Market News for Writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Julia West, Editor Vol. 11, No. 11 6 January 2004 Website: http://www.callihoo.net ----------------------------------------------------------------- IN THIS ISSUE News New Domain Name Publication Notes Deadlines Anthology Superliminal 1 (gls) Contest Writers of the Future Contest (gls) Market Guidelines Flytrap (gls) Luna Books (gls) Market Information Argosy (now bimonthly) Black Gate Circlet Press (HD crash) Cloaked in Shadows antho DNA Publications Dragons, Knights and Angels Magazine (now print) Elysian Fiction Luna Books Metastatic Whatnot Paradox (temp closed spec fic) Say... Scrybe Press Stories That (Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda) Won the Hugo Strange Horizons (now 5 cents/wd) Superliminal 1 Writers of the Future Contest Online Market Information Slush Article ----------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS NEW DOMAIN NAME Please note the new domain name for the CALLIHOO website: http://www.callihoo.net. We decided it would be fun to give the newsletter its very own domain, so we did! (Please remember that it's =.net=, not =.com=.) PUBLICATION NOTES James Van Pelt sold a Christmas story, "The Miracle at Ramah," to =Dragons, Knights and Angels, the Magazine of Christian Fantasy and Science Fiction=, at www.dkamagazine.net. It is up now for your reading pleasure. Julia West's story "Power Sources" is out in the current issue of =Realms of Fantasy= (February 2004). She also sold a story, "Gathering Shards," to =Oceans of the Mind= for the Summer 2004 (Spiritual SF) issue. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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.) OCEANS OF THE MIND SPRING 2004: COLONIES Deadline 1 February 2004 [PDF themed mag, SF to 8,000 wds. Pays from 6 cents/wd. Science Fiction stories about colonies. How they do or don't survive, the challenges and rewards. No H/F/S&S. Prefers E-mail subs. Sim subs okay. RT E-mail 4-5 wks, snail 6-8 wks. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 29)] ALL-STAR ZEPPELIN ADVENTURE STORIES ANTHOLOGY Reading 1 January to 16 February 2004 [Print, Zeppelin stories 2,000 to 8,000 wds. Pays 5 cents/wd. to $400 max on accept. No E-mail subs. (GLs in Vol. 11 No. 12)] HIGHLIGHTS 2004 FICTION CONTEST Open 1 January to 29 February 2004 [Contest, Children's stories to 800 wds. (500 wds. for beginning readers). Three $1,000 prizes. No entry fee. Entrants 16 yrs and older. No reprints or E-mail subs. Entries returned Jun 04. (GLs in Vol. 11 No. 9)] FLYTRAP #3 Open 1 February to 15 March 2004 [Twice yearly printzine, slipstream/new weird, new space opera, mythic fiction/urban fantasy to 5,000 wds. Pays $10 per piece on pub. No reprints, mult, or sim subs. E-mail subs preferred. (GLs in Vol. 11 No. 11)] WRITERS OF THE FUTURE CONTEST, 2ND QUARTER 2004 Deadline 31 March 2004 [SF/F to 17,000 wds. $1000 1st, $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. 11 No. 11)] SAY. . . WHY AREN'T WE CRYING? Reading 1 November 2003 to 1 April 2004 [Semi-annual printzine, themed. Fic to 8,000 wds. Pays $10/piece. No sim, mult or electronic subs or reprints.] THE LICHFIELD PRIZE Deadline 30 April 2004 [Contest, unpub 1st novel, past, present or future, 80,000 to 120,000 wds. Prize L5,000 and chance to have novel pub by Times Warner Books. No entry fee. No reprints. (GLs in Vol. 11 No. 9)] CLOAKED IN SHADOW ANTHOLOGY Deadline 1 May 2004 [Antho, DF abt dark elves to 8,000 wds. Pays 1-3 cents/wd. on accept, as advance on pro rata share of 50% of royalties. No reprints, mult or E-mail subs. RT 3-6 wks. (GLs in Vol. 11 No. 9)] OCEANS OF THE MIND SUMMER 2004: SPIRITUAL SCIENCE FICTION Deadline 1 May 2004 [PDF themed magazine, SF to 8,000 wds. Pays from 6 cents/wd. No H/F/S&S. Prefers E-mail subs. Sim subs okay. RT E-mail 4-5 wks, snail 6-8 wks. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 29)] OCEANS OF THE MIND FALL 2004: SCIENCE FICTION MYSTERIES Deadline 1 August 2004 [PDF themed magazine, Robbery, murder, piracy, locked room SF to 8,000 wds. Pays from 6 cents/wd. No H/F/S&S. Prefers E-mail subs. Sim subs okay. RT E-mail 4-5 wks, snail 6-8 wks. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 29)] SUPERLUMINAL 1 ANTHOLOGY Deadline 31 October 2004 [Australian antho, SF and cross genre 3,000 to 30,000 wds. Pays 1/2 cent Australian on pub. Australian writers. (GLs in Vol. 11 No. 11)] DAIKAIJU ANTHOLOGY Deadline 30 November 2004 [Antho, giant monster stories to 12,000 wds. Pays Aus$30/story. Enquire for E-mail subs. GLs in Vol. 10 No. 31)] ----------------------------------------------------------------- ANTHOLOGY SUPERLUMINAL 1 [Australian antho, SF and cross genre 3,000 to 30,000 wds. Pays 1/2 cent Australian on pub. Australian writers. Reading 1 Nov 2003 to 31 Oct 2004.] Nigel Read, Editor Submissions and queries: superluminal1@bigpond.com =Superluminal 1= is a new science fiction anthology seeking submissions from Australian writers. Cross-genre stories (eg sf/whodunnit, sf/romance, sf/satire, sf/horror) will be considered, so long as the central premise for the story remains sfnal in some way and there are no fantasy elements in the story. Please do not submit stories in which the sf elements are merely setting. Of course, before anything else preference will be given to well-rounded stories: vivid settings and characters, pace, strong plots, interesting themes. Word length: From 3000 to 30,000 words. Longer stories must still be pacy and engaging. Please do not send padded, overwritten, or otherwise slow-paced stories. Payment: Half a cent (Australian) per word, paid on publication, plus a contributor's copy of the anthology. Rights purchased: First Australian Print Rights. Also, subsequent publication of stories published in =Superluminal 1= should not take place until twelve months after the original publication date (except in the case of the various "Year's Best" reprint anthologies), and =Superluminal 1= should be acknowledged as the original publisher. Submission of a story to =Superluminal 1= will be taken as acceptance of these rights and conditions. Reading period: From the beginning of November 2003 through to the end of October 2004. Submissions received outside this period will not be considered. Manuscript submission: Stories should be submitted as Rich Text Format (RTF) documents to: superluminal1@bigpond.com Publication: =Superluminal 1= will be launched at Swancon 2005. Queries: All queries should be addressed to the editor, Nigel Read, at: superluminal1@bigpond.com [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=178&show_all_t opics=0, 15 Oct 03] ----------------------------------------------------------------- CONTEST WRITERS OF THE FUTURE CONTEST [Quarterly contest, SF/F to 17,000 wds. $1,000 1st, $750 2nd, $500 3rd prize. Annual grand prize $4,000 additional. No entry fee. Deadlines 31 Dec, 31 Mar, 30 Jun, 30 Sep annually. New writers only. No reprints. Submit 1 ms. per quarter.] Opportunity for new and amateur writers of new short stories or novelettes of science fiction or fantasy. No entry fee is required. Entrants retain all publication rights. All awards are adjudicated by professional writers only. Prizes every three months: $1,000, $750, $500. Annual grand prize: $4,000 additional! Don't delay! Send your entry to: L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest P.O. Box 1630-JBW Los Angeles, CA 90078 1. No entry fee is required, and all rights in the story remain the property of the author. All types of science fiction, fantasy and horror with fantastic elements, are welcome. 2. All entries must be original works, in English. Plagiarism, which includes the use of third-party poetry, song lyrics, characters or another person's universe, without written permission will result in disqualification. Excessive violence or sex, determined by the judges, will result in disqualification. Entries may not have been previously published in professional media. 3. To be eligible, entries must be works of prose, up to 17,000 words in length. We regret we cannot consider poetry, or works intended for children. 4. The Contest is open only to those who have not had professionally published a novel or short novel, or more than one novelette, or more than three short stories, in any medium. Professional publication is deemed to be payment, and at least 5,000 copies, or 5,000 hits. 5. Entries must be typewritten or a computer printout in black ink on white paper, double spaced, with numbered pages. All other formats will be disqualified. Each entry must have a cover page with the title of the work, the author's name, address, telephone number, email address and an approximate word count. Every subsequent page must carry the title and a page number, but the author's name must be deleted to facilitate fair judging. 6. Manuscripts will be returned after judging only if the author has provided return postage on a self addressed envelope. If the author does not wish return of the manuscript, a #10 (business size) self-addressed, stamped envelope (or valid email address) must be included with the entry in order to receive judging results. 7. We accept only entries for which no delivery signature is required by us to receive them. 8. There shall be three cash prizes in each quarter: a First Prize of $1,000, a Second Prize of $750, and a Third Prize of $500, in U.S. dollars or the recipient's locally equivalent amount. In addition, at the end of the year the four First Place winners will have their entries re-judged, and a Grand Prize winner shall be determined and receive an additional $4,000. All winners will also receive trophies or certificates. 9. The Contest has four quarters, beginning on October 1, January 1, April 1 and July 1. The year will end on September 30. To be eligible for judging in its quarter, an entry must be postmarked no later than midnight on the last day of the quarter. 10. Each entrant may submit only one manuscript per quarter. Winners are ineligible to make further entries in the contest. 11. All entries for each quarter are final. No revisions are accepted. 12. Entries will be judged by professional authors. The decisions of the judges are entirely their own, and are final. 13. Winners in each quarter will be individually notified of the results by mail. 14. This contest is void where prohibited by law. (c) 1986 - 2003 L. Ron Hubbard Library. All rights reserved. [http://www.writersofthefuture.com/index2.htm] ----------------------------------------------------------------- MARKET GUIDELINES FLYTRAP [Twice yearly printzine, slipstream/new weird, new space opera, mythic fiction/urban fantasy to 5,000 wds. Pays $10 per piece on pub. Next open 1 Feb-15 Mar 04. No reprints, mult, or sim subs. E-mail subs preferred.] Heather Shaw, Editor P.O. Box 13222 Berkeley, CA 94712-4222 Submissions: heather@tropismpress.com http://www.tropismpress.com/flytrap.html Submission Guidelines =Flytrap #3= will open to submissions on February 1, 2004, and close to submissions on March 15, 2004. Fiction: Fiction submissions should be addressed to Heather Shaw, and sent to heather@tropismpress.com in the body of the e-mail. Up to 5,000 words; query if you have something longer that you think I'll adore. Slipstream/New Weird/New Space Opera/ mythic fiction/urban fantasy/etc. are smiled upon, but interesting mimetic fiction, metafictions, and experimental pieces are welcome, too. Traditional sword-and-sorcery, hard science fiction, Westerns, and mysteries are unlikely to find a home with us, however. No reprints, no multiple or simultaneous submissions. Poetry: Poetry submissions should be addressed to Tim Pratt, and sent to tim@tropismpress.com in the body of an e-mail, or attached as Word or .rtf documents. Any form, any style, any subject, but nothing over 100 lines. No reprints, no simultaneous submissions, multiple submissions okay (1 - 3 poems per submission). Other: We love essays, and articles, and esoterica, so feel free to send such things along. We're interested in literature, folklore, sex, love, estrangement, phobias, botany, wanderjahrs, cinema, misc. Not so interested in straight reportage. We like to hear the writer's voice. Send to tim@tropismpress.com, same methods as above. Query if you have artwork. We mostly supply our own (Heather's a dab hand with a camera, and we have a few artists we turn to for other things), but are willing to entertain intriguing opportunities. We wouldn't mind doing some comics, sometime. So, you know. Let us know if you have some. Snailspace, meatmail: If you hate, fear, despise, mildly dislike, or lack e-mail, send postal submissions to the appropriate editor at: P.O. Box 13222 Berkeley, CA 94712-4222 Include a self-addressed stamped envelope for our reply, or we will just laugh, and laugh, and make origami cranes from your pages. Payment: We pay $10 per piece, on publication, and a couple of copies. It's a small-press world out there; we just live in it. [http://www.tropismpress.com/guidelines.html] LUNA BOOKS [Novels, romance fantasy, 100,000-150,000 wds. Send synopsis and 3 sample chapters or entire ms. Sim subs okay.] Mary-Theresa Hussey, Executive Editor 233 Broadway Suite 1001 New York, NY 10279 212-553-4200 Powerful, alluring, mythic, elemental--magical. Luna Books delivers a compelling, female-focused fantasy with vivid characters, rich worlds, strong, sympathetic women and romantic subplots. Luna Books wants emotionally complex, sweeping stories that highlight the inner female power. Whether the heroine is on a quest to save the world--or someone or something important to her--discover her past or develop her own abilities, these stories are involving, gripping and sweep the reader away into a detailed, convincing world. They also contain romantic subplots that enhance the main story, but don't become the focus of the novel. Word Length: 100,000-150,000 Settings: Point of view: First, third, multiple--but predominately from the female characters Tone: Appropriate to the story Submissions: Detailed synopsis and three sample chapters, or complete manuscript if available. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable. If a previous editorial relationship in the company has been established, that can be continued--or feel free to submit to the editors below: Mary-Theresa Hussey, Executive Editor, 233 Broadway Suite 1001, New York, NY 10279; 212-553-4200 Kate Paice, Editor, Harlequin Mills & Boon, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR [http://www.hotkey.net.au/~melinda1/Luna.htm] [http://community.eharlequin.com/WebX?50@111.I3MQatyHcmZ.4@.2cb82 cc5/1] ----------------------------------------------------------------- MARKET INFORMATION ARGOSY Lou Anders, editor of =Argosy=, said, "Hey all, some quick good news! Here's the mini press release: "August 12, 2003 "Due to the immense support and demand for =Argosy=, we are pleased to announce that we are increasing our frequency from quarterly to bimonthly. A one year subscription to =Argosy= will now represent six issues instead of the earlier stated four. Subscriptions are available now at www.argosymag.com for $49.95 (roughly 35% off the Newsstand price). "Thank you for the support!" [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=178&m=1517&sho w_all_topics=0, 12 Aug 03] BLACK GATE John O'Neill, editor of =Black Gate= Magazine, said in response to a question about the state of the slush pile, "We've been inundated with several hundred queries on lost manuscripts following our disk crash, and I've been trying to sort those out first. It's something of a sad mess, I'm afraid. "In any event, I haven't forgotten physical slush, although it's suffered along with the rest of my schedule. We try hard to keep our response time to 3-5 months, but at the moment it's closer to 6. "We are making some progress on physical submissions, but not as much as I like. We are currently starting first-reading of June subs, and making final decisions on the last of those from May. I'll try and give regular slush reports here as we work our way through it in the next 2-3 months. "Finally, if you have a older submission that's older than about 6 months, it's probably time to contact us. We try to respond fairly quickly to queries, though we're a little more taxed than usual at the moment." [sff.publishing.black-gate-magazine, 7 Nov 03] Mr. O'Neill said, concerning series stories (someone said they read a story in a known milieu first because they enjoyed the first one), "Boy, you've hit on a fundamental truth there. "Although there are a few magazines that still do the occasional series (=Asimov's=, for example, with Kage Baker's Company stories), in general the classic fantasy serial - in the manner of the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, or even Conan, say - seems to have fallen out of vogue. There's nothing I'd like better than for =Black Gate= to become a home for a new generation of exciting fantasy short series. "The next few issues should make a good start. We'll have the next installments of Bill Johnson's great virtual-gaming epic (begun in "Mama Told me not to Come," issue #4), Don Bassingthwaite's terrific S&S-inspired series of Cacia and the Northmen (sequel to "Barbarian Instinct" in #5), and a new tale of Iain Rowan's reluctant Chinese exorcist, featured in our current lead story, "Looking for Goats, Finding Monkeys." "We also have draft sequels in-house for both of Todd McAulty's stories, "The Haunting of Cold Harbour" and "There's a Hole in October." I've purchased three stories in a splendid new adventure fantasy series from new author James M. Pfundstein, and the first installment of a proposed series from Judith Berman. "And of course we've already published two stories set in Harry James Connolly's world of Pald, both praised as reminiscent of the classic series work of Jack Vance." [sff.publishing.black-gate-magazine, 15 Nov 03] A writer on sff.net got a rejection from John O'Neill saying he gets too many fairy tales. [sff.writing.response-times, 22 Nov 03] More on the magazine and slush pile from John O'Neill: "It has been quiet - partly due to the Thanksgiving weekend, I think (I took 5 days off, and didn't even read e-mail.) Slush reading has been a bit slower than usual, in part because we received a really excellent batch of novellas all at once... statistically odd, but it made for enjoyable reading over the weekend. "We've finalized the fiction for the next issue, and just received Rich Horton's big article on =Planet Stories= (thanks Rich!). I just completed most of the edits on Don Bassingthwaite's big Kalamar novel excerpt, which is really terrific - I think everyone who enjoyed his s&s piece in issue #5 will really love "Point of the Knife." I'll spend the next few weeks doing a final read of the novel itself before we send it off to Kenzer & Co, and assigning the last of the art for #7. "I'm currently reading physical slush from July 17th. We advertise a response rate of 3-5 months, and we're running at the late end of that spectrum at the moment (about 4.5 months), so my goal is to close the gap to about 2 months before wrapping up this reading period. "As usual, we are still holding a small number of pre-July submissions under consideration (roughly a dozen at last count). In an ideal world, these are subs I would buy immediately... however, we do have a limited budget, and can't afford to hold more than about 2.5 issues worth of fiction inventory. Accordingly, I'm forced to hold these subs until the end of the reading period, when we select the best mix of fiction (Note to writers: this is where it pays to be original in setting and concept... no matter how good your Arthurian Quest story may be, I'm not going to buy more than one an issue). "If you've got a physical sub out there that's aged well past 4.5 months, it wouldn't hurt to drop me a note to make sure we've still got it." [sff.publishing.black-gate-magazine, 10 Dec 03] CIRCLET PRESS Cecilia Tan, editor at Circlet Press, said, "Hello authors, friends, colleagues, etc... forgive this impersonal email especially if you get this more than once. But I have just suffered a hard drive crash that wiped out my email address book and also about two months worth of unread email that was awaiting my attention on my machine. Yes, I have backups of most things, but not anything email related, unfortunately. And I've been on the road so much the past month or so that I had quite a backlog of unread mail that has been blown away. "If you've emailed me before now anytime in the past six months and haven't gotten a reply, chances are at this point that I will never be seeing your message so please do send it again. (Approximately 700 unread messages were nuked.) Please feel free to pass this information on to people you know who know me, as with the loss of my email address book I know I am not reaching everyone. "One of the archives that was wiped out was the entirety of the email submissions which Circlet has received in 2003. A few of them were replied to, most of them were not. I FINALLY decide to start accepting email submissions, and what happens? Poof! Murphy's law in action. If you have sent anything recently (since April 15th this year) please send it again to editorial@circlet.com -- thanks. "Also wiped out in the crash were the updated author bios I have been saving up for the omnibus edition of SM Pasts/SM Futures. I will ask for them again soon." [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=291&show_all_t opics=0, 4 Nov 03] CLOAKED IN SHADOW ANTHOLOGY A writer on sff.net, concerned about some of the rights that the anthology "Cloaked in Shadow" wished to keep, E-mailed the editor and got the following response: "The in perpetuity refers to the fact that our anthologies are being produced using POD technology and could in theory be in print forever. I doubt this will actually happen, but we are reserving the right to keep them in print indefinitely. You will of course, continue to receive royalties throughout the life of the book. "You would still be free to shop the story around for reprint markets and you could include it in a collection. We are not purchasing the copyright to your world or any of your characters, so you could continue to write further stories in that world and publish them wherever you see fit. "Thanks again for your interest in "Cloaked in Shadow!" "Best wishes, William Horner" [sff.people.julie-czerneda, 27 Oct 03] Another writer on sff.net responded, "POD [print on demand] books should have a time limit after which you can withdraw from the contract with a defined period of notice, or else define how many books sold per year defines "in print," below which the rights revert. I can't say I'm sure how this translates to a short story collection--ie, what's a reasonable take on it--but it makes me uneasy to have any POD book around without those restrictions. Possibly this is because I'm used to dealing with novels, and the ramifications are different, so someone with more short story experience might have better words of wisdom. "However, if you're allowed to shop the story around for reprints, there should be a clause saying at what point you can do so." [sff.people.julie-czerneda, 26 Oct 03] DNA PUBLICATIONS When a writer on sff.net asked which DNA Publications magazines were currently open to submissions, Warren Lapine, Publisher, answered, "AbsMag [=Absolute Magnitude=] and DOD [=Dreams of Decadence=] are currently closed to submissions. I suspect AM will reopen before DOD. All others are open. =Weird Tales= is now bi-monthly." [sff.publishing.dnapublications, 3 Nov 03] DRAGONS, KNIGHTS, AND ANGELS MAGAZINE From the website: Dear readers, I have good news for the holiday season. For some time now we've been working toward getting the magazine into a print format. We believe the time has come to take that step, and hope you, our faithful readers, will support this move. =Dragons, Knights, and Angels: The Magazine of Christian Fantasy and Science Fiction=, will continue to be published on a quarterly schedule, and starting in March, it will come out in 8 1/2 x 11 format available through subscription only. The website will contain information about the stories that will be in each issue. We will also keep the Heaven Sent cartoons running one each month online, and our announcements page to keep you updated when new books are released in the field. The Knights N Daze cartoons will be included in the print magazine along with our usual stories and poems. Each issue will be $5.99, or you can subscribe for a whole year for $20.00. From now until the end of December 2003 we'll be running a special discount. Anyone who subscribes, and mails the money to us, during this time, can get a full year of =DKA Magazine= for only $16.00. We think you'll enjoy having issues of this magazine that you can actually hold in your hand and keep so you can read your favorite stories over and over again. This is a great time of year to share this magazine with friends and family as Christmas gifts. This move is important to the magazine. The publishers can't keep paying for it out of their own pocket. =DKA Magazine= needs enough revenue to become solvent and continue to grow and expand, bringing you the best in Christian science fiction and fantasy. We hope you're as excited as we are about this move and will take time to subscribe now so you won't miss a single issue. Rebecca Shelley, Editor [www.dkamagazine.net] ELYSIAN FICTION Jim Bailey, editor of =Elysian Fiction=, said, "Just finished with the 2nd read pile of stories that date up to 6/30/03, and I've made all the final decisions. Counting stories already accepted and/or under contract, I have 18 stories that I'd like to publish containing just under 106,000 words. Given the time I've taken, I expect there may be a couple+ that get away to lost contact or the author having moved on, but that would be ok. "Replies will be going out over the next 2-3 days, and I hope to ship out contracts and payments next week and get started on production of #5. Some of the accepted stories will carry over to #6. "Now I have stories that have piled up since 7/1/03 to read through, which numbers just over 60 at last count, which should be enough to at least fill out #6, if not a bit more. "But man, I had to cut loose some *good* stories, and I hope some of those find a good home." [sff.publishing.elysian-fiction, 4 Dec 03] Later, he added, "An update. I'm in the middle of a reply binge that I hope will get most of what's left of my backlog done tonight/this morning. However, I've found out that AOL is blocking my hosting company (Spire) from sending mail to AOL members, so I'll have to go back later and probably reply to those authors via my own AOL account (jamesab5@aol.com). I'll be putting "Elysian Fiction reply" as the first bit of subj: so hopefully these mails won't get reflexively deleted by the recipients as an unknown sender/message. "This is a pain in the ass, because Spire hosting is quite a bit more clueful on the spam front than AOL, and it's unlikely that they're allowing free reign to spammers that would warrant a blacklisting. I've contacted both companies so that their techs can hash things out, but I'm not sure whether this will get resolved quickly, if at all..." And then, "Time to go to work now, but I made good progress, and I only have just a few more from the pre-6/30/03 batch left to go. I did just go ahead and reply to AOL addresses from my own account there, since I'll be able to check receiving status directly." [sff.publishing.elysian-fiction, 22 Dec 03] LUNA BOOKS A writer on the Speculations Rumor Mill said, "Apparently Harlequin is starting a new fantasy line called "Luna," which might be worth looking into. There doesn't seem to be anything on their website about it yet, but word on the grapevine is they've signed Catherine Asaro and Mercedes Lackey." [See guidelines above.] [21 Oct 03] METASTATIC WHATNOT A writer on sff.net said of =Metastatic Whatnot=, "I sent off an inquiry last week, and got a response back today. They say they're currently going through the backlog, and that I should get their decision within a week. I don't know if that means that they'll be getting all decisions out that quickly, but there you go." [sff.writing.response-times, 23 Nov 03] PARADOX Chris Cevasco, editor of =Paradox=, posted this on the =Paradox= message board at SFReader: "Currently Overstocked on Speculative Submissions! Until April 1, 2004, =Paradox= will only be accepting submissions of pure historical fiction. If you have a fantasy, science fiction, or horror tale you think might fit the guidelines below, please hold off on sending it until April 1, 2004. Speculative fiction received before that time (and postmarked after today) will unfortunately have to be returned or rejected unread." [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=291&show_all_t opics=0, 17 Nov 03] REALMS OF FANTASY Carina Gonzalez, Editorial Assistant at =Realms of Fantasy=, said, "It is confirmed that the new batch has been picked up! I will begin reading the manuscripts Thursday afternoon. Good luck to all!" [sff.publishing.realms-of-fantasy, 17 Dec 03] SAY... Christopher Rowe, editor of =Say...=, said, "Everybody says this, but please, if you haven't seen an issue of =Say...= please read one in advance of submission. Buy one, borrow one from a friend, whatever. "And I neglected to mention that we'll be converting to a perfect bound format with issue #4. "As has been announced before (and elsewhere) the reading period for the fourth issue of =Say...= is now open and will close April 1st. I refer you to ralan.com's excellent listings for our guidelines and address. Theme question this time around is "...why aren't we crying?" which was originally designed to reflect the current US political situation but of course we'll interpret much more broadly than that. "I've just sent Ralan an e-mail about this, but there are a couple of changes in our guidelines as of this issue. (1) Since we now use full color covers, we can look at color artwork samples. (2) We pay a flat US$10 to all contributors (that's only a very slight and technical change). As of this morning, we now pay on acceptance instead of "around" publication. "As always, we'd greatly dig seeing more comics. And while we stand by our pledge to make absolutely no editorial decisions based upon anything but the merits of the submission, we were absolutely delighted to see that the TOC of our most recent issue (#3, available via PayPal at www.lcrw.net or by sending me five bucks in the mail, see Ralan's for details) reversed the usual gender balance in genre magazines--or in fiction magazines in general for that matter--with 9 women and 6 men. Diversity rocks. "And if any of our subscribers or issue #3 contributors see this, copies and payments will drop into the mailstream starting Monday or Tuesday." [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=291&show_all_t opics=0, 8 Nov 03] SCRYBE PRESS Nathan Barker said, "Scrybe Press is now accepting submissions of short fiction in the horror, fantasy or science fiction genres. We are looking for work between 1500 and 50,000 words at this time but we will consider submissions of stories outside those guidelines if appropriate. "At the current time, we are accepting submissions from authors with at least 1 published sale or membership in either the HWA or SFWA. Unpublished authors who wish to submit work for consideration must obtain permission first (please email editor@scrybepress.com "NOTE: We are only accepting submissions electronically at this time. If you wish to submit a story for consideration, please email editor@scrybepress.com with your name, story title, genre (roughly), word count, and very brief synopsis, with the subject 'Intent to Submit:' and the story title. Then, email the submission as a separate email with the subject 'Submission:' and the story title with the document attached. Our preferred format is .doc or .rtf. Other formats are acceptable but please ask first. We ask for the double email to help insure that we are receiving all submissions properly and that we have the necessary information. You do not need to await a response between the preliminary email ('Intent to Submit') and the followup ('Submission') "We will respond to all submissions within 1 week and will accept or reject within 1 month of receipt. "What we are looking for: Strong, character driven fiction. We like supernatural horror (no serial killers or 'real-life' horror), urban and heroic fantasy, and most any kind of science fiction... We intend to have a strong web presence and also print many medium length works in a small mass-market format (70-150 pages) or chapbook. Our intent is to revive interest in shorter fiction, to give authors a venue to publish shorter fiction outside the young adult or magazine market and to work with strong short fiction authors to develop a style and a body of known work outside of the large novel format. Our intent is to ISBN and publish all accepted works in the author's name. We are not a magazine or anthology publisher. Stories shorter than 64 pages may be printed as a chapbook or other similar format. All stories will be published electronically as well as in print. We are buying First Worldwide Electronic Rights and First Worldwide paperback print rights (English only) for a period of 5 years exclusive. "We have a well-known e-book distributor and we have print distribution channels as well. We are paying a nominal 'contract' fee of at least $25 (more depending on length of the work) plus 15% royalties on both print and electronic sales. Note that the contract fee is not an advance against royalties. Royalty payments begin with the first sale in either medium. "If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at any time. We look forward to working with you!" [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=291&show_all_t opics=0, 11 Nov 03] STORIES THAT (SHOULDA, WOULDA, COULDA) WON THE HUGO Kathy Wentworth, first reader for The Writers of the Future contest, said, "I emailed the editor of the anthology listed below and asked if he would include winners and finalists who have attended the Writers of the Future workshop in those eligible to submit work. He said he would. Stories That (shoulda, woulda, Coulda) Won the Hugo - print and/or e-antho; big idea Hugo sf/f (fic); open only to Clarion/Odyssey/Gunn's Workshop grads. Pay: Royalties + 1/2 - 3 cents/word ($100 max.). Words: no limits. RT: reasonable. Reprints: no. E-subs: only. Trent Walters, Editor. Deadline: when filled "You can find more information on Ralan.com, if you're interested." [sff.writing.writersofthefuture, 5 Dec 03] STRANGE HORIZONS Jed Hartman, one of the fiction editors for =Strange Horizons=, said, "=SH= status update: "The =Strange Horizons= fiction department has now responded to everything submitted before 21 September 2003. If you sent us a story on or before 20 September and haven't heard back from us, please query. (If you submitted on or after 21 September, and you received an autoresponse saying that we'd received the story, then please don't query yet.) "Feel free to distribute this information to anyone who might be interested." [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=291&show_all_t opics=0, 10 Nov 03] The following editorial appeared on the =Strange Horizons= website. "Qualified Professional," by Susan Marie Groppi 11/17/03 If we're asking for your money, it's only fair to tell you what we're going to use it for. You already know that we're not using it to pay staff salaries. We're also not using it for renting office space, printing and shipping magazines, hiring receptionists, or buying paperclips. So what are we doing with it? As you can probably guess, we have some incidental expenses -- web hosting, tea parties, sending out review copies of books, that kind of thing -- but the bulk of our budget goes to paying our contributors. And the bulk of that money goes to paying for fiction. In every other department, we pay a flat rate for contributors. We pay twenty-five dollars for each poem we publish, fifty dollars for each article, twenty dollars for each review, and seventy-five dollars for each story illustration. (Full submission guidelines and information can be found here.) In the fiction department, though, we pay by the word, which is generally standard in speculative fiction. For the last couple of years, we've been paying four cents a word. Starting in January, we'll be increasing that to five cents a word. One might ask why, in the middle of asking for more money, we're increasing our fiction budget by twenty percent. The answer has a lot to do with what it means to "pay professional rates" to our contributors. Within the sometimes-murky world of short fiction publishing, it's common to categorize magazines as either professional, semi-pro, or amateur. Magazines like =Asimov's= and =Realms of Fantasy= are generally considered "professional" markets, while magazines like =Interzone= and =The Third Alternative= are seen as "semi-pro," and something like =Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet= would be considered "amateur." Before I go into any more detail about what those distinctions mean, I want to point out one very important thing: the divisions are mostly business-related, and are generally more important to writers than to readers. As a reader, you can probably find quality fiction in the better semi-pro and amateur publications just as easily as you can in the professional publications. In fact, depending on what your particular tastes are, you might be more likely to find what you're looking for outside of the professional publications. When I talk about pro and semi-pro magazines, I'm making a distinction based on publishing practices, not on the quality of the magazine. That said, then, what makes a magazine professional (rather than semi-pro), and who cares? In speculative fiction publishing, the definition of a professional publication is set by the two professional organizations for writers: the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and the Horror Writers of America (HWA). Since =Strange Horizons= doesn't really publish horror fiction, I'll focus mainly on the SFWA guidelines. Before SFWA will consider a magazine to be a "qualifying professional market," it must have been publishing regularly for some period of time, be able to demonstrate circulation or readership numbers above a certain level, and pay above a certain minimum pay rate. (Full guidelines available here.) =Strange Horizons= was among the first online magazines to formally qualify with SFWA as a professional market. If you go look at the SFWA guidelines, you'll notice that they've changed recently. For a very long time, the minimum pay rate for fiction was three cents a word, but starting on 1 January, it will be five cents a word. It's a big change, but it's one that needed to happen. The minimum pay rate for short fiction publishing hadn't changed in decades, and three cents a word is just too low. That's what =Strange Horizons= paid for fiction at the magazine's launch, but we raised the rate to four cents a word as soon as we were sure our budget could accommodate it, and we've had plans in place to raise the rate again within a couple of years. We're raising them now, ahead of schedule, in order to keep pace with the SFWA requirements. This is one of the reasons this fund drive is so important, though -- raising the pay rates ahead of schedule has thrown our budget a little bit off-track. We're raising our fiction budget by twenty percent, and we're doing it with very little lead time. If we can't raise enough money to make up the difference, we may have to take some kind of corrective action, such as running a few weeks of reprints instead of original fiction. This isn't something that we'd prefer to do, but we felt that this was the best of our available options. Which brings us to the next part of the question: who cares? Why does it matter if we're a SFWA-qualified professional market? The answer is that it doesn't, really, not to us as a magazine. Paying competitive rates for fiction certainly helps us bring better quality fiction to our readers, but we would still have been competitive at four cents a word. We've found, though, that SFWA qualification is important to our writers. Part of our mission statement, after all, is to encourage new writers and to help the speculative fiction community as a whole. If we continue to be a SFWA-qualified professional market, then we continue to help our authors become SFWA members, which will bring them some measure of professional standing and recognition in the community. (Not to mention the right to vote on the Nebula awards.) We firmly believe that the writers published in =Strange Horizons= are among the best and brightest the speculative fiction community has to offer, so we believe that we're doing right by both the writers and the community to keep our status as a SFWA-pro magazine. The publication standards set by SFWA are based on market considerations. As a non-profit magazine with an explicit mission to serve the community, market considerations aren't our primary concern at =Strange Horizons=. We've gone to some great lengths to make sure we're meeting what we consider professional standards in a variety of other ways -- our contracts are very writer-friendly, we make every effort to pay our contributors promptly and fairly, and we strive in every way to treat both our writers and our readers with respect. Right now, meeting our goals means raising our pay rates, and we hope you'll help us make that possible. Copyright (c) 2003 Susan Marie Groppi [http://www.strangehorizons.com/] SUPERLIMINAL 1 Nigel Read, editor of =Superliminal 1=, said, "=Superluminal 1= [Australian anthology for Australian writers] now has a web presence: http://www.users.bigpond.com/saxonblue2003/ superluminal1/" [See guidelines above] http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=178&show_all_to pics=0, 16 Oct 03] WRITERS OF THE FUTURE Kathy Wentworth, first reader for the Writers of the Future contest, said, "Rachel is our Contest Administrator and she's agreed to send me news for this group on a regular basis--so keep watching this space! "Today's news is the list of winners for the Third Quarter [2003]-- First Place: Matthew Champine of Ada, OK Second Place: Roxanne Hutton of South Burlington, VT Third Place: Tom Pendergrass of Huntsville, AL "Congrats to all the winners! "Also, Rachel says new WoTF rules are being printed. Folks can email name and address to get a copy, or send an SASE to the contest address. We are still accepting dark fantasy, but no longer looking at horror." [sff.writing.writersofthefuture, 16 Nov 03] Ms. Wentworth continued, "I emailed Rachel today to tell her that I'm sending the finalists her way tomorrow and she says she's in the process of returning stories right this very minute. Be watching the skies." [sff.writing.writersofthefuture, 3 Dec 0] Kathy Wentworth said, "Things not to do, when submitting to Writers of the Future, or anywhere else, for that matter. 1. Don't start a story with someone waking up. At least one out of every five of the stories we see begin this way. Kristine Kathryn Rusch, when she was editor of FASF, thought new writers use this device because that's the way we start each day, so the subconscious thinks that's a good way to start a story. Using it doesn't mean you'll never sell the story, but it hurts your chances to be taken seriously." She continued, "Nancy Kress was telling a story back at the first Chicon I attended, not the most recent, about how she was telling a Clarion class that you should never write an Adam and Eve story because they had been done to death. Then she got a killer Adam and Eve idea, wrote it, and sold it to an anthology. "The moral of the story, she said, was that there's always exceptions to the rule, but you're stacking the odds against yourself if you don't follow the rules at the beginning of your career. I doubt she could have gotten that story read before she'd built up her reputation. "I'm not saying there won't be some "waking up" stories in the finalists I pick out, just that the chances lessen that I'll read on, every time I see that on the first page. "Other things I see a lot: The character wakes up, has no idea who he/she is or how she/he got there, then realizes she/he is both naked and being tortured." [sff.writing.writersofthefuture, 8 Dec 03] ----------------------------------------------------------------- ONLINE MARKET INFORMATION Quintamid Market Database: http://www.quintamid.com/q/mdb/list There's a quickmatch search, so you can find, say, only markets that take science fiction up to 10,000 words. This is a new database, a working version, and the author is gathering bug reports, and will be adding/changing data as time goes on. ----------------------------------------------------------------- SLUSH ARTICLE editor@sfreader.com said, "We've posted a terrific article giving the "inside scoop" on the submission piles of the major and small press SF pubs. Click over to read Christopher Stires' informative survey of the SF slush -- with insight from some of the most prominent editors working in the field. "Available ONLY at SFReader.com" http://www.sfreader.com/article004.asp ***************************************************************** * * * "English doesn't borrow from other languages - English * * follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over * * and goes through their pockets for loose grammar." * * -- J. Nicoll * * * ***************************************************************** ==End of the CALLIHOO Newsletter for 6 January 2004==