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Flash Fiction Market Reviews
Short
Fiction World (Article
by John Young young.john.p@gmail.com) Editor: Chad Plunk Home:
http://www.shortfictionworld.com Submissions: Click Here RUNDOWN: I love science fiction, fantasy, and other “genre” fiction, but such fiction
is often not considered “literary.” We want works that are both: deeply engaging, emotional transformation stories
that just happen to include, for example, a swordsman or a vampire. We’ll publish more standard literary fare as well.
We’re aiming for publication on the 15th of each month. ESSENTIALS: All
of our submissions guidelines can be found on our website: Submissions We
only accept email submissions at this time. We’re new, so I can’t really comment on our response time, or for
that matter our readership, just yet. We have no problem with simultaneous submissions. We try our best to read submissions
quickly, and we do try to comment on stories in which something caught our eye even though we chose not to publish. We’ll
send a form letter for most submissions, though, just because time is an issue. PET PEEVE: Writers
who use the submissions process as their revision process. We receive so many stories that appear to have been written in
about an hour and then immediately submitted. The volume of these submissions is what prevents us from being able to comment
on all submissions, and also takes up our time so that we can’t work with authors who we might think have potential. SLUSH-INATOR: I’ll
go with a killer first sentence. Short stories, particularly flash fiction stories, are by definition short. Your first sentence
has to grab me and MAKE ME want to read your story. Everything starts with that first sentence. Off the top of my head, I’ll
offer up the first sentence of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea as an example. You read it, and you’re already
in the story. You can gather more from that sentence than from three or four descriptive paragraphs in a badly written tale.
One sentence and you know who the story is about, the conflict that will take place, and you have some empathy for the main
character. Notice
I haven’t written the sentence here. Doing a little research is never a bad thing for an aspiring author. When you sneak
a peak at that book at the bookstore, grab a few other books by other authors and just read the first sentences. See if you
can get a feel for how some of your favorite authors started their stories. NITTY GRITTY: We
pay the astonishingly high fee of $1 per story. You can pretty much retire after we publish one of your works. We
would like to pay more, and might in the future, but for now our $1 token payment is about all we can afford. If we really
like your work, we might publish an interview with you or maybe devote an issue to a few more of your stories. We have to
be creative since we can’t yet afford to pay much. The only right we ask is first publication rights on your story,
as well as the right to keep a copy of your story posted in our archives after the issue in which it appeared has been published.
SPECIAL MESSAGE from the editor: We
hope to be a site that authors can turn to when they have a work that doesn’t fit into the parameters that literary
magazines will accept, but feels to the author to be worthy of more than being labeled simply “genre” fiction.
We are first and foremost a site dedicated to publishing quality stories, but we don’t automatically assume a story
is not “literary” just because it also fits into a certain genre. We’re new and that very newness provides
authors and readers with a chance to be part of our growth process. I think that’s pretty exciting, and hopefully your
readers agree. (Article by John Young young.john.p@gmail.com) Editor: Susan Taylor Home: http://www.othebs.com Submissions: http://othebs.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2&Itemid=26 Gregg Winkler and I began this little venture of
ours after an innocent email from Gregg asking if I knew of any markets where he could submit *humor.* Unfortunately, there
aren't many to choose from, and we do like to be paid. I, for one, do not like
to submit to for-the-love markets. I mean, c'mon, how many people do you know who like to mop floors or write computer programs
just for exposure? ESSENTIALS: Please read the submission guidelines. Thoroughly.
Then read them again. We are looking for both fiction and non-fiction short stories and essays. And they MUST be funny. I
cannot stress this enough. We prefer e-mail submissions. We also want pieces between 50 - 2000 words. We're firm on this so
please don't ask us to reconsider. We're not considering poetry at the moment, so please do not send any unsolicited poetry.
We may change our minds later, who knows? If the story isn't exactly what we're looking for,
we'll send you a personal rejection as to why we rejected it. If the author
shows an amazing amount of promise, we will ask him/her to resubmit. Since we've received many submissions, please don't look
for a critique. Because we have jobs, families, and other things that keep us busy, we really don't have time to pick your story apart. Thank you so much for respecting
this. We do accept both multiple (no more than 5) and simultaneous submissions. We just ask that if your story is sold elsewhere
that we're the first people you're going to fire off an email to, even before emailing your parents. They'll be proud of you
and they'll never know you e-mailed us first. PET PEEVE: Read the guidelines. They're very simple and straight-forward.
If you cannot do this, then we beg you not to submit. Another thing that irks is if you end your cover letter "kthanxbai."
We will not be impressed. When writing the cover letter, please use the same common sense approach as you would when applying
for any other job. If you want to be a respected writer, then act like one. Also, if you're rejected, please don't write back
and use yellingly big letters. We don't have time to argue the merit of your story or essay.
SLUSH-INATOR: If your story or essay is funny, we can help make
it publication-worthy. If it's not funny, don't expect us to add The Funny for you. That's your job. NITTY-GRITTY: We do pay you! Can you believe it? Since it's a semi-pro
to pro- paying market, the competition is fierce. Send us your best work. For any original short story or essay, we pay $.03-.05
per word. We do accept reprints, but we only pay between $.01-.03 per word. Please tell us if it is a reprint or an original.
This is very VERY important. We use a standard contract for you to sign, and we will not publish your work unless we have
the contract in our grubby mitts. We ask for First World Wide Electronic Rights. Later if we decide to put together an anthology
of best essays/short stories, we'll negotiate another contract. O'Brien's
Literary Speculator (Article
by John Young young.john.p@gmail.com) Editor,
Jerry O’Brien Home:
http://www.obriensliteraryspeculator.org/index.php Submissions:
http://www.obriensliteraryspeculator.org/submissions.php RUNDOWN: We
publish writing that is intelligent and answers a question, such as when should intimates ignore one another? Tara Lazar answered
that question in The Stranger. Why does O’Brien’s Literay Speculator
exist? It is difficult to get published. I speculated that is because publishers publish writers. Our answer: a writer should
publish writers. We promote new, unpublished, lesser-known writers, publishing in March, July, and November. ESSENTIALS: All
of our submissions guide lines are on our blog. They are also on the first page of our website, www.obriensliteraryspeculator.com, and they are included in the journal itself. PET PEEVE: Writers
clubs that admit people who are not writers or even trying to be writers. They interfere with the rest of us benefiting from
getting together. I have no problem with a stor teller who knows only twelve letters and uses a crayon, but people who complain
that the newsletter is using up all the ink on their printer, or that they shouldn't be disturbed with emails about members
selling books, etc., that bugs me. SLUSH-INATOR: A
killer first sentence. If you hook me in the first ten words or so, you pretty much have me. A character I can't forget. I
don't have to love, fear, respect or hate the character, but evoking feelings along those lines helps. Setting.
If your character falls into a dumpster, he is going to smell bad, look bad, and act out of the ordinary for a while. I have
five senses involve them all. Action.
I like a movie more than stills, but even eye movement or a tremor in the lips may work. Make the characters move. Great
dialog. Your characters are unlikely to always speak in complete sentences. They won't let the other characters have long
monologues. They will use contractions, and they will do things while they are talking . The first, second and last are most
important to me. NITTY GRITTY: We
pay a $25.00 honorarium. We get the right to publish once in the journal. If we anthologize, we pay a second honorarium but
the writer agrees to let us. We would like the author not to publish the story or poem again for a year, but if they get a
great offer which would be a career boost I'm not going to prevent them from accepting it. Writers get a free PDF of the magazine,
one year subscription, and, if we do a limited run, one copy of the paper edition. We did a limited run on the first issue,
full color, hand bound, Japanese box stitch. They cost $12.00 per copy to make. However, they do look good. SPECIAL MESSAGE from the editor: We
are really interested in writers who are under-published. Send your best stuff, Read, and reread what you have written. Read
it out loud. Have a friend read it out loud. Don't leave out words. Make sure that what you have written is what you wanted
to say. My fiction is written, rewritten, rewritten and rewritten, until the characters are as real to me as I am to them.
When one of them tells me stop rewriting, I do. Then I send it to my editor, and we work it some more. If
we ever make any money, all profits from the magazine will go to scholarships for writing conferences. The first will be the
Santa Barbara Writer's Conference because it is so good and such a great opportunity to meet other writers. (Article
by John Young young.john.p@gmail.com) Matthew
Carey, Editor Home:
http://www.labyrinthinhabitant.com/index.html Submissions:
http://www.labyrinthinhabitant.com/submissions.html RUNDOWN: Labyrinth
Inhabitant Magazine (LabInhab) exists to support a fascinating but underused subgenre of speculative fiction, "stories about
life in giant artificial structures created by forces beyond human comprehension.” It's organized quarterly, but in
reality I post stories as I get them, so the divisions between issues are mostly theoretical. ESSENTIALS:
Email
subs only. Word count: anything up to about 15,000 words. My posted response time is a month, but I'm usually faster. Labyrinth
stories can be science fiction, fantasy or horror. LabInhab is intended to serve both audiences: nerds and geeks. Offensive
content is OK, but obviously it won't sell me on a story. I comment on about
half of rejected stories, usually because I feel the author could produce material appropriate for the site and I want to
encourage them to submit again. Multiple, simultaneous, and reprint subs are all OK. PET PEEVE: That
would be when somebody sends me a story that was never intended for LabInhab. Like, the story might be about a kid who buys
a puppy. And the email will always start with a preface where the author tries to justify it like, "I submit to you that a
puppy can be a labyrinth. I would suggest that if you owned this puppy, you would inhabit a labyrinth of emotion." A labyrinth
doesn't have to be a maze in Greece, but it does have to a mysterious artificial environment. SLUSH-INATOR: Really,
everybody who submits is out of the slush pile because I'm the only reader and I read everything carefully (especially at
flash length!). I like it when writers treat their extraordinary settings as real, and imagine the many issues and experiences
that characters might have to deal with when living there (as opposed to just one big-picture issue that occupies the characters
to the exclusion of all else). Lush detail in setting is good; blank walls and empty hallways are a problem. I like surprises;
I like characters who seek out or find happiness in circumstances we'd find completely weird. NITTY
GRITTY: Labyrinth
Inhabitant offers $10 US via PayPal for accepted short stories (over 1,500 words) and $5 for poetry, articles and short-shorts.
In exchange, I'd like the nonexclusive right to publish and archive your work on the Labyrinth Inhabitant website, and also
the nonexclusive right to include your work in a print or web-based Labyrinth Inhabitant anthology. Reprints and simultaneous
submissions are acceptable. Accepted works will be displayed freely on the site along with any author bio and links you submit,
not locked behind a paywall. SPECIAL
MESSAGE from the editor: The
big theme for the first issue is shaping up to be "existential questioning". That's no surprise: most labyrinth stories have
heroes who wonder what meaningful choices, if any, they have in their environment. A good guideline for punching up your labyrinth
story is "add another existential problem!" But also I'd love some labyrinth stories with ecological themes (i.e. about maintaining
the ecology of an artificial environment). I'd really like at least one more story, including one at flash length, within
the next couple of weeks to round out the first issue. I just went through my inbox and found nothing, so the field is wide
open. (Article by John Young young.john.p@Gmail.com) 1097
Magazine (Article by John Young young.john.p@gmail.com ) Ian
Rose, Editor Home:
http://www.1097mag.com/ Submissions:
http://www.1097mag.com/submit.html RUNDOWN:
We
started 1097 Magazine as a way of presenting both literature and art that we found interesting. There are a ton of great small lit mags out there right now, but we wanted to do something a little different,
particularly in terms of a balance between print and web editions. For a lot
of magazines that do both, the online version is a sort of "runner up" to the print edition.
At 1097, the two editions are different, but we don't want either to be stronger or weaker than the other. ESSENTIALS: I won't go through our submission guidelines word-for-word, since those are available
on our site, but I can tell you, as any editor in the world will, that not reading the guidelines is a sure-fire way to get
rejected. We get so many submissions that those not conforming to the simple
rules we set down have an immediate strike against them. For convenience as well
as paper conservation reasons, we only accept electronic submissions, and we currently accept simultaneous submissions, though
that policy is going to be reviewed in the next few months. We try to comment
on as many submissions as we can, but for simple reasons of time constraints, we send a form rejection letter for most pieces
we don't choose to accept. PET PEEVE: Nothing
new here, but spelling and grammar mistakes are my personal deal-breaker. What
especially turns me off is when a word is present in a story or poem that is obviously there because an electronic spell-checker
decided that it was a valid word, while a live human would catch it immediately. A
recent example was the word "meant" substituted for "meat" twice in a story. If
a writer doesn't take the time to read the story carefully, why should we? SLUSHINATOR: There is no specific quality that guarantees your way out of the slush pile. A good submission starts with full adherence to the guidelines as stated on the website, but obviously,
it's the quality of the content itself that will separate you from the herd. For
flash fiction, one of the main cut-offs for us is whether we believe that the story is well-suited to the format. Far too many authors try to write a 6000-word plot in 800 words.
Flash fiction is perfect for capturing a moment, and we love good flash fiction, but if the story needs 6000 words
to be told right, send it to us in 6000 words. NITTY
GRITTY: We
believe strongly that artists deserve to be paid for their work. Though we would
love to be able to pay more for that work, even an honorarium is meaningful. We
also believe that no artist should have to pay to see their own work in print. For
these reasons, we offer an honorarium ($5 per poem or flash piece, $10 per short story or visual art piece) plus a 1-year
subscription to our print edition for every contributor. There are no reading
fees or anything else of the sort. You are providing the content, and you deserve
to be paid for it. We sincerely hope to raise these honoraria every few months. SPECIAL MESSAGE from the Editor: We
are extremely excited about our launch in October. The first web edition will
be online on October 1st, and our print edition goes out in mid-October. We look
forward to adding more flash fiction to our pages in the future. For first-time
writers, we think that we are an excellent first market. We don't read bios until
after the review process, so we don't care whether you're a best-selling novelist or a student. If your work holds up, we're thrilled to help introduce you to the world. Mouth Full of Bullets (Article by John Young young.john.p@gmail.com) BJ Bourg, Owner Home: http://www.mouthfullofbullets.com/ Submissions: http://www.mouthfullofbullets.com/submissions_guidelines.htm RUNDOWN: First, I wanted to offer readers the opportunity
to savor some outstanding crime stories and poems by some of the best new and veteran voices in the business. Second, in this
seemingly dwindling market, I wanted to offer mystery writers another venue for getting their work published. I publish four issues per year. ESSENTIALS: Mouth Full of Bullets has grown a bit since
its inception. As with most things, where there’s growth, there’s bound to be some changes. The biggest change
is in response time. While I still get back to authors within a few days on some occasions (depending on where I stand with
submissions), a more realistic response time is now three to five weeks. I also no longer have time to reformat stories that
don’t conform to MFOB’s guidelines. In the beginning, I would make the changes myself -- even if it meant going
line-by-line deleting empty space or getting rid of paragraph indentions. It was a very time-consuming process, especially
when I’d have several stories to reformat in a single issue. While I won’t reject stories that don’t
conform to my guidelines, I will ask writers -- in the more extreme cases -- to reformat their work before I’ll consider
it. I wish I still had time to do it myself, but my life is too demanding at the moment. As for some of the other essentials: word
count is from 500 to 3000, I only accept email submissions, I rarely comment on rejected stories, there are no special themes
at this time, I prefer not to consider simultaneous or multiple submissions, and I won’t consider stories that include
gratuitous sex, violence or profanity. The two biggest don’ts: don’t
indent for paragraphs (skip a line instead) and don’t paste the story in the body of an email (send as a Word or RTF
document). PET PEEVE: I’m pretty laid back and don’t have
many -- if any -- pet peeves, but I did receive a submission once that annoyed me. The attachment came over with the subject
line, “Short Story”. Upon opening it, I found thirteen pages of Bible verses. I was not impressed. I’ve also received other stories and poems
that had nothing to do with crime in any way. It was clear that these writers either never heard, or simply ignored, one of
the basics of writing: Know your market. SLUSH-INATOR: I like reading stories that are realistic.
I want believable characters who speak and act naturally, realistic situations that bleed conflict, and surprise endings that
are feasible but unexpected. An example of the kind of endings I love is the movie “Seven”. (Warning: movie spoiler)
When Brad Pitt’s wife’s head was delivered to him in a box while he had the defenseless serial killer at gunpoint,
I was surprised that he actually murdered the killer. Now, I would have done the same thing, but I expected the typical “good
guy” ending: The detective is about to kill the defenseless bad
guy, but can’t bring himself to do so. The detective turns his back on the suspect to grieve his wife’s passing.
The suspect escapes from his handcuffs, picks up a large rock, and is about to strike the detective on the back of the head.
The detective turns and shoots the suspect in self-defense. Sure, the end result is the same in that the bad
guy dies, but it’s not as satisfying to me. Had it played out the typical way, it would have been a forgettable ending.
Instead, it was an ending that has stayed with me for all these years. Thinking back, I can’t remember a movie scene
that was more powerful than that one. Another movie ending I really liked was “The Usual Suspects.” If authors can write endings like these movies,
their stories have a good shot at being accepted. They can also read the stories that have already been accepted to get a
flavor for what I like. In addition, my favorite short story author
is John M. Floyd. Writers should read his work, study it, and learn from it. If I receive a story half as good as John's,
it's as good as accepted. NITTY GRITTY: I’m a firm believer in money flowing *to*
the writer. I’m not rich by anyone’s imagination and I can only offer nominal rates, but I’m committed to
paying writers for their work. I pay $10.00 for short stories (1,001 to 3,000 words), $3.00 for flash stories (up to 1,000
words), and $2.00 for poems. I purchase first-time electronic rights with three months exclusivity. After that three-month
period, all rights revert back to the author. I welcome reprints, but I’m not able to pay for them at this time. SPECIAL MESSAGE from
the editor: My Editor-in-Chief is Jack Hardway. He and
I have been talking about a “Best of…” issue that is planned for September 2007. We haven’t selected
the stories yet, but will soon begin the process. This “Best of…” issue will be in addition to the regularly
scheduled Fall 2007 Issue. I have some other thoughts regarding what to do with the best stories of the first year, but I
have to remain tight-lipped until I’ve heard back from a few people. Also, after corresponding with Jack, I’ve
begun thinking about soliciting additional flash stories based on various themes. Although it’s too late to consider
a theme for the Summer 2007 Issue, we might be able to make the announcement in time for Fall 2007. In closing, I’d like to thank you very much
for this opportunity. It’s been a real pleasure doing this interview. (Article by John Young young.john.p@gmail.com) Editor, Karen A. Romanko Home: http://ravenelectrick.com Submissions: http://ravenelectrick.com/sportyspecgls.html RUNDOWN: _Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic_ is a planned
paperback anthology of flash fiction and poetry about sports and games with a speculative twist. Karen A Romanko has been
publishing e-zine Raven Electrick for over seven years and decided it was time to “venture out of the ether and into
print publishing.” Raven's focus is on speculative flash fiction and poetry, so she wants to continue that tradition,
while choosing a fun and fertile theme that attracts readers outside the speculative genres. Sports and games seem ideal.
ESSENTIALS: For _Sporty Spec_, the stories must have two elements:
a sports/games theme and a speculative component. The sports and games may be of this world, such as basketball, chess, tennis,
poker, etc., or of the author's imagination, but the stories and poems must have an element of science fiction, fantasy, or
supernatural horror. Complete guidelines for the specific format requirements
and other essentials are here: http://www.ravenelectrick.com/sportyspecgls.html Romanko said, “At the moment, response times
are very quick, less than a week. They'll probably lengthen as the slush pile grows, but I'm usually within the 30-day area.
I've been using more form rejections recently to speed up response times, so I only occasionally comment on rejected stories.”
PET PEEVE: “My pet peeve is Gore--not Al, but the gruesome
stuff. In the guidelines, I specifically warn against sending gore, and mention areas to avoid such as cannibalism and ‘dead
babies,’ but there are those authors who seem to think that THEIR dead baby story will somehow charm me. Fair warning--if
it turns my stomach (and it turns pretty easily), I'll stop reading and send a rejection. SLUSH-INATOR: Romanko said, “I'm one of those editors who
likes to see the ‘fiction’ in flash fiction. It's not that I don't enjoy beautiful writing, but even in the shortest
flash, I like to see a STORY--that something has happened, something has changed by the end of the story. My favorite stories
contain both lovely writing and good storytelling--not an easy thing to accomplish, but some writers manage to pull it off.
NITTY GRITTY: Payment rates are 2 cents per word for new fiction,
1 cent per word for fiction reprints, $5 for new poetry, and $3 for poetry reprints. Authors will also receive one contributor's
copy of the perfect bound paperback anthology. Romanko requests first world anthology rights for new works and non-exclusive
world anthology rights for reprints. SPECIAL MESSAGE from
the editor: “It's a good idea for writers to check my
blog, where I post updates on my progress through the slush pile and inside tips on what I'm looking for, themes that have
been exhausted, etc. For example, the tip I posted recently was: ‘Although it's still quite early, I'm noticing
a lot of science fiction in the slush pile. This isn't to say you shouldn't send science fiction, but merely to point out
that fantasy and supernatural horror are wide open (but with a sports or games theme, of course). I'd also like to see some
female protagonists. Women play sports too--just sayin'. You'll really catch my eye by inventing a sport or game with female
players in a fantasy setting.’ “By the time this interview is printed, that
tip may have expired, but I'll probably have posted a few more in the interim.” Romanko’s blog is found here: http://ravenelectrick.livejournal.com FARthing (Article by John Young young.john.p@gmail.com) Wendy Bradley, editor Home: http://www.farthingmagazine.com/ Submissions: http://www.farthingmagazine.com/submissions.php RUNDOWN: Farthing exists because the editor couldn't
find a publication that contained the kind of fiction she wanted to read, so she decided to publish it herself. FARthing publishes four issues a year and cover sf, fantasy and horror.
ESSENTIALS: FARthing only accepts submissions by email: the
story must be in the body of the email, not an attachment. They have irregular
reading periods so you need to check out the website. Basically, they open for
subs until they have as many as they can handle and then close until they’ve processed them all, so you can help yourself
by reading the guidelines. For example, they don't take reprints, so they don't
accept stories that you've already published on your own website. PET PEEVE: Writers who don't trouble to read a copy of the
magazine before submitting. It costs three pounds: as an alternative to buying
one, you can order it from your local library. The ISSN is 1752-8208. SLUSH-INATOR: The editor, Wendy Bradley, says, “I like characters
who behave like real people, plausible near future predictions, humour, strong female characters, other ways of organising
societies, snarky conversation, cake… “Oh.
Not that kind of preference. I like stories that you couldn't possibly
have ordered in advance like "Maggie Doll" and "After the Reformation…" from issue 5: both extraordinary stories that
come from unique world views. I couldn't possibly have said this was the kind
of thing I liked in advance: this is the kind of thing I never would have imagined for myself.
That's the good part.” NITTY GRITTY: FARthing pays on publication, at SFWA rates, plus
one contributor copy. Bradley says, “We are extraordinarily slow at making
the payment – feel free to remind me if I owe you a contributor copy or payment!
We require first international rights – that means it mustn't have been published anywhere before, including
on the internet – for a year or as long as the issue remains in print, whichever is the shorter, plus a credit if you
re-sell or re-publish.” SPECIAL MESSAGE from
the editor: We publish three or four – or more –
drabbles in every issue. These are stories of 100 words exactly, the haiku of
fiction. They are extraordinarily difficult to write and extraordinarily satisfying
to read. Can you tell an entire story in 100 words? We don't take drabbles that hinge entirely on a pun, and the ones I like best are the ones which create
a whole world in microcosm with a beginning, a middle and an end. We also try to strike a balance each issue between
sf, fantasy and horror, and between British, American and writers of other nationalities, and between male and female authors. So if you're a female British hard sf drabble writer with a sense of humour… (Article by John Young young.john.p@gmail.com) Stephen Eley, Editor Home: http://www.escapepod.org Submissions: http://www.escapepod.org/guidelines RUNDOWN: Escape Pod is a weekly podcast presenting science
fiction and fantasy short stories in audio form. Their mission is to keep interest
alive in short fiction by presenting fun stories when people have time to listen, but not necessarily to read. They do one "main episode" with a full-length story every week on Thursdays, and frequently release flash
fiction, reviews, and other bonus content in between. ESSENTIALS: They’re looking for science fiction and fantasy
in two length categories: full-length stories from 2,000 up to around 6,000 words, and *flash fiction* under 2,000 words. They don't discriminate between new stories and reprints (i.e., stories that have
already sold elsewhere). They accept e-mail submissions only, and typically get
back within a couple of months. For full details and formatting requirements
please see their formal guidelines: http://www.escapepod.org/guidelines. Horror writers might be interested in their sister podcast, Pseudopod (http://pseudopod.org), which has virtually identical submission requirements but is looking for horror content. PET PEEVE: “Hmmm.
I'm pretty easygoing; I've learned that no matter how specific your guidelines are, people are going to show a wide
range of personality and interpretation, and that's fine. About the only thing
that gets on my nerves is when people submit things that *clearly* violate our guidelines (e.g., they send us Word documents,
or multiple stories at a time) or who query with questions that are easily answered by the guidelines. READ THE GUIDELINES FIRST! I don't think that's just us --
I think it's universal.” SLUSH-INATOR: “Well, for me it's two things. One of them is almost technical: because we're an audio market, I'm sort of "reading aloud" in my head
as I'm following a story, to make sure it'll work in oral form. There are many
beautiful stories that work incredibly well in prose that just don't work in audio -- because there's too much static description,
or they're too non-linear, or their strength is in the language rather than the narration.
I frequently say in my rejection letters that listeners, unlike readers, don't have the easy ability to pause and savor
a passage, or flip back a few pages. They're bound to follow the story at the
narrator's pace, and so it has to be an easy story to follow.” “The other one is what I ambiguously define
as ‘fun.’ I wish I could make it more specific, but I can't. Humor works well for us, but not all fun stories are funny. Strong, well-defined characters can be fun. Even very dark stories can be fun if there's an edge to that
darkness. We want the first response of an average listener, after hearing an
Escape Pod story, to be ‘Wow. I want more of *that*.’ Serious fiction can achieve this, but I worry that there's a movement in the genre to take itself *too*
seriously at the expense of fun. And part of what we're about is reversing that.” NITTY GRITTY: Escape Pod pays $100 for full-length stories (i.e.,
2,000 words and above), and $20 for flash fiction. They buy non-exclusive audio
rights, and distribute the work on a Creative Commons license which permits the audience to share it freely for non-commercial
purposes. (As they see it, if they’re giving the work away, then encouraging
everyone *else* in the world to give it away too only furthers their purpose.) They
make their money back via listener donations, archive sales, and occasional sponsorships. SPECIAL MESSAGE from the editor: “We have a very active listener community,
who engage in a lot of intelligent story feedback and discussion on the main Escape Pod site (http://www.escapepod.org) and in our forums (http://forum.escapeartists.info). And of course, as with most markets, the best way
to get a sense of what we're looking for is to grab a few episodes and listen!” (Article by John Young young.john.p@gmail.com) Jodee Stanley, editor Home: http://www.ninthletter.com/ Submissions: http://www.ninthletter.com/submissions/printweb/index.cfm RUNDOWN: Ninth Letter is a collaborative project between
the Creative Writing Program and the School of Art & Design and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Our mission
is to explore the intersection of literature and art, and to expand the traditional definition of "literary journal." Our
print edition is published twice a year, and new electronic material is added to our web site several times a year. ESSENTIALS: Our full guidelines are available at our web site,
and I encourage all writers interested in submitting to read them carefully; they aren't too terribly different from most
other journals' guidelines. We don't take email submissions now, though that may change in the future. We also don't accept
simultaneous submissions, but our response time is generally 6-8 weeks, so if a writer submits to us and doesn't hear back
within that time, he is certainly free to query us or to send the work elsewhere. PET PEEVE: Honestly, if all writers would just adhere to our
submission guidelines, things would be relatively simple; when writers send submissions that are longer than acceptable, or
send more than one submission at a time, or don't include a proper self-addressed stamped envelope--those little things can
really add up to a lot of extra work and annoyance for our staff. We have a large staff of student interns and it's hard enough
just keeping them organized! SLUSH-INATOR: |
