The current wildfire blog topic in SF/F short fiction circles has been very low-paying magazines and whether it’s worth it for an author to submit to them. One of the suggested benefits of submitting is for young authors to get publication credits, which they then can cite in their cover letters to other magazines in order to impress the editors.

I read a blog post by Ann Leckie, Associate Editor at Podcastle, which pretty much completely epitomizes what I feel about fiction credits in a cover letter when I read submissions for BCS.

I do glance at credits in cover letters, and they do have some impact on how much time or length I will give a story to let it impress me. But by far the most important thing is the quality of the story. By far.

And I share her admission that there are a very few credits that can have the opposite effect. They would never make me discount a great story, and they would never put me off on reading future submissions by that author. But on occasion, they can have a negative impact on how much time or length I will give that story to impress me.

So I share her admonition: write as well as you can. In the case of BCS, where I include comments in all rejection letters, perhaps spend a few moments thinking about why I said your story didn’t work for me or for BCS. Then please send me a better one.

It’s Nebula Award nomination season again, when any Active or Associate member of SFWA can nominate works for the Nebula Awards.

My short story “Ebb,” from Space and Time #107, is eligible. It’s a neat little story, with an interesting protagonist and a subtly fascinating world, and it garnered glowingly positive reviews from both Tangent Online and SFReader.com.

Should you feel it worthy, I would appreciate your nomination.

I also direct you to my magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies.  Because of the date range for Nebula eligibility, all the stories BCS has ever published are eligible.  For a shortlist of our best-reviewed stories and the Nebula categories they fall into, click here.  For a full list of all stories and their Nebula categories, click here.

Thanks very much!

I now have a personal/author’s Facebook page. I had made a Fan page for Beneath Ceaseless Skies a while back, which has been a great way to spread word about the magazine. And they suckered me into a personal page as well.

So if you’re on Facebook–and at this point who isn’t?–check out my sparse page and send me a friend request. Yay internet!

I recently received word that my story “Excision,” which appeared in Weird Tales #347, has sold as an audio reprint to Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine. Woo!

Dunesteef isn’t as well-known yet as the top podcast ‘zines, like Podcastle etc., but they have very good production and an impressive back-catalog of stories by neo-pro writers whose work I’ve enjoyed (Ian Creasey, to name one). They stage their podcasts like an old-timey radio drama, with sound effects and different voices for each character, so it will be very cool to see what they do with “Excision.”

They also have an Author’s Notes segment after the story audio, where the author explains the inspiration for the story. I recorded that segment in my home studio and sent it to them. So even if you’ve already read the story, you can still check out the podcast to hear my reflections on what went into it.

I don’t know yet when they plan to release it–I’m guessing early next year. When I find out I will definitely post here.