Free Short Fiction Markets

That's an interesting question. If those stories aren't selling for money, do you really want to publish them? I'm not implying they're bad (they could, for example, be too offbeat for the markets), but it's a question I always ask myself these days. Previously, I would take a story I couldn't sell for money and sell it for exposure, but then I came to realize some of those stories weren't very good, which means bad exposure. Not at all what I want as a writer! So that's something to think about, even though I didn't actually answer your question.

Have you tried all the paying markets, from professional down to token paying? And what genre(s) do you write?

Token is getting into the realm of some poorly-edited markets you wouldn't want to appear in, so check carefully. These are a few token payers that are reasonable (or better). Your profile says SFF, so I'm assuming that. The details are on Duotrope.

Very Well Known:

Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet (but be warned - they're slow to respond)
Ideomancer



Commonly Known:

New Myths
Every Day Fiction
Crossed Genres
Everyday Weirdness
Expanded Horizons


Others I've submitted to, and felt were reputable, but may not be as commonly known:

OG's Speculative Fiction Magazine
Reflection's Edge
A Fly in Amber

Dungeon Geek is pretty much on the money. Check if the stories can be improved. If they can't (but they're still good enough to publish) a non-paying market might be the right choice for you.

Duotrope is great, not only for finding new markets but for keeping track of your submissions.

Wow. Just checked out Expanded Horizons. Their list of requirements for submissions is a remarkable strait-jacketing of literary expression. Lends an irony to their frequent use of the word "diversity". (And they believe in telepathy. They want stories about telepaths, but only from actual telepaths. Good luck with that.)

My first acceptance was with The Clockwise Cat, a nonpaying 'zine. I don't know if it has any kind of prestige, but they publish some interesting stuff (fiction, poetry, satire and polemics).

Manuel Royal said:

Wow. Just checked out Expanded Horizons. Their list of requirements for submissions is a remarkable strait-jacketing of literary expression. Lends an irony to their frequent use of the word "diversity".

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Elsewhere on the forums, I said about their guidelines:

"I'm the target group of authors they want under several categories, but their guidelines have always made me feel too unsafe to send anything."

But that's a personal reaction and I know they're reputable. If someone's down with the guidelines, they might as well send stuff there.

Look to see who else is being published there. Are they published writers? Writers with agents? Also, you can still be eligible for awardsfor work published in nonpaying markets.

Caution: some tough love follows.

I suggest you ask yourself: do you want your stuff to be published (and it doesn't matter where, because all you want is to see your name in a magazine ), or do you want some of your stuff to eventually be published in top magazines? This is a question of worldview.

I have never sent a story to a token-pay market, reputable or no. The only exception for me would be Lady Churchill's, because they are frikking geniuses, but I cannot face the long wait. I don't have many stories, and I only have four short fiction sales, but these are damn good sales that serve me well on cover letters and brought me way more recognition than if I were published in 20+ token-pay markets.

In SFF, token pay sales do not usually serve you well in cover letters, do not help with name recognition, etc. The markets Polenth mentioned are worth trying (also check out Shimmer, which pays 1c a word), but they are extremely hard to break into. LCRW is as hard to break into as any pro market. Ideomancer and Shimmer might be easier, but only just. Crossed Genres, etc are yet easier but they are still hard to break into.

If your stories are not selling, are not getting personal rejections, chances are they are not yet ready to go.

Now, some people just want to be published, even if that means to self-publish, because they want to see their name in print, and soon. I can respect that. But I can tell you from experience, the amount of attention I received from having a story in Strange Horizons was incomparable to the amount of attention I got even from the stories in very good semi-pros. I have no idea how much attention a story in a token-pay market would get, but my bet is, far less than a SH story.

Yes, it took me two years to break into SH, and I will probably get form rejections from them again even after I sold there, but the effort of making my stories the best I can is worth it, and will be worth it again in the future.

If you want to know which markets are worthwhile in SFF, grab Gardner Dozois's Year's Best SF 2010 (2009 will also do) and start noting where the honorably mentioned stories were published. A few of them will be token paying markets, more will be semi-pros, but most are pros. If reputation is a factor for you, aim for the markets that Dozois and Rich Horton read to select their honorably mentioned stories.

Personally, I would suggest you try SYW and see if you can improve your stuff. But please remember that I am squarely in the quality camp in the quality vs quantity debate, and not everybody is, or needs to be.

Good luck!

Gray Rose said:

Personally, I would suggest you try SYW and see if you can improve your stuff. But please remember that I am squarely in the quality camp in the quality vs quantity debate, and not everybody is, or needs to be.

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I think it's important to remember that there are more than two strategies. It doesn't have to be pro only or anything goes. I take a middle ground of sending to the pros first, then working down the payscale of decent 'zines. Once I run out of markets I'd be happy to be seen in, I trunk the story.

Polenth said:

I think it's important to remember that there are more than two strategies. It doesn't have to be pro only or anything goes. I take a middle ground of sending to the pros first, then working down the payscale of decent 'zines. Once I run out of markets I'd be happy to be seen in, I trunk the story.

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I am not advocating for pro or nothing. I absolutely agree with you that it is good to start with the pro magazines and work down the list. However, up to very recently I actually did something different.

When I started sending stuff out two and a half years ago, I didn't bother with the pro markets, because I felt they were unreachable. I sent my stuff to semi-pros I liked. Now when I no longer feel that my stuff is unsellable to pro markets, I send it to pro markets first. I still do not send to F&SF and Asimov's, because I feel it is a waste of postage, but now that Asimov's has an e-submission system I will try them next time I have an SF story to market.

Question is, how far "down" will you go. I have pro-published friends who unblinkinly send stuff to Newmyths, Everyday Weirdness, Clockwise Cat, etc. I only have a handful of stories, and there are SO MANY pro-paying and excellent semi-pro markets one can sub to right now, that sending to token pay markets is not even a temptation for me. Again, your mileage may vary.

I trunked the last story I trunked after 9 submissions, and I am still beating myself up for keeping at it for so long. A year later I completely revised it, it is much much stronger, but I am hesitating where to send it to, since I am almost out of good markets. On the other hand, I have pro-published friends who just keep sending until the stuff sells somewhere. That is not for me, but again, your mileage may vary. I am not advocating any of my opinions as a solution for everybody, just sharing my experience.

defyalllogic said:

thanks for the advice. reputation is important to me, it's not hard to find out who'd reputable and who isn't.

also I've limited my submission range to markets that accept simultaneous subs and electronic subs and pay... that dose start to narrow the field.

I'll check out, Gardner Dozois's Year's Best SF

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If you limit yourself to markets that accept simsubs, you will have ruled out many excellent markets. A better strategy, imho, is to send stuff to markets with a quick turnaround.

Good luck!

Good post, Gray Rose.

I'm published in some of the token markets (quite a few), and only one of them led to a bit of recognition and reviews. Most of the token paying markets have merely amounted to me getting $10 or $20 dollars and then the story disappears into the archives never to be heard from again. So really, it's mostly about collecting $10 to $40 and hoping a few readers will glance at it. Did those credits help me break into the pros? I'm not sure, to be honest. But I know I had to have the right story at the right magazine to get accepted by a higher paying magazine.

Lately, I'm with Gray Rose with the quality over quantity biz. In token terms, I'm not sure there's much difference between 10 sales and 30 sales (other than the money collected). But keep in mind: When dealing with reputation, your worst sales are simply useless as credits, and could even make an editor wrinkle his/her nose in distaste if it's a real stinker! (A real stinker credit would be a non-paying magazine with a very high acceptance rate, poorly edited, with stories so bad they bring a tear to the eye.)

I once published a story in a non-paying magazine I hadn't actually bothered to read. Exposure, right? Later, when my story was proudly displayed and I did read some of the stories, I damn near (pardon my crudeness) shit a brick at how bad some of them were. I thought to myself "This magazine takes fricken anything!" Can you say, big regrets? Ah, the rocky road to enlightenment...

defyalllogic said:

also I've limited my submission range to markets that accept simultaneous subs and electronic subs and pay... that dose start to narrow the field.

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Your sim sub criteria counts out the pro markets and most of the good lower paying markets. It isn't really an option if you want to sell.

defyalllogic said:

i wish on duo trope that had the top fast markets that pay rather than the top fast markets. because most fast markets on their list are free and have high acceptance rates...

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You can easily figure out how fast markets are by using Duotrope. Just look at the average response times of each magazine, and also check out what their recent response times look like.

defyalllogic said:

yeah but you have to go to each page to see if they're Paying and Fast. the average time doesn't come up in searches. (unless thees something i don't know about.)

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Right. But the thing is, if you care where your stories potentially come out, you should put some time into researching them. If you don't care where your stories come out, then you should just send them to "friendliest" markets on duotrope.

In the beginning I spent a lot of time on duotrope and speculations (now defunct) and later ra_log (http://ra_log.livejournal.com) to research markets. I still spend a fair amount of time on duotrope and ra_log, researching markets and response times. I also read my target markets. This is the advice that was given to me here a few years ago, and it has served me well, so I am passing it along.

Good luck!

in general my feelings are if they literally cannot pay, unless I know something special about the market, it is probably not one I want to be in. Either my work is good enough to actually sell (and if so, going free means I'm just subsidizing their market) and should, or it is not, and I'd rather keep it to either look back on as an early effort or revise until it can sell, instead of putting it into a free magazine and crowing about how low a bar I was able to leap over.

Now that I said that and need my flamesuit, let me clarify a bit:

There may well be exceptions, I am not well-versed in markets. But I DO think many of the non-paying are not attracting the sort of writing, mine included, I'd want to be associated with. They are largely showcasing work not ready for the big time and catering to folks who are so desperate to see their name in print, they will submit there, but I do not think they generally help your career and they can if anything hurt it a bit--they drag your time out when you could be writing (instead you are submitting to a no-return investment) and yes, the publication, and your attempt to trot it out as a "credential" can actually make other editors at better spots roll their eyes. Still, I am sure there are a few excellent non-paying markets, but it is a REALLY, REALLLY "caveat emptor" sort of niche

for ME, and me only, if they won't pay me, my work either isn't ready or hasn't found the right home yet.

defyalllogic said:

pay isn't enough to make a market worthwhile for me.

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very valid point, but as a general rule, if they cannot pay you should ask why that is.....

the single most important thing is prestige, what the market really says about your writing for you having gotten in there. On the other hand, paying nothing is often a fair barometer of if you are in a fairly low-tier publication

in any event, it is certainly your life, and your opinions. I'd just be very cautious, sure, there are markets that pay and are still so bad you wouldn't submit......on the other hand they STILL make enough they can pay their writers......so the nonpaying? just a thought.....

I want to clarify myself a bit. I'm not against any market at all and I'm not trying to pick on anyone's hobby. Free speech. Writer's biz if he/she wants to sub there. All that. But my feeling is that you don't get enough good exposure from most non-paying mags to make it worth it in light of the lack of payment. And so I share my little slice of wisdom, but beyond that, I don't care which magazines exist and who subs there. I just hope everyone is having a blast!