The world is on fire, but do you know what you can do from the comfort of your couch without having to interact with any other humans? Write! And once you’ve written beautiful stories (or if you already have) do you know what else you can do without risking human contact?
Submit to literary magazines!
But which ones?
Have no fear, I’ve done the research. This will be focused on markets focused broadly on speculative fiction. Why not give you a helpful guide to all literary magazines?
Because there are hundreds, if not potentially a couple thousand. Don’t believe me?
In 2014, Submittable reported that according to Duotrope, there were almost 5000 current markets for fiction, poetry, and non-fiction submissions.
But literary magazines are labors of love, and while some last decades, others come and go in a matter of months or years. Though they don’t list how often the update their list, the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP). Published in September 2019, The Nonconformist Authors boasts their “Big Big List of Literary Magazines and Journals” that has 113 entries, primarily covering literary and general fiction.
But I’m not focusing on those lists today.
If you’ve caught on to my specific taste in dragons and girls with swords, it won’t surprise you to find out I’m going to focus the rest of this post on magazines that focus on speculative fiction. I have two suggestions for where to find these magazines.
First of all, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) posts a monthly report on which markets, aka magazines, are open or closed for submissions. But if you want the most comprehensive take on literary magazines, look no further than The Submission Grinder.
Submission Grinder is the go-to submission tracker and market database for writers of fiction and poetry. As of today, it lists 2916 open markets across fiction and poetry. Two THOUSAND. How many of these are open to speculative fiction?
Over four hundred. 454 to be exact! That is a LOT of places to potentially find the perfect home for your story. If I search again and include markets that are temporarily closed (every magazine does submission periods differently, after all) the number jumps to 943.
Overwhelmed yet?
Never fear! Here are a few considerations to narrow down your research:
- Is it necessary to you to be paid for your story?
- How much do you want to be paid? At a professional rate (5 US cents per word and up) or semi-pro (between 1 US cent per word and 4.9 US cents per word)?
- Is your story flash fiction? (Generally, less than 1000 words) Or longer?
- What sub-genres and age categories fit your story best?
- Are you trying to become SFWA qualified?
- Do you care about the chance of a Hugo or Nebula Award?
The answers to these questions will help define your search. Last but not least, once you have a list of a few dozen literary magazines, you need to read them. Luckily for you, the vast majority of literary magazines are free to read online these days, so this is an accessible task.
You don’t need to read every issue and every story that magazine has ever published. But you do need to get a feel for the type of fiction that magazine likes to publish. What is their ethos? What is the voice of the editor’s notes? Does it vibe with your own writing? If your answer is anywhere on the scale of maybe to yes, it’s time to check out the submission guidelines and get submitting!
Always remember: follow submission guidelines exactly. Otherwise, you risk getting your story rejected before a single sentence is read. If you read my last post on rejection, you know the odds are long. But never self-reject. If you have an inkling of a thought that your story is right for a certain market: SUBMIT!
Now get out there!
…Wait…
Well, I guess I did promise I’d suggest where to submit. Okay, FINE. Here are a few speculative fiction markets to consider if:
You want direct feedback on your stories
- The Catch: Your story has to take place in a secondary world setting.
- The Catch: This is a young adult market; so your stories must appeal to a young adult audience.
You want a fast response turnaround
- The Catch: They are very competitive as a Hugo and Nebula award winning publisher and pro market. Currently, their acceptance rate is 1.25%
- The Catch: They are looking for stories with that fall into the dark fantasy or horror genre that deviate from the ordinary.
You’re interested only in professional rated magazines
- The Catch: Pay close attention to their submission window: between Monday 1600 UTC and Tuesday 1600 UTC. Also, they have a specific list of what they don’t want to see. They are already an extremely competitive market; don’t self reject, but do submit with purpose.
- The Catch: They aren’t open right now. But; there is no catch. Fireside is run by a socially-conscious team. Their goal is for creatives to be able to make a living from their work. You caught me; I’m enamored with them.
You’re interested only in semi-pro magazines
- The Catch: This is a Canadian magazine, and they state that they have to publish 80% Canadian content to keep certain grants and funding.
- The Catch: They publish twice a year, in the spring and fall.
You’re not concerned with payment
- The Catch: They specifically will not publish children’s stories.
- The Catch: They specifically state in their submission guidelines that because they are a non-paying market, publication cannot count as professional.
Your story is strictly science fiction
- The Catch: Their average response time is 119 days; so submit this one and just forget for a few months.
- The Catch: This is a publication run by VICE magazine; and they may not respond in case of rejection. According to the Grinder 87.35% are dead letters (no response). Competition is bound to be high.
Your story is strictly fantasy
- The Catch: This is also a podcast; so if your story doesn’t lend well to an audio format, it may be a harder sell.
- The Catch: As the name implies, this is a quarterly market, so make sure you’re aware which months are submission periods.
Your story is flash fiction
- The Catch: They have a short list of hard sells that, again, it’d behoove you to pay attention to.
- The Catch: This one was too fun not to include. All stories must be furry. That means an anthropomorphic animal figure should be significantly featured in your story in order for it to be considered.
Your story is over 3000 words
- The Catch: They request character driven stories, and do not want sword and sorcery tales.
- The Catch: They focus on speculative romance, mystery, and alternate history, and prefer to feature black, indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) as protagonists.
You are from a minority demographic
- The Catch: They are open to submissions from people anywhere along the LGBT/LGBTQ/LGBTQIA2 spectrum (including Two Spirit, pan, poly, ace, aro, nonbinary, genderfluid, genderqueer, and other queer orientations not covered here) who are also people of colour, biracial, multiracial, Indigenous, Aboriginal, or otherwise non-white.
- The Catch: This market only accepts submissions from women-identified authors. Sorry guys!
These are not all-inclusive suggestions! And many of the above cross categories (for example, Asimov’s turnaround time is also extremely fast, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies caters specifically to fantasy and accepts up to 15,000 word stories. My suggestions are meant to jump start you into the wild, crazy, diverse world of speculative fiction literary magazines.
So while you’re curled up inside avoiding all human contact, get out there and submit!
-M