Abe Lincoln’s Advice on Querying

Which SF&F Markets Publish the Most New Authors?

I’ve wondered it. You’ve wondered it. Or not. But now’s your chance to wonder in case you haven’t. Which SF&F markets publish the most new authors? (Hat tip to Cat Rambo, who also explains Why You’re Always Being Rejected by Fantasy Magazine.) Here’s her breakdown of the percent of fresh blood for each market:

F&SF: 3%
Analog: 5%
Asimov’s: 20%
Baen’s Universe: 21%
Intergalactic Medicine Show: 32%
Interzone: 40%
Realms of Fantasy: 51%
Clarkesworld: 61%
Strange Horizons: 68%
Weird Tales: 72%
Chizine: 78%
Fantasy Magazine: 88%

So if you’ve never published anything before and your query to F&SF keeps getting SASEd back to you, now you might have an inkling why.

* * *

Finally, I want to add a plug for SmokeLong Quarterly, even though it’s not sf&f, and even though I have no idea what percentage of new writers they publish, because (a) it’s the bees knees, and (b) fellow blogger Davin Malasarn helps edit it. Check out his blog for an interesting essay of the value of online publication.

If you know of any other publications deserving a plug, let me know and I’ll be glad to add them.

Abe Lincoln’s Advice on Querying-draft

“All agents will reject some of your queries.
Some agents will reject all of your queries.
But you only need one agent to accept one of your queries
to become an agented author.”

Getting Ahead of Myself

In theory, I should be worrying about getting an agent and selling a book to a publisher, but, I like to be proactive about my futile fretting. So instead I expend a lot of useless brainpower worrying about finding myself in the shoes of Tobias Buckell.

Those of you familar with his kick-ass military science fiction are probably snorting your coffee right now, thinking, “Yeah, Tara, you should be so lucky.”

I like to write series. Ideally, the sales figures for a series should follow the trajectory of the books in the Harry Potter series, starting out modestly for Book 1 and reaching univeral distribution to every single literate human being on the planet by Book 7. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen that way.

What if sales for each book in my series decline? What if my publisher — or even my agent! — tires of my declining commercial appeal and drop me before I finish telling my story?

Rumspringa

The Amish have created a civilization within a civilization. It’s not an easy feat, as the larger civilization surrounding them is always in danger of absorbing them. One way they deal with this is throught the rumpsringa.

For those unfamiliar with the ins and outs of Amish life, Rumspringa is a period in mid-adolescence when Amish teens are permitted to sample — for the very first time — all those amenities that their American peers long ago learned to take for granted. Stuff like television and cell phones and poor fashion choices.

The rationale is that after being exposed to the modern world in this way, the kids, who take part in this period at age 16, are in a better position to decide whether or not they want to truly commit to the Amish way of life.

As it happens, mainstream American kids are also part of a larger civilization, a global mix of many civilizations. I believe all Americans should go live in another culture for a while, perform a rumpringa of their own, to truly decide what kind of life they wish to build.

Is is possible, though? Certain cultures accept converts, newcomers and foreigners. Others — don’t. An Amish teen could desire to make a new life in mainstream America, and though it would be challenging, it would be possible. But how many mainstream American teenagers even if they wanted to would be welcomed into an Amish community? (Cavaet: I’ve never tried. Perhaps it’s possible.)

What do you think? Is it possible for non-Amish to do a rumspringa or is the analogy flawed? Did you ever perform a rumspringa, metaphorically or literally?

Bad Endings

Natalie has summarized some of the factors that make for bad endings on her blog.

She listed:

1. Too unexpected

2. Negates the entire purpose of the story

3. No actual resolution

4. Goes against “the genre”

*looks around nervously* I don’t see “ends on a cliffhanger” in there. Maybe I’m safe. Or maybe she just forgot to mention it. I think there are a few others I would add:

5. Has less dramatic tension than the earlier parts of the book, so ends with a “whimper”.

6. Leaves too many loose ends — questions raised earlier in the story are never answered. This is a less severe version of #3, but still annoying.

7. The resolution comes from outside the MC’s efforts.