5 Market Listings and Reports

[Click on ISBNs to buy these books from Amazon.com]

5.1 General

The International Directory of Little Magazines and Small Presses: 1998-99. 34th ed. Paradise, California: Dustbooks, 1998. ISBN 0-916685-66-7, hardcover, $55.00. ISBN 0-916685-70--5, hardcover, $34.95.

Called the "bible of the business" by the Wall Street Journal, this thing is huge, and full of small and literary markets that you won't find in any of the Writer's Digest books. Published annually.

Publishers Weekly
ISSN 0000-0019
P.O. Box 16178
North Hollywood, CA 91615-6178
1 (800) 278-2991, 1 (818) 487-4557

Expensive; contains useful industry gossip, hot off the presses. (I learned about the various suits against Donning Press from PW; Locus and SF Chronicle didn't get the story until a month later.) Skim it in your library. The book reviews can help you get a handle on what your competition is up to.

Subscription rate: $169.00/year. Email: <pw.subscriptions@bookwire.com>

Small Press Review
ISSN 0037-7228
Dustbooks
P.O. Box 100
Paradise, CA 95967
1 (800) 477-6110, 1 (530) 877-6110

Small Press Review is a newsprint magazine with news on the small press and small magazine industry including start-ups. A typical issueincluding start-ups. A typical issue includes listings of new publishers with contact info, freelance job opportunities, contest information, and reviews of recent small press books and magazines.

Subscription rate: Individuals, $25 (12 issues), $36 (36 issues); institutions: $31 (12 issues), $45 (36 issues). Online sample copy. Email: <dustbooks@telis.org>.

Writer's Market Series

2000 Writer's Market: Where and How to Sell What you Write. Eds. Kirsten C. Holm, Donya Dickerson, and Don Prues. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer's Digest Books, 1999. ISBN 0-89879-911-2, hardcover, 1120 pp., $27.99.

1999 Novel and Short Story Writer's Market: Where and How to Sell Your Fiction. Ed. Barbara Kuroff. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer's Digest Books, 1999. ISBN 0-89879-876-0, hardcover, 678 pp., $24.99.

2000 Poet's Market: Where and How to Publish Your Poetry. Eds. Christine Martin and Chantelle Bentley. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer's Digest Books, 1999. ISBN 0-89879-915-5, hardcover, 608 pp., $23.99.

Most public libraries have these books. You can buy a copy more cheaply by joining the Writer's Digest Book Club; see Writer's Digest magazine for a blow-in card. Be sure to use the latest available edition! The publishing industry is a giant amoeba; not only do publishers' needs change, but editors change employment as frequently as Warren Beatty. . . Well, you get the idea. If you can, check the listed editor's name against another source (a friend at the publishing house, the masthead of the magazine) before submitting.

5.2 Children's Fiction

Society for Children's Book Writers & Illustrators Newsletter
Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators
8271 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048 1 (323) 782-1010

The "SCBWI Bulletin" is a bimonthly publication containing comprehensive and current information in the field of children's literature. Features include the latest market reports, articles on issues in writing, illustrating, and publishing, information on contests and awards, reports of events in the field, news of SCBWI members, as well as information about ongoing SCBWI activities throughout the country. The "Bulletin" is an invaluable source of information and inspiration to writers and illustrators of children's literature. Each SCBWI region also publishes its own newsletter with both national and regional news. You can obtain a membership application form from the SCBWI web site.

Subscription rate: $50/year, included in membership fees. Email: <membership@sckwi.org>.

Children's Book Insider
P.O. Box 1030
Fairplay, CO 80440-1030

The Children's Book Insider sponsors The Children's Writing Resource Center.

Subscription rate: $29.95/year, 12 issues.

5.3 Genre Fiction

Gila Queen's Guide to Markets
Kathy Ptacek, editor
P.O. Box 97
Newton, NJ 07860

The Gila Queen's Guide to Markets has annual issues on sf/f/h, romance, mystery/suspense, children/YA markets.

Subscarkets.

Subscription rate: $45/year, 10 issues ($49 Canada); Sample copy $6.00. Make checks payable in US funds to Kathryn Ptacek. Email: <kathryn@gilaqueen.com> or <GilaQueen@worldnet.att.net>.

Locus
Locus Publications
P.O. Box 13305
Oakland, CA 94661

A better source of industry gossip than SF Chronicle; I suspect a working SF writer could live without it, though. Richard Curtis's industry column has ended, removing one good reason to subscribe.
Locus also prints market reports, but these are done irregularly, and tend to have a "theme", such as pro market or book publisher or small press. Locus prints updates as available.

Subscription rate: $35.00/year.

The Report
Pulphouse Publishing
Box 1227
Eugene, OR 97440

Pulphouse's blurb says, "a writer's magazine, filled with writers talking about all aspects of writing." Primarily for people interested in speculative fiction (SF, fantasy, horror). Comes out more-or-less quarterly.

Subscription rates: $2.95/copy, $10.00/four issues.

Scavenger's Newsletter
Janet Fox, editor
519 Ellinwood
Osage City, KS 66523-1329
1 (913) 528-3538

"This little zine focuses on market information, covering, in the current issue, 91 magazines and fanzines" (SFWA Newsletter).

Subscription rates: Bulk mailing with advertising flyers $14/year or $7/6 months; 1st class mail without advertising flyers $18/year or $9/6 months.

Science Fiction Chronicle
P.O. Box 2730
Brooklyn, NY 11202-0056

Has quarterly Market Report sections. Useful source of information on new theme anthology, semipro magazines and other non-obvious markets, and editor shifts.

Subscription rate: $30/year.

SFWA Bulletin
1436 Altamant Ave
PMB 292
Schenectady, NY 12303-2977

The quarterly publication of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Subscription rate: $18/4 issues, $30/8 issues, $iption rate: $18/4 issues, $30/8 issues, $42/12 issues. Sample copy $3.95. Make checks payable in US funds to SFWA Bulletin.

Tompkins, David G. The Science Fiction Writer's Market Place and Sourcebook. Writer's Digest Books, 1994. ISBN 0-89879-692-X, hardcover, 494 pp., $19.99.

The essential market reference for writers of speculative fiction; this book tells everything you need to know to turn a saleable manuscript into a sale. One hundred seventy pages of magazine markets; three to five pages given to each major magazine and a page each for secondary markets. Eighty pages on novel markets; three to five pages each to the dozen major novel publishers, focusing on what editors want, how they think, and what basic strategy each publisher uses. Other sections include: trends in sf, craft and technique, how to get an agent, the editorial process, and a long list of other resources. The latter includes a complete list of Hugo and Nebula awards, sf bookstores, organizations, conventions, workshops, online references, pointers on other sources of up-to-date market information, and much more.

-- Alexander von Thorn

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