Philosophies of Choosing Markets

Last summer I got a really nice personal rejection from the editor at Asimov's, saying the writing was good and that she was looking forward to my next story (the idea was cliche though, hence the rejection). Because of that Asimov's is at the top of my submissions, for sci-fi stories at least. Sometimes when I get discouraged I tell myself "C'mon! They're waiting for your story at Asimov's!" (I like the think of the whole editorial team just lounging around, waiting for my next submission ). It's also one of the top markets, and I believe in starting at the top and working my way down.

I do try to sub to places that I think are a good fit for the story, so for example I don't sub much to Analog because they like more hard sci-fi than what I write. And then there are magazines which I'm a big fan of but don't sub to, like Interzone and Fantasy and Science Fiction, because they only take postal subs (it's expensive mailing a long story to the States/the UK, plus buying an international reply coupon on top of that).

There are always exceptions, but basically I start at with the top markets that take electronic subs, usually starting with ones where I've had good responses in the past.

Sea Witch said:

Tell me, how do you decide who to submit stories to?

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/shameless self-promotion hat on

I wrote a long blog post on this subject very recently:
http://alexshvartsman.com/2012/02/03/the-pest-method/

/shameless self-promotion hat off

I go by cool name sometimes. Sadly, I'm not joking.

*whips out spreadsheet*

I figure out all the possible targets in my genre. Then I organize them by who pays the most. I usually break them into tiers. There's the "around $100 or more", the "$20-$50" and the "$1-10" ranges (sometimes pubs fall outside these ranges by a little and I just bump them).

Then I take the top tier and go through the guidelines of each publication to make sure everything fits with what I'm about to sub. to them. If I fall outside a guideline, or if I get a sense that they aren't looking for what I was considering sending to them, then I take them off the list and move to the next one in that tier. I also read back issues and double check that something similar (tone, voice, etc.) has appeared there before.

I look at things like, response time, acceptance rate etc. at this point and then organize that tier again based on this. Then I start subbing. Once I've exhausted the top tier (if I've gotten all Rs) then I move to the next tier and go through the same process, org. by pay, look at guidelines, rule some of them out, reorg taking into consideration things like response time, acceptance rate, etc.

Once I've subbed to all the ones in that tier, then I move to the bottom tier.

That works for me.

Gosh. It's a real mixed bag for me...

Alex Shvartsman wrote a great blog post about this topic. It's partially geared towards his own priorities, but I also think they represent a rather "common" set of priorities, particularly for short-fiction spec-fic writers.

A lot of it, for me, has to do with how confident I still feel in a story. If I feel confident in it, I'll keep plugging away at higher-end markets until I run out of places that I feel have any likelihood of taking it. If I feel less confident in it and no ideas around and/or desire to try to rework it, then I'll move down to the lower-end markets.

I have a pair of stories that have been sent out to eight and seven pro markets respectively because I feel positive enough about them to want to keep trying all of those avenues. I have some others where I've moved to semi-pro rather quickly.

There are lots of other factors, too. Spec-fic has a wide variety of pro markets. Mystery does not, and many of the pro markets which do exist in mystery are VERY slow to respond (months, not weeks). So my mystery shorts may only go to one pro market before hitting semi-pros.

Also, if you get to the point where you have dozens of stories out, you get constrained by which markets aren't already reviewing something of yours.

alexshvartsman said:

/shameless self-promotion hat on

I wrote a long blog post on this subject very recently:
http://alexshvartsman.com/2012/02/03/the-pest-method/

/shameless self-promotion hat off

Click to expand...

You know, if you'd waited like 10 minutes for me to finish my ramble, I would've had that for you.

I haven't been doing this long, but so far I base most of my decision on one simple fact: I like a good portion of what they publish and would thus be proud to have my story with them.

Other than that, if it's a more specific type of story, that factors in. For example, I've subbed two stories with a Lovecraftian element to magazines that cater to that audience.

I'm only now starting to dip my toes into the methods described so well above. And yes, Alex's blog post will be helpful.

Thanks Alex, the PEST method sounds very effective.

Like Sea Witch, I'm wondering how do you know what a magazine's readership is? I don't even know how I would find out for print magazines.

Literateparakeet said:

Thanks Alex, the PEST method sounds very effective.

Like Sea Witch, I'm wondering how do you know what a magazine's readership is? I don't even know how I would find out for print magazines.

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I think Writer's Market lists rough circulation figures for all the magazines they list.

I'm liking the PEST also.

Sea Witch said:

Thanks everyone, and yes, I forgot that I had read Alex's post on that. One thing Alex mentions is the readership numbers. With a magazine, it's easy enough to find out the circulation, but how do you figure out the readership of an ezine?

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There aren't readership numbers for ezines, unless they chose to distribute them. You know any SFWA-qualified markets have a good readership, as it's part of the joining criteria (I don't know if other associations are the same). Other than that, you have to make your best estimate. A few things to look for:

- Story quality. If the stories are terrible and riddled with errors, it's not worth it.
- Site quality. If the site isn't clean and easy to use, it's not worth it.
- Mentions. Do people talk about the site on forums/blogs/etc?
- Interaction. If they site allows comments, do people comment? No comments doesn't always mean no readers (some big 'zines get few comments, but do get mentions and all the rest). But if you see an active community, it's a good sign.
- Awards. Do they get nominated for awards? Do they get stories in best of year anthologies?
- Pro Authors. Do they have stories by authors with pro sales? If they have prestige, they will do, even if they don't pay very much.
- Age. Being old is generally a good sign, though not a guarantee of readership. Being young is dangerous, as they often fold in a couple of months before they get time to build up.
- Promotion. Do they actively promote the 'zine, try to get decent writers, etc?

If it's a new 'zine and you're taking a chance, focus particularly on promotion, story quality and site quality. Because if they don't have those, they're not going to develop a readership.

Polenth said:

- Site quality. If the site isn't clean and easy to use, it's not worth it.

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YES. You know, this always baffles me. Sometimes the zine pays pretty decent, and maybe I've heard good things about them, but the site is just...eeesh, not good. In general, though, if the site is cruddy to look at then it's automatically off my list.

I usually start with fastest response + highest paying, with more weight on the response. (Thus, Tor.com goes at the bottom of the pro-market list.)

I also have a bit of drive about getting accepted at certain markets so Lightspeed usually gets first chance to reject, then someplace like DSF (even though they pay more and still respond pretty quickly).

Token markets are usually at the bottom of the list but I'll sub to them with certain stories if it works out to at least a penny a word.

Personally, I have a few stories I think are good, but not pro-market good. If I have time to fix them, I do. If I don't, I start with semi-pros and go from there.

I also sometimes pull markets off my list due to personality factors. I probably won't be in a rush to sub to ChiZine even if they do open to subs again because they lost the first story I sent them (after receiving it, I might add, but it didn't get slipped into the queue "to be read" so that was three months WASTED). And I may never sub to Clarkesworld again because of a difference of opinion I have on fan-fic.

So. I do have a method, but it goes more on what I feel like on a certain day.