The Great Dream Market Submission Project

Okay, I was doing my morning pages this morning and realized that I am a research writer: not a writer that does research or writes up research, but a test-to-fail writer.  A crash-test-dummy writer. I quit writing a short story a week so I could focus on novels, but now I feel deprived.  Wherrrrre are my short stories?  Obviously I need another project for writing short stories, one that isn’t quite as heavy (so I can still focus on novels), but where I can play with new ideas more often. Here’s what I’m noodling around:

  • Pick my top markets that I want to break into (aside from Apex, because I’m still getting a lot from slushing).
  • Make sure I always have a short story in those markets.

However, because Clarkesworld and Lightspeed are on my list (and that would be 2+ stories they could go through each month), I’m going to have to say that if I submit something to each of them per month, I’m good.

Here’s my list (very, very personally chosen; shooting for somewhere between 10 and 15 markets):

  • Asimov’s (sf, 39 day avg. return, up to 25K, but 7500 or less seems preferred)
  • Beneath Ceaseless Skies (fantasy, 31 days avg. return, secondary-world setting, under 10K)
  • Black Static (horror, 50 days avg return, up to 10K)
  • Clarkesworld (fantasy/sf/horror, 4 days avg return plus 1 week waiting before next sub, preferred length 4K)
  • Daily Science Fiction (fantasy/sf, 18 days avg return, up to 10K but 1K or less preferred)
  • Fantasy and Science Fiction (fantasy/sf, 13  day avg. return, up to 25K)
  • Interzone (fantasy/sf, 54 days avg return, up to 10K)
  • Lightspeed (fantasy/sf, 2 day avg return plus 1 week waiting, 5K or less preferred)
  • Nightmare (horror, 1 day avg return plus 1 week waiting, 5K or less preferred)
  • Weird Tales (weird tales, 100 days avg return, up to 5K)

For example, right now I have stories at:

  • Black Static
  • Interzone
  • Lightspeed
  • Clarkesworld

And a lot of the stories that work for one market will work for others.

But now I get to go, “Asimov’s.  I need to write a 3-6K story, SF.”  I like constraints like that.  Not too lose; not too tight.  I’m going to shoot for about a short story every other week, until I get caught up.

 

2 thoughts on “The Great Dream Market Submission Project”

  1. Nice list. I have a spreadsheet with my favourite markets and when I last submitted to them or if I have something out with them at the moment and it’s woefully empty.

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