Where to publish steampunk short stories?

[Kensington Locke]

I just finished a draft of a new steampunk short story (2300 words).

I'm pondering where to submit and publish it as I'm not familiar with where one finds this kind of fiction short of Amazon self publishing, anthologies or web pages.

I'm looking to build my resume for published work, and I had an idea for a sci-fi story that I got inspiration to set in steampunk  instead of the future.  I wrote it in the style of the more classic morality play sci-fi short stories (ala Asimov) and managed to make it not involve a British accent, spy or tinkerer.

[Madam Takara]

Sorry this is a tad late.


Amazon self publishing isn't a bad way to go. I'm working at it myself and I know of a lot of writers who have done great from it. Plus having a few self published titles under your belt that have done ok and made some decent sales will help you if you want to go to a publishing house later, as it will show them that they're not taking a risk on you.

Otherwise it might be worth going for small publishing houses, some of them actually specialise in only sci-fi and fantasy, (some may even specialise in flash fiction, shorts and poetry if you look hard enough)  they seem to be the ones to take on steampunk stuff. I'm afraid I can't recommend any specific houses, as it has been a long time since I was looking around at them myself (plus I was looking local to me), but many are just a Google search away from what I remember. You could always take a look at authors who have created similar works and find out who they are published with, then contact that publisher. Unfortunately due to the size of your story, I would think that such publishers would only put it out as an ebook anyway, but due to lack of experience I couldn't tell you for definate.

Also have you thought about putting together an anthology, either of your own work or teaming up with other writers? An anthology would probably be easier to publish and sell than a single short, as it has some bulk to it and you'd have a better chance of getting it published in print. People seem a bit hesitant to buy short stories on their own from what I've seen...I might be wrong though, just observing. 

I'm not saying the big ones don't occasionally take a steampunk book on (I mean Cassandra Clare does all right for herself) but those ones tend to be by already well established authors and are usually novels, not shorts.

Sorry I can't be of any more help, most of my experiences are in novels so I an only really give you the information I have that might be transferrable.

Anyway all the best with your literary endeavours! I hope it goes well for you

[Kensington Locke]

Thanks for getting back to me.  This sub-forum doesn't quite get a lot of traffic.

What I'm looking to do is publish a few short stories in magazines or e-zines first to get my foot in the industry and build a resume of published work. (published as in an editor read it, liked it and chose to print it).  I need somebody to publish to validate my work in the industry as a writer.  

That sounds cock-eyed from traditional life advice, but the writing industry rides on reputation and vetted work.  Very few people succeed on self-publishing alone because everybody who can't hack it is doing it.  So you need a catalog of recognized work to point to that shows you have passed muster by an editor/publisher before.

Once I have that, then I can point to that when I shop around my novel.

epublishing direct is not a good fit for individual short stories.  That's where getting into a magazine or anthology comes into play.

for books, ePublishing is my fallback plan for if I can't land a traditional publisher.  I'll have to do a lot more self-promotion then (not just book signings, but pimping a website, etc).


At present, I've got one story approved for the local writer's guild anthology coming out this year.  I've identified a steampunk web site that does anthologies that indicates they'll be accepting submissions in February or so.

Trying to find a few more outlets to consider for short story format.  The world has changed as there aren't "magazines" anymore (there are, but nobody who lives in the 21st century gets magazines).

[pakled]

http://www.freesfonline.de/Authors.html - is it allowed to post this? This is a bunch of various magazines online that publish short stories (under 10,000 or so). You can look through the individual zines and see where you want to start...
don't know if they pay or not, but it's a beginning.

[Kensington Locke]

that's very helpful.  Thanks pakled.

in the old days, there were magazines.  You could just go to a shop, find some, read them, and see which ones were worth submitting to.

Nowawdays, print is dead and it's harder to see where to start to break into the industry.

[J. Penn]

Hi, everyone!

Here is an online magazine that pays SFWA-approved rates: http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/submissions/

I'll post more as I find them. Steampunk markets are a bit hard to come by.