Fantasy Magazine is #1

[j_cheney]

....on the ra_log

As a maintainer, I get to look at the tags by usage if I so choose. Do you want to know which pubs get the most traffic from us?

In order of submissions reported by RALOGers, the top 10 (since March 2008):
1) Fantasy Magazine* (56)
2) Strange Horizons* (47)
3) A.S.I.M. (41)
4) F&SF* (38)
5) Lone Star Stories (37)
6) JBU* (36)
7) Clarkesworld* (34)
7) Weird Tales (34)
9) IGMS* (26)
9) Beneath Ceaseless Skies (26)
11) Asimov's* (25)
11) Abyss & Apex (25)

So, these are the mags our RALOGers favor. How very interesting.

Some other interesting points from the list...

SFWA 'approved' markets not in the top ten:
13) Realms of Fantasy* (20)
22) WOTF* (10)
Analog* (7)
Chizine* (7)
Pedestal* (7) (SBT just added one)
Brutarian* (5)
Cosmos* (4)
Cemeterey Dance* (3)

Some interesting anthologies (various iterations, though)
Clockwork Phoenix (15)
Sword & Sorceress (13)
Polyphony (8)
Wolfsongs (2)
Warrior Wisewoman (1)
(I'd heard that CP got a gazillion subs last time...this seems to bear that out)

*SFWA Pro Approved Market. Yes, I'm putting one on Fantasy now, since they have their info turned in to SFWA. This doesn't, sadly, retroactively affect the stories I've sold there.

Comments

[wistling.livejournal.com]

Dunno if WOTF is indicative. Some of us who use this group have invalidated ourselves from the running.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Very true. I don't know how many, though. (It would take some work to figure that out, and I'm too lazy.)

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

Cosmos is I think clogged, last time I checked (it was a while ago).
Chizine has fairly restrictive wordcounts and a fairly restrictive genre (Clarkesworld, for instance, takes both fantasy, horror and SF; Chizine just takes horror; and judging from where Cemetery Dance is on the list, I suspect more of us write SF & F than horror).

(my totally random explanation :) )

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I was intrigued by the high standing of LSS on the list...probalby because of the super-speedy turnaround....

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

Interesting!

[grayrose76.livejournal.com]

Am I missing something? Did Fantasy go pro?

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Yes. They raised their rates about a week ago, and they've filed the appropriate stuff with SFWA. SFWA will take a bit to get around to acknowledging that, but I figure any contract at the new 5 cent rate will qualify as pro.

Ww don't get a free in, though. We just have to write more stuff for them. ;o)

[grayrose76.livejournal.com]

Do you know if the rate kicks in at the time of acceptance or the time of publication? Mine came out today?

Ehhh... I seem to be writing nothing but copious lecture notes this semester. :(

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I expect that whatever the rate cited on your contract is the rate in effect. So that's the rate at time of acceptance, not payment.

However, if you get a much bigger check than your contract specifies, let me know, because I've got another story coming up in a couple of months there....

[ken-schneyer.livejournal.com]

Please to observe that most of the markets in your top eleven accept electronic submissions, and a large proportion of those in your "SFWA but not in top ten" group don't. L.J. is an electronic medium, you see. Q. E. Deedleedee...

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I did notice that. ;o)

And this is, of course, only a partial year so far, so it's certainly not a solid sampling of the market returns. Just the people in the RALOG....

I was also impressed by how quickly BCS jumped into the top 10, suggesting that there might have been a lot of stories in that area out seeking homes.

[justin-pilon.livejournal.com]

Combination of pro-rates, quick response time, and detailed personal rejections. Who wouldn't want to sub (mind you I still haven't...)

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

well, get out there....

[david-de-beer.livejournal.com]

about to say the same thing:)

[david-de-beer.livejournal.com]

these are also the markets with the fastest turnarounds which probably influences it a bit.
interesting stats, ta JK.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I did notice the turnaround factor. F&SF is high, despite being snail mail. ROF is, OTOH, lower, probably due to slower times.

[david-de-beer.livejournal.com]

are we on the verge of discovering a whole new layer of rejectomancy here?

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

There must be some clue in here....must be...

[justin-pilon.livejournal.com]

Interesting stats. Personal comments and speedy response times seem to be the deciding factors. But some of these high-sub mags don't really fit that criteria.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I could go back an poll people, but I'm not going to bother. And I'll redo this at the years end and post the revised version on the RA-Log---just to let people know.

[justin-pilon.livejournal.com]

Cool! I'm a bit of a stats junky so I always enjoy these kind of posts.

[safewrite.livejournal.com]

We equal Asimov's???

Interesting.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I thought so to. Also, you were above ROF...it's probably skewed by the more on-line oriented crowd that uses this forum, but you were still impressively high ;o)

[ckastens.livejournal.com]

Very interesting.

Looks like response time is a big factor. Especially when people have a lot of stories to send out, you can sometimes send three to the same place while waiting for another magazine to respond.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Yes, I definitely think response time influences wehre we're sending things.