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7 Ways to Keep Up with a Changing Market

© Laura Elvin

Although the writing actually comes before the marketing, we're going to start here because KNOWING YOUR MARKET is crucial and the homework can be done simultaneous to the writing.

There are three very important parts to being a genre writer. 1) Writing Skill 2) Marketing Skill 3) Persistence and Luck

There are all kinds of writers: published, wannabe, up-and-coming, famous, etc. And of course 'writing skill' counts for a large portion of: who 'makes it' in the biz, who becomes a one-hit-wonder, and who never gets published. But if you don't KNOW what to do with your writing--how to prepare, present, and market your work--you could be Clive Barker's rival and still never go anywhere.

So in this article we focus on learning what kind of opportunities are out there and how to get familiar with them.

Unfortunately, this is a business with rapid turnover. You will find yourself inquiring to, submitting to, and being accepted by magazines or anthologies that fold before you ever see an issue. That's just the way it is. If you can't deal with that, get out NOW.

In such a fast-moving industry, it's important to stay on top of things. "Things" in this case being the market. There's no point in buying Writer's Digest mega market source book if what you're trying to achieve is mainly publication in the small press (horror, SF, fantasy). Sure, they list a couple mags that fit the bill and probably aren't going anywhere anytime soon, but there just aren't enough to chose from. WD does put out (every other year) a market book specific to genre work (mostly SF), but again, the turnover in the business is just too rapid. You need more immediate information. And there just aren't that many markets in those big books geared toward unpublished new writers. There, however, several ways to become familiar with the current market. I suggest using as many of the following methods as you can.

1--Subscribing to or purchasing "sample copies" of current mags: (Can become pricey, but it WILL give you a good idea what certain mags are publishing.) I won't list any URLs for mags here; that will be covered in an upcoming article.

2--Contacting Magazines and asking for their Guidelines: (Faster now that we live in the electronic age, but not necessary in some cases. See #5 below.)

3--Subscribing to a Newsletter dedicated to Market Listings: (Excellent and timely way of getting guidelines, insider info, and very up-to-date news on a whole lotta mags and anthos.)

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