*ponders like a pondery thing*

[agilebrit]

According to Joni Labaqui at WotF, I am now free to sub the BearFic elsewhere. She also says that I should mention in my cover letter that it got an Honorable Mention in the contest, and that will increase its chances of publication.

Now...I'm not so sure. A finalist? Oh, yeah. Semi-finalist? Maybe--eh, probably. Honorable mention? That's way down the totem pole, to me. That's kind of like saying "This story got past the slush reader at Baen's, but Eric and Mike rejected it." I'm really not sure that it's a huge recommendation, especially for the markets on my A list.

*tears out hair* Dammit, I wish I knew the ins and outs of publishing better. Help me out, someone?

Comments

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

It got an Honorable Mention. This is the equivalent of “getting mentioned in dispatches” - no, it's not a medal, not a battlefield commission, but your worth got noticed. Officially. You got in the door. Yes, say so! Don't discount it!

[appomattoxco.livejournal.com]

I say mention it. It's the real world, this isn't the kind of award that everyone who didn't win gets at the end of field day.

[lonfiction.livejournal.com]

Personally, I would not mention anything below Finalist in a cover letter, and then only if that was the story I was currently submitting.

My own experience has led me to the position that anything in a cover letter beyond one or two relevant sales does more to make the submitter appear amateurish than even the lack of any credits at all would. Of course, Your Mileage May Vary.

P.S. Make sure you keep submitting to Writers of the Future! That experience is worth suffering through any number of rejections for.

[lonfiction.livejournal.com]

To clarify one thing though: Just because I wouldn't mention less than a Finalist on a cover letter, do not think for a second you should not be thrilled, elated, ecstatic and totally jazzed to see your story placing a cut above the rest of the entrants.

Every improvement, step closer to your dreams and bit of validation deserve to be celebrated. This is certainly one to share with family, friends and other writer types--it's just more of a personal success than one I would recommend putting on business correspondence (aka cover letter/query letter/cold sales letter.)

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Oh, believe me, I'm totally thrilled (although not as thrilled as the first time...or the second time. Hee). And I've made a resolution that I will enter every quarter of WotF until I'm either no longer eligible or win that puppy.

Winning three HM's might be worth putting in a bio on another story that's been published. Cover letter? The consensus at LTUE seemed to be "not so much."

Now, I've got two sales on my resume to small markets (Renard's Menagerie and Afterburn). I've also heard that the A list markets aren't necessarily impressed by something like that. On the other hand, it tells them that someone else was willing to pay me actual money for my words. So I vacillate there, too.

*whines* It shouldn't be this complicated.

[lonfiction.livejournal.com]

LTUE sounds like a fun con. I hope to make it out there some day. I would no sooner put the WotF HM on my cover letter than I would list off all the other markets that thought about it for a minute and then said no. Might as well hand deliver the sub while bellowing "I coulda been a contender!" :D


*whines* It shouldn't be this complicated.

Write the best story you can and submit it to the best markets that publish that sort of thing. Repeat as necessary. What's so complicated about that? ;)

[lonfiction.livejournal.com]

I am glad, though, that they changed the nomenclature from Quarter-Finalist. I remember one year being absolutely crushed when I found out that it did not mean a Finalist for the Quarter, but rather surviving the first round of cuts.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

LOL It's not the writing and shipping the stuff out that's complicated, it's the tightrope of what to put in the cover letter. That's where I get all confuzzled. Is a (paid-for) story in something like Renard's Menagerie or Afterburn "relevant" to F&SF?

And LTUE is fabulous. I always come out of a Con energized and ready to write with new ideas popping out of my ears, but LTUE is particularly good for that. Also, I have a spare bedroom (with a single bed) if the cost of the hotel is what's stopping you from coming...

[lonfiction.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I will keep that in mind. Thus far it has been the distance, a lot of real life changes and not being able to plan very far ahead. I only just started going to cons last year. I think things will settle down some in the future.

Here is the template I would recommend for a newer writer's cover letter:


Dear [Top Banana's Name], *

Thank you for taking the time to consider "I Have No Nose and I Must Sneeze" for OMGWTFBBQ Illustrated. Other work of mine has appeared in __Best Credit___ and/or __Next Best Credit____. ** I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Darlin' Ellison



*If it is a democraticy-style editorial collective, then Dear OMGWTFBBQ Illustrated Editors will do just fine)

** When submitting to a top shelf pro or semi-pro zine, I would not list a market credit on my cover letter unless the market satisfies at least 2 of the following tests. The more the better.

1) Positive mention/HM or above, in one or more of the last two applicable Year's Best volumes.
2) The market you are subbing to has run a positive review or mention of your prior credit market--better yet your story in particular!--in the last 18 months or so. (Yes, this means you should pay attention and do your market research.)
3) Market Pays >1 cent a word AND has been around publishing reliably and paying that rate for at least 18 months--the longer the better.
4) This one allows the most room for interpretation. If it has a long storied history/solid reputation/lots of established pros in its back issues, consider test #4 met.

When subbing to second tier zines (I leave you to define that line where you feel comfortable) you can loosen this up a little, if you want. Consider the above tests a rough guide, but also take a gander at the bios of the authors in the last few issues of the market you are subbing to. If your top two markets are on par with the ones you see in their author bios, then the odds are your credits hold more significance for them.

when picking out what subs to mention, obviously go for the high profile ones first, once you have them. Down the road a bit, after you have several higher profile sales, consider using a newer story credit, if it matches the market you are subbing to more closely, ie dark credits to dark markets and spaceship credits to SF markets.

Please note this is all just my own comfort zones and thought processes when writing out a cover letter. I am not making any value judgements on good and bad markets, just indicating which I think would actually have a sliver of a chance of helping a new writer be taken a hair more seriously if listed as a past credit. No doubt there will be exceptions and anecdotes from someone or other to show how WRONG WRONG WRONG I am, but I'm ok with that. I'm open to learning new things, too.

One last point: As a new writer, avoiding the big negatives of obvious gaffs is more likely to get your submission taken a little more seriously than even the shiniest, tiniest little buff you might get from a prior credit. What I'm saying here is "There is no past credit shiny enough to help a new writer sell crap!" ;)

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, it's the "once you have them" thing that's the rub. I've sold two stories, and one won't even appear until September. But I got paid a penny a word or more for both, so that's a good, right?

How do you find out how "reputable" a market is? I can't subscribe to everything, and even if I could I wouldn't have time to read it all. I know Locus is probably a good source for news-type stuff, but that seems like a lot of slogging and a lot of money for a magazine I might not even read...

Ah well. The major thing is to get the thing printed out and shipped off and let the details take care of themselves. I guess I shouldn't worry about whether JJA is going to go "LOLFURS" at the fact that I've been pubbed in Renard's Menagerie, because, dammit, we should all be in this together.

How do you find out how "reputable" a market is?

[lonfiction.livejournal.com]

OK that is a slippery slope kind of question--there is nothing so nebulous and hard to define as "collectively, generally held esteem". The best we can get is a sense of what the most experienced and discriminating beacons within the market seem to think, when bounced off of lots of other people's perceptions as well. So bear in mind as you read this that "The code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules." Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Agilebrite.

A good general tactic is to sit down with a copy or two of Year's Best _GENRE_. There are a bajillion of them now, so remember you're just going to have to be happy with aiming for a loose and fuzzy consensus. Libraries and bookstores and published ToCs are a frugal person's friend. :)

Check out where the reprints in that YB appeared. The heavy hitters coming from the Big Three-??? will not be a surprise. So pay attention to the small press periodicals (and recurring antho series) that had stories reprinted in the various YBs. That's your first and biggest indicator that a small press market has some clout.

Next up, read the front matter where the editor discusses the year in _GENRE_. You already know who the prozines are, so again, pay attention to what magazines get positive shoutouts in the front matter but did not quite garner a reprint. A market praised here is doing something right, and it is quite likely that (given a consensus among YB editors) other editors large and small elsewhere in the field will consider these markets just as favorably.

Then do the same thing with the Honorable Mentions lists where available. Look for trends. Compare with Rich Horton and Locus Recommends lists and any other "best of" list you feel is coming from an established pro. (A note: Personally, I do not think P&E reader's choice poll is a reliable indicator of a market's overall reputation or prestige or whatever it is we are trying to isolate here.)

Lastly, take a look at the past several years worth of Nebula, Stoker, etc. final ballots. These are easily to google for. Arguably the least reliable indicator of a small press market's "rep", because the slots are limited, which makes it harder to get a feeling for whether the market itself has the cachet or just a story/writer in particular.


[Insert standard YMMV Boilerplate here. All of the above is just my opinion, my best guess answer to a very murky question. If I've stepped on anybody's toes and it hurt really really bad, they should probably consider protective footwear.]

Re: How do you find out how "reputable" a market is?

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Aha! Thanks very much, that helps tremendously. :)