Since you already have a list of names you’re 99% of the way there. Good luck… These jackasses are brutal as we know heh.
Absolutely.
General fiction is mostly the province of little magazines, literary journals, and small press publications. There are thousands of these, most of them small and local. Very few of them pay in anything more than copies of the magazine but you can build up an impressive resume if you are prolific.
One good listing can be found here. However, you’d do better to investigate your local writing community and find out what’s being published. Look in alternative weeklies, local bookstores, college or night classes on writing, or writers’ organizations to found out about them.
Yes, genres are as distinct in poetry as elsewhere. Most of the literary journals publish poetry as well as short stories. Very few of the genre magazines do, however, although there are specialized genre poetry magazines. A good market review for f&sf, for example is Ralan’s.
I have to admit that there is a distinction between “general fiction” and “literary fiction,” and I don’t know what you mean by saying you write general fiction. If you don’t write literary you’ll have a much more difficult time at short lengths. Most mainsteam general fiction is novel-length only. That’s one of the exceptions to the general rule.
As someone who has had more than one agent:
- Be famous.
failing that, you should probably do all of the following:
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Get good enough that your work impresses strangers
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Make friends. Lots of friends. Friends with successful authors, friends with editors at publishing houses, friends with agents. I cannot over-emphasize the need to network. From what I see going on around me in the publishing world, it’s how 50-75% of things get done. Friendships will get your work in front of editors, get you introduced to better (and sympathetic … after all, you’re a friend of a friend) agents, etc.
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Submit your work to dozens of agents, and be prepared to have all of them reject it.
One thing you need to keep in mind is that an enormous part of manuscript (etc.) selection/rejection by agents and editors is based entirely on personal tastes and whims. Not to say that your work may not suck–it probably does, since all of us had work that really sucked at one point–but even if it’s good, it just may not interest the agent/editor in any way. Just like authors, agents and editors usually get into the business so that they can have a hand in making the sorts of books they like to read themselves.
So it takes a lot of trial and error. But, the good thing is, there are lots of agents out there.
I agree with what Exapno Mapcase said. If by “general fiction” you mean literary fiction, you’d pretty much be best served by going down to your local bookstore, looking at the literary mags there, checking out their submission guidelines, and going to town.