Friday, May 06, 2011

Speculative Markets Rising

Years ago, it seemed like we kept losing speculative markets. Periodically, I’d see another name listed among dead markets, and readers and writers would mourn the loss of another magazine.

Recently, it seems like there’s a growing presence of speculative markets, especially in the genre of science fiction. Just yesterday, I noticed a new one named Digital Science Fiction, which focuses on a series of anthologies available for the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and other eBook platforms. Their premier anthology is slated for arrival in June. Another interesting note on this market – they’re paying pro rates.

A quick search of duotrope shows 16 markets consistently paying pro rates (above flash-fiction in length) that accept science fiction as well as 16 accepting fantasy (some markets overlap both genres). I don’t know what that exact number looked like a few years back, but I don’t think it was nearly so high.

Besides all of the pro-paying markets, there are of course many great magazines and anthologies available for readers and writers. It’s becoming difficult to track all of them, and I doubt most readers can keep up with the plethora of quality fiction available today. I suppose that’s a good problem to have, though.

My hat goes off to the various editors who keep churning out issues of magazines or anthologies as well as those brave souls who decide to start new ventures. Your hard work brings an abundance of joy to both readers and writers alike.

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