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type market listings because of a number of factors, including that they are often months-to-years out of date.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.
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.
RANT WARNING.
I am taking a break from Chapter Seven of cross-editing between a marked-up obsolete version of the manuscript of "The Weaver & the Factory Maid" and my onscreen current version. I am also trying not to take a hostage in the form of the copy editor, who wants all the commas and pauses to be nice and consistent "so as to better give you a cohesive voice". Honeypie, that would be fine if I wanted all my characters to have my voice but I don't, dumbass, I want them to have their OWN damned voices which happen to be different and distinct from eath others', and by the way, who the hell are you to talk about voice, because in case you weren't aware of it, the publisher of this book actually cited me, that's right ME, as a perfect example of voice, in her essay ("From The Editor's POV") in the 1992 or thereabouts edition of "Writing Mysteries" so GET OFF MY CASE, or else write your OWN, damnit.....
There. Breathing now.
A good copyeditor is a joy.
A bad copyeditor reads his own mind and tells you it's The Truth. FEH.
Curses on your copyeditor.
(grumble bitch snarl)
Seriously, this is a freelancer picked from a pool of copy editors. Even Ruth says it looks as though I got a crappy one. She doesn't pick the copy editor in pre-production editing; the production department does that, so it's totally luck of the draw.
Who had final say, Deb? Is the copyeditor primarily to catch the typos and egrecious grammar faults that slip by or do they really have say over the final style of the product?
