writing.today.com

Who: Asimov’s Science Fiction
What: Science fiction stories.

How: They want character - centered science fiction. No fantasy/sword & sorcery. No graphic sex or violence.

How long: See the pay scale below.
How much: Here’s the breakdown:

1. “Beginners” get 6.0 cents a word to 7,500 words, 5.0 cents a word for stories longer than 12,500 words, and $450 for stories between those lengths.

(Established authors get nothing. No, I’m just kidding.)

2. “We seldom buy stories longer than 15,000 words, and we don’t serialize novels.”

3. They pay $1 a line for poetry, up to 40 lines.

(Wow. That’s a lot.)

Is there a catch? No, but the submission guidelines are downright quaint: “Manuscripts submitted to Asimov’s must be neatly typed, double-spaced on one side of the sheet only, on bond paper (no erasable paper, please). Any ms. longer than 5 pages should be mailed to us flat. Dot matrix printouts are acceptable only if they are easily readable. Please do NOT send us submissions on disk.” (Emphasis mine.)

So go dig out that cast-iron Royal Typewriter you bought as a giant paperweight at the flea market. You’re going to need it.

There’s also a quaint note that says: “If you’d like your own copy of these guidelines, send us a self-addressed, stamped business-size envelope (what stationery stores call a number 10 envelope), and a note requesting this information. Please write manuscript guidelines in the bottom left-hand corner of the outside envelope.”

Honestly. Have you ever seen erasable paper? Have you been inside of a stationery store? In this century? This is what made me think of Steampunk: Victorian futurism.

Where: If you think there’s even a chance that they accept electronic submissions, you didn’t read the rest of this post.

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