The formats of subbing
Jul. 6th, 2009 01:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessOver the weekend while I was out watching fireworks, eating things that aren't remotely good for me, playing Munchkin (I love Munchkin) and watching This is Spinal Tap (possibly more about this later) the discussion of electronic versus paper submissions came up again.
My self absorbed take:
I haven't submitted to any of the Big Three (for the curious, this would be Asimov's, Analog, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction since 1994. I'm not sure I've ever submitted to Analog at all.
Now, granted, I didn't submit anything to a fantasy/science fiction market between 1994-2005. But when I did start submitting again, I submitted elsewhere, for two reasons:
1. The paper submission requirement. When you're working full time and writing and living in an area where every post office is crowded and slow, submitting via paper, even at a self-service kiosk in the post office, is time consuming – not to mention, shaving from $4 to $5 from the profits of the story. Not impossible, but burdensome. These days, I head to a much smaller post office with no lines whatsoever (because trust me no one knows this place is even there, as demonstrated by someone walking in saying, "I had NO IDEA this place was EVEN HERE," referring not just to the post office, but to the entire town of Oakland, which features mansions on dirt roads and old Victorian buildings and one of the tiniest and cutest post offices ever) which is awesome, but still requires charging up the trike, waiting for the sun and a survivable temperature, and riding the trike, not to mention the whole printing out thing.
Electronic submissions have their own minor hassles, mostly the need to check how that particular publication wants the submission (standard manuscript, standard manuscript but nothing in the header, absolutely not standard manuscript single space only, attachment, not attachment, and so on), but a few keyboard clicks usually solves this.
Some commentators are also crediting response times, but, in my experience, the response time for online submissions can be appallingly long as well – in more than one case well over a year – so for me that isn't an argument against paper submissions.
2. Feedback requirement. Here's what happened Sunday: friends asked how the writing was coming along, and I said truthfully that June was awful (it was) but that I'd had a couple of pieces published in July and I was feeling a little better. That evening, I got an email: "Creepy! I liked the God one better."
A few weeks back I was at Borders. I headed over to the science fiction section, then headed over to the magazine section on my way for the blueberry latte (which is kinda weird mostly because Borders puts lemon things on it and well coffee blueberry and lemons is an odd combination, but I digress) and took a look.
Analog. Not there.
Asimov's. Two copies – both old issues from 2008.
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Not there.
Thus the problem.
It's not that I refuse to submit to the Big Three; it's more that submitting elsewhere seems to be working, and even pro rates don't pay for the time I spend on most short stories. (Novels are a different bag altogether.) What I get for my time (aside from the satisfaction/enjoyment/need to write) is critical feedback and exposure – and that I can get from publications that accept electronic submissions.
To be clear, I'm not knocking print publications at all. "End of Time," my short story in Desolate Places, did very well for me, even if not everybody liked the story (sniffle), introducing me to several other writers and editors and providing excellent exposure. Of course, Hadley Rille accepts electronic submissions, and people were able to order Desolate Places and get a book in their hands within about a week or sometimes less. (I think it also helped me that the book also had stories from better known and more popular writers.)
Now, with all this said, pro and semi-pro editors are not in the publishing business to help me; they're in the business to entertain readers. But that may make electronic submissions even more important. As others have noted, the circulation rates of the Big Three are declining. This stems, I think, from multiple factors: the economy certainly can't be helping; the difficulty of finding these three zines in bookstores probably isn't helping to attract new readers; the fact that many readers seem be accessing newspapers and magazines solely through the internet/Sony readers/Kindles is possibly related; now that the Big Three are moving to Kindle, we'll see if that helps.
But I think a secondary problem is that by not accepting electronic submissions, the Big Three aren't just missing potential new talent but proven popular writers such as John Scalzi, which in turn may be making it more difficult for them to sell issues, which in turn may explain the Borders problem, which in turn makes their circulation decline which in turn means they have to watch costs ever more carefully which in turn – you can see where I'm going here. And John Scalzi in turn is proof that talented writers can become successful without the Big Three. And anecdotal evidence suggests I'm not the only writer choosing this route.
Oh, and since I mentioned it, Desolate Places is still available from Amazon.com, and even if the thought of reading my story isn't enough to tempt you, the book also has marvelous stuff fromalaneer, camillealexa, suibhne_geilt, will_couvillier and many, many, more, so go buy already.
My self absorbed take:
I haven't submitted to any of the Big Three (for the curious, this would be Asimov's, Analog, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction since 1994. I'm not sure I've ever submitted to Analog at all.
Now, granted, I didn't submit anything to a fantasy/science fiction market between 1994-2005. But when I did start submitting again, I submitted elsewhere, for two reasons:
1. The paper submission requirement. When you're working full time and writing and living in an area where every post office is crowded and slow, submitting via paper, even at a self-service kiosk in the post office, is time consuming – not to mention, shaving from $4 to $5 from the profits of the story. Not impossible, but burdensome. These days, I head to a much smaller post office with no lines whatsoever (because trust me no one knows this place is even there, as demonstrated by someone walking in saying, "I had NO IDEA this place was EVEN HERE," referring not just to the post office, but to the entire town of Oakland, which features mansions on dirt roads and old Victorian buildings and one of the tiniest and cutest post offices ever) which is awesome, but still requires charging up the trike, waiting for the sun and a survivable temperature, and riding the trike, not to mention the whole printing out thing.
Electronic submissions have their own minor hassles, mostly the need to check how that particular publication wants the submission (standard manuscript, standard manuscript but nothing in the header, absolutely not standard manuscript single space only, attachment, not attachment, and so on), but a few keyboard clicks usually solves this.
Some commentators are also crediting response times, but, in my experience, the response time for online submissions can be appallingly long as well – in more than one case well over a year – so for me that isn't an argument against paper submissions.
2. Feedback requirement. Here's what happened Sunday: friends asked how the writing was coming along, and I said truthfully that June was awful (it was) but that I'd had a couple of pieces published in July and I was feeling a little better. That evening, I got an email: "Creepy! I liked the God one better."
A few weeks back I was at Borders. I headed over to the science fiction section, then headed over to the magazine section on my way for the blueberry latte (which is kinda weird mostly because Borders puts lemon things on it and well coffee blueberry and lemons is an odd combination, but I digress) and took a look.
Analog. Not there.
Asimov's. Two copies – both old issues from 2008.
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Not there.
Thus the problem.
It's not that I refuse to submit to the Big Three; it's more that submitting elsewhere seems to be working, and even pro rates don't pay for the time I spend on most short stories. (Novels are a different bag altogether.) What I get for my time (aside from the satisfaction/enjoyment/need to write) is critical feedback and exposure – and that I can get from publications that accept electronic submissions.
To be clear, I'm not knocking print publications at all. "End of Time," my short story in Desolate Places, did very well for me, even if not everybody liked the story (sniffle), introducing me to several other writers and editors and providing excellent exposure. Of course, Hadley Rille accepts electronic submissions, and people were able to order Desolate Places and get a book in their hands within about a week or sometimes less. (I think it also helped me that the book also had stories from better known and more popular writers.)
Now, with all this said, pro and semi-pro editors are not in the publishing business to help me; they're in the business to entertain readers. But that may make electronic submissions even more important. As others have noted, the circulation rates of the Big Three are declining. This stems, I think, from multiple factors: the economy certainly can't be helping; the difficulty of finding these three zines in bookstores probably isn't helping to attract new readers; the fact that many readers seem be accessing newspapers and magazines solely through the internet/Sony readers/Kindles is possibly related; now that the Big Three are moving to Kindle, we'll see if that helps.
But I think a secondary problem is that by not accepting electronic submissions, the Big Three aren't just missing potential new talent but proven popular writers such as John Scalzi, which in turn may be making it more difficult for them to sell issues, which in turn may explain the Borders problem, which in turn makes their circulation decline which in turn means they have to watch costs ever more carefully which in turn – you can see where I'm going here. And John Scalzi in turn is proof that talented writers can become successful without the Big Three. And anecdotal evidence suggests I'm not the only writer choosing this route.
Oh, and since I mentioned it, Desolate Places is still available from Amazon.com, and even if the thought of reading my story isn't enough to tempt you, the book also has marvelous stuff from
alaneer, camillealexa, suibhne_geilt, will_couvillier and many, many, more, so go buy already.