Category: Story Announcements

Sales, publications, awards, or anything else good that could happen to a story.

Bad News, Bears, and Some Good News

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

Let’s take the title in order.

The Bad News: I returned from vacation to find a form rejection from Buzzy Mag.  Buzzy is still in the start-up process and has endured some interesting, non-standard submission policies, but now seems to be aligning itself more with pro level mags.  For instance, at one time their submission acceptance process included mandatory Beta-reading, but that’s gone.  They do still take only snail mail subs, but that’s about as out there as their current process seems to be.  Not that any of that matters since they rejected TWHDotGMP.  Gosh, I need to find a market that wants that one.  I know it’s out there…somewhere.

The Bears: I saw a bear a couple days ago, as I may have mentioned on Twitter.  Big and fast.  Runs like a dog.  I see a story involving ursine aliens in my future.

And Some Good News: After a friendly query to the publisher and my good friend Jordan Ellinger, I received an acceptance email from Every Day Fiction for my zombie-football story, “ZFL”.  This will mark my third story with EDF (here are one and two), making it the clear winner for the “zine that published the most stories of mine” award.  The publisher with the comparable award is Sam’s Dot Publishing who ran five (“Decisions, Decisions!”, “Blood of a Soldier”, “Occupational Dogma”, “Faerie Belches”, and “Brother Goo”).  I haven’t sent Sam’s Dot anything in a while  I need to drop them a line…

My Brain is Untied…and Yours Could Be, Too!

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

(Two posts in two days?  Whoa, he’s a juggernaut!)

One of my favorite feelings is to open up the mailbox and find a book inside.  Yum.  Even better is when said book is a contributor’s copy with my own story inside!  I got this feeling a couple days ago when the Untied Shoelaces of the Mind Anthology arrived.

Wow, there are a lot of stories in this book.  I counted 52, one for every week of the year (not how they were assembled, just works out that way).  It’s a touch overwhelming.  Most stories are fairly short, most under six pages.  Worth $7.99 for this trade paperback?  Probably.  Worth $1.99 for the electronic version?  Heck yeah.

My story “Not Rats” is a bonus that never appeared in the USotM ezine, so it ended up in the back third with the other bonuses.  It’s classified in the table of contents as a horror story (which is probably how I subbed it) but it’s really humor.  Fun stuff.

Buy book, read story.  You have your orders.  Dismissed.

 

Story up at Escape Pod

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 5 Comments

If you don’t listen to the Escape Pod podcast, you should.  I love audio fiction, and audio short fiction has the feel of a television episode on the radio.  They used to do that, back when radio was a thing people sat around and listened to in their homes.

So why am I advocating Escape Pod today?  Because my story “Leech Run” is their latest audio offering!  Go have a listen.  It runs about half an hour.

Alasdair Stuart reads it and does a great job.  I love the accent.  It’s my first story to get the audio treatment and I’m psyched at how it turned out.

“Leech Run” first appeared in Pill Hill Press‘s anthology Zero Gravity: Adventures in Deep Space.  If you like the story, buy a copy.  Lots of good space adventure between those covers.

A Drizzle in a Drought

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

My zombie fairy tale story “Not Rats” just sol to the Untied Shoelaces of the Mind anthology.  Yay.

This was a 750-word flash that the editor asked to have rewritten, which lead to a growth spurt to 1300 words.  Very short story, semi-pro pay…my tax bracket isn’t changing, but it’s nice to have a sale.  I’m looking forward to the contributor’s copy more than the check.  (Not that I would never turn my nose up at a check.)

My story production has slowed waaaaayy down of late.  Summer should allow me to bring things back up, but a big chunk of that will be novel work.  I need to redouble my efforts to get my current stable of stories out into circulation.  Stories don’t sell from the hard drive.

Preditors and Editors

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 6 Comments

Not sure how well known the Preditors and Editors Reader’s Poll is.  It’s a small award whose prize is a lovely animated gif to post on your website.  This year’s poll (for last year’s stories) is open for voting through TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT (not sure which time zone).

Why do I mention this so late?  Mostly because it was just brought to my attention that “Leech Run” is on the poll for Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Story!  I didn’t put it there, but I’m thrilled.  Similarly, the anthology in which it ran, Zero Gravity, is also up for Best Anthology.  Very cool.

Anyone can vote and voters are selected at random to win prizes, too.  It’s probably tacky to tell you to go vote for me, so just go vote.  If it’s for me, so much the better.  🙂

Odd success and other Horrible things

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I’ve been going about this short story submission thing all wrong.  As it turns out, the only sale I’ve made in the past six months is one I withdrew (details to follow).  So maybe I just need to go pull all my stories out of slush so they’ll get bought.  Or perhaps I should take this anomaly for what it is and move on.

I am selling “Leech Run” to Escape Pod podcast/ezine as a reprint, my first reprint sale.  More excitingly, it’s my first audio sale!  It’s just as exciting as having “Poison Inside the Walls” illustrated.  Having another artist/performer interpret my work is very exciting to me.

The Escape Pod sale was not without hitches.  I won’t bore you with the details beyond the fact that the fine people at Pill Hill Press — the editors of the anthology Zero Gravity: Adventures in Deep Space where “Leech Run” originally appeared — have been fantastic in their help to allow things to progress naturally.  (You should go buy Zero Gravity on Kindle.  Five bucks for thirteen awesome stories in deep space.  Or buy it in paperback.  Or special edition hard cover if it’s still available…but I think that was just through the end of 2010.  Or buy all three!)

This reprint sale has me wondering how many people would enjoy “Leech Run.”  Would it translate well?  There is money to be made in foreign sales, even for short fiction.  Other stories might also do well translated.  Or in audio.  “Excuse Me” would probably be better performed.  Maybe I could do an audio recording for this site?  It could be fun.  Surely I can find a student actor or two willing to read some lines.  Hmm… [sticks idea on shelf to revisit later]

Now on to my latest obsession: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog!!  It’s a short film done by Joss Whedon (and family, it seems) starring Neil Patrick Harris as the eponymous villain-on-the-rise (was that Horrible or Howser?), Nathan Fillion as his heroic but egotistical nemesis Captain Hammer (or was that Reynolds?).  Funny, dark, and musical.  The cleverness and musicality of the songs hearkens to the South Park movie.  Afterall, NPH is a Broadway guy.  I love it in all its cheesiness.  I’ve been listening to the soundtrack on my iPod nonstop for two days.  If you have not seen this 42-minute marvel, find a way.  I’ll likely bring my copy to ChattaCon for a potential (small) viewing party/sing-along.  Consider the love shared.  If you too love it, I have done my duty.  If not, well, you may want to have your funny checked.  (You should do that every ten thousand miles anyway.)

When I get details regarding Escape Pod, I’ll let you know.  Until then, read Zero Gravity, watch Dr. Horrible, and eat Mezzetta Garlic-Stuffed Olives.

I’m on Kindle

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

Mere days before I flit off to LA to live a week like I’m something special, I realize I am special.  I’m in a book on Kindle! Yeah, yeah, lots of people are, even people who aren’t in a real book…stop trying to burst my bubble.  I’m on the biggest electronic reader in the world.

For the bargain price of five bucks ($5.00), you can read “Leech Run” and all the other stories in Zero Gravity.  Big savings over the paperback price of $15.29.  There’s something spacial about having a story in tangible print on paper that I can keep on a shelf and point to.  There’s also something special about having my story distributed through cutting edge technology.

I suspect I may end up on the Kindle again when Writers of the Future XXV! comes out. Ooh, I just checked and found something cooler!!

How pretty is that?  It’s available for pre-order through Amazon. People are pre-ordering me!  *giggles like maniacal school child*  They aren’t advertising it for Kindle yet, but I bet it will happen after the first surge of paperbacks sell…but wait.  Previous years’ anthologies aren’t available on Kindle.  Huh.  I’ll ask about it next week to see why.  But a print book is still great.  They did an audio book of volume 24 that was excellent; I’d love to see that happen this year.

I guess I should go to sleep now.  I have that real job thing in the morning.

For those interested, I’ll try to throw up a note here every day or so while I’m in LA.  Nothing long winded until I get back.  Now go buy me on Amazon!

When it rains, it pours

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

After a response drought I end up with two in my inbox in two days.  This one (S.H.) was a rejection from IGMS.  It never even made it to Ed the editor (nice guy, met him at ConCarolinas).  Too bad.  Now I need to select another market.  I may try Daily Science Fiction; other Codexians seem to be scoring there.  If not, their response time is only a notch or two slower than Lightspeed or Clarkesworld.

On a bigger note, I have received confirmation that Zero Gravity will be out later this summer.  A quick turnaround is an advantage of a small press, I guess.  It’ll be a trade paperback (size of a hardcover just without the hard cover).  It looks like it will sell at around $15 from Amazon based on Pill Hill Press’s previous anthologies.  I’ll link to it when it’s available.

At long last, a home for “Leech Run”

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment


A sale!

How long ago was I complaining about not hearing any responses, two hours?  I ran out to get a movie (more on that in a minute) and come home to find that the anthology Zero Gravity has accepted my story “Leech Run”!  They’ve had it on hold for a little while.  Submissions closed today and I guess no one managed to bump me.

“Leech Run” has been seeking a home for a long time.  It’s the story that got me waitlisted for Clarion West last year.  Honestly Zero Gravity seems about the perfect fit.  It’s a Pill Hill Press anthology, due out late next summer (I’m finding conflicting dates, so it may be soon and it may be 2011); more waiting before “Leech Run” sees the light of day.  But a sale’s a sale, 25 bucks I didn’t have before.  A credential I didn’t have before.  Being read by people (eventually) that hadn’t heard of me before.

As for the movie rental, I went to a RedBox for the first time.  Efficient, affordable, the way of the future.  I went specifically to get…*cough*…New Moon.  I know, I know.  Not my choice.  The wife needed to see it again before she drags me to Eclipse on Friday.  Two in the same week.  I’m going to have to read some Moby Dick to balance it out.