outlets of steampunk, I’m all ears. The online zines are less concerned with length, especially the flat fee ones, and often more flexible in content and I might try it there.
I’ve been encouraged to try the novella market as a general strategy. The number of print stories bought each year ia lower, but so is the competition overall. Asimov’s, for example, will publish about seven short stories per month out of about 700 submitted manuscripts. For novellas, they’ll publish one every two months out of about 200 submitted manuscripts. The competition is tougher: more of those movellas will be written by established authors. But if I break into the novella category, it makes quite the splash.
Do I hink this is one of the top three or four novellas written this year? Of course. (Toungue firmly in cheek.) It’s a length I happen to be working at right now as I try to head two directions at once: shorter forms, because I seriously need a grip on my narrative abilities; and novel length, because that’s really where my heart lies. I love writing short stories–or, in honesty, trying to–but I love novel length more.
If I publish here–or anywhere on the web for that matter, including newsgroups–the story would be considered a reprint. I’m toying with the idea: publish here, or through one of the ebook publishers, for free. If I have enough of a response, talk to the folks at Small Beer Press about doing a chap book collection of the three novellas. The stories don’t playwell together thematically but I suppose fitting them together is why they pay me the big bucks.
I agree with Cory Doctorow: selling short stories for a nickle a word (and that’s among the highest paying markets) is a form of vanity press. You can’t make a living at it. I would consider myself lucky to get $100 for this story after spending nearly that much in postage to send it around. If writing is really about getting words in front of the reader, why not put it up here, or for free download at one of the ebook sites?
I certainly welcome any ideas you or any of the other readers might have on self-publishing on the web. Blog entires age so quickly, I’ll start a forum on free distribution of stories.
Now for any of you thinking to head into the wild Novella Territories, a word about economics: e-mail sub. This sucker costs $4 a copy to mail. Given that one writer friend figures he has to send out a story about 50 times before it sells, this qualifies as a Quixotic endeavor.
Thanks for your thoughts and consideration.
Best regards,
Alan
June 29th, 2004 at 8:55 pm
It occurred to me on the way to pick up the kids from day care that where I might have certain reservations about publishing my own fiction on this website (a bit incestuous) I have many fewer objections about publishing other people’s fiction here. I take as my example Electric Velocipede, a labor of love that is well on its way to becoming a paying market.
I have no formal policy as yet. Thoughts and reflections are appreciated.
Best regards,
Alan