The secret to publishing short stories in Asimov's Science Fiction or any magazine

Over on the Codex Author's Forum someone asked me the secret is to being published in Asimov's Science Fiction. My answer: Hell-in-all if I know.

I'm not trying to be sarcastic or mysterious. I write the best stories I can and submit them to the best markets out there. I'm also a subscriber to Asimov's — as was my grandfather before me —so I've been reading the magazine for a long time. That gives me a sense of the type of stories they're likely to accept. Finally, I'm a big fan of the fiction picked for the magazine by editor Sheila Williams.

But that doesn't mean I know the secret sauce to publishing stories with Asimov's or any other magazine. For example, last week I received a rejection from Sheila for a story I thought would be a good fit with Asimov's. There's nothing personal about that rejection. It happens. Sheila even gave me some good feedback on the story.

To help people figure out any "secret" to having stories accepted at Asimov's or any other magazine, I downloaded all the submissions* I've sent to Asimov's since they began accepting electronic subs in 2010. Below are my submissions, along with outcomes, word counts, and type of story. The dates are when I submitted the stories.

My Submissions to Asimov's

  • 02/12/2016: "Her Zero-Word Periplus of Human History"
    Rejected. 5,300 word science-oriented fantasy. 
  • 11/19/2015: "Toppers"
    Accepted. 7,900-word time travel/science fiction novelette. To be published in August 2016 issue of Asimov's.
  • 10/20/2014: Death Flowers of Never-Forgotten Love"
    Rejected. 1,700-word dark science fiction short story. Later accepted by Apex Magazine. 
  • 08/01/2014: "Duller's Peace"
    Accepted. 6,400-word science fiction short story.  Published in Sept. 2015 issue of Asimov's.
  • 06/27/2013: "What Is Sand But Earth Purified?"
    Accepted. 7,400-word science fiction short story. Published in Oct./Nov. 2014 double issue of Asimov's. Placed #4 among short stories in Asimov's annual Readers' Awards.
  • 03/29/2012: "Mondays Monk"
    Accepted. 8,700-word science fiction novelette. Published in March 2013 issue of Asimov's. Named to the Locus Recommended Reading List.
  • 10/24/2011: "Heaven's Touch"
    Accepted. 7,800-word hard science fiction novelette. Published in August 2012 issue of Asimov's. My first Asimov's acceptance. The story is a stand-alone sequel to my story "Where Away You Fall," published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Dec. 2008. I submitted "Heaven's Touch" to Analog but it was rejected. I then submitted to Asimov's and the story was accepted. The novelette was named to the Locus Recommended Reading List.
  • 05/01/2011: "Mirrorblink"
    Rejected. 12,000-word science fiction novelette. After extensive rewrite, I submitted to the British magazine Interzone, which accepted the story and published it in their Nov./Dec. 2012 issue.
  • 07/03/2010: "Peacemaker, Peacemaker, Little Bo Peep"
    Rejected. 8,600-word dystopian science fiction novelette. I submitted to the British magazine Interzone, which accepted the story and published it in their Nov./Dec. 2010 issue.

As you can see from my acceptances and rejections, it's hard to determine a pattern to what makes the mark. Since Asimov's focuses on science fiction stories I generally submit that type of story to them. But beyond that I dare anyone to find a pattern.

The pattern above holds up for other magazines. For example, I've published 13 stories with the British magazine Interzone. But the magazine has also rejected a number of my stories and continues to reject them, with my most recent rejection arriving in January 2016.

So what's the secret sauce to publishing your short stories? Here it is:

  • Write the best story you can.
  • Know — ie, read — the market you submit to.
  • Don't take rejection personally.
  • When a story is rejected make sure to submit it somewhere else.
  • Be persistent with both your writing and your submissions.

Beyond that there is no secret to publishing your short stories. I hope this helps.
 

* End note: My list of submissions to Asimov's is incomplete because I've been submitting there for a long time, nearly as long as I've been reading the magazine. My first submission was a science fiction story when I was a teenager, which Gardner Dozois rejected. In addition, for many years Asimov's only accepted print submissions. I submitted at least a dozen stories during this time, all of which were rejected. A few of them ended up being published in other magazines. But I have no records documenting those submissions and outcomes. 

"Death Flowers of Never-Forgotten Love" in Apex Magazine

My dark science fiction story "Death Flowers of Never-Forgotten Love" has been published in the March 2016 issue of Apex Magazine. The issue is available through the Apex website and through places like Weightless and Amazon, where you can purchase the individual issue — which also features fiction by Lavie Tidhar, Travis Heermann, and Elizabeth Bear — or subscribe.

As an added bonus, Apex created a podcast of my story. You can listen on their site or download the podcast.

The story is a bit darker than what I usually write so I look forward to what people have to say.

The sad economics of fiction writing: Crappy pay and economic instability

Kameron Hurley wrote an excellent essay on "The Sad Economics of Writing Short Fiction." All fiction writers and aspiring writers should read the essay. I generally agree with most everything she said.

It's absolutely not economically sound to write short stories. But ... important point ... it's also rarely economically sound to be a novel writer or any type of fiction writer.

Yes, there are authors who make a full-time living from their fiction writing, but their numbers are rather small. In the SF/F genre maybe two dozen authors make a living solely by writing fiction. The rest of the genre's authors, including many award-winning and bestselling authors, have dayjobs, a significant other who supports them, or do editorial or other freelance work to make ends meet.

For more on what most authors earn, check out this survey from last year. Be warned: It's depressing.

My point isn't to say that authors shouldn't be paid a fair wage, or that people can't succeed financially as authors. They should and can. But if you become a fiction writer merely to land a financial windfall or economic stability, you are a fool. There are plenty of far more reliable ways to earn far more money than by writing fiction of any length.

If you love short stories then write the damn things. If you love novels by all means write them. And when you publish these stories, make sure you're paid a fair amount for your work. 

But if you love money, understand that fiction writing will likely never let you pull wads of cash out of your butt in a never-ending shower of green.

Ugh. That last mental image probably didn't need to be there. But I'm a fiction writer. It's what I've always wanted to be, so I can't help creating vivid if at-times disgusting fictional images. Even when I'm not paid a decent wage for doing so.

Being nice to each other at conventions is good but doesn't replace need for harassment and accessibility policies

Yesterday the World Fantasy Convention 2016 uploaded accessibility and harassment policies to their website. I wish they'd done this before being criticized for not having them and before their deadline passed for a registration fee increase, but it's good they now have the policies.

That said, I'm troubled by how many people said these policies wouldn't be needed if people only treated each other with kindness and respect. For example, in the screengrabs from the World Fantasy Con 2016 discussion group, one of the organizers said "We should not need these policies. ... Play nice and mind your manners."

I understand the appeal of statements like this. I'm generally an optimist. I believe if people treated each other with respect and kindness and goodwill, most of the world's problems would disappear.

Yet I'm also a realist. Even though versions of the Golden Rule have been preached and taught for thousands of years, people still don't behave in this idealistic manner. And that's one reason why statements like "We wouldn't need these policies if people behaved" rubs so many people the wrong way. It's like people making such statements are using wishful thinking to avoid dealing with a problem, or sticking their head in the sand because the problem isn't "their" problem.

I mean, would you seriously follow the advice of anyone who made the following statements?

  • We don't need laws and a court system and police because people generally behave themselves.
  • Don't lock the front door to your home at night because people are generally trustworthy.
  • You don't need passwords for your bank and work and other life accounts because it would be bad manners to steal your money or personal information.

Anyone who made such statements would be laughed at for not seeing the world as it is. Yet somehow it's acceptable to dismiss having a code of conduct and accessibility policies for a convention because all we need to do is have people be nice and mind their manners?

Everyone should be nice to each other at genre conventions. Good manners are a wonderful way to smooth personal interactions. But don't pretend such acts of kindness and good behavior can ever replace policies for dealing with harassment and accessibility.

World Fantasy Con 2016 doesn't care about your harassment and accessibility concerns

I love the World Fantasy Convention. The 2010 World Fantasy in Columbus was the first big SF/F convention I ever attended. In addition to meeting lots of fellow authors and editors, I was even picked to be a participating author on some really exciting panels. In general I had a fantasy-themed ball.

So imagine my excitement when I learned World Fantasy was returning to Columbus in 2016. I planned to register early and be all up in that convention.

Except I still haven't registered, and now I'm ticked. You see, I support both John Scalzi's convention harassment policy pledge and Mary Robinette Kowal's accessibility policy pledge. Basically, these pledges mean that I won't attend a convention which doesn't have clear and enforceable policies dealing with both of these issues.

As of February 1st, WFC2016 has yet to post either of these policies. Today's date matters because on January 31 at 11:59 pm the price to register jumped from $150 to $225. I wanted to register at that lower price but without the policies I wouldn't do so (I'd also have liked to known the guests of honor, but I can live without that).

Until today I was trying to be understanding. After all, managing a convention is difficult and relies extensively on volunteer assistance. Maybe no one had pointed out to the people running WFC 2016 how important these policies were to people. Maybe they were having trouble devising these policies.

But then I receive the following screengrabs and many others, which come from the private Facebook group of the people running WFC 2016. The screengrabs show that the people behind WFC 2016 were told repeatedly that they needed these policies, and that it is unfair to not have the policies up before the lower registration fee deadline passed.

But instead of listening to these concerns, which were raised with WFC 2016 since early December, the people agitating for these policies — along with the very need for such policies — were ignored and belittled.

Let me be very clear: It is wrong for a convention to accept registration payments before that convention posts their harassment and accessibility policies. It is even more wrong to belittle these policies and those requesting them.

I mean, seriously, did people learn nothing from the debacle around last year's World Fantasy Convention fail on harassment?

See below for a selection of these screengrabs.

I'm guessing that by posting these screengrabs I won't be invited to WFC 2016 as a participating author. And that's fine with me, especially if anything I've revealed pushes World Fantasy to finally fix their continual lack of respect and attention around these issues. I've also heard a rumor that WFC 2018 in Baltimore already has their harassment and accessibility policies. If so, that's how a big con like World Fantasy should be run.