Markets

No, not a post on how hard it is to find markets. This one is on how hard it is to pick markets, sometimes.

Every now and again, I finish a story and have to pick who to send it to. Sometimes I could pare the list down by word count, but even then, I may still have to choose between several good markets.

For example-- do I send it to Powder Burn? Or Flash Fiction Offensive? Or maybe to Chris Pimental's Bad Things? Or I could submit it to Twist of Noir. Or, depending on the story, maybe Pulp Pusher, Beat to a Punch, or Yellow Mama. And there are others.

So I try to weigh the options-- exposure, layout, linkage, other authors. But really, I may as well just throw darts. Most of the publications are comparable in so many ways. Not a bad thing, as it's nice to have variety. It just makes it hard to choose.

Right now, with so many new zines, one of my top criteria has been that I have not had a Bo Fexler story appear in that publication. I figured that I would see if I can spread my name around some more. Break into markets that I've not been in.

There are worse problems to have, I suppose. It wasn't that long ago that it seemed like no publications wanted hardboiled crime. The main publications wanted no sex or violence. Now, the numbers are skewed the other way.

Finally, I'm not struggling to find places for Bo Fexler stories. Too bad I'm not writing as many of them as I did last year. (Mainly because I'm *trying* to get book series rolling!)