I have this story about a federal agent who delves into a serial killer’s brain with the help of training and psychotropic drugs as a means of discovering whether or not he is truly guilty of the crimes he’s been accused. It’s set in some unspecified time in the future, and relied upon the use of science and methods that I made up, inspired by the hippies and the use of LSD to ‘expand one’s mind.’
I would never send this story to Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
Why? Because BCS asks specifically for secondary world fantasy, a la JRR Tolkien and Piers Anthony’s Xanth novels.
And how do I know BCS only accepts secondary world fantasy? Easy. I read the guidelines posted on their site.
Not all markets have such structured needs, and some are even more limited. Anthologies, in particular, have a tendency to go toward the very specific, though some magazines have rolling themes they pull from. And the only way to know exactly what any given market is looking for is by doing your research. Which should be a foregone conclusion for anyone submitting anything anywhere. I’m sure most of you already do this. Professionals–that is people who take their writing seriously–certainly do this.
It’s the individuals who completely neglect such a basic thing that really annoys me. Especially when the category of stories accepted is as broad and encompassing as speculative fiction.
Seriously, I could write a dozen posts about all the things that fall under the spec fic umbrella. Science fiction and fantasy, of course. Slip stream. A whole lot of horror. Magical realism and Wuxia and steampunk and on and on. What it does not include are relationship stories told in present day without a single hint of magic or crazy science or alternate physics. It does not include Janet Evanovich or Debbie Macomber. (It does, in my opinion, include at least one book by John Hersey, though hardly anyone else seems to think so.) (Also, that book I just linked to is awesome.)
So, too, are other markets looking for..well, exactly what they’re looking for. Because there is a place for the romance novella you just wrote, and it’s not at The Colored Lens. There is a market to send your space opera flash to, and it’s not Shock Totem.
Here’s the thing: first readers know their market. And first readers remember names. So when you send something that doesn’t fit the market at all, that proves you haven’t bothered to read the submission guidelines–much less a sample issue–you run the very real risk of annoying the reader. While that doesn’t automatically preclude them from ever liking another story of yours in the future, it certainly puts a damper on their enthusiasm.
Photo used under creative commons license from Frank Kehren.
