Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

John Joseph Adams' New Magazine Guidelines

As I mentioned back in October, there's a new pro paying market coming out in June 2010, John Joseph Adams' Lightspeed. The Submission Guidelines are now online.

Lightspeed Guidelines

Guidelines for Original Fiction
Lightspeed is open for submissions beginning January 1, 2010. A link to the online submission system will be added to the site at that time.

Lightspeed is seeking original science fiction stories of 1000-7500 words. Stories of 5000 words or less are preferred. We pay 5¢/word for original fiction, on acceptance. To see which rights we're seeking, please view our contract template for original fiction.

All types of science fiction are welcome, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between. No subject should be considered off-limits, and we encourage writers to take chances with their fiction and push the envelope.

We believe that the science fiction genre's diversity is its greatest strength, and we wish that viewpoint to be reflected in our story content and our submission queues; we welcome submissions from writers of every race, religion, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation.

Guidelines for Reprints
Lightspeed will be publishing two reprints each month, but it is primarily a market for original fiction; a majority of our reprints will be directly solicited, but you may submit a reprint for consideration if you wish. For reprints, we are offering 1¢/word, on acceptance. To see which rights we're seeking, please view our contract template for reprinted fiction.

Rejections
Be aware that every month we expect to receive several hundred submissions. As such, we cannot offer personalized feedback on each story. If we say, "Send more," it does mean that we hope to see something else from you. Most rejections will be sent out in 48 hours or less, while stories being seriously considered may be held for up to two weeks.

Summary
Stories should be science fiction between 1000 and 7500 words long. Stories of 5000 words or less are preferred.

Payment for original fiction is 5¢/word, on acceptance. To see which rights we're seeking, please view our contract template for original fiction.

Payment for reprinted fiction is 1¢/word, on acceptance. To see which rights we're seeking, please view our contract template for reprinted fiction.

Response time: Most rejections will be sent out in 48 hours or less, while stories being seriously considered may be held for up to two weeks.

Submission Procedures
All fiction submissions must be submitted through our online submission system. A link to the online submission system will be added to the site by January 1, 2010.

Our submissions form asks for your name, email address, cover letter, story title, and story. Your cover letter should contain the length of your story, your publishing history, and any other relevant information (e.g, if you send us a hard sf story about black hole clusters and your doctoral dissertation was on black hole clusters, mention that). All stories should be in standard manuscript format and can be submitted in either .RTF or .DOC format. If you are unable to use our online submission system, please e-mail your story as an attachment to john@lightspeedmagazine.com. All questions about fiction and fiction related e-mails should go to john@lightspeedmagazine.com.

After you have submitted your story, a tracking number will be displayed and an automated email confirmation containing this information will be sent to you. If you have not received this email us. Your tracking number will allow you to monitor the status of your submission through our website, so please make note of it.

NOTE: Be sure to add john@lightspeedmagazine.com to your address book (or your email client's spam white list), and check your spam folder before querying if we have received your story.

Additional Notes
Lightspeed is not a market for fantasy fiction. Please submit fantasy stories to our sister publication, Fantasy Magazine.

Sexual themes and stories with strong sexual content are acceptable, but Lightspeed is not a market for erotica.

Lightspeed is not a market for media-based fiction (i.e., stories set in the Star Wars or Star Trek universes, etc.), or any kind of fan fiction.

Lightspeed is not a market for poetry.

We do not accept simultaneous submissions or multiple submissions.

Do not query for fiction. If you're not sure if your story is suitable, please simply submit it and let our editors decide.

If editor John Joseph Adams has previously rejected your story, please do not submit it to Lightspeed, unless it was rejected as being unsuitable for the market (due to theme, etc.) or unless it has been significantly revised to the extent that it is no longer the same story. (emphasis mine)

Please do not respond to rejection letters, even just to say "Thanks for the quick turnaround" etc. We appreciate the thought, but it is unnecessary and will just clutter up our editorial inbox.

Why The Big Deal

Well, for one thing we're always lamenting the loss of markets, especially paying markets. To have a new SF market coming out, one paying SFWA pro rates, is news to SF writers. Especially in light of the recent "Rate Fail" discussion -- a new market paying 0.1¢ a word -- which I'll probably blog about soon. Second, JJA has until recently been the Assistant Editor at The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and reading Gordon Van Gelder's slush pile for all the years I've been submitting to markets. And JJA's been editing some pretty nifty anthologies recently. Not that he's been buying my work. (grin) -- See italic emphasis in Guidelines above. -- Yet. (big-grin)

So, if you're a SF writer, you might want to read the above and think about some submissions. And if you're an SF reader, well, we'll just have to wait til June 2010 to see if all this fuss is worth it.

Dr. Phil

My Story In Greek From Last Year

Back in November I found out that my story "The Uranium Age" had been published in Greek by Εννέα (Nine). At the time I only had rough guidelines via nihilistic_kid Nick Mamatas. But today I received an e-mail from Εννέα with new guidelines:

Dear SF writers,

Despite the international economic crisis we decided to move our Comics & SF supplement, the "9" magazine, from Wednesday to Saturday, a day with much bigger (almost double) printrun and better sales. We also added 16 more pages (from 32 to 48). So now we need longer SF stories. Stories from 3.500 words up to 5.500 words.

We would be obliged if you could "spread" the following submission guidelines to your fellow writers any way possible.

Looking forward to read your stories

Best regards

Angelos Mastorakis
Chief Editor of "9"
The Comics & SF magazine

Well, yessir! Longer stories? I can do that! (grin)

"9" - NEW SUBMISSION GUIDELINES - 2009

"9" is a weekly Comics & Science Fiction supplement (50 pages, full colour) of ELEFTHEROTYPIA, a major Greek daily newspaper (print run 100.000). Every week we publish an SF story 3.500 to 5.500 words long. We publish only Science Fiction, not Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery or Horror. We are always interested in good stories, whether published before or not. Not counting the Greek SF stories, we have already published stories written by famous American, Australian, Austrian, Brazilian, Bulgarian, Canadian, Croatian, Cuban, English, French, German, Italian, Serbian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese and Rumanian authors.

LANGUAGE: We accept stories in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish & Serbocroatian.

RATES: for the one-time non exclusive publication rights (first Greek language serial rights) plus the first option for a possible future anthology = 0,03 EURO (3 EURO cents - approximately 4 US cents) per word. We pay after publication. We keep the exclusive Greek translation rights. (That means if you sell your story again in Greece and the second publishers use our translation they have to pay us otherwise they will have to use a new translation) Of course if we decide to include your story in an anthology we make a specific agreement.

CONTRACT: We do not (REPEAT-WE DO NOT) make contracts. To make one contract every week is too much paperwork for us. We do not have time, we have to meet a 50 page deadline every week (52 times a year)!

PAYMENT: We send you an invoice by e-mail that you have to fill, print, sign and send back to us by ordinary mail. (BEWARE: As we cover for you a 20% state tax the amount mentioned on the invoice is not the amount that you are going to receive - it is your fee plus the 20% tax rounded to the nearest 5 EURO amount). In 4-6 weeks we transfer the money in a bank account that you specify. (Unfortunately we had to discontinue the payments by personal cheque). We send you also 3 complimentary copies.

SUBMISSIONS: .RTF or .DOC files by e-mail to ennea.sf@enet.gr (BEWARE: This is a new e-mail account created especially for submissions). Also disposable typewritten or word-processed manuscripts (with your name address & e-mail, on one side of paper, with numbered pages, indented paragraphs, enough spacing between lines and wide margins) to the following address:

Mr. ANGELOS MASTORAKIS
CH. K. TEGOPOULOS EDITIONS S.A.
ELEFTHEROTYPIA - "9"
10-16 MINOOS STREET
GR 117 43 ATHENS
GREECE

NOTICE: A short biography and the following facts about the story must be included in your submission (when it was written, first publication data, any awards, etc.)

We cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage to your submission. Do not send submissions by recorded delivery or registered post.

By submitting a story you agree for its publication under the abovementioned conditions

You're welcome.

Dr. Phil