Another One Out the Door

I finished all the edits that I wanted to my short story, so it is ready to go off in the mail first thing in the morning. I really intended to mail it today, but when I got to the post office I sat down in the lobby to do one last read-through -- and naturally, I found some things that I wanted/needed to change. So, I got the envelope weighed and bought the postage for it ($1.29, for the curious -- 16 pages plus the return envelope), made the changes at home, and I'll put it in the mailbox tomorrow.

I'm psyched to be sending out some fiction. While I've been writing non-fiction almost continuously (salaried and freelance) for the past several years, I haven't delved into the fiction realms of publishing in a while. This market is sort of like submitting to the New Yorker, both in terms of pay and in numbers of submissions they receive each month -- over a 1,000/month, according to the writer's guidelines. But I figure you may as well go for the big leagues from the start, eh? If they don't buy it, I can always work my way to smaller markets. The story really is exactly the type they would buy (in my opinion, of course, but I think it's a justifiable opinion). It's written spot-on for their target age group, deals with issues that teens often face, and is (again, in my opinion) a darn fun story to read. We'll see what happens. You never know, I may get a first reader who hates science fiction (they publish all genres, though they do say specifically they are looking for science fiction).

In the cover letter, I mentioned my NASA background and how all of the science in the story is real -- I also mentioned that their teenaged readers could be the protagonists in the story in just a few decades. I put in some other bits that I think (hope) will help generate some interest in the reader's mind. Again, we'll just have to see how it goes. Their turn-around time is twelve weeks, so I won't hear anything until late Februrary or early March. A long time to wait, but such is the nature of our business!