Friday, June 26, 2009

Links and Markets

If you're thinking of submitting to the podcast market you might want to take a look at this essay by Jeremiah Tolbert "What is a Podcastable Story?" http://www.jeremiahtolbert.com/2009/what-is-a-podcastable-story/

And for just plain stories, "What's a Story?" by Jim C. Hines is very informative. http://www.sfnovelists.com/2009/06/24/whats-a-story/

If you're interested in submitting to SnipLits, you'd better start getting your story ready. According to their website, they're almost through their backlog and will be opening to new submissions sometime in July. So keep an eye out for their opening and new guidelines.

NPR has a contest going called "Three Minute Fiction". The contest opened on June 20 and runs until July 18. They're looking for stories of 500-600 words. First prize is having your story read on NPR, an interview, and a book. One thing that bothered me about the contest was, once you enter your story, they own it until they send you a written release. So, you need to weight the loss of the story against the "maybe" of having your story on NPR. Here's the url so you can check out all the details to make your decision. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105685925

And some new markets, mostly no pays and they all seem to be new start-ups with no issues or just one that's up.

Sex and Murder bills itself as a "magazine of extreme horror, dark fiction, and splatterpunk". They're look for short stories of 2000-8000 words and flash under 1000. http://sexandmurder.com/ The first issue is coming soon. One thing I noticed was the editor has named his zine after his novel but hopefully this won't be just a marketing ploy.

The first issue of Einstein's Pocket Watch is up so you'll have a bit of guide as to what they're looking for when they say they want uplifting Christian Fiction stories. Shorts from 1000 to 3000 and flash 500 to 1000 words http://peafant.wordpress.com/submission-guidelines

House of Horror is looking for Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies, and Fictional Serial Killers but no child violence. Flash 200 - 1000, shorts 1000 - 5000 and poems up to 500 words. http://www.houseofhorror.org.uk/#/guidelines/4534003896

And finally, the paying market, though just a token of $5 is Loose Yarns. No issues up yet. They're going to be a quarterly and all they want are good stories that make them laugh or cry. Word count up to 3000. http://www.looseyarns.com/submissions/

5 comments:

Cormac Brown said...

"once you enter your story, they own it until they send you a written release."

Er, what?

Yeah, that would surely get people to submit their best.

sandra seamans said...

That's what I thought, too, Cormac. But I've noticed that a lot of contests sponsored by product companies (trucks, beauty products, etc) or even magazines state in their guidelines that they own what you send them and claim the right to use your words without having to pay you. Just by entering, they own all rights. But since it's NPR people will take the chance just for the "free" publicity.

sandra seamans said...

And I should have added - something you need to watch for when entering contest!

quin browne said...

cormac brown, i thank you for this link!!

as far as the npr contest, i've six sentences i won't be using anytime soon...

sandra seamans said...

Welcome to The Corner, Quin! And thanks to Cormac for spreading the word.

The contest looks like a good opportunity, Quin, I just wanted writers to be sure and notice the part about their rights when entering.