Aim for the top

Over the Christmas break I spent several hours updating my list of paying magazines that accept science fiction stories.  It was tedious hard work, but the outcome was a pleasant one.

The first thing I noticed was that there were a lot more magazines to submit to than last time I did a list.  The big difference is that a lot of them are purely digital, or digital first with an anthology or possible paperback publication later.  This makes their overheads smaller, and gives the magazine a better chance of surviving in tough times.

The next thing that struck me was that the big magazines were still there, even after the toughest recession for a generation.  Asimov's, Analog, Fantasy and Ścience Fiction, all the magazines I'd grown up reading, were still there.  And these unchanging bedrocks of the SF short story market still welcome new writers, a reassuring business as usual. 

What has changed is my attitude towards submitting my stories to these magazines. When I first started magazines like Asimov's and Analog were worshipped as gods.  There was a feeling that you could only send stuff to them if you'd been published elsewhere.  They were "big" magazines, too good for the beginner writer.  I no longer believe that advice.  Take at look at their submission guidelines, and both magazines explicitly state that they're always on the lookout for new talent. This is an invitation a writer rarely gets.  It's more usually 'we don't know you, so you're not welcome here'.  So I've changed my way of thinking about these bastions of the SF scene.

I now know my writing is as good as any published author's.  The thing which will bring a sale or not will be content of the story.  Looking back through some old ones, I see how I fudged the science in them.  I didn't try and explain how something worked.  Now I've realised I can't dodge the challenge.  But equally, researching is so much easier now with an iPad and ready access to the vast resources of the Ihe internet.  I can put in the science, because I can easily research it.

I have set a goal for 2015 to submit five short stories each month to magazines. I've done January's submissions, and yes, two of the stories went to Asimov's and Analog.  My mindset is different.  Instead of thinking "why would they be interested in me?" I now think "why shouldn't they be interested in me?"  2015 is going to be my short story publication year.