Discussion: Paying Markets

Tomi Shaw

Tomi Shaw sends some information about The Pedestal that may be of interest to our contributors:

I don’t know if they do web link exchange, but I read this in the submission guidelines:

Fiction: We are receptive to high-quality literary fiction of all sorts, including traditional and experimental works. Genre fiction (such as science fiction, horror, mystery, and romance) is encouraged as long as it crosses or comments upon its genre and is both character-driven and psychologically acute. We are also interested in works that do not readily fall into one specific category. Please do not send more than one (1) piece of fiction at a time. There is no need to query prior to submitting fiction; however, please do not send fiction directly to the fiction editor’s email, as emailed submissions will not be read.

Pay Rate: $.05 per word Length: up to 6,000 words

Pedestal is considered a fine electronic credit and can be found on Ploughshares link page: http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com.

Probably one of the best things for BwS to do is diversify. The great thing about electronic journals that the print ones aren’t as yet catching on to is cross-pollinating, especially most of the respected college lit journals.

Anyway... thought the gang over there might be interested.

Copyright © 2005 by Tomi Shaw

Thank you very much, Tomi ! We’re all for cross-pollinating here at Bewildering Stories ; we regularly publish mainstream as well as science fiction, fantasy and horror, if that helps.

One thing The Pedestal seems to have is money. So much the better. Their website is... legible, which more than can be said for entirely too many others. I saw some things on it that remind me of touch-ups we need to make:

It’s not obvious whether The Pedestal is a print magazine, a webzine, or both. We should make sure that’s clear on our own Bewildering Info page. (Done)
The Pedestal has a very nice “staff” page, complete with photos and CV’s; but I’m not exactly sure who does what. That’s something else we should specify; titles alone don’t tell potential contributors how things actually work. (Done)

The Pedestal also has a page with a lot of links to literary magazines that might otherwise be hard to find; that can be useful. Unfortunately, the page is discouragingly disorganized. It also looks like a closed shop: there seems to be no way to exchange links with The Pedestal. I’m not sure what that implies.

The submissions guidelines say, among other things, that they’ll consider “science fiction ... as long as it crosses or comments upon its genre.” Say what? Will they consider a science fiction story as long as it apologizes for being one? I must have missed something there.

Be that as it may, Jerry and I are always happy to see our writers rewarded. We’d be the first to encourage our contributors to seek out The Pedestal’s submissions guidelines and send in their best work. Earned income — however little it may be — is taken as a validation of success and worth in art as well as commerce in our culture.

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