The "Where can I send this story?" thread

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monkey see monkey do

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I have 1100 or so word Western. I checked out duotrope, but there weren't many options. All in all, I'm not really sure how to choose. It's my first.
 

MumblingSage

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I have 1100 or so word Western. I checked out duotrope, but there weren't many options. All in all, I'm not really sure how to choose. It's my first.

Could you shave off 100 words and make it a flash fiction? There are a few markets for flash fiction with no specific genre requirement. Or if it's action heavy, you might search for 'action-adventure' markets. If it's heavily researched, look for historical fiction.

As for choosing: I look work my way down by pay-rate when dealing with markets I'm not familiar with.
 

monkey see monkey do

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Thanks MumblingSage and Izz for the great advice. I'll look into it further. BTW, it's a drama-oriented western. Not action heavy, not historical heavy.
 

eva3taylor

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Where or where can I send this?

I have a short story with 3000 words that I'm trying to place but bumping my head. It's a near-future satirical piece about the literary world and celebrity stardom.

It's light science fiction and humorous in its satire.

Any suggestions?
 

Izz

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eva3taylor

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Unfortunately, Andromeda is not looking for modern-day America settings. Any other suggestions?
 

Izz

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Unfortunately, Andromeda is not looking for modern-day America settings. Any other suggestions?
Strange Horizons have been known to publish humorous pieces. However, you might want to check that your story isn't similar to any of these too commonly seen ones.

Have you tried doing a search on duotrope and choosing humor as the style (satirical not so much)? That brings up a fair few markets.
 

MumblingSage

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Unfortunately, Andromeda is not looking for modern-day America settings. Any other suggestions?

Is that an absolute? Last I'd read the guidelines (it's been a while) they seemed to be saying they'd prefer different settings, but modern-America wasn't a no-go, just less favored.

Would you consider it more satire or more science fiction? Is it set 20 minutes in the future, or sooner or later? What aspects are science fictional, in that they couldn't happen in the present?
 

eva3taylor

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Thanks Mumbling Sage and Izz. . .

It's satirical in the sense that it pokes fun at higher learning institutions, the Ivy leagues of the Northeast, and the literary academic world. It is also speculative since there are technology advances that make it possible for celebrities to be teachers. Other than that I'm sort of stuck.

It's not a "realistic" celeb story such as this one on Anderbo.com but more on the humorous David Foster Wallace side of things (think "Little Expressionless Animals") plus light sci-fi.

I think that's the best way I can explain it.
 

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I finished a novella a few months ago that was a rewrite of the Echo and Narcissus myth from Greece. I made some changes to it that I'm worried is going to make it a tough sell. Echo is a black goddess and rape victim survivior, Pan is insane and features as the villian. The book has strong fantasy and roamnce elements, but has an unhappy ending. It's the same ending from the myth: Echo fades away and becomes the wind leaving Narcissus alone and miserable.

The novella is 28k but I am going to do another edit and cut that down some more. My question is this: is it unmarketable because of the unhappy ending? I've checked some places and they say "Stories must have a happy ending" problem is if I had tacked a happy ending onto the end it would've varied ALOT from the original myth. Despite all the changes I made I wanted to keep the ending the same as the myth.

Is this going to be a problem? I have other short stories that also have unhappy endings but strong romance elements. Do characters always have to live happily ever after?
 

MumblingSage

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I finished a novella a few months ago that was a rewrite of the Echo and Narcissus myth from Greece. I made some changes to it that I'm worried is going to make it a tough sell. Echo is a black goddess and rape victim survivior, Pan is insane and features as the villian. The book has strong fantasy and roamnce elements, but has an unhappy ending. It's the same ending from the myth: Echo fades away and becomes the wind leaving Narcissus alone and miserable.

The novella is 28k but I am going to do another edit and cut that down some more. My question is this: is it unmarketable because of the unhappy ending? I've checked some places and they say "Stories must have a happy ending" problem is if I had tacked a happy ending onto the end it would've varied ALOT from the original myth. Despite all the changes I made I wanted to keep the ending the same as the myth.

Is this going to be a problem? I have other short stories that also have unhappy endings but strong romance elements. Do characters always have to live happily ever after?

The mythic elements make me think it would fit with Drollerie. However, romance stories as a category must always end happily (it's what readers expect when they go to the genre).

It's satirical in the sense that it pokes fun at higher learning institutions, the Ivy leagues of the Northeast, and the literary academic world. It is also speculative since there are technology advances that make it possible for celebrities to be teachers. Other than that I'm sort of stuck.
You can try looking for places that are open to multiple genres, since yours seems to straddle a few. I know some lit journals accept speculative fiction.
 

elindsen

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a 1,300 word short about an aunt finding out her neice was molested?
ok sorry i forgot i posted lol. it was orginally nonfiction but due to legal matters i changed a few things so its fiction. i guess i may classify it as literary but im not sure if my writing is good enough to be called that. .

as the theme being child moestation its very serious. the story is about the child telling somone.
 

MumblingSage

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I've got a story, 30,000 words. It's a very dark piece about a schizophrenic. Anyone know what i can do with it?

Dark in what way? Will it make me cry or get angry or make me lie awake all night trying to scrub the memory of reading it from my mind? Is the style literary, mainstream, experimental?
 

cmi0616

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Dark in what way? Will it make me cry or get angry or make me lie awake all night trying to scrub the memory of reading it from my mind? Is the style literary, mainstream, experimental?

I suppose in the sense that it's a very sad and depressing piece of work. I don't suppose i know what type of style it is. It started out as a novel, but it wound up only being 30,000 words.
 

MumblingSage

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I suppose in the sense that it's a very sad and depressing piece of work. I don't suppose i know what type of style it is. It started out as a novel, but it wound up only being 30,000 words.

Okay. Usually for a novella I'd suggest looking at epublishers, but I'm under the impression most ebook readers are looking for light reading (since romance is one of the top-selling genres), and yours sounds rather heavy. Would it be possible to beef it up by a few thousand more words, perhaps by adding a subplot?
 

nkkingston

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Anyone got any paying recs for traditional ghost stories? I'm talking M R James style, a mix of period and contemporary settings, often where the history of the ghost or haunting isn't explicit but the ghost is actually there. I've got a few to hand (I like writing them too much to stop!) with the average length being between 1000-3000. I'm also looking for 'per word' or a flat rate of more than $10, since with the exchange rates anything less is a pittance.

I find a lot of horror markets aren't interested at the moment because they're a bit old fashioned and not terribly explicit. It's not the lack of gore, precisely, but it's not really what horror fans seem to be into right now. Most non-horror markets only want them if they've got cosy endings, or the ghost/haunting is an allegory rather than the thrust of the plot. I've had some success with anthologies, but there's just not that many out there. The MR James newsletter no longer takes original fiction and I've had no luck with All Hallows (which is closed to subs at the moment according to Duotrope).
 

RainyDayNinja

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I've got a 3700-word SF story that takes place at a monastery. Anyone know any religion-friendly SF markets?
 

MumblingSage

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nkkingston: I think Whispering Spirits magazine likes ghost stories of all sorts, though they've rejected the stories I've sent them. If you do find any markets, please share--I'm in a similar situation.

RainyDayNinja: If the story is not "preachy", I think most science fiction markets will be willing to look at it. If you're looking for SF markets specifically promoting Christianity (I assume it's a Christian monastary, though I could be wrong) there are places like MindFlights and Residant Aliens.
 

Polenth

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ok sorry i forgot i posted lol. it was orginally nonfiction but due to legal matters i changed a few things so its fiction. i guess i may classify it as literary but im not sure if my writing is good enough to be called that. .

as the theme being child moestation its very serious. the story is about the child telling somone.

When it comes to literary magazines, it's a genre, not a quality standard. From what you've said, it sounds like it fits in the literary genre. So send it to literary markets and let them decide.

That general advice goes to some others in the thread too. A number of the requests sound like people have decided the editors of relevant genre magazines couldn't possibly want their story. Don't decide for the editors. Send it and see what they say, even if your story isn't fashionable or you don't think they like stories about alien monkeys or you think your writing sucks.
 

MumblingSage

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Anyone got any paying recs for traditional ghost stories? I'm talking M R James style, a mix of period and contemporary settings, often where the history of the ghost or haunting isn't explicit but the ghost is actually there. I've got a few to hand (I like writing them too much to stop!) with the average length being between 1000-3000. I'm also looking for 'per word' or a flat rate of more than $10, since with the exchange rates anything less is a pittance.

I find a lot of horror markets aren't interested at the moment because they're a bit old fashioned and not terribly explicit. It's not the lack of gore, precisely, but it's not really what horror fans seem to be into right now. Most non-horror markets only want them if they've got cosy endings, or the ghost/haunting is an allegory rather than the thrust of the plot. I've had some success with anthologies, but there's just not that many out there. The MR James newsletter no longer takes original fiction and I've had no luck with All Hallows (which is closed to subs at the moment according to Duotrope).

I've found two markets that specifically say they accept ghost stories: the Canadian magazine On Spec, and the anthology Ghostology (now fancy that :) ).
 

ccv707

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It's not your typical science-fiction, since it's strongly character focused and there's no technology that doesn't exist in the modern world. It's not dark, but it does have a strong focus on sexual issues

Sounds VERY typical of science fiction. While much of it is garbage, we must go back to Sturgeon's "Ninety percent of everything is crud" to put that into proper perspective. That said, most good science fiction is strongly character based. It wouldn't be my favorite genre of literature if it wasn't. Then again, so is most good literature of any kind.

Story sounds interesting, though I personally wouldn't worry about labeling a story "PG-13" or "R", or whatever, except for the fact that some publications might not accept an ms with any sexual material in it at all, the prudes. Fortunately, a lot of the good ones will, so long as the content is artistically justified, which seems to fit the description of your story, if that subject is the focus of the story. F&SF and Asimov's are two places that look for character based stories, as is Strange Horizons.
 
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TobySor

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Mobster story

Hi

Any advice on submissions for the following: 7,000 word story about a couple of mobsters (one old one young) who are driving to a hit. The older one knows the details the younger one does not. Lots of talking back and forth with some tension and some quirky mobster humor. Disturbing ending with a twist. Not an expected mob hit. Does not seem to fit with typical crime/mystery journals. Given the word length, I considered extending it and turning it into a play. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks
 
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