To Market, To Market

I mailed copies of seven stories published last year to the editor of a best-of-year anthology in the hopes that he'll select one or two for inclusion. I learned a long time ago not to rely on fate or karma or happenstance for best-of-year anthology editors to discover my work and have been diligently (or semi-deligently) sending copies of my stories and copies of the anthologies I've edited to appropriate best-of-year anthology editors for a few years now.

All-in-all, tooting my own horn like this has worked. I've placed one story in a best-of-year anthology and had one story named as among the year's best even though it didn't make the book. I've also had contributors to my anthologies see their stories listed among the year's best, which is great for them and reflects back on my editorial acumen. (OK, OK, I'll stop now. I'm hurting my arm patting myself on the back.)

I also discovered a new publication--only one issue published--and submitted two unsold stories from my files.