Success!

After four months and ten rejections across four stories, I just made my first sale, to Daily Science Fiction!

(What's the etiquette there, by the way? May I / should I send a thank-you e-mail?)

As noted over at Hatrack, Grayson, bit-time congrats! Well done. First pro sale is always extra, extra sweet.

Grayson... don't send a thank you note. When they email you the contract, then you can add a thank you in your response to it. (at least, that's what I do)

Thanks for all the good vibes and etiquette info, everyone!

Jordan, thanks for the editor's POV on thank-you notes. And Annie, your method seems to be working awfully darn well, so I shall follow it.

Thanks for all the good vibes and etiquette info, everyone!

Jordan, thanks for the editor's POV on thank-you notes. And Annie, your method seems to be working awfully darn well, so I shall follow it.

Hey, congratulations, Grayson!

Celebrating success is a good idea, thanks for starting it.
Congratulations on your success at Fantasy Mag. A hi-profile place to publish.
I've sold two stories since Oct. '10 (maybe soon I can disqualify myself from the Contest with a third) to Andy Robertson at The Night Land website. I loved the original Night Land when I first read it, and studied it in fact, rewriting it so I could flow through it easier. That gave me lots of knowledge to write stories set in that world or its timeline. The pay was good, 6.5 cents/wd, and other pros were publishing there (Brett Davidson, John C Wright, others), so I consider it a competitive professional market.
I learned a lot fast working with the editor. Invaluable!
But I hope I can learn a lot too at the WOTF workshop. That would be a glorious success to celebrate.

I've sold two stories since Oct. '10 (maybe soon I can disqualify myself from the Contest with a third) to Andy Robertson at The Night Land website.

Congrats on that! But you'll actually need to sell two more to disqualify yourself. It's the fourth short story (or a novelette in addition to your short stories) that makes you ineligible.

What kyle said.

Also, it's not the 4th sale itself that disqualifies, it's the 4th publication that disqualifies. 4th sale is just fine, as long as you don't have 4 stories in print with professional venues, either electronic or paper.

Thanks in part to the folks here encouraging me to keep trying, my short "The Night We Flushed the Old Town" has been accepted at Digital Science Fiction! It's a fledgling monthly anthology paying pro rates, so (if I understand correctly) this doesn't count as a pro sale yet, but will become one retroactively if Digital can keep their publication schedule for a year. Naturally, nothing would please me more than for Digital to become an established market with my story one of the "early adopters".

I think my story is slated for the third volume, and the first one doesn't come out until next month. Of course, things can go wrong with any new venture; but I have high hopes for this one!

Congrats, Martin!

Qualifying a market for SFWA is a little more complicated than just having the publication hang on for a year, but SFWA's current leadership is very interested in working with developing publications, so there's every reason to be confident it will convert to a qualifying sale down the line.

Congratulations, Martin! I look forward to reading it.

Congratulations! you guys are racking up the sales & successes crazy now!

Congrats Martin! And a belated congratulations to Grayson, too!

Kyle's right -- it's not a qualifying sale yet, but if they stick around long enough and jump through all the hoops, the stories they published in their first year will be retconned into qualifying sales.

Just made my third pro-paying sale to the new venue Digital Science Fiction.

Congratulations, Annie! Woo hoo!

What will this mean for you and WOTF when DSF becomes a recognized SFWA market in the fall? Will all three of those sales suddenly be sales counting toward pro-out disqualification? (In other words, does the contest also retroactively count those sales as pro?)

EDIT: Oops! I just realized you said DIGITAL Science Fiction and not DAILY Science Fiction. But it's still a good question, in general: does WOTF also grandfather in past sales to newly pro markets?

I don't know. This market isn't the same as Daily Science Fiction (which will become SFWA in the fall, probably). If the sales have to be SFWA eligible to qualify, I'm good. If not, well, I technically have another pro-paying sale in the works which would be my 4th. I figure I'll wait until all those sold stories are published (since it's publication that disqualifies, not the sales themselves) and then ask Joni. Meanwhile, I'll keep submitting and make sure I do what I can to win before I pro-out.

Grats Annie!

Congrats, Annie!

Joni said in an email to me that yes, they have to be qualifying markets, which makes sense since anybody with a wad of cash can start a new market and pay pro rates. Also, similar to SFWA qualification, you must get paid a minimum of $50 per sale and a total amount of at least $250, which is something I hadn't heard before in reference to WotF.

Really? They have to be SFWA markets? Awesome. I hope that I continue to sell stories to emerging pro-paying publications then I can make money, sell stories, AND still be eligible for WotF. Seems like a giant win loophole to me (at least until those markets qualify for SFWA...)

Just made my third pro-paying sale to the new venue Digital Science Fiction.

Congrats! "No Spaceships Go" was one of their better ones, so I'm looking forward to the new one.

Just made my third pro-paying sale to the new venue Digital Science Fiction.

Congrats! "No Spaceships Go" was one of their better ones, so I'm looking forward to the new one.

But wasn't that one in Daily Science fiction? Getting to be too many DSFs out there.

Congrats! Is wooting appropriate?

Most excellent news, Annie!

Good work, Annie!

Congratulations, Annie! Which volume will the story be in?

One thing I like about Digital Science Fiction: it's a monthly anthology, not a magazine. That matters with Kindle, because magazines operate under different rules there. In particular, magazines can only be delivered to actual Kindle devices, not to Kindle on smart phones or PCs.

But wasn't that one in Daily Science fiction? Getting to be too many DSFs out there.

I keep making the same mistake. I've learned that if I need a shorter name, I just say "Digital".

But wasn't that one in Daily Science fiction? Getting to be too many DSFs out there.

DOH!

Yes, I will admit the similar names have been screwing up my brain in my submission log for the past couple of weeks. I keep thinking I'll get used to it...

Grats, Annie! And even if you do eventually pro out, it's not a bad way to go.

Thanks guys. I keep having a mix-up in my head with the Digital vs Daily SF thing too, hehe. Apparently I only sell to magazines with the initials DSF

Laurie- yeah, pro-ing out wouldn't be so bad. But if I can put it off a while longer and give myself more chances to win instead, I'm cool with that.

Apparently I only sell to magazines with the initials DSF

That settles it. I'm going to start Dumb Science Fiction and see what sort of market response I get.

That settles it. I'm going to start Dumb Science Fiction and see what sort of market response I get.

Oooh, I will totally submit. I think I can crack that market!

Looks like I might be joining y'all in Digital Science Fiction. No contract yet (so there's plenty of time for it all to go very, very wrong), but I got an acceptance note overnight for one of my stories about colonizing Venus.

:: happy dance ::