Surefire Site For New Writers To Break In

[John Thiel]

That's SURPRISING STORIES. All you have to do is have something you want to put across that will interest readers. Try it out and then come back here and tell them how you scored...where you got in and how easy it was. Find out what they think of it. It's http://surprisingstories.dcwi.com

[admin]

This sounds like fun, but a word of warning. If you "publish" a story for free on the web, that's different from posting a story for critique in, say, Baen's Bar. Once a story is published, it cannot usually be submitted to a paying market, so be careful not to kill your chances of selling your story.

My own rule of thumb: submit to the market that pays best first, and work your way down from there. Of course, pay attention to the market -- don't send a story about hobbits to Analog or a story about spaceships to Relams of Fantasy.

[bluerequiem]

I had never considered the "publishing" dilemna. What is the definition of publish here? Is it the same as "post". If I post some stories on my website does that count as published and make it impossible to submit somewhere else? Does it have to be an entire work or if I just put up a chapter or two, would that still leave me in consideration for "publishing" somewhere else? This is all hypothetically assuming anything I have is any good.

[admin]

Each magazine has its own guidelines. But, yes, many magazines will not buy a story you have given away for free on your web page. What makes writers' groups different is that their membership is limited, and a person must join the writers' group in order to read the story.

A few things that every writer, both beginners and professionals, must take into account is that markets buy, at most, two or three percent of the stories they receive. That's all they have room to print. Even if a story is very good, they won't buy it if they don't have room to print it. And given a very good story by an unknown and an average story by Hugo or Nebula winner, they'll buy the story by the person whose name on the cover may sell magazines. And that's a good thing, because the name on the cover may sell an issue that has your story inside.