My reading skills suck.

[kaigou]

Note to self: pay attention to the phrase not interested in urban fantasy and stop reading so fast.

*heddesk*

What magazines (or other short story venues) still exist that cater to the urban fantasy genre? It seems they're all dropping like flies with each new day...

Also: I had a file that listed where I'd submitted stories, and which story, and I lost that file when the hard drive went south. (I lost a lot of stuff, of which this one small file is among the least of the lingering agony, but still.) I know the names of which magazines I'd submitted to, but not who got which story, and I had two or three that I'd sent out. Bloody hell, I don't even have the original emails anymore that were rejections from each, because I lost all my email at the same time. Sigh.

Oh ye mighty slush readers, maybe you can answer this: are stories tracked? It would have been at least a year, maybe a little more, since any were submitted, but I'd hate to resubmit ignorantly and/or inadvertently. Or if I do accidentally repeat myself, has it been long enough that it wouldn't be taken as an intentional, and thus rude, thing to do? GUH.

Comments

[oneminutemonkey.livejournal.com]

That's a good question. I wish I had the answers on hand. If I find any, I'll let you know - I'm in the same boat, as I happen to prefer writing UF.

What magazine was this?

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

*mumble* beneath ceaseless skies *mumble*

[oneminutemonkey.livejournal.com]

Yeah, saw them, and made a mental note for if I ever write something of that ilk. Since it's not my normal niche, I didn't pay much attention. Though if I ever do something steampunkish...

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

http://www.afterburnsf.com/SubmissionGuidelines.aspx Not sure what they take, but it is a short market.

http://sfscope.com/2009/01/presto-strangeo-looking-for-we.html New market that doesn't pay much, but may take UF

http://sfscope.com/2009/01/brain-harvest-looking-for-bada.html Very short fiction, but probably take uf

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

"700 words or less."

I NEED TO WRITE SHORT. LOTS AND LOTS SHORTER.

I can roughly gauge -- very roughly -- in short stories, but anything under 1K words and I'm baffled. Just baffled.

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

You and me both. In fact, anything less than 100K seems to baffle me.

I'm a Nidiot.

[ldragoon.livejournal.com]

What magazines (or other short story venues) still exist that cater to the urban fantasy genre? It seems they're all dropping like flies with each new day...

What's up with this? I love urban fantasy! Did a bunch of shitty writers ruin it for everyone, or something? :(

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Erm, I meant: SFF magazines dropping like flies -- closing, that is -- hell, even magazines in general. Not specifically-UF ones.

[ldragoon.livejournal.com]

Oh man, that's not good, either. :( I hate when specfic magazines fold. It's like a fairy dies every time that happens.

[temporus.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for all slush readers. But I know that I keep track of all submissions I get.

People make honest mistakes. I don't think, if you do happen to accidentally send out a story back to a market, that it would be a strike against you.

As for my own records, I always print out hardcopy for rejections and keep things in my folder. Not that hardcopy can't be lost, but I just feel safer having information on two different media. I think that's just the paranoia though.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I didn't have a printer until, oh, a month or so before the hard drive went south, maybe. (Okay, I had it longer but I hadn't actually, y'know, HOOKED IT UP.) Heh. What I really wasn't counting on was for OSX to change something in its email app so it won't read my imported emails -- well, it does, but with corruption. So I had to wave a sad goodbye, between importing and corruption and whatever else, and that meant I lost the backup (emails, that is) that went along with the master file (the spreadsheet).

If I printed everything out, I would be DROWNING. I try, oh how I try, to keep hardcopies of stuff but within a week it gets away from me. I've learned my lesson on that one -- and a difficulty like this is minor, believe me, compared to the mess & disorganized clutter I would have around me otherwise.

I'm not sure whether it'd be acceptable or not to note that after dire loss of records that although the story has been edited since last submission, that if it's a duplication... *bangs head on desk* I feel like a freaking idiot, even with semi-legit excuses. I just can't believe I didn't snag the folder with that file in it. Then again, I also lost 96gig of stuff for work, and another 14gig of woodworking research, so... one file is rather tiny comparatively. but still.

*cries*

[temporus.livejournal.com]

Ouch.

I understand what you mean about drowning in paper. I've got way too much as it is, and have to routinely force myself to pare things down.

I don't have a concrete answer as to whether you should or shouldn't say something in a cover letter. I could see reasonable justification on either approach. Is it a large number of submissions out there right at the moment? Or just a few?

I hate hard drive crashes. I spent three months last summer recovering a server that had 6 drives die. Very, very unpleasant business. Did you wipe out the hard disk? I know there are data recovery specialists who can get back data from drives that seem inoperable to the average system. (Not cheap though, so probably not worth it unless what was on there was worth more than $1000 to you.)

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

It was one of those things where I decided, well, the gig I lost for work... lost. I'm not going to cry over it. (Besides, contract was winding down, so, well, fine.) As for the rest, what was really important -- like the actual story files themselves, I did get. Most of whatever else, I figured, well, it's replaceable.

It's the one or two files here and there that are the real suckerpunches, lo these many months later. Bleah.

As for the actual submissions -- no, only two stories! (If I were really that much of a short story person, then the file probably would've been among the ones I actively sought to save, but this is just a "once in a blue moon" kind of thing, that's probably why I went, hunh, that file hasn't been touched in nine months, so it's lower priority... figures, eh.)

[ellevate.livejournal.com]

Some mags track, but some don't... That's a tough one. Seems like you've had pretty crappy computer luck recently! Sorry to hear it!!! If my excel file disappeared, I'd be in big trouble.

Your books are getting quite comfortable on my upper shelf, btw. They appear to be nesting, in fact. I wouldn't be at all surprised if little book eggs show up shortly.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually had bad computer luck so much as ONE bad time and cascade failure from there -- and it just seems like every time I think I've got it all set up and stuff, I find something else I didn't think to save. Sigh.

The excel file is just one of those things that wasn't on the front of my mind, since I am not a short story writer (honestly, no, not really) and it's just not something I do. I'm really very lazy about submitting what I have written, because most of the time I just plain forget they even exist. Heh. Yeah. Slacker, I know.

I suppose we should de-nest, then, eh. Drop me an email with what you're up to next week!

[muffiewrites.livejournal.com]

My slush pile has no trackage on it. My slush pile is usually filled with total crap that is "published." My other slush pile has no trackage on it, either. It's a little magazine. It doesn't track, either.

Some places do, but only for so long. The do encourage resubmission. What you can do is dust off all the copies and make changes, that way if you're resubmitting to a magazine, and the editor remembers it, then it's possible they might see how it has been altered. If you can improve the first page, that's a good start. Slush rejects happen most often there.

Personally, I keep hard copy because simultaneous submissions can lead to blackballing in incestuous sized writing circles. I have a list of magazines, submissions, and dates that I do in excel that I print off every time I update it. Well, I write the reject date on it rather than reprint the whole thing. Breaking oneself of anal retentiveness isn't pretty.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

One of the stories I think does need rewriting to smooth out the start, but the other... well, it's just an oddball, and it's gotten good feedback but unfortunately only from folks who slush-read for other genres (or for shorter fiction).

On the other hand, there's no chance of simultaneous submissions, not at all. The two or three stories would have all been flipped back at me -- it's just that I don't recall who flipped what. I guess I'll have to go with "maybe if it's been a year or more, they'll have forgotten"... sigh.