CALLIHOO Newsletter Market News for Writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Julia West, Editor Vol. 10, No. 28 7 January 2003 Website: http://www.sff.net/people/julia.west/CALLIHOO/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------- IN THIS ISSUE News Publication Notes Deadlines Market Information AnotherRealm Black Gate DNA Publications Elysian Fiction Tales of the Unanticipated ----------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS PUBLICATION NOTES Derryl Murphy says, "The new issue of the email PDF mag =Oceans of the Mind= is now out, its current theme Canadian Writers. My story "Wasps at the Speed of Sound" is there, as well as stories by Doug Smith, AM Dellamonica, Michele Sagara, and Mark Rayner. Info can be had at http://www.oceansofthemind.com/ issue_vi_--_canada.htm "Also, "More Painful Than the Dreams of Other Boys" is the first story bought for the upcoming anthology =Open Space= (again, Canadians only), info for which is at http://lostpages.net/ openspace.html This one will be released at WorldCon in Toronto. A good place for a launch." ----------------------------------------------------------------- DEADLINES Check out the CALLIHOO website, listed above, for more information on these contests, magazine issues, and anthologies. (Where it says "GLs in Vol. X No. Y," these are volume and issue of the CALLIHOO newsletter.) CRUX: A JOURNAL OF SPECULATIVE FICTION 1ST ISSUE CONTEST Deadline 15 January 2003 [Contest SF/F/H to 3,000 wds. Elements for contest are: "that grape soda feeling"; "the eye of Jupitor" and unicorns. For summer 2003 issue. E-mail subs only. Sim subs and reprints ok. 1st place $20+pub. No accept. on contest entries until after deadline. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 14)] OCEANS OF THE MIND SPRING 2003 ISSUE: WOMEN WRITERS Deadline 1 February 2003 [Quarterly e-mailzine in .pdf format. SF to 8,000 words. Pays 5 cents/word & up. Themed. Prefers E-mail subs. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 7 and Vol. 10 No. 3)] POLYPHONY 3 ANTHOLOGY Open 1 January 2003 to 15 February 2003 [Anthology, slipstream/magical realism 4,000 to 10,000 wds. Pays 6 cents/wd. on accept. No E-mail, sim or mult subs. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 20 & 21)] 3F PUBLICATIONS HORROR CONTEST Deadline 1 March 2003 [Contest/antho, Halloween H 3000-5000 wds. Unpub. writers only. $5 entry fee. Pays 3 cents/wd. E-mail only. (GLs Vol. 10 No. 24)] PATH OF THE JUST SUPERHERO FICTION ANTHOLOGY Deadline 1 March 2003 [Anthology, F in Silver Age Sentinels RPG milieu, 3,000 to 7,000 wds. Pays 3-5 cents/wd. on pub. No E-mail subs. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 20)] SAY. . . WHAT TIME IS IT? Open 1 December 2002 to 1 March 2003 [Semi-annual printzine, themed (what time is it?). Fiction to 8,000 wds. Pays $10/story. No sim or mult subs, reprints, or E- mail subs. No erotica. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 24)] WRITERS OF THE FUTURE, 2ND QUARTER 2003 Deadline 31 March 2003 [$1000 first, $750 2nd, $500 3rd place. No entry fee. L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, P.O. Box 1630-JBW, Los Angeles, CA 90078. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 1)] ----------------------------------------------------------------- MARKET INFORMATION ANOTHERREALM A writer on sff.net said of =AnotherRealm=, "Had to write to them for a response. They said they don't respond if they don't accept your work. Since when?" [sff.writing.response-times, 7 Jan 03] BLACK GATE John O'Neill, editor of =Black Gate= Magazine, when asked about the state of the slush pile, said, "I know, I know... sigh. Our advertised response times aren't very great to begin with, and in the last few months even those have begun to slip. Issue #5 is late going to press, and it's pushed everything else back, including slush reading. Apologies. "The real solution is to dedicate more time to reading. I usually set aside a month after each issue comes out to catch up, and frankly that just hasn't been enough (especially when production stretches out several months... ahem). "So what I've done is to list issue #6 with distributors for July, instead of March. I'm setting aside 3 months to get completely caught up, starting as soon as the latest issue goes to bed (that's such a lovely image, isn't it? When the issue goes to bed. I have three young children whom I try to get to bed by 8:30, and the latest issue is a lot like them... every 10 minutes it comes downstairs and asks for a drink of water.) "In any event, I haven't progressed a whole lot since the last update (I've read about 100 manuscripts, less than a month into the pile), but I hope to change that very shortly. Thanks a lot for your patience! And, as always, if you're nervous about your story, I do welcome query letters at john@blackgate.com. My response time on queries is about 2-3 weeks." [sff.publishing.black-gate-magazine, 6 Jan 03] DNA PUBLICATIONS Warren Lapine, publisher for DNA Publications, said, "I'm now offering authors advertising space in all of DNA Publications' magazines at essentially cost. Here's the publisher's notes from the December issue explaining why. I'd like to get some feedback on this subject. "When DNA Publications purchased =Science Fiction Chronicle= nearly three years ago, I was very excited by what I thought I could accomplish with the magazine. I love genre fiction and most of my friends make their living writing it. I was hoping that I'd be able to help increase their sales. When I was trying to decide whether or not to buy the magazine I called and spoke to people at most, if not all, of the publishing houses. I told them of my plan to give away 5,000 free copies to the people who make the buying decisions at bookstores and libraries, and of my plan to place the ads from anyone who agreed to advertise at least once per month in our fiction magazines at no extra charge. That meant that any ad placed with =Chronicle= would reach 32,000 people. Everyone seemed really excited and told me they'd be very interested as long as I could get =Chronicle= coming out regularly, something it hadn't been doing in quite some time. "Heartened by the response, I purchased the magazine. I immediately got the magazine back on a regular monthly schedule and added the bookstores and library buyers to my comp list. But I wasn't finished there: I moved the magazine to a more attractive glossy format and added interior color. As a result of this =Chronicle= was picked up by several distributors that distribute only glossy magazines, giving us access to newsstands that none of our competition has. I'd accomplished everything I had promised the book companies that I would and more, and then a funny thing happened: nothing. Tor Books and Baen Books both received the benefit or our added distribution and free placement as they were already advertising each month, but not one of the other book companies took advantage of our offer. I sent out ad packs and made repeated phone calls, but all to no avail. Frankly, I'm quite mystified as to why someone would choose not to reach 32,000 people for the same price as, or a bit less than, what they are already paying to reach 7,000 people. If you're one of the writers whose books didn't benefit from that extra exposure, you might want to ask your publisher why they chose not to put your book in front of so many readers at such a minimal cost. Over the years, I've watched many of my friends have to go out and get part-time jobs or stop writing all together. I've read the reports that show that sales for genre books are slipping and I've wondered what I could do to help. I felt like the proverbial person who'd led a horse to water. So as you may have noticed from the small announcement on page 24, I've extended an offer to writers who would like to advertise their books. I realize that most genre writers can't afford to spend much money promoting their own books, so we're charging them what amounts to our cost. I'd like to do more, but the field doesn't seem to want to let me." [sff.publishing.dnapublications, 4 Nov 02] Mr. Lapine also said, concerning paying for any of the DNA Publications magazines over the website, "You can use paypal. We're getting ready to convert the website over to pay pal. That will allow us to use a shopping cart which will be easier. Until then fill in the credit card number with all 9s and put in the notes field you're paying by paypal. Send paypal payment to orders@dnapublications.com." [sff.publishing.dnapublications, 19 Nov 02] ELYSIAN FICTION Jim Bailey, editor of =Elysian Fiction=, said, "Just to let everybody know that I've posted the December, 2002 edition of =Elysian Fiction=, an all-fantasy short-fiction webzine that can be found at: http://www.elysianfiction.com/ "10 new stories comprising of approximately 70,000 words of original fiction. This issue features authors Fiona Avery, Lawrence M. Schoen, James A. Hartley, Elaine Isaak, E. Catherine Tobler, Glen Hamilton, Charles Langley, M. Bennardo, and newcomers Jackie Ramirez and Cory Tamler (Cory sold her story to me while still a sophomore in high school, so look out for her in the future!). "Also debuting this issue are features to, I hope, aid readability. To go along with the font customization, I've now added 2 page versions of each story, one to help those who wish to print out the stories, and the other to make it (presumably) easier to transfer to and view on portable/mobile devices. "I hope everybody will enjoy the offerings." [sff.publishing.announcements, 3 Jan 03] TALES OF THE UNANTICIPATED A writer on sff.net, commenting on the state of the slush pile for =Tales of the Unanticipated=, said, "Last I heard, from a posting in the Rumor Mill, he had reduced the stack of submissions to about 50 and hoped to make the final decisions by January 1." [sff.writing.response-times, 21 Dec 2002 ==End of the CALLIHOO Newsletter for 7 January 2003==