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Izz

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There's Criminal Element, run by the same people who run tor.com, and with similar response times, judging by duotrope.

Mixer Publishing is open to crime and mystery stuff, too. Apparently Scout & Engineer is also, if i'm reading their guidelines correctly (which i'm probably not, because they seem excessively fond of large words that don't mean a helluva lot). At least they reply quickly.

Over My Dead Body is a crime/mystery only venue, but they want queries first.

There's also Washington Pastime, Strand Magazine (long response times, iirc), Untied Shoelaces of the Mind, Short-Story.Me.
 

Prisoner24601

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For those better versed in the Writers of the Future contest: I submitted a story on the twenty-ninth of June and still haven't heard anything. Have I been somehow lost in the shuffle?

Yeah, you definitely have. The contest runs on a quarterly basis. You submitted in Q3 (end of June) so you should've heard something by the middle to end of Q4 (July-September). I'd send them an email to find out if they even got it, because I bet they didn't.
 

MeretSeger

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GCU, as you noted in another post, there are few crime/mystery short fiction markets.

If it could be considered "noir"-ish, there's a publication called Noir Nation. They pay $100/story which is decent for all but particularly long shorts. BUT, they're currently temporarily closed for subs and I have no idea when they're reopening.

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine is out there. BUT, they take a very long time to respond and -- unless something has changed in the six months since I last sent them anything other than a contest entry -- they're paper subs only.

Someone suggested Comets & Criminals already; Stupefying Stories also takes crime/mystery stories.

And, really, that's about it.

I love mystery short fiction, but I'm trying to avoid spending too much energy on it because there are just so few markets out there.

Noir Nation is biennial, and they state they will reopen in "late 2012". And AHMM is still paper.
 

Izz

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New Story Submission Excitement Glee!

Ah, the ole sending-a-fresh-story-out-the-door-on-its-very-first-sub rush.

It wasn't the novelette, either. So, that gives me 10 stories and 5 poems doing the rounds. Got my 5th R for the year today, too, and sent that story skidding out the door already.

Now for sleep.
 

defcon6000

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Sent my story in for Dark Faith antho. :yessmiley

So did some fiddling with my Shock Totem story, changed it over to 1st-person (no love for 2nd-person, it seems :(), and was wondering if anyone wanted to do a crit trade.
 

mhaynes

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Noir Nation is biennial, and they state they will reopen in "late 2012". And AHMM is still paper.

Good to know about the Noir Nation schedule.

I'm slightly amazed AHMM has stayed paper with all three other magazines from that publisher having gone to e-subs.
 

Lillie

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I sent mine 4 days ago.
I haven't had any kind of confirmation for it.

There's no acknowledgement stat on Duo, so maybe they don't send one.

Good luck with yours :)
 

Prisoner24601

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There's no acknowledgement stat on Duo, so maybe they don't send one.

I don't think that they do. I sent mine in on the 14th and never got one.

And wow... there are a lot of subs reported for that antho market, lol. Good luck, everyone.
 

defcon6000

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I don't think that they do. I sent mine in on the 14th and never got one.

And wow... there are a lot of subs reported for that antho market, lol. Good luck, everyone.
Not surprised. The first antho was highly publicized, made the rounds, and was even nominated for a few awards, I believe. So of course everyone wants to be in it!

Would be cool if a few of us made it into it.

Well heck. My cat died yesterday and I missed my deadline. I need an extension!
Aww. :( Sorry about your cat (even though I'm not a cat person). :Hug2:
 

gettingby

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If the goal is to write one and send one out every week, what do you do if you are not happy with the story? I think I have a good base but can't seem to get the ending right. I guess I have a few more days, but is the idea you just send it out after a week and move on?
 

Sam K.

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You don't necessarily have to send the one you've written that week or month, if you don't feel it is ready for it, you just "have" to write a short story, and to sub a short story - maybe one you wrote the previous week that you've only just got around to polishing up etc.
 

akaSylvia

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I never submit the story I just wrote. To me, it is two different processes. I draft a story - with some editing but I'm not trying to get a final version, just to get it readble. Then I put it aside and start looking for stories to submit: I pick up a story that's been calling to me and edit it and get an opinion from a trusted reader. Then if I think I've got it right, I submit it. If not, I look for another story to polish and work on.

Some weeks are easy because I get rejected and can just send that story out again. I can't believe I just said something nice about rejection.

Edit: LOL of all the words to misspell, I manage to mess up readable? Good lord.
 

gettingby

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I don't have any other stories so I am just going to try and polish as I go. I have a draft of my first story. I am going to take the weekend to try and make it better. Monday it's going out. I published a few short stories years ago, but have strayed away from fiction until now. I do believe producing a story a week will make for an interesting year.
 

Aggy B.

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So, for those of you who have sold to DSF before. Should I be concerned that after signing the contract for Insomnia (back in September) I haven't heard anything further?

I did send a polite note two weeks ago asking if they had an idea when it might be slotted into the publication schedule but I haven't heard anything in return. There's a little voice in the back of my head telling me I screwed something up somewhere (missed a vital email or didn't respond to the contract email properly or something). And the longer it goes without hearing anything the louder it gets.

Any thoughts? I don't want to be a nuisance, but I don't know if I should follow up on the follow up or not.

Aggy, busy enough with crickets
 

alexshvartsman

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So, for those of you who have sold to DSF before. Should I be concerned that after signing the contract for Insomnia (back in September) I haven't heard anything further?

The story I sold them on 10/26 hasn't been scheduled yet, either, and it's flash. From what I understand, the backlog for Friday (longer) stories is much longer than for flash.

As a data point, another flash story I sold them on 7/6/11 was published in late October.

So there's definitely no reason to worry yet. I'm a bit surprised they haven't responded to your query, but it's likely that they don't have the story slotted yet.