Forum / Publication Suggestions

  • Better_than.thumb
    Sally Jayne Heymann
    Apr 06, 05:57pm

    One of the things I find frustrating is not knowing which publications will accept which works. I received another rejection, which doesn't bother me that much, apart from the reason given, "This didn't really move us."

    I have read the publications I submit to, but I am horrible judge of my own work and 1. whether it is any good, 2. if it fits with their outlook.

    Is there anyway to include a box on the page with a work we put up on Fictionaut to allow anonymous suggestions for publications that may accept a particular work?

    I know the publishing world is competitive, and authors may not wish to give advise like that with their names attached, but it would be most helpful to me, and others, I assume.

  • Mrsoftee1.thumb
    Jim V
    Apr 06, 06:48pm

    Really, the best way to figure out where to send what piece is to read the journals themselves. Even then it's hit or miss. Fact is, publication always was and always will be an unknowable science. Focus more on perfecting the craft, send out tireless, and let the chips fall where they may.

  • Better_than.thumb
    Sally Jayne Heymann
    Apr 06, 09:24pm

    Thank you, James. It is rather discouraging, when one questions ones own ability in the first place, LOL. I will heed your advice and keep plugging away.

  • Web_bio_newglasses.thumb
    J.A. Pak
    Apr 07, 01:52am

    Sally, also keep a look out for themed issues or magazines with a particular interest. In my experience that increases chance of acceptance. And please remember that most magazines accept very few stories from the slush pile.

  • Dsc_7543.thumb
    Gloria Garfunkel
    Apr 07, 08:17am

    Go thoroughly through Fictionaut Friendly journals seeking themed issues.

  • Better_than.thumb
    Sally Jayne Heymann
    Apr 07, 04:30pm

    Thank you, everyone. I appreciate your help. I guess I was just feeling unworthy :D

  • Rebel.thumb
    Sally Houtman
    Apr 07, 05:26pm

    www.duotrope.com

    Aim high.

    In where you choose to submit.

    In the quality of your work.

    Never compromise.

  • Better_than.thumb
    Sally Jayne Heymann
    Apr 07, 07:04pm

    Thank you, Sally. I'll try to remember that.

  • Mrsoftee1.thumb
    Jim V
    Apr 08, 12:49pm

    One more thing. A trick I use: read more books (instead of more Fictionaut) and pay attention to the credit/acknowledgement pages. This will give you some idea what those magazines are publishing-- and what you're up against.

  • Better_than.thumb
    Sally Jayne Heymann
    Apr 08, 04:07pm

    That's really good advice, thank you, James.

  • Dsc_7543.thumb
    Gloria Garfunkel
    Apr 08, 04:25pm

    I aim high with my work but after years of trying and getting only one very long story published, I am aiming much lower. For me now, it's quantity, not quality of publication sources because it's easier to get in the door and I need the ego boost. I just got sick of rejections. I've had about seventeen publications since joining Fictionaut and I'm proud of them all though they aren't in Agni. I advise quantity.

  • Dsc_7543.thumb
    Gloria Garfunkel
    Apr 08, 04:28pm

    I'm also lazy and apply exclusively to online submissions. I will not use envelopes and stamps.

  • Better_than.thumb
    Sally Jayne Heymann
    Apr 08, 05:47pm

    Yes, snail-mail is a problem when one's funds are otherwise tied up in rent. Thanks Gloria.

  • Rebel.thumb
    Sally Houtman
    Apr 08, 09:08pm

    Aim high.

    In where you choose to submit.

    In the quality of your work.

    Never compromise.

  • Dsc_7543.thumb
    Gloria Garfunkel
    Apr 08, 09:23pm

    I think aiming high is relative. You get a hundred rejections, you need to be realistic to get published at all. Always compromise in submissions but never in the quality of your work.

  • Rebel.thumb
    Sally Houtman
    Apr 08, 09:38pm

    "Always compromise in submissions"

    Yes, if you place exposure over craft.

    Good work will always find a good home.

  • Facebook.thumb
    John Riley
    Apr 08, 11:13pm

    I hate submitting. It isn't the rejection. I'm used to that. I hate all the work involved. It's so tedious. I have to be the laziest person alive.

  • Dsc_7543.thumb
    Gloria Garfunkel
    Apr 09, 07:40am

    Not lazy. Every single journal has different formats for sumissions, even with submissable, and you have to follow the instructions carefully. It should be standardized.

  • Jane.thumb
    Jane Flett
    Apr 09, 10:19am

    I've worked out a mixture these days, which works for me. I mean, I think Sally's advice is the best, but also I know the sadness of a submittable page filled with Declined Declined Declined.

    I think it's important to never submit anywhere if you don't like their aesthetic or genuinely engage with some of the other writing published there. But also, these days when I aim high, I am aiming high high.

    So for short stories, which I spend many months working on, I will start out sending to top tier places.

    However, I also write a lot of flash fiction and poetry, and some of these I will send to more realistic places. Just because my fragile writer heart needs occasional good news in the inbox.

    I would probably be a better writer if I stuck with each and every piece until it was good enough to go better places, but ah! I am not.

  • Frankie Saxx
    Apr 09, 10:23am

    @John Riley

    I am the same. So much paperwork involved.

  • Image.thumb
    Charlotte Hamrick
    Apr 09, 05:26pm

    I don't take submitting too seriously. If I have a poem I think is pretty good, I send it to one zine whose content I think is a good match. Then I forget about it. I never do simultaneous submissions and I don't worry if the zines I submit to are the cool ones. I send to the ones I actually read. Maybe that's the key.

  • Me2.thumb
    Lynn Beighley
    Apr 09, 05:43pm

    Gloria, why should it be standardized? These places are deluged as it is, can you imagine how much worse it would be if it were easier? If I had a lit journal, I'd make people jump through a hoop or two, if only to show they cared enough to pay attention.

  • Me2.thumb
    Lynn Beighley
    Apr 09, 05:45pm

    Although I've run out of things to send out, which is very sad, and find myself questioning the value of sending things out at all, which is perhaps sadder. Or maybe not. (Writing a novel and my grown up work is taking most of my time up just now.)

    Why do you submit? Maybe that's best left for a different thread. Forget I asked. I'll be over there, in the corner.

  • Frankie Saxx
    Apr 09, 06:38pm

    @Lynn

    I submit when I think "Oh, that's awesome, I want to be in that. SO BAD." (eg "50 Shades of Decay," "Oh Sandy," "Bad Robot Poetry.")

    I'm also totally superficial and attracted by catchy titles. I feel like I shouldn't admit that because maybe you'll think I'm one of those people that wears the band shirt without listening to the actual band.

    Now it's Frigg. But I have to choose (or write) one more nice thing to send them before I can sub.

  • Facebook.thumb
    John Riley
    Apr 09, 07:15pm

    @Lynn
    I think the question of "why do you submit" a good one. I like to be read by as many people as possible--I'm far too generous to deny anyone a few moments of my sparkling presence--but sometimes I'll submit a piece so I'll stop screwing around with it. I get stuck in a fixation set on something and submitting wakes me up and lets me move on. Then I wait for it to be rejected to start the process over again.

  • Dsc_7543.thumb
    Gloria Garfunkel
    Apr 09, 07:36pm

    Actually, Lynn, they are becoming more and more standardized with Submissable which has been a blessing and made it much easier to submit. It's easier for us and the publishers.

  • Dsc_7543.thumb
    Gloria Garfunkel
    Apr 09, 07:39pm

    I submit because I expect to eventually publish a collection of short stories when I get enough published that I have credibility to find the best press possible. If I'm on my deathbed by then, I'll self-publish it, damn it.

  • 62698557287.thumb
    Matthew Robinson
    Apr 09, 07:46pm

    I'm extremely wary of overly-specific submission guidelines. I'm getting better and better at reading content before I sub, and I always format my pieces to industry standards; however, if a zine is going to be precious about how they want to read a story, my interest drifts and sinks very quickly.

  • Dsc_7543.thumb
    Gloria Garfunkel
    Apr 09, 07:56pm

    I agree. Start reading one of those precious ones with a tons of specifics and my ADD kicks in and I just drift off. Why complicate the damn process?

  • Me2.thumb
    Lynn Beighley
    Apr 09, 07:57pm

    When I have my own zine, I will require at least one line in your submission to rhyme with "Beighley." I will leave it as an exercise for the submitter to figure out how that's pronounced.

  • 62698557287.thumb
    Matthew Robinson
    Apr 09, 07:59pm

    I stared balefully into the neighborly bagel lee aw forget it

  • Better_than.thumb
    Sally Jayne Heymann
    Apr 09, 08:01pm

    LOL thank you for all the comments, serious and humourous. This really is helpful. Keep the suggestions coming.

    Matt, I think it rhymes with bailey. I'd offer you some Bailey's, but I don't drink.

  • Frankie Saxx
    Apr 09, 08:09pm

    @Lynn It's one of those trick English names that's actually pronounced "Smith", right?

  • Me2.thumb
    Lynn Beighley
    Apr 09, 08:16pm

    Not tellin'.

    Sally, I have an agent friend who did my very successful submissions for me. He's good at finding the right markets for each piece. He charges what I consider a not unreasonable fee. If you're interested, I can hook you up.

  • Dsc_7543.thumb
    Gloria Garfunkel
    Apr 09, 08:17pm

    Perfect example. I wouldn't submit, nor would you like my writing anyway.

  • Frankie Saxx
    Apr 09, 08:32pm

    @Lynn

    So, Unicorn Bacon then.

  • Facebook.thumb
    John Riley
    Apr 09, 11:15pm

    This article by Blake Butler about submitting is interesting.

    http://htmlgiant.com/behind-the-scenes/22-things-i-learned-from-submitting-writing/

  • Better_than.thumb
    Sally Jayne Heymann
    Apr 10, 01:12am

    That's really a good article, John. It addresses a lot of what I have thought or gone through.

  • Rebel.thumb
    Sally Houtman
    Apr 10, 01:34am

    Interesting article, John. Thanks for the link.

    "Eat the struggle. It's meat."

    That's great.

  • Jane.thumb
    Jane Flett
    Apr 10, 01:58pm

    John, that is a great article!

    Frankie, Frigg <3

  • Robert Taylor Brewer
    Apr 30, 07:21pm

    Sally,
    I want to take the other side of Jim V's April 6 argument (Let the chips fall where they may).

    My biggest publication coup, where I was published alongside some pretty good writers, came after I knew the heart and soul of the editor's preferences, knew the value system of the editor, knew childhood upbringing, knew attitude about family, money, spending, career.

    I noticed that my story simply dovetailed with every known trait the editor possessed so much so that rejecting my story would mean the editor would be rejecting their own life.

    I knew the piece would be accepted before I sent it out, and I was right.

    The downside to this approach is that its hard to duplicate. I've never again been able to make the research fall into line like that.

    I'm working on another piece that has potential. I know it's good because one editor couldn't take it, and acutally F-bombed me in a written rejection letter. Imagine that? Write a great story and you get cursed at because they can't take it? What a world.

  • You must log in to reply to this thread.