She’s taking over midtown, sending out hyper-caffeinated, zombified office workers, fingers twittering, moving with a flash mob’s speed, spreading faster than a video of a tickled kitten.
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"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."
Hey, if you’re a fellow Kindle-r, I found out today while looking that the five first five of the Mars books (aka Burroughs’ Barsoom novels) available for free in e-form, including the one the movie John Carter of Mars is based on, The Warlord of Mars.
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So how do I track submissions and figure out where to send them?
I have an Excel spreadsheet. One page has short stories that are circulating, a second does the same with flash pieces, a third tracks sold stories, a fourth audio reprints, and a fifth foreign reprints. When a rejection comes in, I mark the story on the sheet as freed up and put it in bold red. Once it’s been submitted, I switch the color to blue. That lets me look over the sheet and get an idea of what needs to go out. Right now it’s looking pretty red, so I’ve compiled a list of five flash pieces and ten short stories that need to go out, making a note of the word count.
After that I usually go to a market list, usually Duotrope.com or Ralan.com and look. I have some markets that stories always go through, but once they’ve been through those, it becomes a matter of finding the right place. I’ll look to see what anthologies are open first and see if I’ve got anything that fits into a particular theme.Another system that can be used to track submissions is the excellent Story
Before I submit anywhere, I read their guidelines and do my best to read an issue or two (if they’re free online fiction, I don’t think there’s any excuse for not doing a little research there.)
Things that up a market’s attractiveness:
Audio reprints and foreign markets are usually separate passes, since I’m working with different lists there – the best of the stuff that’s been published. I absolutely would be lost in looking at the latter if I didn’t have Douglas Smith’s Foreign Market list. I’ve been bad about audio reprints and need to get more of those circulating, so that will probably come after this pass.
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(science fiction, flash story) They kept telling us what high ratings his show was getting. All of us bit players should be proud, the producers said. When he couldn’t see us, we celebrated, giving each other high fives while we waited for him to appear and pass. When he came into sight, we’d act as we’d been instructed. He wasn’t to know that it was a show.
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