Fireside open submissions this week

TheDustyZebra

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I saw this on Twitter, went and looked at it, sent them a little something, then came back here to find the thread and post that I had done so, only to find myself completely befuddled at not being able to locate it. Fortunately it finally came to me that it wasn't here that I'd seen it. So, to rectify that, here:

About Fireside Fiction Company

I don't know how often they open, but they say it's pretty regularly. This submissions period is through the 27th. Up to 4000 words, any genre, pays 12.5 cents/word.

I know literally nothing else about them than what's on this link, so feel free to jump in.
 
Having looked through their T and C and the little bits of info they provide I get a strong impression that you need to subscribe to the magazine to be considered for submission.

Maybe just my paranoia :alien:
 
Having looked through their T and C and the little bits of info they provide I get a strong impression that you need to subscribe to the magazine to be considered for submission.

Maybe just my paranoia :alien:

Well, we'll find out. I don't have a subscription, having never heard of them, but clearly if they reject me it's because of that and no fault of my story's, so then we'll know. :p
 
Interesting --- It does sound like white haired, white men need not apply.
 
@Parson and @WarriorMouse, I got the same impression. Which means I am pretty well out as well. No white hair (well, this fundraiser may give me some!), but other than that...
 
But man if none of my good stories come in under 4k.

I believe in meritocracy regardless of color, sexuality, gender, etc. We should totally take stories on their own merit.

But I'm also wondering why that easy, big-money publishing contract I'm supposed to get for being a white dude hasn't shown up at my doorstep. Is it at the post office or something? Do I need to go pick it up somewhere?
 
I believe in meritocracy too. Unfortunately as a female writing sf I’m always having to fight to be seen, to be read and - yes - to be considered as publishable as a bloke. But I’m still more publishable than eg if I’d been born in Africa. The more readers who come to the genre, the more writers get a chance - of all demographics. And if that means calls have to put an emphasis on that to get wider submissions, I have no answer. It’s happened all the time in sff publishing; this time it’s just happening to a different demographic. :(
 
I totally agree. I just don't see it as being easy. We all have to fight to get read. I feel a great responsibility to write strong female characters, characters who happen to be gay, etc. It's part of the world so it should be part of what I write. I also champion the cause even if it means I have to work harder to get read.

I'm just saying that the piles of money I'm supposed to get for being a white guy haven't shown up. I guess I'll have to get better at writing.
 
I'm just saying that the piles of money I'm supposed to get for being a white guy haven't shown up.

I saw an interesting statistic recently for the US market that suggested most debuts signed up by New York publishing houses... lived in or close to New York. (Actually, it might have been debuts with the biggest advances).

Anyway, going off-topic...
 
I agree that submission policy is fair in a make up sense. And since I'm not likely to submit it doesn't bother me at all. In fact I like it that someone is worried about these things. But it always makes me wonder when we are going to get past ethnicity, race, sex, and all of the other artificial divisions. My own little protest against this is that when I get asked "race" I nearly always check "other." ---- I'm part of the human race, there isn't any other on this planet.
 
With respect to everyone who doesn’t see the impact of white privilege or simply being a man: you already have a foot or ten up the ladder.

By implementing such structures we’re moving towards a meritocracy, not away from it. You can’t have a meritocracy without an equal playing field. If you were a minority you would see this inherent handicap every day.

It’s sadly not enough to say ‘let’s all treat each other as equal’ because there are systemic advantages for white men.

Anyway, I don’t want to cause too much disquiet here so I’ll leave it at that. ;)

pH
 
Fireside has the right to put out a call for submissions with whatever criteria they see fit; that's their right, and there's no use complaining about it. They're taking what they think is an appropriate measure to correct an imbalance in the publishing industry.

However, just to play Devil's advocate...

By implementing such structures we’re moving towards a meritocracy, not away from it. You can’t have a meritocracy without an equal playing field.

That seems like a slight contradiction to me, or at least it could be taken as such without some clarification. To me, equality of opportunity is inherently desirable, but I do have my doubts as to whether this is the way to go to achieving that. This seems like trying to achieve equality of outcome, which is inherently not meritocratic.

Jo's correct in saying that the vast majority of writers historically represented in SFF have been white and male, but to then derive an oppressive framework from that is not necessarily a logical conclusion as it's not taking a multivariate approach as to why this is so; it's simply saying that the majority of SFF (or any genre) writers are white and male, because they're white and male. It doesn't take into account demographics, geography, time, access to education etc and a whole raft of other things which all contribute to the status quo.

And, to be contrarian once more, if you take a look at recent shortlists for the major awards, us white crusties are being equalled and frequently outnumbered by women, and the number of ethnic minority shortlisters and winners has also shot up. Again, to be one of the Sad Puppy mob and derive some conspiratorial bias from this (the number of white, male writers on shortlists is decreasing because they're white and male) is also simplistic and self-defeating, because it's not taking into account the closing of those gaps with respect to time, demography, geography, time, access to education and all that other good stuff.

My suggestion would be for publishing and agency houses' editorial teams to be more diverse wherever possible, and have calls as open as possible, so that they can assess submissions more equally, and I think the occasional anonymous call should also be encouraged.

And in any case, I won't be subbing because I don't have anything to sub, poor me!
 
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