The Million Writers Award and Narrative Magazine

An earful has been shoved into my brain over the last 24 hours with regards to Narrative Magazine being named the Million Writers Award's best online magazine for 2008. The first person to contact me was Alexis Enrico Santí, the editor in chief of Our Stories and one of the preliminary judges for this year's Million Writers Award. Alexis specifically asked why Narrative was in the running for the award considering that they are essentially the New Yorker of online literary journals and have what he called "a dubious readingfee" for their story of the week submissions (which I specifically praised in announcing Narrative's award).

Others echoed Alexis' comments. The editor of another online journal (who, very understandably, wished to remain anonymous), said:

"It's a dicey game.  On one hand, hats off to Narrative for putting out such a professional looking publication (and paying their writers).  On the other hand, it's kinda a shame/shell game they're running in terms of their submission policy.  I bet when push comes to shove, many of those 8 nominated stories didn't come through the open sub line (nor did their authors pay that fee).  And using the cache of Million Writers Award will now get them more would-be-submitters (I would think)."

First off, let me respond to the overall issue of Narrative Magazine being a part of the Million Writers Award.  The award clearly states that it is for online publications, which means Narrative most definitely qualifies. They have also been a part of this award since our second year, when Alicia Gifford's story "Toggling the Switch" (published in Narrative) won the overall award. With regards to the award for best online magazine, per the rules it is given to the online magazine with the most notable stories, as selected by the preliminary judges. Once I compiled all the preliminary judges' selections, Narrative came out on top. Simple as that.

But based on the feedback I've been receiving, there are other concerns being raised here. I suspect some of this results from Narrative becoming the first online literary journal to equal the best print journals in power and prestige. I see this as nothing but a good thing. When I started the Million Writers Award, online journals weren't considered the equals of the worst print publications, let alone the best. It's good to have one of us on top, so to speak.

The other major concern appears to center on the reading fees Narrative charges people submitting for their story of the week feature. Reading fees have long been controversial. Speaking for myself, I don't pay reading fees and refuse to submit my stories to places that charge them. BUT--and this is a huge ass but--I also support the magazines I submit my stories to. I mainly write speculative fiction these days, and have been published in the last year in Interzone and Analog; I also submit on a regular basis to Asimov's Science Fiction, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and other places. I'm also a reader of all these magazines, either by subscribing to them or buying individual issues.

My point is that it's tough to publish short fiction in today's world, especially if you pay your authors. While I disagree with reading fees, I also know that if more authors subscribed to their favorite magazines, or donated money to them, reading fees wouldn't be necessary.

As for concerns about what Narrative uses the reading fees for, I have no comment on this because I don't know very much about the situation. Instead, I point people to a post from Alexis, where he offers several suggestions for Narrative Magazine. Some of them sound reasonable, but I'll leave it to others to debate whether or not these are good suggestions.

Please don't take this post as me dismissing the points raised by Alexis and the other editors who contacted me, all of whom I like and respect. To my mind, what this episode shows is that online literary publications are evolving. After this Million Writers Award cycle is finished, I plan to have a conversation with editors, writers, and readers about where the award should go from here. Should we continue as before, focusing on all stories published by any online publications? Or should some magazines and journals be placed on a different level, even though they publish online?

But that's a conversation for another day. Right now, the Million Writers Award is on and focused on bringing needed attention to a large group of deserving authors. Thanks to everyone for their comments and for taking part in the award.

What happened to the Nick Mamatas story?

The first screw-up of this year's Million Writers Award is now behind us. Turns out "Summon, Bind, Banish" by Nick Mamatas, which was selected as a notable story, was only reprinted last year in Apex Magazine. The story was originally published in the anthology Bandersnatch, edited by Paul Tremblay and Sean Wallace and published by Prime Books in 2007.

This is entirely our mistake; Apex had clearly labeled the story as a reprint and both myself and the judge who selected the story missed this. In order to avoid any controversy--"Hey, that story ain't eligible so what's it doing competing against legit stories?"--Nick Mamatas asked me to remove it from the list of notable stories. Thanks to Nick for being so cool about this screw up.

Kyle Minor: The 'Tom Hanks' of this year's Million Writers Award

Kyle Minor has emerged as the 'Tom Hanks'* of this year's Million Writers Award, garnering four notable stories spread across three magazines--Freight Stories,Pindeldyboz, and Plots with Guns. In addition to these online publications, Kyle's stories have appeared in The Southern Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Best American Mystery Stories 2008, while his short story collection In the Devil's Territory was recently published to critical acclaim.

I had the opportunity to meet Kyle a few years back and can state that in addition to being a great writer, he's also a great guy. As I compiled the preliminary judges' story selections, it was a pleasant surprise to see different judges select four of Kyle's stories. I encourage people to check out his work, along with all the other notable stories.

*In case anyone doesn't understand this reference, back in the 1990s Hanks won back-to-back Oscars for Best Actor and seemed to pop up on the award ballots year after year.

Million Writers Award notable stories of 2008

The list of Million Writers Award notable stories of 2008 is now available. Many thanks to the editors and readers who nominated a story--and a big thanks to the preliminary judges who screened the nominations and/or nominated their own lists of favorite stories.

I will be reading all of the notable stories over the coming weeks, and will release my selection for the top ten stories on May 15th. That is also when the public vote for the overall winner will begin. For more information, please see the award home page. And don't forget that thanks to the generosity of numerous donors, this year's award features the following monetary prizes:

  • Overall winner: $500
  • Runner-up: $200
  • Honorable mention (third place): $100

Stories to be reprinted in Apex and Czech SF magazine Ikarie

Two of my stories published last year in Interzone—"When Thorns Are the Tips of Trees" and "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain"—will be reprinted in the Czech SF magazine Ikarie.  While I don't know the exact publication schedule, one of the stories will evidently be in Ikarie's July issue alongside works by Paolo Bacigalupi and Ted Kosmatka, who happen to be two of my favorite short story writers.

I should also note that "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain" has been nominated for the 2009 British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction and will be reprinted in Year's Best SF 14, due out next month. "When Thorns Are the Tips of Trees" was nominated for the 2008 BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction and is scheduled to be reprinted next month in Apex Magazine.

Guess that's enough self-promotion for today.

Million Writers Award update

The storySouth Million Writers Award closed to reader and editor nominations at the end of the day on March 31. Editors from 69 online magazines and journals nominated up to three stories each from their publications; in addition, readers and writers nominated around 270 stories.

The nominated stories:

  • Reader nominations are here.
  • Editor nominations are here.

The preliminary judges are now going through the nominated stories and sending their selections to me. I should have the list of notable stories up by April 15. The top ten selections will be up around May 1st, at which time the voting for the top story begins. For more information on the award, please see my previous introduction and the award rules. Thanks to the generosity of many donors, this year's award offers the following prize money:

  • $500 for the overall winner,
  • $200 for the runner-up,
  • $100 for honorable mention/third place.

Save the Semiprozine Hugo

Now here's a movement I can totally get behind--saving the Hugo Award for best semiprozine, which refers to "semiprofessional" magazines. While that term may sound strange, it basically covers the small magazines which publish professional-level work, publications like Interzone, Locus, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and so on. The problem certain people have with the award is that Locus ends up winning it most years, so these folks think the entire category should be done away with. I strongly disagree.

Neil Clarke, the publisher and editor of Clarkesworld Magazine, also hates the idea and has started a campaign to convince WorldCon attendees to save the award. Check out Neil's site to learn more about the award, and pass the word on saving this Hugo.

My Outshine prose poem

OutShine is a Twitterzine edited by Jetse de Vries which publishes optimistic, near future prose poems. The catch with a Twitterzine is that each story or poem can only be 140 characters.

A few weeks back Outshine published one of my optimistic prose poems. Here it is, reprinted in its entirety:

She dissipatedthe past. Footsteps walking reclaimed beaches. Grinned as seagulls abandoned all worship of trash to instead hunt fish.

Anyone interested in submitting to Outshine should check out their submission guidelines (and do note that they are a paying market). Outshine also publishes an excellent selection of insightful quotes, and is worth reading on a regular basis.

On a final note, Jetse is also working on the Shine anthology of optimistic SF. I'm writing two stories which might work for the anthology, but I won't know until the end of April if they'll be ready to submit.

The biggest SF/F taboo: Showing humanity in a positive light

My name popped up a twice on SF Signal in the last few days. First off, here's the table of contents for the upcoming Year's Best SF 14, which contains my story "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain."

SF Signal also asked a number of writers and editors what sort of taboos exist in the world of science fiction and fantasy publishing. Check out the link, because there are a ton of great responses from people like Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Hal Duncan, and Neal Asher.

My response from the discussion:

The biggest taboo in science fiction and fantasy is showing humans in a positive light. According to the experts, there are so many problems in our world--global warming, overpopulation, the looming singularity--it will be a miracle if humanity survives the next hundred years. As a result, many writers of speculative fiction self censor, embracing doom and gloom under the belief that doing so gives "depth" to their writings. They create nothing but dark and moody antiheroes living dark and moody lives in dark and moody science fiction and fantasy worlds, where ironic quips have taken the place of actual human qualities like self sacrifice, love, and hope.

Ironically, this causes much of SF/F to miss the true depths of humanity, and likewise causes the genre to misunderstand our ability to overcome our self-created problems. Humanity has been engaged in a million-year flirtation with extinction--but we're still here! Research suggests that tens of thousands of years ago humanity dwindled to a few hundred people. Yet those people didn't give up. Instead, they spread across the entire globe and created the civilizations which nurture us all. I see no reason why today's humanity won't also overcome the problems that threaten both us and our planet. But in today's SF/F, this positive view of humanity's past and future is one most writers avoid like the plague.

In the comments section of the SF Signal discussion, Brad R. Torgersen agrees with my points, adding that "Maybe some people like seeing humanity at its worst, because they think this is simply art reflecting reality.  Me?  I say, no thanks.  Give me the bold tale, told boldly.  And the gutsy protagonist who makes the hard choices and fights the hard fights, not for seflishness, but because these are the right things to do."  He also adds that the "art of legend-making that has become 'uncool' in an era of irony, smugness, and cynicism." I totally agree.

storySouth's new issue and look

As I mentioned back in December, storySouth--the online journal I founded with Jake Adam York--has a new editorial team and publisher. Well, their first all-new issue is now available and it's a sight to behold. With fiction by George Singleton and Daniel Wallace, and poetry by Gregory Donovan and Erin Lyndal Martin (among others), the issue shows that storySouth is back with a vengeance as the journal continues its work of highlighting the best new writings from the New South.

I want to give special praise to Terry Kennedy and all the editors at Spring Garden Press for the excellent work in bringing storySouth to new heights. And special praise must also be given to Assistant Editor Andrew Saulters for his new graphic design to the journal.

Million Writers Award update

We have now received 169 reader and writer nominations for the Million Writers Award, along with editorial nominations from 40 online magazines (for around 120 editor-nominated stories). Remember: you have until March 31st to make story nominations. Complete information, including nominating links, is here.

Guide to becoming a better writer

Over at HTML Giant is the laugh out loud funny "Guide to becoming a better writer." Among the highlights:

  • "Your monitor should tilt towards the heavens as you blind angels with your genius."
  • "The bigger your monitor is, the more confident you will feel. The same applies to salaries, penises, and publishing credits."
  • and my favorite: "You will need a chip on your shoulder. When somebody asks you what you do at a party, you will need to think 'fucking moron,' and reply, [sigh] 'I'm a writer highly published online. I've been nominated for the Million Writers Awards and was interviewed twice.'

If you can't laugh at yourself, don't even think of being a writer.

TTA Press has new website

I've been up most of the night with a sick kid, so I was awake when TTA Press launched their newly redesigned website. In addition to having specific sites for their core magazines Interzone, Crimewave, and Black Static, the site also features a lively forum and more. Kudos to the TTA staff for the excellent new website look!

Update on Million Writers Award prize money

Thanks to the generosity of many donors, the 2009 Million Writers Award will offer the following prize money:

  • $500 for the overall winner,
  • $200 for the runner-up,
  • $100 for honorable mention/third place.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I've been overwhelmed by the generosity people have shown through their donations. Many, many thanks to everyone!

Remember, story nominations must be made by March 31st. To nominate a story, go here.