Had a story rejected by the good folks at
Ideomancer this morning. Apparently two of the editors really liked it but couldn't sell the rest of the staff on the story, so no go. Ah, well.
Started scrolling through Ralan.com (which appears to becoming more chaotic and colourful and overwhelming as the months roll on--not that I should complain, as it's an excellent free resource and all, but still) and became slightly discouraged. There aren't too many markets that are open to this kind of story, and it's already been rejected by most of them. To be honest, the format in which my work is published is not the deciding factor here--online, print, magazine, zine, anthology, all are good. What
is important is that the story is treated with respect, that I'm paid for my work, and that the story finds an audience. After all, it doesn't matter how beautiful the publication is if no one reads it.
I've marked a few markets as possibilities, but I think the more serious work needs to wait until I have bit more patience with it. It's strange, I remember a time when I absolutely
loved marketing. I loved scrolling through listings, looking at accepted wordcounts and pay rates and all those other lovely things, and it all seemed so shiny and new and full of potential. Course, it was easier then--I'd realize that a story was terrible after it'd hit only a few markets and retire it, so it took me a while to experience this frustrating "Where
now?!" sort of feeling.
As I said: ah, well. In a slightly related note, I saw in my searching that
Argosy is now closed to unagented submissions. Nice for them, I suppose. But suddenly I don't feel so eager to pick up the copy of Issue #1 that I've been eyeing in Bakka these past few weeks. My loss, I'm sure.
