Publishing Short Fiction: The Megathread

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Publishing Short Fiction: The Megathread

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

I wrote a story that I know is good. I've sent it 40 places and they all rejected it. I shortened it by a thousand words for a contest which I also didn't win.

My question is can/should I start resubmitting it to all the big names if it's 1k shorter and the rejection was in 2013? Or is this dumb?

(It's a literary short set in the near-future. Not really scifi but commercial spaceflight is a major plot point)

# ¿ Sep 11, 2016 22:41

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 04:46

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Pham Nuwen posted:

Depending on the length, submissions are still open for the "binge watching cure anthology", edited by Bill Adler Jr. who's apparently got a decent reputation. I submitted one of my stories and got a personalized response quite quickly, so maybe give that a shot? Simultaneous submissions are also OK, and they pay $200 for < 5,000 words, $500 for > 5,000 words.

http://bingewatchingcure.com/

Will definitely submit to this, thank you!

# ¿ Sep 12, 2016 22:59

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Defenestration posted:

Will definitely submit to this, thank you!

So between posting this and getting home they had already filled the 6k and 7k slots :negative:

So I submitted a 4k that's edgier, who knows

SurreptitiousMuffin posted:

If I sounded like a bit of a dick before, I wasn't trying to - I was more wondering if you'd thrown it up in CC at any point for crit. The writer is often the worst person to see issues in the story: if you need fresh eyes, you only need to ask.

We cool. You don't know me and since I didn't put it up you have nothing to go on.

I have a regular crit group of people from my MFA program. It has been thoroughly shopped and rewritten.

I just want to avoid the kind of thinking that goes "if it's good it will get published and if it gets published it's good." We all know the industry ain't platonic ideal like that.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2016 04:23

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Whoever told me to submit to Binge Watching Cure: it seemed like a good idea at the time

They just rejected me on Christmas morning.

Oh but the email has "good news" too!

quote:

So that's the bad news: Your story wasn't selected for The Binge-Watching Cure. But the good news is that we are planning genre-specific Binge-Watching Cure books, including separate science fiction/fantasy, horror, crime, thriller, romance, LGBT, urban, western, spiritual, and young adult anthologies. We'll open those books to submissions early next year. There will be updates via Twitter and our website. Please stay in touch.

# ¿ Dec 25, 2016 14:37

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