Looking for Urban Fantasy market

Hi robin. I'm going to move this to the SF & F board. I think you'll get more responses there.

I suggest you have a look at www.ralan.com for a start....

Oopsie! I moved this to the Share Your Work SF & F board by mistake. Will try again.

I second the suggestion for Ralan's, which lists just about every spec-fic market out there. Also, consider poking around the Rumor Mill, where many authors of spec-fic publishing short fiction hang out. You may also like a critique group like the OWW or Critters. I think the best thing for someone new to the game is to get involved in the "community." That way you'll see what's being published where, and who is buying what types of fiction. Best of luck!

Andromeda Spaceways (www.andromedaspaceways.com) accepts unsolicited subs, and via email at that. We're a print publication based in Australia but we get regular mentions in Locus, Asimovs and various online review sites. Issue 18 is out soon.

I should point out that we get a lot of urban fantasy submissions, so you're working at a disadvantage compared to something like hard SF, which we don't see as much of.

On the plus side, we have a blind reading system so none of our people know who wrote the piece they're reading. In other words, we're only interested in the story, not the writer.

Cheers
Simon

Anything from 24 hours to a week (on average) for the first round. We get over 200 subs a month now, but we have over a dozen readers.

I can't remember whether this is on the site, but our reading process works like this:

First round is a yes (Scored from 1 to 5, pass to 2nd round) or a no (returned to author). Second round fiction is read by two more people, who also score it 1 to 5 (1 being best). We try to be objective, of course.

Then, anything with a combined score of approx 7 or lower (e.g. 1+2+4) passes into the 'slushpool', which is where editors for upcoming issues select from. I think the slushpool-to-publication ratio is about 1 in 4, but we do let them go if they've been in there about 4 months (2 complete issues.) We let authors know at each stage what's happening - passed 1st round, passed 2nd round, then selected or returned. If you pass the 2nd round but don't get selected then that story is probably a very good one, it's just that nobody could find a spot for it.

The scores give editors a guide - for example, 1+1+2 is probably something with wide appeal, well-written, definitely publishable. We don't announce the scores to anyone, they're just an internal metric. We don't just base everything on scores, either. Most readers attach a comment or two - what they did or didn't like - depending on time.

We've been doing this for approx 4 years now, and writers seem to like the system. Of course, we'd love to publish everything sent in, but we can only squeeze 8-10 pieces into the mag every 2 months.

We're always on the lookout for interviews with SF/Fantasy people and non-fic. Unlike fiction, payment for non-fic is just a contributor's copy. Fiction is 1 & 1/4c per word australian (approx - we have an AUD$400 per issue fiction budget, divided by the no. words and no. authors. And min is $20, which means a few short pieces can affect the overall pay rate)

Finally, we're a non-profit cooperative, not a money-making exercise. There are 20 members who pay AUD$100 each per annum for the priviledge (see http://www.andromedaspaceways.com/crew.htm), and it's really a labour of love for all of us.

I'd tell you to let me know when you submit, only it wouldn't make any difference ;-)

Regarding Andromeda Spaceways, I've only submitted to them once, and made it to the final cut before rejection. They were excellent at sending out an e-mail at each stage of the process. I do remember that the first round response came very quickly, but the whole process if you make to the final round was more like 2-3 months.


Fantasy and Science Fiction has been very fast with response times in recent years in my experience as well.

The final round is the 'waiting for an editor to select it' stage, which means you really want it in there as long as possible. (Each issue has a different editor, with different tastes.) However, we can't hold onto stories forever because it's not fair on the writers.

If you get to the third round you can be confident it's a pretty good story. By then, 4 or 5 people have read it and regarded it highly enough to recommend it.

I certainly wouldn't trunk a story which reaches the 3rd round at ASIM, for example, whereas one which comes back at the first stage probably needs additional work.