Hey, writer-types – remember when we plugged the soon-to-open Lightspeed Magazine, a new online science fiction magazine curated by the inestimable John Joseph Adams?
Well, Lightspeed won’t be publishing anything until June 2010, but for the fictioneers among you (especially those who find Futurismic‘s pickiness on topics and sub-genres restrictive!) it’s worth noting that they’re already open to story submissions. To quote from the Lightspeed submission guidelines:
Lightspeed is seeking original science fiction stories of 1000-7500 words. Stories of 5000 words or less are preferred. We pay 5¢/word for original fiction, on acceptance. To see which rights we’re seeking, please view our contract template for original fiction.
All types of science fiction are welcome, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between. No subject should be considered off-limits, and we encourage writers to take chances with their fiction and push the envelope.
We believe that the science fiction genre’s diversity is its greatest strength, and we wish that viewpoint to be reflected in our story content and our submission queues; we welcome submissions from writers of every race, religion, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation.
There are further details on that page, along with a link to their online submissions form. So why not give your latest masterpiece one final edit and send it off? Good luck!
Glad to hear of the birth of a new SF magazine! But… I am confused about one statement, however. After all, is there ANY SF magazine that you can name, at least in the western world, that specifically does NOT “welcome submissions from writers of every race, religion, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation?” Hmm! I’d sure *like* to think that this new one won’t discriminate against wheelchair-bound writers, deaf writers, bald writers, gluten-intolerant writers, nearsighted writers, etc., but *where* do they state that? And as a nearsighted person myself (note: I reject the cruel and derogatory label, “person of limited vision”), what recourse will I have if they discriminate against me? Heh. Keep up the good work, guys.