Fiction in Dragon?

[Simia Saturnalia]

Back in the days of dead tree Dragon, I found the fiction section to be wasted pages. With two exceptions, I just flipped pages until the articles started again, and one of those exceptions was the Feast for Crows excerpt/spoiler. They just...weren't very good.

But since I'm unlikely to pursue new Dragon with any degree of vigor and similarly unlikely to click a link labeled "fiction", I select Zen.

 

[GQuail]

It never did anything for me in the print magazine. It wasn't why I bought the magazine, ultimately: I came for D&D stuff, and anything else was pages that could have been spent on "useful" articles. I know that Dragon has had it since day one, so I never got too angry about it: except for the 30th anniversary issue, which had three such stories rather than other, more rules-based articles. (I enjoyed Wizards Three, and I'm sure old timers enjoyoed seeing the other two apepar again - but if I want short stories, I'll buy a collection of short stories!)

However, Draogn online gets around some of these problems. Like Ari says, there isn't a page count so it's OK for a piece of fiction to be however long it needs to be without stealing space from "more worthy" articles, which makes the "no fiction" crowd happier. And because we get things piecemeal over the course of a month and web subscription makes access to older articles easier, we may see mini-serials and sequels of popular stories appear - all of which gives the fiction crowd more of what they want, which makes them happier.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

(No offense to Ari intended by any of this. These opinions predate him being in the industry, much less selling this short story to Dragon.)

There's been about a half dozen short stories I've liked seeing in Dragon over the years. The majority of them featured Niall of the Far Travels, so that should date them pretty well.

There are other better markets for new writers to break in. Dragon has never been remotely professional (IMO) in their fiction standards: They either print stuff that's written by buddies of theirs, or they print stuff by established pros like George R. R. Martin. While the latter is great, the former is sort of a crock: We either end up with stuff that would have survived a more professional vetting process (and could have thus gone through one just fine) or would never have seen the light of day in a professional magazine (and thus are wasted space).

If they want to print fiction, be serious about it. Don't make it a freebie give-away to guys who also create articles and adventures for their magazines. The skill set doesn't automatically translate. Becoming a real publisher of fiction means a huge slush pile and a lot of work for what I suspect isn't a lot of reward in terms of making readers happy.

Dragon fiction fans should just start reading Realms of Fantasy -- sold in the same rack as Dragon used to be in many stores, in fact -- and Dragon should leave fiction to the magazines that are going to devote themselves to it, instead of just dabble.

 

[JustKim]

I don't like fantasy fiction in general and I do my best to avoid it. Dragon magazine has never been a very good showcase for fantasy writing talent, outside of rare contributions from authors who genuinely try to lead fantasy fiction out of the dime pulp pit it has decades dug itself into. I would have voted that fiction in Dragon sends me into a "berserker furry", but on serious introspection I have never wanted to dress up as an animal while angry, so I can only honestly claim that it annoys me.

 

[Zaukrie]

I voted yes, but I'd have liked an option that said "yes, but only if it does not reduce the page count for gaming material". I like being introduced to new authors, so a short story is a good idea from my perspective. However, if that reduces the amount of "gaming content", then I would vote no.

 

[Mouseferatu]

(No offense to Ari intended by any of this. These opinions predate him being in the industry, much less selling this short story to Dragon.)

None taken at all.

I do, however, want to address one aspect of your post.

There are other better markets for new writers to break in. Dragon has never been remotely professional (IMO) in their fiction standards: They either print stuff that's written by buddies of theirs, or they print stuff by established pros like George R. R. Martin.

The fact is, there aren't that many markets for short fantasy fiction anymore. There are a few such magazines, yes--Realms of Fantasy, as you mention, Black Gate, a few others--but they're a vastly dwindling market. There are fewer now than there were even three or four years ago, and far fewer than there were 10 years ago. And the competition for the very limited number of slots in those markets is murderous.

If Dragon became a legit market for fiction, even if it was only one story every few issues, it would be that much better not merely for the magazine, IMO, but for the author community in general.

(And while I don't know what the fiction rules were in the 3E era, I know that in the olden days, Dragon did have a fiction slush pile, and accepted proposals from anyone who wanted to send one in. So they're certainly capable of treating it as a "real" endeavor.)

 

[WayneLigon]

The fact is, there aren't that many markets for short fantasy fiction anymore. There are a few such magazines, yes--Realms of Fantasy, as you mention, Black Gate, a few others--but they're a vastly dwindling market. There are fewer now than there were even three or four years ago, and far fewer than there were 10 years ago. And the competition for the very limited number of slots in those markets is murderous.

As far as I know, Black Gate is the only regularly published source where one can reliably find the sort of adventure sword-slinging fantasy that most Dragon readers would probably like... and it's a quarterly. I haven't checked out Realms of Fantasy in awhile; it seemed at the time that I did, that such fiction was most commonly an excerpt (read: ad) from a longer work by whatever author had just released his novel; that could have changed by now. Magazine of Fantasy and Science-Fiction tends to go for more urban and whimsical fantasy when they do print it.

Ari, are there any other regularly published sources?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Ari, are there any other regularly published sources?

There are a few others, but not many. And I think most of the rest of the hardcopy 'zines are also quarterlies. (I have a link somewhere, to a site that lists short fiction markets. I'll try to dig it up.)

The market opens up a great deal if one is willing to consider e-zines (as Dragon itself would be, of course). But even then, only a portion of the e-zines pay rates worth considering.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The fact is, there aren't that many markets for short fantasy fiction anymore. There are a few such magazines, yes--Realms of Fantasy, as you mention, Black Gate, a few others--but they're a vastly dwindling market. There are fewer now than there were even three or four years ago, and far fewer than there were 10 years ago. And the competition for the very limited number of slots in those markets is murderous.

If Dragon became a legit market for fiction, even if it was only one story every few issues, it would be that much better not merely for the magazine, IMO, but for the author community in general.

You're right. The last venue of that sort that I sent something to was Marion Zimmer Bradley's magazine, and I think that went under several years ago. (My rejection was pretty neat: MZB had written snarky comments all over my piece, and her editor had written responses, most of which were championing my piece. It was urban fantasy, though -- a dragon atop a skyscraper -- and that doomed it with MZB, it seemed.)

If WotC wanted to jump into this field seriously -- and they certainly do have the infrastructure in place, with their books division -- I would welcome fiction in Dragon again.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is, to my mind, the best genre fiction magazine around, but they aren't much interested in D&D-style fantasy. They're great if you're interested in stuff like Neil Gaiman or Jonathan Carroll, of course, but the overlap with what Dragon has historically published is almost zero.