#Clarkesworld 199

[filipmagnuswrites]

The Short Story Reader #67 - The Librarian and the Robot by Shi Heiyao, translated by Andy Dudak

Previous | Next Shi Heiyao’s piece about a librarian and a robot gives me some serious “WALL-E” vibes, I think as I read its first pages. Our librarian, simply referred to as The Curator, returns to Earth long after the planet has been abandoned by humanity. Her task is simple–restore the planet’s largest library to its former glory: As she’d hoped, the main structure of the complex had…

[throwrocksatthem]

Boring Stats Post - Submission numbers to Asimov SF

Was looking through the Jan/Feb 2024 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction when the editorial, by Sheila Williams, the editor (Analog SF&F is edited by Trevor Quachri.) caught my eye. It was a follow up from the big ChatGPT scare of last year, where Williams compared Asimov's submission numbers with that of Clarkesworld. In doing so, Williams drops some numbers on their submissions, which I found interesting. In Dec 2022 - 712 submissions In Jan 2023 - 899 submissions In Feb 2023 - 1088 submissions Nowadays - Williams gives no precise numbers, but says they typically get 'seven hundred real monthly submissions' This will be my first Asimov's issue (so far I've only read Analog and Clarkesworld) but Williams says they purchase "six or so" submissions a month. This issue contained 2 novellas, 2 novelettes and 7 short stories for a total of 11, so six-ish a month seems about right. Clarkesworld is pretty similar. The Editorial in issue 199 said they receive 700 submissions a month, and they also tend to publish 7 or 8 stories a month.

Interesting...

[goodtobegeeking]

2018 Hugo Winners arrive via WorldCon 76.

2018 Hugo Winners arrive via WorldCon 76.

The winners of the 2018 Hugo Awards have beamed in via the 76th World Science Fiction Convention.

Only 2,828 votes were cast this year.

Best Novel The Stone Sky, by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit).

2018 Hugo Winners arrive via WorldCon 76.

Best Novelette The Secret Life of Bots, by Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld, September 2017).

Best Novella All Systems Red, by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing).

Best Series Worl…

[filipmagnuswrites]

The Short Story Reader #72 - Stranger Shores by Gregory Feeley

Previous | Next What a breathtaking story this is. Gregory Feeley writes of posthuman intelligences in the far-off future, filled with longing and curiosity for their far-off human past across what cannot have been less than ten thousand words (it is, in fact, just under nine-thousand). The Minds were inorganic, self-aware as humans simply cannot be, and liberated from reliance on fallible…

[filipmagnuswrites]

The Short Story Reader #71 - Happiness by Octavia Cade

Previous | Next Octavia Cade tells an ambitious and lengthy story in the pages of Clarkesworld #199, and I enjoyed the reading of it even as it failed to appeal to me. I loved the form of this story. You could, if you wanted, pick a variety of options and read the story that way, rather than going through the entirety of it. The form is a delight, a choose-your-own-adventure kind of deal that…

[filipmagnuswrites]

The Short Story Reader #69 - Keeper of the Code by Nick Thomas

Previous | Next Nick Thomas tells the story of a good man struggling to do the right thing, knowing that he will be turned into a pariah if he does; knowing, too, that just because society does not accept it as the right thing, does not make it wrong. “Keeper of the Code” tells the story of an off-shoot of humanity in the distant future. Having left our home planet and the rest of humanity…

[filipmagnuswrites]

The Short Story Reader #66 - Rake the Leaves by R. T. Ester

Previous | Next R. T. Ester’s “Rake the Leaves” is an interesting story about alternate worlds and a government within which rests a shadowy organization capable of taking away the memory of those who ask too many questions. An awful lot is going on – our protagonist’s friend and mentor, the Professor, is paranoid about the possibility that they will come for him. Sections of the story are…

[filipmagnuswrites]

The Short Story Reader #65 - There Are the Art-Makers, Dreamers of Dreams, and There Are Ais by Andrea Kriz

Previous | Next Juno is an artist some thirty-three years in the future, at a time when making a living off your art is more difficult by far than it is now. Not only because of generative AIs, but because of the laws that rise in response to these generative AIs turn to be far more damaging for the common artist than you can imagine. This story, while looking to the future, also enters in…

[filipmagnuswrites]

The Short Story Reader #64 - Re/Union by L/Chan

Previous | Next What does honoring the dead look like in a future in which a person’s digital footprint is used to create simulacra of the dead? Machine learning and the proprietary technology of “Project W” – “Double You. Memory plus character equals personhood, or so the tagline went” – allow the dead to commingle with the living in L Chan’s fascinating piece. These simulacra are static, for…

[throwrocksatthem]

Boring Clarkesworld Stats post

I've never gotten published in Clarkesworld (or submitted anything) but I'd like to, and had writer's block this arvo, so decided to do some very basic stats, and work out what sort of stories tend to get published in Clarkesworld (I'll do Analog next, as these are the two that I read).

Sample pool

I looked at Clarkesworld issues 198-202, as these are the issues I have a digital download of, since that's when I subbed on Patreon. I also have issue 203, but couldn't be fucked.

Number of stories

Of those five issues, four contained 8 stories, and one contained 7. Less than something like Analog. They do publish every month, but according to an editorial in issue 199, they typically receive 700 submissions per month. so roughly 1 in 100 get in. yikes.

Words per story

The average Clarkesworld story was 6125 words long. This is actually a statistical error though, because of 'Chonky Georg', in issue 200, which was 23,300 words long, and should not have been counted. I've included box plots below, both with and without Chonky Georg.

(I did graphs because I'm a nerd. I hand-wrote them because excel only does vertical box plots, which is objectively incorrect)

New vs returning authors

I had a look through the author descriptions following the stories to see how many authors were new vs previously published, and sorted them into three basic categories

Completely new author (description doesn't mention any other books) - only 1 story

First Clarkesworld, but previously published (mentions other books and stuff, but doesn't mention Clarkesworld) - 21 stories

Clarkesworld Veteran (mentions publishing in Clarkesworld before) - 18 stories

Well that sucks.

It obviously does seem that Clarkesworld favours previously published authors. There could be multiple reasons for this, but I'm assuming its most likely because previously published authors write more, better quality stories.

In the editorial mentioned above in issue 199, Clarke does say that they remain committed to "keeping the doors open for new writers", so that's good I guess.

How to get published in Clarkesworld

Uhh.....

write a story that's good, meets the submission requirements listed on the website (aka no zombies)

make it ~6k words long

make it good for reading on youtube

shop it around to other magazines if your rejected (tho probably do another draft first).

write another story and try again. they get 700 submissions a month, but they cant all be quality.