When Last We Met On This Topic...

One of my stories had been shortlisted in The Friends of the Merril Short Story Contest (DW). I am pleased to now reveal that my story "Your First Real Rocket Ship" has won Third Prize in the contest and will soon be published on the Friends of the Merril website at the Toronto Public Library. In addition, I am very excited that I will eventually receive one of the five booklets to be created by an artist for the three authors, the artist and the Merril Collection.

When it is published, this will be the first time "Your First Real Rocket Ship" will be available in English. In 2009 it was translated into Greek and published in Εννέα (Nine) (DW) as "ΤΟ ΠΡΩΤΟ ΣΟΥ ΠΡΑΓΜΑΤΙΚΟ ΠΥΡΑΥΛΟΚΙΝΗΤΟ" ("THE ONE YOUR REAL ROCKET" according to Google Translation).

I am pretty pleased about this. "Your First Real Rocket Ship" is a story about a little boy and, well, his first real rocket ship ordered from the back of a cereal box. (grin) It's a story I've always liked, but I figured it was too light to outright win the contest. On the other hand, I thought it might make a strong candidate for Third Prize. Turns out I was right. (double-genius-grin)

Also a thanks and a hearty handshake to canadiansuzanne Suzanne Church, who had publicized this contest on her blog and whose story "Muffy and the Belfry" was also shortlisted as a Finalist.

This makes a total of three stories of mine which are going to be published Real Soon Now. Looks to be a real horserace as to what the order of publication is going to be. (third-place-grin)

Dr. Phil

Author Copies From Greece!

Today, Wednesday, I received my three author copies of my story "ΤΟ ΠΡΩΤΟ ΣΟΥ ΠΡΑΓΜΑΤΙΚΟ ΠΥΡΑΥΛΟΚΙΝΗΤΟ" ("Your First Real Rocket Ship" or "THE ONE YOUR REAL rocket" according to Google Translation) published in Εννέα (Nine) issue 443 back on Τετάρτη 11 Φεβρουαρίου 2009 -- whoa, that's way back on Wednesday 11 February 2009! They definitely work on their own timeline over there, as I didn't hear from them until 1 December 2009. Yes, they publish first then tell you later.

This is my second story translated into Greek and published in Εννέα, the first was "The Uranium Age". Neither story has yet sold to an English language market, so it's a nice little source of Euros.

As I mentioned a year ago, Εννέα is a lovely SF and comic supplement. Really nice illustrations for my stories, decent covers and a lot of the comics are understandable even if they are in Greek. Heck, I have a harder time trying to figure out what the punch line in English was for The Far Side cartoons -- out of four I've seen, I know two really well. (grin)





More?

I still have one submission to them from May, back when I assumed that "Your First Real Rocket Ship" hadn't made the cut, so I could already have a third story published with Εννέα. And that would suit me just fine. General reminder is that Εννέα needs a lot of SF stories, they've raised their word counts, they will do the translations and eventually they will get around to paying you if they get around to publishing you. (grin)

What's not to love?

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

Guess I Have To Move One From The Rejection Column To The Win Column

Back at the end of November 2007, Nick Mamatas nihilistic_kid wrote on his blog about Ennea, the weekly comics and fiction insert of Eleftherotypia, the Greek newspaper that represents the left wing of the social democratic party PASOK. In May 2008, Nick wrote about Ennea again, wondering why more people aren't sending their short SF across the seas to Greece.

So I sent a story I had lying around and waited. Nick suggested waiting three months -- they don't send rejections, just an invoice to request a check after they run it (grin) -- and I waited five months. Called it Presumed Rejected.

Dr. Phil Published In The Original Greek?

Which leads us to today's email and a 158-day SALE of "The Uranium Age" to Εννέα (Nine).

Dear Mr Kaldon,

We published your story THE URANIUM AGE in issue # 421 (3/9/08 ). According to our rates (3 EUROcents per word) your fee for the publication rights of the abovementioned storie is 56 EUROS.

You will find attached an invoice for the amount of 70 EUROS (70 - 14 = 56 - we cover for you a 20% tax).

Ha! My first foreign print publication and my first work in translation.

Thanks, Nick!

Dr. Phil