anthologies vs magazines

[Boris]

If a writer has a story that'd be a good fit for either a pro-rated SFWA magazine or an anthology, would anyone have an idea of which would be a better market to get published in?

[John Arkwright]

My view is that the SFWA quality magazine is clearly superior, even if you do not consider publishing the same story again.

But when you consider the possiblity of republishing, I would definitely go for the SFWA mag., since you can always publish the same thing in an anthology later (though maybe you would be giving up a sure thing anthology now).

[kaolin fire]

I'd say it also depends on what the antho's paying, and your estimated reach of both. I've watched a friend get into a number of anthos recently, and it feels like they get more of a push than magazines; then, e-zines seem to have a larger reach than many printed, but there's the tradeoff of having something to hold (which yes, a different conversation entirely).

As a rule, I'm probably still aiming more at magazines, myself. The last thing I tried to write for an antho I wound up sending to Strange Horizons instead, and I was very happy with how that turned out. :)

[Aliette de Bodard]

I think it depends mostly on who publishes the anthology and what kind of printrun we're looking at: yes, you'll have a book, but how many copies of those will find their way into the wild?
The SFWA magazines are read by a lot of people, many of whom matter in the field, and publishing there is sure to get your story noticed. The anthology... well, if Tor is putting it out, sure that's a good market (and also qualifies for SFWA). Some other small presses (Hadley-Rille springs to mind) are also very good. But some anthologies only get a teeny printrun: the fact that it's an anthology doesn't guarantee you'll be widely read.

[Boris]

True, depending on the editor and publisher, an anthology may or may not be better than a SFWA magazine.

IF the anthology is sufficiently high profile, a perk of getting published in it is that one's story will receive consideration for awards.