The "Where can I send this story?" thread

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Glass Valkyrie

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So, working on my second short story. It's a third person fictionalized autobiographical or memoir. It covers the launch of an unmanned interplanetary spacecraft and the people working behind the scenes, especially the contractors who built and tested the spacecraft. I'm not sure I'm comfortable doing it as straight up non-fiction, nor am I comfortable doing it in first person.

Ideas for the appropriate market?

What's the word count on it?
 

Glass Valkyrie

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Title: "Diver"
Length: ~5000 words
Genre: Near-future speculative fiction, with hints of sci-fi
Perspective: First-person
Rating: No sex or intense violence, but sprinkled with profanity.
Premise: Neuroscience tech has been developed to make mind infiltration possible. Government operatives, namely the FBI, use this tech to verify and/or uncover memories of crimes committed by the perpetrator. These operatives are called Divers, because the investigation process is colloquially known as "Diving into the Pool," not unlike swimming and diving in the real world, so water imagery and metaphors abound. The protagonist is a Japanese female FBI agent, who went on leave for 3 years to raise a family, but gets pulled back into the job to avenge the death of her husband, a fellow Diver. She takes on a mission to infiltrate the mind of a terrorist leader, who is responsible for the deaths of many Divers, and has apparently conditioned his mind and altered his memories to specifically counter Divers.


I think the Drabblecast excepts short stories of that length. Daily Science Fiction maybe? I don't remember their word count guidelines though.

Have you checked out this thread? It's in the flash fiction section, but there are a lot of markets on there that publish the longer stories as well.
 

Taylor Harbin

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Title: "After Their Kind"
Length: 4200
Genre: Fantasy
POV: Third limited
Premise: In a world where humans have disappeared from Earth, animals have arisen to take our place. Two ape mercenaries from the Jabril Company, Harun and Sani, have been hired to retrieve a wayward cougar, Pamela. She has rejected the rules of society and taken dozens of followers with her, towards the border of Wolfenland. They must find her and bring her back before they're slaughtered by the Pack's roving patrols.

I've tried selling this to a number of fantasy magazines and can't seem to find any other paying market that will take it. The animals are NOT furries! They still have to act within the limits of their species. The only difference is that they're more intelligent and they can talk.
 

Taylor Harbin

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Which fantasy markets have you tried? Are you on Duotrope?

Submission Grinder. Want to use Duotrope but I just got over a big arm surgery and money's real tight. I've tried BCS, Fantasy Scroll, Glimmer Train, Interfictions, Lamplight, Spark, Deep Magic, and Heroic Fantasy Quarterly.
 

SyPhMo

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Title: "Our Alien Offspring"
Length: 3200
Genre: Science Fiction
POV: Third limited
Premise: In the far future, advanced robot children take a tour of a museum that shows them the progression of biological life from single DNA strands to primates. Most of the class continually rejects the notion that such beings could be considered alive by comparing the animals abilities to their own superior robotic capabilities. Eventually, the protagonist recognizes the pattern and calls out his classmates for being so short-sighted.

I wrote this solely for the purpose of persuading people that we should consider robots like Big Dog to be no less alive than simple organisms like Trilobites. The argument is told in the form of a story, but in order to keep the word count down, I had to be pretty in-your-face about it. As a result, it's too technical/essay-like for every fiction market I've sent it to, but is presumably too fictional to be submitted to a newspaper. Any idea of what type of place I could submit to?
 
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MumblingSage

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I wrote this solely for the purpose of persuading people that we should consider robots like Big Dog to be no less alive than simple organisms like Trilobites. The argument is told in the form of a story, but in order to keep the word count down, I had to be pretty in-your-face about it. As a result, it's too technical/essay-like for every fiction market I've sent it to, but is presumably too fictional to be submitted to a newspaper. Any idea of what type of place I could submit to?

Maybe revise the story to be less of an argument and more of a story? From your description, it's the "too technical/essay-like" aspect that seems to be the problem. And stories tend to be more convincing when they entertain as well as make a point. Otherwise, you might try making this story shorter (flash-fiction length), where it becomes more a matter of posing a question or presenting an idea, and there are some markets that would definitely enjoy hard science fiction tying in to real world science (I know Nature magazine is one example, though I haven't read it in a while).

Otherwise, you'd probably want to look at webzines that share your concerns about robots. Or post it to your own.
 

Alma Matters

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I'm reaching out for help with one of my pieces as I'm struggling to place it. I always think of it as a horror story - but not sure it really hits the boxes.

It's about a man who is visited at home by two beings with powers who come to terrorise him with tragic consequences. The world is ours/like ours but these visitors are definitely supernatural. No language/sex and violence is very minimal. It has a Twlight Zone episode feel - one of the something amiss and can't be explained by science episodes...

any help appreciated...
 

MumblingSage

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I'm reaching out for help with one of my pieces as I'm struggling to place it. I always think of it as a horror story - but not sure it really hits the boxes.

It's about a man who is visited at home by two beings with powers who come to terrorise him with tragic consequences. The world is ours/like ours but these visitors are definitely supernatural. No language/sex and violence is very minimal. It has a Twlight Zone episode feel - one of the something amiss and can't be explained by science episodes...

any help appreciated...

Have you tried any horror markets yet? Or perhaps dark fantasy? Graphic violence isn't necessary for all horror (in fact, a lot of guidelines seem to specify they don't need gratuitous gore). "Something amiss that can't be explained by science," plus tragic consequences, makes your story sound pretty solidly within the genre--and also the kind of thing I'd probably enjoy reading, fwiw.
 

Alma Matters

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Have you tried any horror markets yet? Or perhaps dark fantasy? Graphic violence isn't necessary for all horror (in fact, a lot of guidelines seem to specify they don't need gratuitous gore). "Something amiss that can't be explained by science," plus tragic consequences, makes your story sound pretty solidly within the genre--and also the kind of thing I'd probably enjoy reading, fwiw.

Hey,

Thanks for the response. I cringed reading my post back - I was just trying to give an overview of the story.

So far I've tried it at about ten places (mostly horror...) so far, the obvious places - guess I'm just trying to get some ideas about markets off the beaten track. I think it might be a tough sell to just fantasy markets - maybe too 'real world' for some? I know it's not good to self reject - but if it isn't what they usually publish I don't want to waste their time either.
 

MumblingSage

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Hey,

Thanks for the response. I cringed reading my post back - I was just trying to give an overview of the story.

So far I've tried it at about ten places (mostly horror...) so far, the obvious places - guess I'm just trying to get some ideas about markets off the beaten track. I think it might be a tough sell to just fantasy markets - maybe too 'real world' for some? I know it's not good to self reject - but if it isn't what they usually publish I don't want to waste their time either.

Have you had any specific feedback from your rejections? It might be that you're okay genre-wise, but the opening lines of the story aren't gripping readers, or some other more technical issue.

My top 3 suggestions would be Nightmare, The Dark, and Apex magazine, which all publish stories in the modern "real" world. Though I realize you may already have checked them out. Another idea is to find a writer who does something similar to what you do and see where they've published.
 

Alma Matters

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Thanks MumblingSage - No feedback as such, Though @pex said it didn't quite fit. It's also been out at the other two places you suggested, but thank you for the responses.

I think my opening might need revisited - it certainly wont harm.

Good shout on finding someone who has written something similar too - will make this a priority. Thanks again.
 

bexxs

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I'm reaching out for help with one of my pieces as I'm struggling to place it. I always think of it as a horror story - but not sure it really hits the boxes.

It's about a man who is visited at home by two beings with powers who come to terrorise him with tragic consequences. The world is ours/like ours but these visitors are definitely supernatural. No language/sex and violence is very minimal. It has a Twlight Zone episode feel - one of the something amiss and can't be explained by science episodes...

any help appreciated...

What about Liminal when they reopen in December? Your description strikes me as something that might be up their alley.

Gamut's a new magazine that also tends towards the dark/mixed genre side of things and they're reopening to subs on September 1st.
 

athai

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Title: "Diver"
Length: ~5000 words
Genre: Near-future speculative fiction, with hints of sci-fi
Perspective: First-person
Rating: No sex or intense violence, but sprinkled with profanity.
Premise: Neuroscience tech has been developed to make mind infiltration possible. Government operatives, namely the FBI, use this tech to verify and/or uncover memories of crimes committed by the perpetrator. These operatives are called Divers, because the investigation process is colloquially known as "Diving into the Pool," not unlike swimming and diving in the real world, so water imagery and metaphors abound. The protagonist is a Japanese female FBI agent, who went on leave for 3 years to raise a family, but gets pulled back into the job to avenge the death of her husband, a fellow Diver. She takes on a mission to infiltrate the mind of a terrorist leader, who is responsible for the deaths of many Divers, and has apparently conditioned his mind and altered his memories to specifically counter Divers.

UPDATE: I'd been working on the story during my first post. Now that it's complete, it clocks in at ~7900-8300 words. I'm thinking of sending it to Clarkesworld, Lightspeed (once it reopens), Analog, Asimov's, Giganotosaurus, Compelling Science Fiction (once it reopens), and Apex (if I can try my hardest to get it down to 7500 words). Do you think these are good options to send the story to? Anyone know other mags that like near-future sci-fi with LGBT characters?
 
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Taylor Harbin

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I've got a 4500 word fantasy written as a fairytale. It's not like a fable with a brow-beaten moral, but I know a lot of my favorites don't like the fairytale style (BCS in particular).
 

cmi0616

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I've got a 5,000 word story in the genre of realist/literary fiction, an early draft of which can be found here. The story is ostensibly about a young, somewhat troubled woman trying (and failing) to turn her life around.

I've sent it out to a few major magazines and journals that I thought would have been a good fit, but they all rejected the story. Normally, I would start to have doubts about the story's quality and/or publishability, but as far as I can tell all the rejections have been high-tiered, so I think it might be the length? In any event, if anyone can recommend a magazine or two, I'd appreciate it.
 

autumnleaf

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Title: "Rapture of the Deep"
Length: 2400
Genre: Fantasy/Horror
POV: Mostly third limited, with some short first-person paragraphs
Premise: Two deep-sea archaeologists are exploring an ancient site in the Aegean Sea. The site is haunted by a siren-like creature who lures people to their deaths. One of the divers is deaf, but will that be enough to escape the siren?

Full text is on SYW at http://absolutewrite.com/forums/sho...-of-the-Deep-Revision-at-post-17-(2400-words)

Any idea who would be interested?
 

MumblingSage

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Title: "Rapture of the Deep"
Length: 2400
Genre: Fantasy/Horror
POV: Mostly third limited, with some short first-person paragraphs
Premise: Two deep-sea archaeologists are exploring an ancient site in the Aegean Sea. The site is haunted by a siren-like creature who lures people to their deaths. One of the divers is deaf, but will that be enough to escape the siren?

Full text is on SYW at http://absolutewrite.com/forums/sho...-of-the-Deep-Revision-at-post-17-(2400-words)

Any idea who would be interested?

I'd try Apex, definitely, and Nightmare magazine. Clarkesworld may be a long shot but still worth considering.
 

Mr. Pinkgrass

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Hey all, I've never been through the publishing process, but I'm trying to get in the field.
(2100 word count).
Title:"Send"
Premise: A small group of fraternity brothers pull an elaborate prank where they pretend to kidnap a new brother to intiate him. Things go awry when the victim ends up dead, and a heated discussion emerges about what to do.

Any advice about who might be interested?
 

MumblingSage

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Hey all, I've never been through the publishing process, but I'm trying to get in the field.
(2100 word count).
Title:"Send"
Premise: A small group of fraternity brothers pull an elaborate prank where they pretend to kidnap a new brother to intiate him. Things go awry when the victim ends up dead, and a heated discussion emerges about what to do.

Any advice about who might be interested?

Have you thought about what genre/subgenre the story fits in? Is it a mystery, thriller, crime (all different genres), satire, horror, or literary piece?

Is there action in the story beyond the "heated discussion"? What does the discussion reveal about the characters or their society (which may help pinpoint if the genre is satire, literary, etc)?
 

zmethos

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Okay, so I wrote a story for an anthology call and my story was considered too different in tone to fit in with the others.

Title: "The Zodiac Clock"
Length: 5400 words
Genre: upmarket espionage?
In 1960s London, a British spy hunts for counteragents hiding within MI6.

This isn't noir or mystery in the classic sense that most markets I find seem to want. But it's not exactly literary fiction either. So I don't know what to do with it!
 

Serddar

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Title: "The Old One"
Length: 7013 words
Genre: Horror (Lovecraftian)

Newly appointed attorney Dylan discovers things that twist and turn his logical and reasonable way of thinking. Mysterious locations, creatures and deities.

Any suggestions? Where to send?
 

MiloMinderbinder

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Title: "She Said, He Said"
Length: 10800
Genre: Fantasy
POV: 1st Person
Premise: A member of the King's Guard seeks justice after being date-raped, but his efforts are thwarted by his victimizer, a politically powerful witch.

While the theme is adult, the scenes are PG-13 at worst.

So far I've submitted to:

Writers of the Future (Honorable Mention)
OSC's Intergalactic
F&SF
Clarkesworld
Andromeda Spaceways
The Colored Lens (short-listed, personal rejection)
Beneath Ceaseless Skies (personal rejection)
Society for Misfit Stories


Any suggestions for other markets?
 
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themindstream

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This is not a "where" question so much as a "when" question but I didn't want to start a new thread.

My story is about 10k (pending one more edit pass could go up or down), it's sci-fi and I'm in the process of researching the genre magazines. But the prompt for the story can be summed up as "alien nativity play with a dark twist" and so while it's not explicitly Christmasy, it would fit in a Christmas (or at least November/December) issue. Should I try to time submitting with that in mind or would that be too limiting?
 
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