Dead Market??
Duotrope is reporting Farthing as a dead market!
Has anyone heard anything about this?
Anthologies
I realized recently that I do some research on a regular basis that may be of interest to my readers. Granted, you probably already do this research yourself, but hey. I'm doing it, I currently keep track of it in a text document on my desktop, and frankly, I'd like to put it in a place where I can access it anywhere, anywhen, and it might be useful to someone.
Anyway. What this research is: it's keeping track of the good-looking anthology markets. I rarely submit to anthologies, because I rarely have the right story at the right time, and I'm terrible about writing to non-contractual deadlines. I'm mostly trawling these markets, hoping against hope that I have something appropriate to send. I rarely do. Still.
Also, a good-looking anthology market, to me, fulfills at least three of the following criteria:
- print
- pays a reasonable amount for the rights involved (about $.03 a word, but has to pay SOMEthing other than copies, regardless)
- high-concept or cool-concept without being ridiculously niche or shared world
- doesn't have guidelines full of ridiculosity (if I can't figure out what you want, how much you pay and when you want it within 30 seconds, I'm not reading your damned guidelines any further)
This month, I've got my eye on the following markets (presented in deadline order):
- Belong: A Place Called Home. 1,000 to 7,000 words, pays Aus 1.5 cents/word. Deadline: 1 September 2007. "What makes people pack up their belongings and leave their homeland? What happens when they return as a tourist?"
- Books Gone Bad. 4000 to 12,000 words, pays 1 cent per word. Deadline: 30 September 2007 (or until filled) "Stories should be about books that do not belong in a sane person's library; books that wreck havoc in the lives of their owners; books that are no damn good! The "bad" book in your story should be central to the plot."
- Mundane SF issue of Interzone. Under 5000 words, pay--Interzone's regular rate? Deadline: 31 October 2007.
- Paper Blossoms, Sharpened Steel. Between 3,000 and 9,000 words, pays $.05/word. Deadline: 15 December 2007 "tales that are heavily influenced by Chinese, Korean, or Japanese folklore and history"
- Butcher Shop Quartet 2 15,000 and 40,000 words, pays 1.5 cents per word. Deadline: 31 January 2008. "Psychological thrillers, dark satire, a journey into black magic, traditional works of supreme horror"
- Clockwork Phoenix:Tales of Beauty and Strangeness . Up to 10,000 words, pays "$0.02 a word on acceptance as an advance against royalties, then a pro rata share of royalties after earnout, plus a contributor copy." Deadline: 1 February 2008. "The anthology's literary focus is on the high end, and it is open to the full range of the speculative and fantastic genres."
- Far, Far Away. 100 to 6,000 words, pays only $25 (sad face!). Deadline: 29 February 2008. "About the worlds that exist alongside our own, unseen, be they on the other side of the looking-glass, in virtual reality, or in the sewers under the city."