The magazine:

Jim Baen's Universe is a professional science fiction and fantasy magazine which is published on-line and bi-monthly. Eric Flint and Mike Resnick are the editors. 

NOTICE

Jim Baen's Universe is closed for submissions until July 2007.

We're already filled up through the December 2007 issue and we don't like to be more than six to nine months ahead of publication date. Since we wouldn't be looking at anything submitted until July, anyway, we don't want authors sending us stories that they could be sending somewhere else in the meantime. It wouldn't be fair to the authors and it would be a nuisance for us. Submissions will re-open on July 1, 2007.

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Submissions reopened July 1, 2007 for an indefinite period (Until we fill up again.)

Submissions:

All submissions to Jim Baen's Universe are electronic. There are two primary submission methods, web submission and Baen's UniverseSlush on Baen's bar.

Web submissions can be made through our submissions form. If there is a problem with the form, please submit by e-mail to submissions@baensuniverse.com and explain the problem, and we will handle the submission manually. You may also want to read our full explanation of how the submissions system works.

Editorial questions may be directed to query@baensuniverse.com

Please use RTF or MS Word (.doc) files for submissions.

In terms of the format we want, keep in mind that we do everything electronically. We will reformat anything you send us to suit that particular editor's preference anyway. If you want to know what they are, Eric Flint's are: single spaced; Garamond 13; 1.2 margins on the side, 1.0 margins top and bottom; use of tab instead of automatic indentations, use of italics instead of underlined when italics are indicated. But another editor's preference will be different. None of this is important, provided you are consistent in whatever format you use. It takes less than a minute to completely re-format a manuscript to the editor's preference, so long as the writer has been consistent and it can all be done with a simple global search-and-replace.

The web form, as well as the e-mail addresses, will generate an "auto-reply." If you do not get the computer-generated reply, we didn't receive your submission.

If you submit through the web form, our system will send you a link that will allow you to track the current status of your submission online: when you think you may not have received an e-mail from us, you can just click the link to check.

Introducing

At least two slots in each issue will be reserved to introduce new writers. Submissions wanting consideration for the "Introducing" new writers slot in each issue must be submitted via the Universe Slush conference on Baen's Bar. http://bar.baen.com There are no exceptions. A writer can only be introduced once.

New writers may submit directly to the "regular" slush pile through the submissions form, if they choose. However, those stories will not be considered for the "Introducing" slot and are competing against everything else in slush. We strongly recommend that new writers submit their stories through the Baen's Universe Slush conference in Baen's Bar. You can reach that conference by going to http://www.baen.com/, then selecting "Baen's Bar" from the menu at the top. You will need to filll out a very short registration form the first time you go there. Once into the Bar, select the conferences titled "Baens Universe Facts," "Baen's Universe Slush," and "Baens Universe Slush Comments." The first conference is for general discussion about the magazine. The "Baen's Universe Slush" conference is where you should post your story. After having posted your story, please put up a short announcement that you've done so in "Baen's Universe Slush Comments." All discussion of the stories should take place in that conference.

For a guide to posting stories to the bar, click here.

For the purposes of determining what constitutes a "new writer" eligible for the "Introducing" slot, we are using a simplification of the same method used by the Writers of the Future contest, since it's the largest such contest in existence. You are eligible unless you have published one novel or three pieces of short fiction (any length, from short story through novella) in a professional publication recognized as such by SFWA. (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.) You can find those recognized publications by looking at the following URL: http://www.sfwa.org/org/qualify.htm#Q3

We do not care if your story has been "published" somewhere else -- fanzine, personal web site, whatever -- unless you turned over the rights to it. So long as you retain the rights and it's an original piece of writing, you can submit it unless it's been previously published in one of SFWA's established professional publications (book or magazine).

Furthermore, while only new writers -- as defined above -- will be eligible for the "Introducing" slot in the magazine, the Baen's Universe Slush conference is not restricted to them. Any writer who wants to, regardless of publication history, can use the Universe Slush conference as an alternate way of submitting a story. Your story will not qualify for the "Introducing" slot, to be sure, but we will be using the Slush conference to select other stories as well. Our advice is that even writers who are already established should consider doing so, although it's entirely your decision. We will simply point out that, in the nature of things, the Slush conference is a less harsh environment than the regular slush pile -- which, of necessity, operates along principles of ruthless Darwinian selection. We will reject the great majority of stories submitted through the submissions form, after giving each of them not more than maybe two to three pages to interest our editors. We simply don't have any choice, given the volume of submissions. Granted, we will also not buy most stories submitted through the Universe Slush conference, but any such stories have the advantage that they never get rejected, as such. We monitor the discussion in that conference to see which stories seem to be rising to the top, so to speak. Authors with stories in the Universe Slush conference can also rewrite them, with no penalty, if the discussion brings up some weaknesses. In fact, stories can be rewritten several times. Whereas, if you submit to the regular slush pile through the submissions form, you get exactly one chance.

(Although, in the case of stories which we think show some promise, we will usually recommend that you resubmit it through the Universe Slush conference, if you choose to do so. But you can't rewrite it and send it back directly to the regular slushpile unless we specifically ask you to.)

Established Authors

When we first set up the magazine, we included a provision for established authors to send in a manuscript separately, that would bypass the slush pile. Now that we've had a lot of experience, however, we've decided to eliminate that provision.

The reason is simple. What we've discovered is that the slush piles moves very quickly, because our managing editor Paula Goodlett and her team of first readers deal with stories as soon as they come in. With rare exceptions-and unless it's one of the few stories recommended by them to me and Mike Resnick-they will read a story within a week of submission. Furthermore, a minimum of three readers will look at every story, one of whom will almost always be Paula herself.

The real slowdown happens with that small percentage of stories that get recommended to me and Mike. Depending on our writing schedules-and we both make our living as authors, not editors-we often can't get around to reading stories for quite a while. That problem is compounded whenever, as is more often true than not, the magazine is heavily bought up and we're buying very slowly or not at all.

In practice, therefore, we discovered that trying to handle separately those stories that were submitted by established authors-unless they were commissioned stories, which is a different matter altogether-simply meant that the established writers would get a much slower reading than the other authors. And the big majority of them would get rejected anyway.

So, we simply started sending them through the regular slush pile, even if they came to us separately. Our attitude is that if a story can't get past three readers, there's really no point in Mike or me looking at it, regardless of who wrote it. In the end, having that special provision was no help to established authors, and simply created headaches for us. And that's why we eliminated it.

Pay Rates

If we commission a story from you, our pay rates are as follows:

• For the first 5000 words, we'll pay 25 cents a word. That comes to $1,250
• For the next 5000 words (i.e., from 5-10K), we'll pay 15 cents a word. That comes to $750, or a cumulative payment of $2000 for a story that was 10K words long.
• For the next 10,000 words (i.e., from 10-20K), we'll pay 10 cents a word. That comes to $1000, or a cumulative payment of $3000 for a short novella that was 20K words long.
• For the next 20,000 words (i.e., from 20-40K), we'll pay 8 cents a word. That comes to $1600, or a cumulative payment of $4600 for a short novel that was 40K long.
• Anything longer than that, we'll pay 6 cents a word.

Our rates are lower for stories that we buy from unsolicited manuscripts, whether submitted through the submission form or the Slush conference. They range from eight to fifteen cents a word depending on various factors. Stories bought from Baen's Bar for the "Introducing" slot will be paid six cents per word.

In addition, we will pay royalties. The royalties will be 20% of the gross income of an issue of Universe, if the stories and articles in that issue earn out, divided among the authors in that issue. In the event Baen Books decides to reissue the magazine later in paper format, we will also pay book royalty rates.

All stories and articles are bought on a non-exclusive basis, except that in the case of new stories or articles we reserve the right for first publication. Thereafter, all rights revert to the author, with the proviso that Baen Books can continue to sell the story in either electronic or paper format, so long as we keep it in print.

Story Length

The issue of length is a complicated one. To start with the question of the length of a given issue of the magazine, one way in which an electronic magazine is very different from a paper magazine is that "length" is defined quite differently. The main criterion in a paper magazine is the space available per issue in terms of the number of pages of the average issue. For an electronic magazine, that's almost meaningless. Almost the only important definition of "length" is simply the cost of the stories and articles, since we have to remain within budget.

(Not quite, since we always have to keep in mind the prospect of a paper follow-on edition. But, even there, any paper edition will be in the format of a book anthology, not a magazine, which means we'd have a lot more space for stories.) That said, any issue of Universe will have at least 120,000 words, and we might go as high as 150,000, in some issues. (For those of you not familiar with estimating length by word counts instead of pages, you can get a rough estimate by assuming 325 words to a page, for a paperback. To put it another way, a 120,000 word issue would be the equivalent of a paperback that was approximately 370 pages long.)

The question of the length of story we'll buy from new or little-known authors is also complicated.There is no preset limit to length, as such -- from any author. If a completely unpublished author were to submit a good enough novel to the magazine, we would consider publishing it.

BUT -- but but but -- the thing is, it's complicated. And the longer a story is, from a newbie, the more tangled up it's likely to get in the complications. There is no hard and definite line, anywhere along the way. Still, you can pretty much take it as a given that the longer a story gets, the lower its chances are to be selected.

It's almost always possible to fit in a good short story by a newbie. (Or anybody, for that matter.) A novelette is more problematic, but still not usually a major problem. Once you get to novella length, the problems start escalating -- and with a novel, even a short one, they're still more extensive.

All that said, it's certainly not impossible to do so. Indeed, if the story is good enough, we'll do whatever we need to in order to fit it in. But, once you get to longer lengths, the story really has to cut the mustard.

Finally, a piece of advice. Keeping all the above in mind, we'd still recommend that people write a story to whatever length works best for the story itself. Push comes to shove, we're more likely to buy a really good novella, even from a newbie, than we are a so-so short story.

We look forward to hearing from you.

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