The W1S1 Check-in and Chill Lounge and Bar

Hello,

You all look very productive here. I'm new to sending out short stories to magazines, but I write mainly science fiction/ fantasy / fairy tales and have been finishing off stories to sub out. My second story, although rejected, came back with reasons why they weren't going to publish it, which I was overjoyed about. Weird being so happy with a rejection.

I have one story out on sub to Cafe Irreal, and seven I am editing which I hope to submit.

I'm hoping to read lots of success stories here which will hopefully spur me on to being more productive.

Good luck and well done everyone!

AliceWrites said:

Hello,

You all look very productive here. I'm new to sending out short stories to magazines, but I write mainly science fiction/ fantasy / fairy tales and have been finishing off stories to sub out. My second story, although rejected, came back with reasons why they weren't going to publish it, which I was overjoyed about. Weird being so happy with a rejection.

I have one story out on sub to Cafe Irreal, and seven I am editing which I hope to submit.

I'm hoping to read lots of success stories here which will hopefully spur me on to being more productive.

Good luck and well done everyone!

Click to expand...

It's not weird to get pumped up by a personal rejection. The advice can be helpful and it's proof that your work isn't being rejected by robots. Good luck with the editing.

I finally got some submissions out today. The count's now at 5, the highest in some time.

Welcome, Alice Writes. That's great about the helpful rejection. I treasure those, too.

Brandon, congrats on the new subs.

Filigree, Thanks. I finished the first article for the new client. Took extra time on it as it's an audition. Enjoyed it despite the performance pressure, and have the second one in progress. Happy to have new work. I have a lot more energy when I'm into what I'm doing.

Check in!

I still feel like I'm just treading water rather than progressing with anything, but it's an oddly more content treading water. Because I finished my trilogy drafts, I've not been doing so much new writing, but there are some titbits that will hopefully turn into awesome stories when I edit them. Still, I'm slowing working through chapter edits on the first book. Nearing the end of the third draft, and I think one more (mostly focused on the first half) and I'll be ready to query.

I'm a very slow editor. I had a spare day and I spent all day editing one really short chapter. I don't know how people do three or more a day!

Batspan's drabbles inspired me to write some of my own, which has been a fun and challenging distraction.

Tamlyn,

Welcome back. Congrats on keeping at the trilogy and trying some drabbles. They were new for me and a lot of fun.

I edited the first three chapters of my Gothic horror novel this morning -- they're short chapters, Tamlyn -- so the third draft is underway and I'm on schedule. Mostly fine-tuning and adding transitions/context where needed.

I'm leaving the fact-checking for the end as I'm prone to going nuts on historical details and I want to remain focused on the characters, pacing and story. I also want to publish it this fall at the latest instead of several years from now.

Still copywriting six days a week, yet managing to take a couple hours off for adventures here and there to renew my energy. I had to move my day off a day late because of the new NF writing gig, yet it's worth it.

Finally back on the W1S1 train.

I've spent two weeks lazily revising and re-revising that piece ACFantasy beta'd for me, knowing I've got to get the ending nailed down before it goes out. Today, though, I bucked up, revised and re-subbed two flash pieces and a fantasy short.

Combined with my entry into the C.C. Finlay F&SF lottery (queue position 659!), that means I've got four out on sub, with one short nearly ready to go back out and just one piece languishing. Also came up with a new setting I'm really intrigued by, but don't have a *plot* for it yet.

Onward. Upward.

Peace
Ty

Thanks for the welcome to this thread. I now have no stories out on sub, having just received my last story back with a form rejection.

I have to edit some stories before sending out again.

Batspan - editing three chapters is a huge task for me. At the moment, I've set myself the task of one per week, alongside editing the short stories.

zanzjan - hope you had a great time in London doing the touristy and sight-seeing things. (And you have a safe journey home!)

Where do I go to obsess over the movement on the CC Finlay F&SF sub manager? Movement! (Not to mention his pinned tweet about finding a great story in the slush. Let's all assume it's our own.)

Thanks, Zanzjan, just being neurotic, definitely not middling it, tho. Just finally seeing change to the queue.

BethanyCM said:

Thanks, Zanzjan, just being neurotic, definitely not middling it, tho. Just finally seeing change to the queue.

Click to expand...

Hahaha. Me too! I've been checking every day since subs closed and just now I was like "OMG! I'm at 146 instead of 153!!11!!" Now I'll be fighting the urge to check it constantly.

The agent has two of my novels out on submission. Apparently now is not a good time to be trying to sell anything steampunk, but we're still pushing The Steampunk Novel. And now he has the Renaissance Fantasy Novel too.

In the meantime, I'm slowly starting to work on something new. A kind of a YA Southern Gothic fantasy thing. With series potential. Because apparently my brain doesn't like stand-alones. Still chewing on the SF Western and the Magicpunk Novel, but they're not ready to be written quite yet.

Aggy, would really love to get three novels written this year

Aggy B. said:

Hahaha. Me too! I've been checking every day since subs closed and just now I was like "OMG! I'm at 146 instead of 153!!11!!" Now I'll be fighting the urge to check it constantly.

Click to expand...

56 down to 49 here. Not that I'm obsessively checking or anything. No, not at all.

Submitted to Phobos' 'Troublemake' issue. Back up to seven submissions out, at 4 magazines and two anthologies all told.

I thought I'd jump in with my completely newbie questions. My novels aren't ready for submission, because I basically wrote them in a cave, and they're WAY too long, so I'm working on cutting them.

To keep my sanity while I do this, I've been writing shorts, because I seem to need to write something and the revising may take longer than writing. (Surprisingly painful, too, even though I like my stories better afterward.)

But I don't know squat about publishing shorts. I mean, I checked websites and submission formats and all, but nothing really in terms of strategy. Do I just pick the most prestigious of the bunch, say F&SF, hoping that someone will just LOVE my story, or do I aim for a middling one, hoping to get anything published so I can get my name out there? I'd settle for token payment, like Every Day Fiction (I thing that's the title), but I don't want to publish for free. Somebody's making money off this; it seems like they can at least toss me a few bucks.

Or is that the wrong attitude to take? And how do you know you're ready to submit? Is it when most of the comments in SYW are positive? Maybe the people who could shred it just haven't popped in to view. How long do I wait for this?

Sorry there's so many questions, and nobody here has any particular reason to like me yet. Feel free to address them or not as you like, and I'll be happy to return favors if possible. Heaven knows I'm no help with the stuff I just asked about, but I've been told my critiques are helpful, if anybody has something they'd like me to look at.

Re: short stories:

My personal view is to start at the highest markets, especially at the ones that respond very quickly such as Lightspeed and Clarkesworld. What have you got to lose? If it gets rejected, you can always send it to a mid-tier one later.

I would also advise considering Crossed Genres. They guarantee that each month they will publish at least one author with no prior professional sales, so if you've never sold anything at professional rates, you're eligible. They respond pretty quickly (end of the month following your submission).

While I am hugely pro-CP (critique partners), beta readers and the like, I don't think you should leave your decisions up to anyone else, even when it comes to being ready. I think collaboration is crucial but I think you have to make the big calls.

As to the other questions, I'm sure people will be all over the board (and understandably so) on how you should strategize subbing. But as with the agent search, I don't submit anywhere I don't want to be. This is my intended career, I am in constant research/stay informed mode and I have decided to stray from advice when I feel it's the right move for my career - and insofar as it isn't something non-negotiable like manuscript format (wingdings is not an appropriate font and it never will be ....or will it) or something that reflects poorly on me as a writer taking the industry seriously.

Only so much to say before I'm posting a book, so I'll let others chime in.

Subbed my second story for the month. I'm up to 8 active at 6 markets. Should be hearing back about two of them by the end of the month. Here's hoping!

Aggy B. said:

Hahaha. Me too! I've been checking every day since subs closed and just now I was like "OMG! I'm at 146 instead of 153!!11!!" Now I'll be fighting the urge to check it constantly.

Click to expand...

I'm at 191. That's down from 192 when I started reading this thread.

Hi, CathleenT. You're in the right place to learn. Hey, at least you have novels and are revising them - that's a huge step up from all the folks who just daydream about writing. As far as shorts markets: read sample magazines if you can, and aim high.

I can also recommend Crossed Genres. They just recently became a SFWA-qualifier market, and their staff seems honest and professional. A friend of mine sold an anthology story to them - then turned around and had another story accepted in his first sub to Analog. So the quality is there at CG if you can fit their themes.

Other topic: has anyone heard back yet from 'The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk'? Submissions window closed on August 1, I believe.

In one of those funks, have been all week, haven't written all week which sucks because I feel it. I do have about a dozen subs out there, though. But still, sigh.

Inspiration has struck for a novella about gay wizards. Or maybe it's a short story. Either one...

3rd story written and subbed for this month, bringing me up to nine outstanding. This also means I've written 14 stories so far this year. I'm still 2 behind where I want to be, but if I keep up my pace of 3/month, I should be caught up by October.

I may be able to finish a round of edits and get one of my earlier stories in by the end of the month, which would push me up to double digits in terms of submissions for the first time. Here's hoping!

V1c said:

In one of those funks, have been all week, haven't written all week which sucks because I feel it. I do have about a dozen subs out there, though. But still, sigh.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been like that for a while now too. Maybe try to write some flash fiction or a different genre than normal?

@ACFantasy: Nice job getting all those subs out there.

I'm gathering this is where we check in and hold ourselves accountable for progress?

I posted a new flash piece in fantasy SYW based on this week's prompt, hooded. Did some research on places to submit. I was thinking about Cicada, the YA branch of cricket for my Chinese girl story. I'm probably going to wimp and call it Mei Li because I can't think of anything else.

Has anybody submitted to Cicada, or do you know anything about it? All I know is I used to like reading Cricket to my kids and they pay up to 25 cents a word. I don't get that up to, though. Why don't they just say what they pay?