I'd really like to try and market the thing, too, but I'm not sure how one goes about that other than mailing it out to slush piles.

And no, I realize, because it's not vampirish. Back to the drawing board.

Well, you know, they weren't all vampish. It was a very loose remit. I loved your story to pieces, and it was erotic, and it was fantastical, albeit in a post-apocalyptical way rather than an overtly gothic way. I'd give it a big Hell Yes, fwiw.

oooh, thank you Fay!

I'm being "good mommy" today. We're about to build a playhouse out of cardboard!

I'd really like to try and market the thing, too, but I'm not sure how one goes about that other than mailing it out to slush piles.

Er... that's pretty much how one sells a story unless one has a big rep already. :-)

Your writing is already better than 95% of the stuff that a slush pile receives, maybe even 99%. That doesn't guarantee that a story by you will sell, but it will surely get read all the way to the end, and maybe get a personalized rejection, depending on how strapped for time the slush pile reader is/whether the actual name editor has time enough to read and reject the mss. passed on by the slush pile reader.

Would Writer's Market be the place to look for a buyer? I'm thinking I want to try with the top, then find the small press places. Hell, if I'm going to try this, I might as well try big.

I've only ever tried to sell in the sci-fi/fantasy market, where I know a lot of the publications. I was advised to steer clear of Writer's Market and Writer's Digest type market listings because of a number of factors, including that they are often months-to-years out of date. In addition, I've known several semi-pro editors who prayed that they wouldn't get listed in the Writer's Digest Hot 100 or whatever because of the unbelievable DELUGE of slush pile badness that would descend on them like a tidal wave of big manila envelopes. (Some markets send fake editor names to these "professional" listings so they can segregate the slush that comes in from them. This also alerts them to liars who claim to these non-existent editors "You asked me to send you this story when we were at that party at Worldcon"....)

If I were trying to sell short stories these days, I'd go to The Market List for figuring out where to sell SF/F, which seems to be well run and frequently updated. I think the Critters (IIRC, isn't Ms. Havisham working with them?) also have market listings, too.

This is where networking with other writers and editors pays off, because you'll hear about which markets are unreliable, or have unbelievable (2 yrs+?) waiting times before slush gets read, or who gives prompt turnarounds.

Neat! I love you people.

Anthology project?

Ooh, Theo, thanks for the tip. Okay, yes, it was directed at connie, but I seem to have appropriated it for myself.

Deb, Spike's Bitches Anthology Project. It's a shortish thread. You should go look.

OK.