Marketplace advice for a short story -- er, novella
Ben Darrow
Several years ago I frequented this group and got some welcome advice
on a first novel; however, after some initial publisher/agent nibblings
failed to develop into meaningful chewing, I redirected my energies to
getting fully stocked up on children and advanced degrees. Having
acquired both in sufficient measure, my interest in getting published
is back on a low simmer. I've grown less enthusiastic about the novel,
but I've got a short story I feel is inkworthy. (Actually, at 20,000
words I suppose it is technically a "novella" -- a word that, to me,
has always sounded more like a bacterium than a composition, but there
you have it.)
I'm not very familiar with the market for short fiction, but I'm aware
that 20,000 words is not the sweet spot for, say, Asimov or Analog. If
anybody could suggest a venue that is more amenable to such lengths,
I'd be very grateful. It's not hard sf -- in terms of style (or at
least, stylistic intent) it's indebted to Roger Zelazny and Jack Vance.
I'd be happy to post a chunk of it, or a synopsis, if that would
improve people's musings.
In proleptic gratitude,
Ben
Patricia C. Wrede
news:1138997147....@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Greetings, speculauteurs. (Is that an original neologism?)
>
> Several years ago I frequented this group and got some welcome advice
> on a first novel; however, after some initial publisher/agent nibblings
> failed to develop into meaningful chewing, I redirected my energies to
> getting fully stocked up on children and advanced degrees. Having
> acquired both in sufficient measure, my interest in getting published
> is back on a low simmer. I've grown less enthusiastic about the novel,
> but I've got a short story I feel is inkworthy. (Actually, at 20,000
> words I suppose it is technically a "novella" -- a word that, to me,
> has always sounded more like a bacterium than a composition, but there
> you have it.)
>
> I'm not very familiar with the market for short fiction, but I'm aware
> that 20,000 words is not the sweet spot for, say, Asimov or Analog. If
> anybody could suggest a venue that is more amenable to such lengths,
> I'd be very grateful.
Analog does buy the occasional novella, but not as often as they used to --
they don't like to commit that much space to one story, in lieu of two to
four shorter pieces. If they use the space on *one* story, they need to be
pretty sure all their readers will like it; with two to four, they can
afford to have one story that they think some people won't like, as long as
they figure those people will like the other story. Still, it's a market,
and you might as well start there; if you get lucky, there's nothing quite
like starting at the top.
Beyond that, most of the market for that kind of thing is in anthologies,
which are fewer than they used to be and hard to find out about. Mostly,
you hear about those at conventions; a few used to do listings in Locus or
SFC, but I haven't seen any of those sorts of announcements in a while.
Patricia C. Wrede
lclough
If you dropped the word count even a couple thousand words, you
would squeak in under the Analog/Asimov space limits. And it is
a rare story indeed, that could not stand to lose some weight.
Brenda
--
---------
Brenda W. Clough
http://www.sff.net/people/Brenda/
Recent short fiction:
FUTURE WASHINGTON (WSFA Press, October '05)
http://www.futurewashington.com
FIRST HEROES (TOR, May '04)
http://members.aol.com/wenamun/firstheroes.html
Zeborah
> I'm not very familiar with the market for short fiction, but I'm aware
> that 20,000 words is not the sweet spot for, say, Asimov or Analog.
Adding to other comments: have a look at the market listings at
www.ralan.com
Zeborah
--
Gravity is no joke.
http://www.geocities.com/zeborahnz/
Dan Goodman
Good market listings are at http://ralan.com and
http://www.quintamid.com
--
Dan Goodman
All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
John Arbuthnot (1667-1735), Scottish writer, physician.
Journal http://dsgood.livejournal.com
Clutterers Anonymous unofficial community
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Decluttering http://decluttering.blogspot.com
Predictions and Politics http://dsgood.blogspot.com
Links http://del.icio.us/dsgood
John F. Eldredge
Analog used to publish novellas as two or three installments in
subsequent issues. It has been 10 years or more since I last bought a
copy, so I don't know whether or not they still do so.
--
John F. Eldredge -- jo...@jfeldredge.com
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria
Catja Pafort
> Good market listings are at http://ralan.com and
> http://www.quintamid.com
I know Ralan is good, but you have to go through the whole list by hand
and click on all the links - it's a timeconsuming process.
My favorite is www.storypilot.com, which allows you to search by
parameters - genre, length, minimum payment - and spits out the matches.
Catja
mhu...@mars.ark.com
> If you dropped the word count even a couple thousand words, you
> would squeak in under the Analog/Asimov space limits. And it is
> a rare story indeed, that could not stand to lose some weight.
I'm with Brenda. It's got to be easier to trim a story down to
novelette length than to try to sell a novella. If it's funny, even
only in parts, you could try F&SF. Gordon Van Gelder's not kidding
when he says he never gets enough humor.
Matt Hughes
http://www.archonate.com/