Markets

The bane of a writers existence, outside of actual issues with writing, is finding a suitable market for your lovingly crafted masterpiece, and then getting them to actually buy it once you submit it to them.

I've spent hours trolling through market lists trying to find the perfect fit for a piece, submitting it and then waiting weeks, sometimes months, in one case it was eternal because they didn't bother replying at all. Then, if the inevitable occurs and you gain a rejection, you have to do it all again.

The average wait for a response from a market is 30 days. Most get back to you quicker than that but it is not unheard of for this to stretch out to 60 or 90 days. If each story starts a submission path at the top of a list that contains three pro markets, three semi pro, three lower paying and three token paying markets, and you have to wait a minimum of 30 days for a response from each one before sending to the next, it could take close to a year to make a sale. That's 12 months after you've finished writing it. It could then be another few months to a year before you see it in print and/or gain any money from it.

This is why you should have pieces in the market place all the time and continue to supplement your work with new pieces. If something comes back with a rejection, you need to get it back out there ASAP, preferably with a new partner; a new story you've just finished workshopping and is ready to face the market submission merry-go-round.

Because of these difficulties resources like Ralan and Duotrope are indispensable. The good people there do all the work for you. You only have to browse the lists, and research the markets you choose. Changes in market status are all taken care of.

But I'm interested solely in dark markets. Places that accept horror and all it's sub-genre's specifically. On databases like Duotrope, I can set the search parameters to bring up only those types of markets but there's still a lot of work required to narrow down a submission path, and I have to continually set the parameters and check countries and all sorts of other things to get what I want.

Well for the last two days I've been working on a submissions list of my own that will be hosted on my website so it's available for you to use as well. It's not quite finished yet but it will be soon.

There will be over 50 markets listed that are looking specifically for dark writing submissions. There will be additional markets that accept speculative fiction from all genres. All of them will be paying markets. If you are looking for markets that don't pay, "4theluvof" markets, then check those out at Ralan's website.

I may have another announcement in regards to markets, listings and AHWA soon. Stay tuned.

Happy hunting

BT