Where to submit short stories?

I generally don't do small stories, but it was recommended that I attempt to submit some short stories to a fanatasy magazine, but when I went to Barnes and Nobles, I found nothing. Same with Waldons.

Are there some good places to submit short stories, especially fantasy/sci-fi?

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. There should be a link to it and several others at P&E and Ralan's.

What's P&E?

P&E is Predators and Editors

Re: Where to submit short stories

A few market sites:
Ralan's Webstravaganza

Speculative Fiction Markets

Spicy Green Iguana

A place to track response times from different mags:
Submitting to the Black Hole

Re: Where to submit short stories

What's P&E?

Click to expand...

A holy place to which all writers should make a regular pilgrimage.

Re: Where to submit short stories

Nate, you couldn't find Realms of Fantasy at B&N? That surprises me. Did you ask for help finding it? Different stores put the magazines in different places. It can be quite a hunt.

But I'm surprised that you couldn't find RoF.

Re: Where to submit short stories

I went through with staff members looking for it at B&N

And to the rest of you, thank you so much for the links and the advice. I checked out P&E and it is on my favorites list, and I spent quite a bit of time looking at the information there. I'll be checking out some of these other sites as well.

You are all a great help and much appreciated!

Nate

SF and Fantasy markets

Nate, if you haven't signed up for Jenna's Absolutemarkets newsletter it's worth the $15 and often has SF/Fantasy markets. Another good source for markets with a regular SF and Fantasy markets section is Kathy Ptacek's Gila Queen markets zine. Check it out at her web site: www.gilaqueen.us

Thanks pdr

By the way, I have another question for you, or whoever reads this. In publishing a book, I know the publisher will copywrite your book.

How does this work for a magazine? Do you have to get it copywritten before you submit, and if yes, then how?

Re: Thanks pdr

You own the copyright for anything you write the moment it leaves your brain and appears on paper, and continue to own it unless you actively assign it elsewhere. The problem comes with proving you wrote it and when.

The best way of doing that, if you're worried about piracy, is to mail a copy to yourself, preferably by registered post. (That's what it's called in the UK, don't know if it's the same elsewhere. Where you pay extra and get a receipt.) Then leave it sealed, and that would be legal proof you were in possession of the work at that date. Anyone challenging you would have to prove they had it earlier (which presumably they'd be unable to do). Alternatively, you could lodge it with a bank or solicitor, but that would probably be more expensive.

In practice, there's not usually much of a problem with SF/fantasy magazines. It's supposed to be a lot more dodgy if you're writing for film or TV. Or if you happen to be J. K. Rowling or someone, of course.

Re: Thanks pdr

Nyki27, that's called the "poor man's copyright" and it doesn't hold water in the US. It might give a writer a feeling of security, but it doesn't actually give that.

Many legitimate publications obtain a copyright for their contents. That protects the authors and the publication for the arrangement of the contents. It does not pre-empt the author from his own copyright over his story that was included, but it gives additional protection to the author even if the author did not register a copyright on the short story/article/poem.

If a writer is concerned about the need to protect a short story, for example, it might be to the author's benefit to consider registering a group of short storys written by that author as a personal anthology. Then each of those is protected for one low price rather than registering a copyright for each individual short story.

Personally, I don't worry about such matters because I do my best to deal with reputable publishers. Besides, most folks who have stolen any of my work (one story in particular) tend to think they have a right to do so because they're using it for the public good or that it's public domain because it was on the Internet. I believe that latter perception is slowly changing currently. However, the bit about public good isn't going to be so easy to change because it means dealing with organized religions and inspirational organizations and such which simply don't realize that they don't have the right to ignore copyright law.

Re: Thanks pdr

Dave, I'm hesitant to post material from my story on the boards for similar reasons. It may seem a little paranoid, but I have read some posts on another board where ideas were stollen off of posts.

Re: Thanks pdr

OK, I don't really deal much with US law. What I outlined is legally binding in the UK, but obviously not elsewhere.

Re: Thanks pdr

Well, ideas can't be protected. For the most part, that's good because it fosters independent development of other technologies that can do the same thing. Otherwise, when the telephone was created, it would have been impossible to develop radio if someone had stated that radio infringed upon the idea in telephones of sending the voice over a distance. Same analogy can be applied to ideas used in writing.

What we have to keep in mind is the fact that copyright protects only the sequence of words that we used in writing something. It simply can't be used to prevent writers from writing different versions of boy meets girl stories or adventurer finds treasure stories and so forth. In fact, most of the ideas suggested to me by those who don't write have been so similar to each other that I'm convinced that very few individuals ever come up with something completely original, though it does happen even now. Even with those, it's not worth worrying about since the writer who steals the idea is probably not equipped to do anything with it because that individual doesn't have the complete understanding that the originator has of the entire concept.