short story sale

[julesjones]

Email from Greg Herren (scottynola) to say that he'd like to use my short story And If I Offered Thee A Bargain in the Distant Horizons queer sf anthology. I am, needless to say, doing the happy author dance. :-)

This is the sf fan meets sidhe story that has been collecting "I like it, but..." rejections, partly on account of it being neither fish nor fowl. Too much or the wrong sort of sex for the sf markets, not enough and wrongly paced sex for the erotica markets, and no HEA so the romance markets can't use it (my editor at Loose Id adores it, but even by LI's generous interpretation of HEA this is *not* a Happy Ever After). There's also the minor matter of it being stuffed with fannish cultural references that will mostly go over the head of mundane readers. So I am well pleased to have sold it -- and to have sold it to a specfic market.

I've only had one previous fiction sale to a specfic market rather than an erotica or romance market, and it's a good thing I was paid on acceptance for that one because it still hasn't appeared and there is no sign that it is ever going to do so. So I'm hoping that nothing happens to this anthology before publication. Sadly, this isn't as unlikely as one might hope. Greg lives in New Orleans...

Comments

distant horizons

[lynnejamneck.livejournal.com]

looking forward to sharing a TOC with you.
you said the magic word...sidhe....
there are not enough fish nor fowl stories out there.

Re: distant horizons

[julesjones]

I'm very much looking forward to getting my trib copy of this anthology - it looks as if it's shaping up to be a good read for those of us who like "neither fish nor fowl". :-)

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Hurray for sales! Does that make you eligible for SFWA?

[julesjones]

Not as a full member, because I don't have any other sales that qualify as pro, even if this one does. I'm not sure that it does - I have a feeling that the payment per word won't be high enough, and Hawarth isn't currently on the list of publishers whose anthologies count as pro markets. Though I could always ask Greg Herren if Hawarth would qualify. I did actually ask the editor of Ultimate Gay Erotica what the print run was, to check if I'd managed to start my Campbell clock ticking. :-)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Oh congratulations! I had the acknowledgement, but no yes or no yet. *fingers crossed*

I'll be buying a copy anyway, I think it will be a great read.

[julesjones]

I know Laura Baumbach received her rejection the same day as I heard about mine, and a couple of other people have mentioned getting responses, so he's obviously working his way through responses this week. Hope it's good news for you.