Guys, really. You all know that the real test is time. Come back in a year. I'll give you my sale numbers if you like.
For the love of Benji!
There are no safe places to publish. Shall I list respectable, long-time publishers that have gone toes-up?
A couple of things I always counsel:
1) Wait a year before you consider submitting to a startup, to see if they're still in business. (A huge number aren't.)
2) Are their books actually for sale? Have you personally read any of them? Do you know anyone who has? Are they being reviewed in the usual places that review books?
If the answer to any of those questions is "No," what makes you think that your book is going to be any different? (Other than, "Yes, but my book is different!")
My advice to all new writers is the same as the Sassy Gay Friend's advice to Juliet: "Slow down, crazy, slow down!"
So, submit to them or don't. Or wait a year. There are ton of other publishers with proven track records out there. Submit to one of them. If any start-up epublisher is going to make it in the long haul it'll still be here a year or two from now.
MsCelina - just wanted to stop by and tell you how much I love your new Avatar. And I hope you're feeling better than you expected, and to heal well.
For the record - if anyone did in fact start a collection for Mscelina's funeral, please divert all funds to me and I will dispose of them without delay.
For some reason this rubs me the wrong way. I'll have to think on it--you know, before the funeral home takes their cut.
By the way, I'm putting together some absolute numbers regarding the release schedule, books contracted, and the breakdown of those books according to length while I'm lying around doing a lot of nothing. I'll let you all know when it's ready--you know, if you're interested in that sort of thing.
Also, I hope you heal quickly and with much entertainment (I peeked in the other thread ).
I have a question, what is the minimum word count? I have a couple of MSs sitting around, and most of them are pretty short.
What do you mean by 'pretty short'? Too short to count as short stories? Micro fiction? Twitter fiction?
Penumbra (Musa's short story mag) accepts stories between 300 and 3000 words. That's the shortest stuff they'll take.
http://musapublishing.blogspot.com/p/submissions.htmlMusa will consider submissions of any length from short story to epic novel for all imprints.
A short story at 500-1200 words is too short for Musa to publish as a standalone ebook--we want to publish shorts above 5K and below 15k for our short story lines.
If your stories are speculative fiction, however, you can submit them to Penumbra, our spec fic eMag. BUT--and there's always a but--we have announced submission calls out for the specific themes we're looking for on the Penumbra website. Don't just lump all those stories and throw them into an email and submit them; the only submissions calls we're currently accepting manuscripts for are (1) Dreams, for our August issue; (2) Native American folklore for our September issues; and (3) Edgar Allen Poe for our October/first anniversary and Halloween issue. I strongly suggest that you go to our website for submission guidelines and deadlines.
A short story at 500-1200 words is too short for Musa to publish as a standalone ebook--we want to publish shorts above 5K and below 15k for our short story lines.
The main reason I asked was because the definition of short-story isn't that well defined. Some people think a short story is longer than 2k words, some think longer 1k..etc.
The people you're talking to aren't looking at industry standard definitions, then. While the maximum word count accepted by a publisher varies, there is an actual defined limit to each type of "story." Here's the breakdown as I know it.
Flash Fiction - Up to 1000 words
Short Story - 1000 to 7500 words
Novelette - 7500 to 20,000 words
Novella - 20,000 to 50,000 words
Novel - 50,000 +
Door Stopper Fiction - 120,000+ (it's still a novel. It's just BIG.)
The 2K definition is set in by SFFWA for the Nebulas. That's where that comes from. Which is really the only reason I asked said question. The people I've talked to say above 1000, but I'm not exactly talking to the New Yorker.
The 2K definition is set in by SFFWA for the Nebulas. That's where that comes from. Which is really the only reason I asked said question. The people I've talked to say above 1000, but I'm not exactly talking to the New Yorker.
Thanks for answering!