The Newsletter of
The Council for the Literature of the Fantastic
Volume 1, Number 1 (Fall 1995)
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Newsletter #1 Market News

• Editor's Introduction
• The LF-Writer's One-Foot Market Bookshelf
• US Market Sources
• Periodicals
• Books: Annually Published Market Sources
• UK Market Sources
• Magazine and Book Market News
• Link to CLF Newsletter #2 Market News

Editor's Introduction

Markets listed here are receptive to Literature of the Fantastic. For this first issue, however, our focus has been more general: to compile as comprehensive a list of market resources for the LF writer as we can. Free Issue #2 will be richer in individual market listings, for by then we shall have had the chance to examine so many more. We shall make every effort to solicit "want-LF" notices from both mainstream and genre publisher in order to expand the ecological niche for LF.

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The LF-Writer's One-Foot Market Bookshelf

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U.S. MARKET SOURCES

PERIODICALS (monthly, quarterly)

• Factsheet Five: $20/6 issues. Seth Friedman, POB 170099, San Francisco, CA 94117-0099. 140 page magazine of countless zine reviews--from the sublime to the ridiculous, arranged by subject (e.g., SF), with index. No direct market info as such.
• The Gila Queen's Guide to Markets: $30/12 issues. K. Ptacek, Editor/Publisher [address?] Monthly (almost). Detailed market news and updates of all sorts, including indispensable annual sf/f issue. Highly recommended.
• Locus. $43/12 issues, 2d CL. (Canada: $48). US$ check to Locus Publications, P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661. [28-yr. old monthly: Reviews of current sf and fantasy lit, good columns on market news and author events. The market reports are good, but not as thorough or as informative as those of Speculations and the SFFWA Bulletin. It's the grandfather of sf and f market news.]
• The Report. $15/6 issues. Sample $2.95 + $1 postage. Dean Wesley Smith, Pubisher. Checks to Pulphouse Publishing, Inc., Box 1227, Eugene, OR 97440. [Markets, contracts, writing tips from pros.]
• Scavenger's Newsletter. 1st Cl. $19.50/12 issues, 26pp. each; bulkrate $15.50 Janet Fox, 519 Ellinwood, Osage City, KS 66523-1329. [Detailed news includes non-paying as well as paying genre zines.]
• SF Chronicle. $36 yr/12 issues, 1st class U.S and Canada. Andrew Porter, Editor. Checks to Science Fiction Chronicle, Box 022730, Brooklyn, NY 11202-0056. [Not perhaps the "grandfather," but very competitive with Locus . All the news about sf/f, including 3 market report updates a year.]
• SFFWA Bulletin. Quarterly journal of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. [Available to non-SFFWA members as well as members] Editor, Mark J McGarry. $15 yr/4 issues; $27 two yrs.; overseas $18.50. Subscriptions: SFFWA Bulletin, 404 Oceanside St., Islip Terrace, NY 11752-1203. [Articles for pros on the sf/f writing business; comprehensive market reports and surveys. Indispensable.]
• Poets & Writers Magazine 6/yr, 100+ pp. per issue, 1 yr., $18; 2yrs., $34. Checks to Poets & Writers, 72 Spring St., New York NY 10012. Qs: 212 226-3586 or email: PWSubs@aol.com. [Geared largely to the mainstream, this is the best general magazine for the aspiring literary writer. Excellent articles, interviews, grants/awards/contests sections; valuable Classifieds of market news often useful for the LF writer. Highly recommended.]
• Small Press Review. $23 yr. Len Fulton, POB 100, Paradise, CA 95967. [In existance for many years now, this 32-page monthly reviews small-press poetry and fiction, mainly mainstream, with emph on the literary and alternative.]
• Speculations . Sasha Miller, Editor. $25 (U.S. $30 to Canada) for six issues. Subscriptions: 1111 West El Camino Real #109-400, Sunnyvale, CA 94087-1057. E-mail: k.brewster@genie.geis.com. [Bimonthly magazine, 64 pp., of genre-market news, plus articles by professionals on the writing trade. Sends interim market-update issues, gratis! Highly recommended.]
• Tangent: the sf & f Short Fiction Review Magazine. $20 yr/6 issues. Checks to David A. Truesdale, 5779 Norfleet, Raytown, MO 64133. [Most comprehensive in the field for surveying short fiction. Every story in a magazine or collection reviewed. Author profiles also. No direct market info as such.]

BOOKS: Annually published market sources :

• The Best American Short Stories Annual. $11.95 (1994). Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10003. [End pages provide a long list of U.S. and Canadian Magazine publishing fiction, editor's name and address, number of stories published per year, and subscription price.]
• Directory of Literary Magazines, 1995-1996 $ 11.95 [This annual lists ca. 500 literary magazines, members of CLMP (Council of Literary Magazines & Presses), giving barebones descriptions, submissions and ordering information. Highly recommended for the LF writer's bookshelf, as a supplement to the vastly more inclusive--but not drastically overlapping-- The Novel & Short Story Writer's Market described below.]
• The International Directory of Little Magazines and Small Presses, 19 95-1996 $29.95 Annual. Dustbooks, PO Box 100, Paradise, CA 95967 [The most comprehensive market sourcebook of all, with excellent subject-indexes. When you run through all the markets in The Novel & Short Story Writer's Market , explore the 6000 markets described in this giant tome.]
• The Novel & Short Story Writer's Market, 1995 $22.99 [Indispensable! This is the most useful and user-friendly single volume of information geared strictly to the fiction writer, where the LF writer can find detailed descriptions of the nature and needs not only of genre publications, but of mainstream magazines open to LF.]
• Putting Out: Essential Publishing Resource Guide for Lesbian and Gay Writers 3rd Edition. 160 pages. $12.95 + $2 Each to Cleis Press, P.O. Box 8933, Pittsburgh, PA 15221 [Edisol Dotson put together the first edition of this Writer's Market for lesbians and gays back in 1991. This newly-updated third edition is filled with vital contacts useful for anyone trying to get in print. Indispensable for gay and lesbian writers but so useful I would recommend it to any writer. (From Factsheet 5 )
• Science Fiction Writer's Marketplace and Sourcebook 1994. $19.99. A Writer's Digest book. Same address as for The Novel & Short Story Writer's Market. [A general guide for the beginning SF writer but very out of date compared to the genre-market updates provided by Scavenger's Newsletter , Gila Queen , and Speculations. ]
• Writer's Market, 1996. $27.99. A Writer's Digest book. Same address as for The Novel & Short Story Writer's Market. [This thick hardcover attempts to be comprehensive for all genres. If it's fiction you write, get The Novel & Short Story Writer's Market. ]

U.K. MARKET SOURCES

• Back Brain Recluse . $26/4 issues. Checks payable to "Anne Marsden." Subscription address: BBR c/o Anne Marsden, 1052 Calle de Cerro #708, San Clemente, CA 92672-6068. Chris Reed , editor/publisher, PO Box 625, Sheffield S1 3GY, UK. E-mail: c.s.reed@sheffield.ac.uk [ BBR contains fine LF and an excellent markets "Directory" that reviews over 100 speculative-genre magazines, independent-press publications, many in England. The editor is our CLF counterpart (NSFA) in UK.] See also Magazine and Book Market News entry below .
• ZENE: the Guide to the Independent Press. Andy Cox, Editor/Publisher, 5 Martins Lane, Witcham Ely Cambs CB6 2LB, United Kingdom. Single issue US $4.50/Four issues, $16.60 payable to ZENE. [This periodical is the source for Scavenger's Newsletter 's UK news.]

• *Critical Wave. US subscriptions, payable to Mary Burns at Z3 Kensington Court, Hempstead, NY 11550, USA $29.00 airmail. $20 surface. (5/yr from Martin Tudor, 845 Alum Rock Road, Ward End, Birmingham UK B8 2AG. British subscriptions pound 8.50)
• *Light's List: A listing of titles, addresses and brief notes of interest of 600+ small press magazines. (further details: j.r.c.light@qmw.ac.uk )
• *WRITERS AND ARTISTS YEARBOOK (Publisher: Black)
• *WRITERS HANDBOOK (Publisher: Pan Macmillan)

Magazine and Book Market News (This column should expand as editors get wind of us and/or begin to take us seriously. We will strive to include only listings that have not been previously published or would be hard to come by. We want to give you what

Gila Queen ( above )

Speculations (also above ), etc., have not rounded up even with their enormous nets. We want especially to probe the seemingly monolithic facade of the literary mainstream to discover the many holes in the dam that are allowing LF to seep in. A fuller version of this listing will appear on our WWW Site.

• Back Brain Recluse founded 1984. [Appears irregularly. In 1993 BBR won the Readercon Small Press Award for best fiction magazine.] Chris Reed , Editor. See addresses under U.K. Market Sources above. "Prefer experimental, non-mainstream. sf/fantasy/horror...material too adventurous or thought provoking for big publishers to handle" but no "explicit sex and/or violence irrelevant to the story. Plot is of paramount importance. ...One story at a time, disposable copy. Include SAE plus one US dollar instead of IRCs. Length : normally 2,000 to 10,000 words. Comic Strip stories also considered. Payment : pound 35 per 1000 words for fiction. Reply in about 2 months, sometimes with comments. Submissions accepted also on 3.5" or 5.25 Apple Mac diskettes, or e-mail: c.s.reed@sheffield.ac.uk . In each case use single column ASCII text file.
• GENETECH (update!): a new anthology, original stories only, edited by Paul T. Riddell, P.O. Box 235, Dallas TX 75221. E-mail: priddell@computek.net . Extended Deadline December 31, 1995. Query First. Length : Prefer 8000 words or less. Over 10,000 words only with "special dispensation." Payment : $0.03 per word. Submission format : Mss. in hard copy first, electroniclly only after accepted. On top page include word count, address, phone, E-mail address. SASE unless ms. is "disposable." Postcard for return comment. Wanted : "Stories concerning genetic technology that make people think. Stories with a reasonable scientific background, but with character and societal motivation instead of technobabble." No cliched "cloned dinosaurs" asnd the like ...I'm looking for originality and fire...; not the same old SF that has made the genre a joke. Imagine a Dangerous Visions collection edited by Ellison and Steven Jay Gould."
• Down State Story, an annual magazine of high-quality fiction accepting a variety of genres. [Very favorably reviewed in this issue of CLF Newletter - Ed.] Elaine Hopkins, Editor. 1825 Maple Ridge, Peoria IL 61614. Tel. (days) 309-686-3247 or 800-225-5757 Ext. 3247. E-mail: ehopkins@prairienet.org . Cost $8 per issue, $20 for three. Published every fall. Deadline : always June 30. Length : 2000 words maximum. Payment : $50 on acceptance. Every issue contains 10 original storiess. "We like connections with Illinois or the Midwest, but literary merit rules. We also need illustrators. All contributors paid $50 on acceptance." Buys first rights, including Internet publication. WWW page features a new story per month. Web URL is: http://www.wiu.bgu.edu/users/mfgeh/dss .
• Artful Dodge, Editor-in-Chief, Daniel Bourne, English Departmnet, The College of Wooster, Wooster OH 44691. Annual, 160-200 pp. Founded 1979. 6"x9", glossy stock, full-cover, Perfect bound. Has published LF by Edward Kleinschmidt, Greg Boyd, David Moser. Length : 30 pp max of prose, 6 poems. Payment : $5 per printed page plus 2 copies. Wanted : By way of "fantastic" fiction, "We're much more likely to be interested in 'literary' writers who work in 'non-realistic' modes that 'non-realistic' writers who think they're 'literary.' We are also more apt to be interesred in magic realism rather that in other nopn-realistic" types, e.g., sf/f/h/ Deadlines : submit anytime. Response time : 1 wk to 6 mos.
• NEW LF BOOK PUBLISHER! Burnhill Wolf Contact Kurt Palomaki, 321 Prospect St., SW, Lenoir NC 28645, 704-754-0287. Novels or Collections of poetry or stories, including SF, "with a neew or different perspective on being alive." [From Small Press Review #273, 10/95.]