Dearth of markets

Over the past few years, the number of markets for short science fiction has dwindled. Every time I get a rejection and look to send the story out again, I see a few more markets either going out of business or closed to submissions.

I suppose the subject is on my mind because of the news that the next issue of the quality semi-prozine Electric Velocipede will be its last. I've tried to sell them a story for years, without luck; I only met Publisher John Klima a few months ago at WorldCon. He's published it since 2001; it won a Hugo award in 2009.

Since the Recession kicked in, I've seen a steady stream of magazines fold because either they ran out of money, or the people involved ran out of time and money. These publications, especially the smaller ones, are a labor of love for dedicated fans, and it must be gut-wrenching to fold a magazine because of job constraints.

Since I don't write hard s-f, my pool of markets is smaller than it might be for some others, and when you take into consideration that I can write very fast, I end up dropping some very good stories into very small markets. Over the long run, through, I feel spreading my stories far and wide has helped my reputation as a writer.

And even if a story is originally published in a small venue, it may still have a good second life in an collection or anthology. This is a little trick I stole from Joe Lansdale.

Latest on "Letters from Gardner"

Got some feedback on "Letters from Gardner" from the man himself, making a few tweaks in the manuscript before sending it off to my Beta reader. I had already sent a copy of the book to John Teehan at Merry Blacksmith Press, let's see if I can hornswoggle convince him to give me a contract.

Anthology invite

Got an invite for an original steampunk horror anthology paying pro rates, closing next spring.

"The Clock Struck None"

Sent back the galley of "The Clock Struck None". Found a mistake right up front in the acknowledgements. Also suggested moving a story around in the TOC.

Update

In addition to getting the page proofs for my next collection, "The Clock Struck None", I checked in with John Teehan at Merry Blacksmith Press to be sure he got "Letters from Gardner", and I talked to Bruce Bethke at Stupefying Stories about the special Weird Wild West edition which will be featuring my story "Riders of the Red Shift". All projects seem to be moving ahead, at various speeds.

Page proofs

Received page proofs from Ian Strock at Fantastic Books for my next collection, "The Clock Struck None", 274 pages of alternate and secret history short stories. The lead-off story is my Sidewise award finalist "Great White Ship". I will read everything this weekend.

While we're on the subject...

...of the "Raygun Chronicles" anthology, I should also pass along more information received from editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt:

"Amazon put the hardcover up for preorder last week, to my surprise. At 33% off, it's cheaper than I can sell you extra copies.

"We had a very successful launch at OryCon with a few backers present and several contributors and me. We signed and sold a bunch of books and even did a signing the next day at Powell's, a huge SFF bookstore in Portland.

"Meanwhile, I am going to target a book bomb wherein we have a release week and get everyone who buys to buy that week so we can get a boost in Amazon rating and visibility that will carry over. More on that soon."