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From: chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Getting published
Message-ID: <2947@sun.uucp>
Date: Tue, 29-Oct-85 20:02:04 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.2947
Posted: Tue Oct 29 20:02:04 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Nov-85 06:53:27 EST
References: <1051@jhunix.UUCP>
Reply-To: chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Distribution: net
Organization: Sun Micro -- NFS Consulting Group
Lines: 54
Summary: 

In article <1051@jhunix.UUCP> ins_amap@jhunix.UUCP (Mark Aden Poling) writes:

>The booklet Amazing is putting out on writing
>SF strikes me as a tract on how to write stuff that George Scithers
>might like.

Well, yes, but George (who also wrote the original for IASFM when he was 
editor there) knows what he is talking about. He is also by far the best
market for a new editor (followed by IASFM -- unless Gardner Dozois changes
policies radically). The hardest seem to be F&SF and Analog -- it seems 
rather rare that either publishes the first story by anyone

Anyway, other resources for the aspiring writer would have to include
the monthly rag 'Writers Digest', which is the best place to keep track of
the writing market in general. It also has a lot of useful articles on
technique and is a good place to have drooping morale rebuilt. The 1986
Writers Guide (about $20) is now out, with addresses and needs of all of
the known magazines, book publishers, and agents out there -- a must if you
are serious about publishing because some of the best places to publish are
ones you probably haven't heard of yet. They also usually have a number of
articles on how to get started in that book, and how to get better.
Writers digest also usually comes out with one or two special issues a year
on freelancing, so keep an eye out for them.

For more specific (and usually up to date) information on the SF market,
track down Locus, the resident Hugo winning semi-prozine. Also, I believe
the SFWA magazine (available to outsiders, I believe) has market
information as well.

>	(Has anyone noticed that, once one has assigned a story to the
>loving care of the US Postal System, one becomes a nervous wreck?  Not
>to mention all the worries over what those mean nasty editors are going
>to *DO* to the poor thing.  Or even the pre-response depression over
>the aniticipated rejection slip.

Very few editors are nasty. If you've ever found yourself in the middle of
a slush pile, you'll see why they sometimes get a bit short tempered. If
you think a writer has it bad, imagine an editor having to read the
equivalent of two weeks of net.flame to find a buyable story. Last I heard,
most magazines were buying 1 out of about 100 manuscripts, and some markets
(like playboy and Better Homes and Gardens) are about 1 out of 10,000. At
the best of times, it isn't a good bet. All you can do is put experience on
your side. Write, write, and rewrite...  A quick hint -- the anxieties don't
get better with experience. With luck, you learn to cope. If not, you stop
writing.

>Why does anyone do it?)

You write because you have to, of course...
-- 
:From the Crystal Caves of Avalon:   Chuq Von Rospach 
sun!chuq@decwrl.DEC.COM                 {hplabs,ihnp4,nsc,pyramid}!sun!chuq

Our time is past -- it is a time for men, not of magic.