I recently asked a question about cover letters and pen names and got all sorts of advice out the wazoo (most of it very good), so I again come to my fellow scribblers with another query: which genre magazines have the best response times and make an overall good impression on you, even when they reject you? (And can my sentences get any longer?)
I’ve found a couple of good websites that rate response times, but I’m interested to hear some personal commentary on which magazines are worth it and which are analogous to throwing your manuscript into a jet engine. I just got a fast-as-all-hell response from The Third Alternative (almost too fast, but I’m trying not to be too paranoid), and although it was a rejection, I’m glad I didn’t have to wait umpteen months to hear from them. I know F&SF has a reputation for being incredibly fast. I’m particularly curious to hear from anyone who has submitted to the following:
Interzone (apparently still exists, but the website hasn’t been updated in a looong time) Alchemy (apparently has no web page) Fantastic Stories of the Imagination Weird Tales Realms of Fantasy
Many thanks in advance for enlightening me with your wisdom . . .
If you write SF, I’ve found Analog responds pretty quickly. I submitted a few manuscripts years back and the returned them right quick. With a hand-signed rejection, no less.
Interzone is still running - I’m a subscriber - but I don’t know what their response time is. (Though I have heard second-hand reports of one well-known author grumbling about it having turned into “a black hole of information”, so maybe not very good.)
BTW, you might want to check The Black Hole response time database. It gives the following averages:
Interzone – 142 days
Alchemy (not listed)
Fantastic Stories of the Imagination – 87 days (or 75 – it’s unclear which of two possibilities you mean)
Weird Tales – 83 days
Realms of Fantasy – 79 Days
You also should add your information to help them keep the database current.
You should also think about sff.net and its dozens of useful newsgroups. sff.writing.response-times is the place to post about actual response times and sales, so you can get up-to-the-minute information.
Many of the genre magazines have their own newsgroups there as well.
Thanks again, everyone. I had seen the Black Hole site before, and it is now safely bookmarked (I also added my response time for Third Alternative). Looks like Alchemy is pretty fast, but I’m kind of wary of any SF magazine that doesn’t even have a website. Even a basic, just-the-facts site would seem to be a must for any magazine that wants to increase its readership.
Anyway, that brings me to another related question: has anyone here actually read any of the lesser known magazines? Which ones (not just ones I’ve listed) do you consider worth shooting for? Which ones, if any, would you be embarrassed to have your work appear in?
It’s a bit difficult for me to find an appropriate market, since I don’t write hard SF, sword and sorcery, or space opera. I’d classify my stories as slipstream, I guess – but more in the spirit of Lafferty and Borges than any of the more modern cross-genre writers. Any magazines out there that are just dying for weird, but not necessarily dark, short fiction?
(I should point out that in no way did I mean to imply that I am even worthy to wash the socks of the great ones like Laffery and Borges. They’re just the writers I have to constantly try not to rip off; I’m sure some of you know what I mean.)
