short story science fiction fantasy

[DL Hegel]

what are the best magazines to submit to that pay$$$?


dl hegel

[waylander]

www.ralan.com (http://www.ralan.com)
Look at the page for semi- and pro markets.
Clarkesworld is probably the best paying market currently.

[dclary]

Very, very best, $$-wise was always Omni, or -- if you were exceptionally well-known already, Playboy.

Go with "who pays at all" first, and then work your way up. The guys who pay well do so because they've got subscribers and advertisers who pay them to put the cream of the crop on their pages, not you.

[DocBrown]

Interesting link. Thank you waylander. :)

[Sharon Mock]

Go with "who pays at all" first, and then work your way up. The guys who pay well do so because they've got subscribers and advertisers who pay them to put the cream of the crop on their pages, not you.
The advice I've gotten has always, always been to start at the top and work down. If you start with low-paying and obscure magazines, your story won't end up in the best possible market. Also, editors are generally unimpressed by a long list of publications they've never heard of.

Starting at the top and working your way down takes much longer. It's much harder and more painful. On the other hand, if you can get the right story to the right editor at the right time, you'll know you haven't sold yourself short.

Even the most prestigious SF/F magazines print unknown and little-known writers. (Clarkesworld has a lot of first-sales and first-professional-sales, but they're something of a special case.)

[dclary]

Shhhh, you! I'm trying to make the slush pile smaller so I'll stand out better!

[Sharon Mock]

Shhhh, you! I'm trying to make the slush pile smaller so I'll stand out better!
:D

It's much more effective to make sure people know what magazines are looking for. You know, like how Analog is desperate for high fantasy?

(Obligatory helpful comment: Analog is not, in fact, a market for high fantasy.)

[DL Hegel]

i currently am working on 2 sci-fi/humor, 1 tech/fantasy , 1 action/horror , 1 action/horror/historical, and 2 time/travel (one of which rooted in american history). i jump around like frog legs in a frying pan. i don't just write one kind or style, save that, i love the short story.
dl hegel

[Deirdre]

Also, editors are generally unimpressed by a long list of publications they've never heard of.

This is definitely the case for me. I'm especially underwhelmed when someone lists twenty such publications in their cover letter.

[Deirdre]

i currently am working on 2 sci-fi/humor, 1 tech/fantasy , 1 action/horror , 1 action/horror/historical, and 2 time/travel (one of which rooted in american history). i jump around like frog legs in a frying pan. i don't just write one kind or style, save that, i love the short story.
What's a time/travel story?

[Cathy C]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America's links page (http://www.sfwa.org/links/mags.htm). They list pretty much every print mag and ezine that pays decent money.

Good luck!

What's a time/travel story?

A time travel story is one where the hero or heroine is shunted forward or backward in time and lives out the events of the story in the other time (or encounters someone from a different period in THIS time.) The means can be magical or mechanical. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Crichton's Timeline are some well-known examples of time travel.

[Deirdre]

A time travel story is one where the hero or heroine is shunted forward or backward in time and lives out the events of the story in the other time (or encounters someone from a different period in THIS time.) The means can be magical or mechanical. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Crichton's Timeline are some well-known examples of time travel.
I'm an editor for an sf/f mag, so I know what a time travel story is.

It wasn't clear if that's what the OP meant by time/travel. (ETA: it was.)

I was curious if the OP meant some new genre combination, that's all.

[yanallefish]

big one: Jim Baen's Universe

smaller ones: Beyond Centauri, Anotherealm

(I'm going by pay rates and word counts here)

[J. R. Tomlin]

In my opinion the best place to research markets, although I also use ralan:

http://www.duotrope.com/index.aspx

And I try (not always successfully) to match the story to the market. Then just go from there.

[yanallefish]

I like this one: http://www.critters.org/blackholes/

The one thing to watch for there is the black holes (i.e.markets that have no info with them,just a name).

[J. R. Tomlin]

I watch Blackholes also, but Duotrope maintains a large database of return times. When you select a publication to look at you get extensive information on averages and the number of entries. I suggest using all three resources.

[badducky]

The best place to find markets for your stories is your own mailbox.

What magazines are you subscribed to? What's sitting on your bookshelf?

Instead of trying to find places to buy your stories for lots of money, research the places that you like to read.

[DL Hegel]

:D i appreciate all the imput---i am so not-the-net-girl.

dl hegel

[Gray Rose]

I recently asked a similar question and got great advice. It boiled down to "read your markets". You need to read the magazines you want to submit to, in order to figure out what the editors are looking for.

I did this, and discovered that the two mags I wanted to target have a tone quite different from the tone of my writing. Plus I learned a thing or two about the kinds of stories that currently sell. I also found a mag for which my story would be perfect - not sure they'll accept it though :)

Good luck with your stories!
Rose