Contest or submit?

If it were me, and I was fairly confident of my story, I'd try publishing it in a magazine first. The exposure from a program book wouldn't be that much compared to the circulation of a magazine - plus you'd get paid.

If you can handle the story being tied up until the contest is over, I'd say go for the contest if you think you have a decent chance of winning. If it wins and gets published, you can always mention the win when you submit it elsewhere.

A free hotel stay at a con is definitely worth more than you'd get through many magazines...and reprint sales would likely be easier with a contest winner.

astonwest said:

If you can handle the story being tied up until the contest is over, I'd say go for the contest if you think you have a decent chance of winning. If it wins and gets published, you can always mention the win when you submit it elsewhere.

A free hotel stay at a con is definitely worth more than you'd get through many magazines...and reprint sales would likely be easier with a contest winner.

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I disagree with Astonwest about the easiness of reprint sales. My feeling is that it would be almost impossible for a new writer to sell a reprint to a pro mag. Again, I might be wrong here. Also, pro mags might not be what you're aiming for.

This is a question of personal preference. It also depends on what your goals are.

Personally, I don't do contests. Some advantages of selling to good mags are: 1) exposure; 2) recognizable on cover letters; 3) best-of editors read magazines, so there is a chance of a honorable mention, and in my experience these can have a lot of mileage; again, something that can enhance a cover letter; 4) pro sales count towards SFWA membership.

Among contests, WoTF is worth submitting to, since winning stories are published (and qualify for SFWA), and the money is very nice.

The Windycon contest can be nice if you win it, the membership+hotel fees sound great, but in terms of exposure and potential cover-letter garnish, it will be less good than a pro sale. It won't be useless by any means, but it will be worth less.

Now, the issue is that pro sales are VERY hard to come by, so you might be wasting a perfectly good contest opportunity for something that may be a very frustrating submission process that ultimately might not result in a sale.

If you are a prolific writer, I'd say go for the contest. If you only have a few stories, maybe see if you can polish this one and send it off to a mag? Again, this is a very personal decision.

Also, re: your signature. Clockwork Phoenix is a beautiful title, but it is also a title of an award-winning SFF anthology series edited by Mike Allen. Pretty amazing series, too. I'm not so sure that the title overlap is a good thing, necessarily.

Take care, and best of luck!

As they run this contest every year, you could always enter next year. That'd give you a year to try and sell it elsewhere.

It really depends on what you're aiming for. If you really want to visit that convention and use that free hotel stay, then entering the contest might be a good idea. Gray Rose makes a couple of good points though, depending on the mags you submit to, you could get a nice credit for your cover letter if you send it elsewhere first.

My personal choice? I'd send it to mags first and enter it into the contest next year if that doesn't pan out. But there really isn't a wrong choice here. Follow your heart.

Just send it to the contest and continue writing more stories. If you want to establish yourself as a short story writer you'll probably have to write a lot of stories. Don't worry so much about what happens to individual stories but aim for quantity. If you write and submit a lot you'll hopefully become better at both writing and at finding the right markets for your work.

Gray Rose said:

I disagree with Astonwest about the easiness of reprint sales. My feeling is that it would be almost impossible for a new writer to sell a reprint to a pro mag. Again, I might be wrong here. Also, pro mags might not be what you're aiming for.

This is a question of personal preference. It also depends on what your goals are.

Personally, I don't do contests. Some advantages of selling to good mags are: 1) exposure; 2) recognizable on cover letters; 3) best-of editors read magazines, so there is a chance of a honorable mention, and in my experience these can have a lot of mileage; again, something that can enhance a cover letter; 4) pro sales count towards SFWA membership.

Among contests, WoTF is worth submitting to, since winning stories are published (and qualify for SFWA), and the money is very nice.

The Windycon contest can be nice if you win it, the membership+hotel fees sound great, but in terms of exposure and potential cover-letter garnish, it will be less good than a pro sale. It won't be useless by any means, but it will be worth less.

Now, the issue is that pro sales are VERY hard to come by, so you might be wasting a perfectly good contest opportunity for something that may be a very frustrating submission process that ultimately might not result in a sale.

If you are a prolific writer, I'd say go for the contest. If you only have a few stories, maybe see if you can polish this one and send it off to a mag? Again, this is a very personal decision.

Also, re: your signature. Clockwork Phoenix is a beautiful title, but it is also a title of an award-winning SFF anthology series edited by Mike Allen. Pretty amazing series, too. I'm not so sure that the title overlap is a good thing, necessarily.

Take care, and best of luck!

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Great analysis/ advice there. Also remember you'll know in a set time if you don't get to the finalists/ win the competition, so you can then send it out to mags, whereas the reverse isn't possible (for this year).


Edit: As a further note, although windycon may not have the same kudos as a prestigious mag the fact (as you state) that there won't be many entrants, your chances of publication might be better than pro mags. Also, it can act as a quick editing/ beta response (a non-detailed, yes/no variety ) cos if it's not finalised you may decide to re-work it - I say this as you don't seem a thousand percent confident it will fly - for me better a rejection from a comp than a 3-6 months wait and rejection from a mag..)
Of course, if you win, it'd be pretty cool attending the con and letting it slip to any agents there that, 'yes, that's me in the brochure'.

Camilla Delvalle said:

If you want to establish yourself as a short story writer you'll probably have to write a lot of stories.

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This is usually, but not necessarily, true. Case in point, Ted Chiang.
There are other examples.

But yes, usually people write a ton of stories before getting their first good sale.