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Episode 5: Jim Baen's Universe

After I discovered how difficult it is to get anyone to read a novel manuscript from someone whose publishing credentials only included textbooks, I knew I had to get some experience in the following:

1. Writing a query letter with the ever dreaded pitch.
2. Writing a synopsis.
3. Fiction publishing credits.

I decided that the best way to get some fiction credits was genre short stories, and that is what eventually led me to Baen's Universe Annex section of Baen's Bar.

When I first joined Baen's Bar as DrCrispy in May of 2009, I wasn't sure exactly how it worked. It took me a while to find the rhythm, but basically here's what a member does now:

0. There is a Universe Slush forum and an associated Universe Slush Comment forum under Baen's Bar.
1. A barfly (member) reads stories posted on the Baen Universe Slush and offer critiques or comments if so inclined on the Universe Slush Comments forum.
2. A barfly may also submit his own stories for consideration (usually no more than one per week) to the Universe Slush forum and start a comment thread on the Universe Slush Comments forum where he will receive critiques and comments.

What makes The Baen's Universe Slush unique is

1. The submission is an actual submission to an SFWA professional market: The Universe Annex section of the Grantville Gazette.
2. Based on comments and critiques to your submission, you may rewrite and update with a new version of the submission. There is no formal rejection process. If an editor doesn't express interest in your story within three months of you most recent version update, you may consider that the story has not been accepted. You may also voluntarily withdraw the submission from consideration.
3. Editors sometimes comment on your story. Inevitably, Edith Maor comments on every story, sometimes more than once. When Gary Cuba was a slush reader, he would sometimes make comments. Both of these commented on my stories, I always found their advice good. More rarely, Sam Hidaka the editor for the Universe Annex makes comments. Some of the barflies are/have been editors elsewhere and offer comments.

Unfortunately, the Universe Annex publishes a lot fewer stories these days, around four each year.

I cranked out stories and critiqued stories and struggled for a year with no sales, zero, nada, nothing. I admit I didn't submit as often or systematically as I should have, but still. . . .  Then early last spring I made my first sale at better than pro rates to Daily Science Fiction. The story had been beta tested at the Universe Slush pile and rewritten accordingly--I knew it didn't fit the usual Universe story type. Since that time I've averaged a sale per month, most of them at pro rates. Based on the pro sales, I recently became a member of the SFWA, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. Almost as pleasing to me is that I finally broke into the Baen market: Hire Education is scheduled for the Universe Annex section in the March issue of The Grantville Gazette.


Sure, I had a degree in English literature, but most of what I know about writing genre short stories, I learned at Baen's Bar.

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