Six Questions For . . .

Six Questions for Nathaniel Tower, Founder and Editor, Bartleby Snopes

2012-02-02T02:00:00.014-05:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: Nate provided the first set of responses for Six Questions For. . . posted on 12/1/2009. I offered him the opportunity to update his responses as SQF begins year three. Thanks to Nate and all the participating editors and publishers for a fun ride so far.

"Bartleby Snopes is an online literary magazine with several goals in mind. We want to publish the best new fiction we can find. We want to give the many writers out there an opportunity to publish their best work. We want to inspire you to create great works of fiction." The site publishes flash fiction to 1,200 words and longer fiction to 3,000 words.

Bartleby Snopes is currently accepting submissions for its latest project, Post-Experimentalism. We aren't really sure what it is yet, but it's something new and it's something amazing. It's really up to the writers to show us what it is. We plan to have our first issue out in the summer. It will be print and online and maybe even something else. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

NT: We want stories that are engaging, original, and fluid. Stories have to make us want to sit at a computer and read them straight through in one sitting, and when we're finished we should want to read them again. They need to tell a story, and that story needs to be compelling in some way. We don't want to see a story we've seen a million times before, and we want characters that are real but not boring or one-dimensional. The prose must pack a punch and pace itself in a way that makes the story smooth to read. The bottom line is that after we read a story we want to think, "I wish I had written this."

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

NT: If a story is disjointed, littered with backstory, or if it has no clear dramatic narrative or plot, then we will almost certainly reject it. A story has to actually contain a story. We don't want character sketches or sloppy expositions. We want pieces with beginning, middle and end. Stories with problems and some type of resolution. Stories filled with typos and stories that are too long will almost always be rejected as well. We are willing to work with authors if we like the story, but we're not looking to do total rebuilds.

SQF: Bartleby Snopes is different from other magazines in that the readers vote for the top story each month. How did you come up with this idea?

NT: I wanted to give the readers some voice in what goes in our semi-annual issues. I also wanted to get a sense of what types of readers we have and what types of stories our readers want to see. Bartleby Snopes has always been about doing things for the writers and the readers, so it made sense to get some input from the readers. The polls also help to attract new readers to the site every month, and they give the readers the satisfaction of knowing people have read and enjoyed their stories.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

NT: Almost always. We give personal feedback about 99% of the time. One of the reasons I founded the magazine was because I was tired of the 6-month rejection that said "Sorry, this isn't for us." As a writer, I know how much time it takes to submit. Sometimes I think I spend more time submitting than writing. Because the writers take that time to look at our magazine and send something our way, I think they deserve that personal feedback. Again, the magazine is all about the writers and the readers, not about ourselves, so we do anything we can to help writers. Obviously we don't have all the answers, but we can at least give one perspective. This helps people know what to submit to us again in the future. And most people are grateful for the feedback we provide. At least most of the emails we get in response suggest that people are.

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

NT: Just how subjective it all is. I've gotten pieces that I thought were brilliant that resulted in reader backlash. I've lost readers because of the stories we've published and the stories we've nominated for awards like Pushcart and Best of the Net (but we've gained a lot more than we've lost). At the same time, I've gotten stories that I could barely finish that I would never publish, and some of these stories have ended up in some fairly prestigious places. I think we publish great stories, and there are a lot of good stories that we don't publish because they just don't fit. But it really is all just a matter of opinion (at least most of the time—I do occasionally get writing that I think is objectively bad and really unpublishable). No one should ever take rejection personally. There is a market out there for just about everything. Being an editor has helped me take rejection better.

I also have learned that the writing community, in general, is a group of welcoming and grateful and kind individuals. People are so thankful when their stories are published, but it's more impressive how thankful people can be when their stories are rejected. People really get excited about the publications of others, and there are a lot of good friendships created between readers and editors.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

NT: What are the future plans of Bartleby Snopes? Have you ever considered shutting it down?

I actually was strongly considering closing the publication to submissions indefinitely. It was just getting to be too much time and work. As most writers know, most of these magazines are just side things that produce no profits. There are quite a few magazines that start as one-person shows, but as the magazine grows and gets more popular, it becomes nearly impossible to do it alone. That's why I brought Rick Taliaferro on board as our Associate Editor and our "Long" Fiction guru. Even with him it's still a lot of work, and sometimes I wonder how much longer I can do it. But I enjoy it too much to give it up now. I feel like we've contributed something to the writing community, and I feel like the magazine has made me a better reader and a better writer (I've also learned some programming skills and other things as well). As for the future, the magazine will continue to do everything it's doing now (Story of the Month, two stories per week, Semi-Annual issues in PDF and print format, Dialogue Contest, etc.). I'd also like to develop a few more projects. I'd like to launch some more print stuff. In particular, we've got this idea for flash novellas that we will hopefully launch this coming year. What will it look like? I guess you will just have to keep visiting Bartleby Snopes to find out.

Thank you, Nate. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 2/6--Six Questions for Becky Tuch, Founding Editor, The Review Review

Six Questions for Bradley Wonder, Editor-in-Chief, 5X5

2012-01-30T02:00:00.021-05:00

5X5 publishes literary fiction and nonfiction to 500 words, poetry, comics, and visual arts. Each issue is themed. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

BW: It actually started as a way for me to motivate myself to learn Adobe programs like InDesign and DreamWeaver. I started it right after I received my BA in English with an emphasis on Creative Writing. I intended the first issue to be nothing more than my own writing sent out to my friends and family. I called it WonderZine. When I asked my friends for their mailing addresses, two of them, Mishon Wooldridge and Jory Mickelson, expressed interest in helping out. It quickly grew from there and turned into something I had not originally intended. Something much better. We had to change the name, because WonderZine already existed, and it hasn't stopped growing.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

BW:

Creativity. I know that's broad. Each of our issues has a theme word. We've gotten better over the nearly three years that we've been around at choosing themes that prompt creativity. Sometimes we miss the mark. Our most recent theme was Visitors. We thought that would be a great issue to publish just before the holidays. What we got was an overwhelming number of stories about aliens. That was a surprise to me. I'm not saying that stories about aliens are bad or lack creativity (in fact we published some of those stories), but if you want to stand out above the other submissions, you don't want to go with your first instinct. Another theme, Secrets, gave us a large number of stories about spousal abuse or molestation, so the stories that really stood out were the ones that weren't about spousal abuse or molestation.
5x5 is a concise magazine, so we look for concise writing. We prefer not to publish sections of larger pieces, like a chapter of a novel. We want the story to have a beginning, a middle and an end all in itself. We know that's a challenge in 500 words, but it's also a joy to read when it's done well.
A finished product. If there's a typo in the first line, it isn't a good sign. If there are multiple mistakes, it seems like you're not even trying. I actually find it to be disrespectful. Get a friend to read it for a second set of eyes if you need to. Don't use us as your second set of eyes. We don't want to correct your work; we're going to accept it or reject it.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

BW:

If our guidelines aren't met, we throw it out. The number one guideline to be ignored is length. We can't fit your 2000 word story into our small magazine. That's an instant rejection.
We use Submishmash. If you email me a submission, I will not respond. When we first started out, I read emailed submissions. As we grew, I had to stop that in order to put my time and energy to better use. I started emailing those artists back and asking them to resubmit through Submishmash. I have since stopped responding to emailed submissions altogether. I simply don't have the time, and I'd prefer to reward the artists who take the time to read the guidelines. If you're emailing me your submission even though there's a message on our website that says, "We use Submishmash. Please don't submit by email. You may not get any response at all," then you probably didn't read the rest of the guidelines either.
Other than these technicalities, not addressing the theme will get your work rejected and being too sexually explicit will also get your work rejected. One of our main target audiences is high school students. We just want to keep it appropriate. It can be a fine line sometimes.

SQF: Approximately what percentage of your submissions do you accept?

BW: I'd like to answer that based on category.

Poetry: We receive nearly 300 poetry submissions for each issue, and we accept five. So that's 1.6%
Fiction gets about 100 submissions, and again, we accept five. So 5%.
Nonfiction only receives 10 submissions for each issue, so we accept 50% of those. This is an area where we have room to grow.
Comics: if it fits our guidelines, we accept it. We get very few comics submissions.
Visual Arts: We get about 30-50 and we try to accept five, but cost comes into play with this category. We may not be able to afford five color pages in each issue.

SQF: Will you publish a story an author posted on a personal blog?

BW: Yes. We don't consider posting to your own blog "published." And, like most literary magazines, after we've printed it, it's yours again. So you can post it to your blog if you want to. Leaving a note that tells your readers where to find a printed copy would be swell.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

BW: How long should an artist wait to hear back from you?

We don't start reading until after the deadline. You'll hear back from us within two or three weeks after the deadline. This means if you submit six months before the deadline, you'll be waiting a while and if you submit just before the deadline, you won't wait too long at all. We know six months is a long time to wait for a response, but we allow simultaneous submissions, so take advantage of that and just wait patiently. The good news is that once we accept your piece we definitely publish it (some magazines accept the work, maybe pay you for it, but never actually use it) and we publish it in our next issue (some magazines won't publish your work until a year later). Those are two aspects we're proud of.

Thank you, Bradley. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 2/2--Six Questions for Nathaniel Tower, Founder and Editor, Bartleby Snopes

Six Questions for Krishan Coupland, Editor, Neon Literary Magazine

2012-01-26T02:00:00.017-05:00

Neon publishes prose and poetry of any length. "We seek work that is beautiful, shocking, intense and memorable. Darker pieces are generally favoured over humorous ones--as are free verse poems over those that rhyme. Genre work is welcome, experimentation is encouraged." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

KC: A clear, flowing written style; some degree of originality; and a 'feel' that matches the aesthetic of the magazine.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

KC: A dull opening and a weak finish can both let down an otherwise decent piece. Bad spelling or grammar is also somewhat worrying: although I don't expect every piece I read to be perfect in this respect, I do hope to not find more than a few technical mistakes per page.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

KC: Many writers send work as an attachment, despite it being stated in the guidelines to send work inline. When I receive a submission as an attachment I can only conclude that the writer hasn't read the guidelines, which is very disappointing.

SQF: What is it about the characters in a story that makes them pop off the page and grab hold of you?

KC: There's no single thing I can think of that makes the characters in a story seem real or alive. The least I can say is that it's important to me that they don't sound as though they exist solely to be a mouthpiece for an author's strongly-held views.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

KC: I often wish all authors understood that the only criteria by which I judge their work is how suitable it might be for the magazine. A rejection doesn't mean that I think a piece is 'bad'. Indeed, I reject many excellent, inventive, well-written stories and poems simply because they are not the right flavour for Neon. I'm always happy to receive and answer polite questions about a rejected piece. I'm less happy to instantly receive another submission by return of email, as this gives me the impression that the author is simply firing off every bit of work they have in the hope that something will stick. Waiting just a few days allows me to consider each new submission fairly and with a clear mind.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

KC: I think a good question would be: "What else (other than a piece of writing) do you expect to receive in a submission email?"

The answer would be a brief, polite cover letter (stating that the enclosed work is for consideration for the magazine), a short biography of the writer (no more than 100 words), and information on whether the submitted piece has been published before. Comments about the magazine (perhaps how the writer discovered it, or what their favourite piece from a recent issue is) are very welcome, but by no means necessary. I prefer not to receive long lists of publication credits, or a synopsis of the story /poem.

Thank you, Krishan. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 1/30--Six Questions for Bradley Wonder, Editor-in-Chief, 5X5

Six Questions for Josh and Jane, Editors, TheNewerYork!

2012-01-23T02:00:00.032-05:00

TheNewerYork! is a magazine of forms, "we like weird forms. Ideas and past accepted pieces include Flash Fiction, Craigslist Ads, Instruction Manuals, Lists (themed), Fictional Definitions, Punctuationless Stories, Post-cards and correspondences." The editors also accept poetry, drawings, and sketches. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

J&J: It started out of a contempt for The New Yorker. Not because it is particularly bad, but it is particularly undaring, a tepid force to be at the front of the literary world. And the poetry is meh. So, theNewerYork came out of this and a stanza from a Byron poem where he asks writers to test their mettle and push the boundaries of the literary mind. Poems and short stories have been around for millennia, novels for almost 450 years, theNewerYork wants to find and publish new or forgotten forms: the epistolary, the aphorism, the post-card, or the classified ad..... GetWeirdGetPublished.com

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

J&J:

The way it breathes (or if it's breathless)
Its seduction. (If it's holding a drink, if it strikes immediately or if it's all smiles, if it puts its hand on the small of my back, if it leans in. If the first line is a good one and the second too.)
It should be a mouthful.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

J&J:

Cliches up the wazoo. Overly elaborate prose. Heavy on the metaphors and similes. Boring. While we love unpublished writers or first time submitters we often find that they are simply trying too hard, the overambitious writers that Bukowski said "could never ever write the sentence 'The dog walked across the street.'" We would rather read grammatical mistakes and dense cataloging than trite subject matter and overwrought comparisons.

SQF: Approximately what percentage of your submissions do you accept?

J&J: 25%

SQF: Will you publish a story an author posted on a personal blog?

J&J: Yes

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

J&J: Something about what sort of books we have on our bedside table. I have Charles Bukowski, Marshall McLuhan and Michel Foucalt. Jane, the other editor, sleeps with Lorine Niedecker, Frank Stanford, and Jane Bowel's biographer.

Thank you, Josh and Jane. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 1/26--Six Questions for Krishan Coupland, Editor, Neon Literary Magazine

Six Questions for Editor, H.O.D. (A Handful of Dust)

2012-01-19T02:00:00.031-05:00

H.O.D. publishes gritty literary poetry and artwork. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a poem and why?

HOD:

The top thing for me is wholeness. Does the poem seem complete? A lot of rejections come from not feeling full after reading.
Theme/Topic/Tone. This probably ties #1 as most important. I really like at least a little bit of darkness (even black humor) in what I'm considering.
Concrete images. Too many times I've felt let down by a good poem that leaves me searching for a static sense of the action/scene.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a poem is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

HOD:

Poems sent by attachment that sometimes go on forever without action/point or exhibit forced rhyme. Rhyme has to be carefully deployed, and I've rejected a few quality "ideas" because of rhyme ruining what was supposed to be a poem.
Poems sent by attachment that don't have some kind of grit to it. Relationship poems aren't of use to me if the chick ain't bleeding or the a-hole ain't dying.
Poems sent by attachment. Really. I have never asked for attachments. In fact, I say NO ATTACHMENTS in every CFS, but I still get a lot of writing sent as an attachment.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a poem?

HOD:

Lightening v. Lightning.
Its/It's v. It's/Its.
Random capitalization/punctuation
That makes. LITTLE, or No Sense.

If you're going to do blank verse (punctuation-wise), don't stop using your commas and periods halfway through and start chucking them back in, only to stop by the end. It's kind of picky, but a lack of grammatical consistency does cause rejection now and then.

SQF: What is the best part of being an editor?

HOD: I critique one poem (or more) from each rejected submission, so it feels like I'm in a workshop. The best part is that I see some of my own mistakes in the mistakes of others' work. So, when I'm rejecting X's poem for being a little too short on details to feel satisfactory, I'm instantly thinking of one of my pieces I need to fix for the same reason.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

HOD: Polite replies to rejection, which I have gotten often because of my personal critiques, are something I love. They keep me going.

Have I gotten some less than professional replies? Yes.

Twice.

(Not that I'm counting.)

Are they on a blacklist? No. If they submit something great, I'd probably bite.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

HOD: I see that you accept short-short-short fiction. What does that mean?

I'm looking for prose poetry and micro-fiction. 200 words or less. Nice, neat, and not a scene filled with dialogue. I keep getting regular formula stories that could never work with the journal's adopted format. Which is a bummer.

Thanks again for your hard work, Mr. Harrington.

Thank you. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 1/23--Six Questions for Josh and Jane, Editors, TheNewerYork!

Six Questions for Alec Cizak, Pulp Modern

2012-01-16T02:00:00.024-05:00

Pulp Modern publishes crime, mystery and speculative fiction from 2,000-5,000 words. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

AC: The first thing I look for in a story is the quality of the writing. Am I reading the work of someone who has put time and effort into learning the craft? I sit in workshops with writers who bitch and moan about conflict and character arcs and whatnot. Those things are important, but I never hear them discuss the writing itself. Whether you’re writing “literary” fiction or science fiction or crime or horror or romance or whatever, there is an art to the phrasing and language. That is what glues a reader to a story, compels him or her to read to the conclusion. Folks will prattle on and on about conflict, how important conflict is. The way I see it, if you know what you’re doing, the conflict will be there, naturally. If you can’t craft a sentence worth reading, nobody will give a damn about how clever your conflict is. I have to read a lot of submissions for Pulp Modern. Let me know right away that I’m going to enjoy the writing.

The next thing I look for is what makes a story unique. The reason “literary” fiction writers stare down their snoots at genre fiction is because genre fiction has a tendency to be formulaic. If you can play with a formula, comment on it, make it new somehow, that will go a long way towards separating your story from others. Even better, however, is just flat out coming up with something completely new. Many say there are no new ideas. Fuck ‘em. They’re dinosaurs, sloshing around in a tar pit of anti-creativity. Search and search and search for an original idea, an original conflict, an original character... Do whatever you can to separate your work from all the other work being done in the genre you’ve chosen to write your story in.

The third thing I would mention here specifically for Pulp Modern is how well a writer has straddled the border between tradition and post-postmodernism. It’s called Pulp Modern because I want to see a comfortable midpoint where both genre and “literary” fiction can realize we are working with the same materials. I cannot stress enough how important Copper Smith’s story “Feel Good Hit of the Summer” (featured in issue one) was to demonstrate what I ultimately want to see in Pulp Modern. His story was fast-paced. It had a unique voice. The pop-culture references were straight out of postmodernism’s playbook. The result, I feel, was a story that could appeal to the broadest possible (reading) audience.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

AC: Something I see quite often that bugs the hell out of me are submissions that indicate the author has not paid one bit of attention to the guidelines. I get flash fiction submissions all the time. What part of 2000-5000 words do these writers not understand? Of course they understand it. They have either ignored the guidelines, or simply haven’t read them carefully (if at all). Sending me a story that does not meet the guidelines is a sign of disrespect. Why would I publish a writer who hasn’t taken the time to research the market he or she is submitting to?

Remember that perception is 90%. Take the time to format your story properly. Proof it until you are sick of it. A story riddled with typos and grammar issues is going to get chucked onto the rejection pile every time. I will forgive one or two mistakes, so long as I am already deep into the story. You mess up in the first paragraph, your story is on life-line from that moment on. I don’t want to be uptight about this sort of thing, but it goes back to the idea of showing respect to me, as well as to your own writing.

I don’t really have a third thing, but let me just toss out a few things that will make your story a hard sell with me: A mystery story is going to have a difficult time. There are two giant magazines that buy mysteries and pay much better than Pulp Modern does. I would try your mystery there first. I am really interested in crime fiction that deals with crime, not solving it (I guess that’s a holdover from All Due Respect). Now, if the writing jumps off the page and grabs me, maybe you’ll get by my inherent bias. Most hobbit and troll-like fantasy is also a hard sell for me. As for horror: Zombies, werewolves and vampires are an extremely difficult sell for me. I love horror and I want to see new ways to scare the crap out of a reader. Invent new monsters, modern monsters.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

AC: I see a lot of verb-tense shifting within stories that says to me the writer is having some serious issues, that the story is not ready for publication. Also, I see a lot of stories where it’s clear the author doesn’t know which point of view he or she wants to stick with. The average reader may not notice a sharp shift from third-person limited to third-person omniscient, but I will. It’s another indication that a story is not in the shape it needs to be in.

SQF: What is it about the characters in a story that makes them pop off the page and grab hold of you?

AC: Originality. Somewhere out there, there’s an insurance adjustor who looks like a “normal” person but is doing something very, very bad in his spare time. Let’s meet that guy. Let’s see his “normal” life and his real life. Let’s see how those two worlds collide. That quiet librarian who you just noticed is wearing a pentagram around her neck, what’s she doing in her spare time that would make John Waters blush? Also, make sure your unique characters have unique voices. There are many exercises you can do as a writer to improve your ear for dialogue. I would recommend sitting in public places with a notebook and, without being obvious, writing down conversations you hear. These things will separate your characters from the many characters I meet every time I go through a new batch of submissions.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

AC: I’m very disturbed to hear that an editor is keeping a “blacklist” for anything. Especially disgruntled writers responding to rejection. Of course, the proper response to a standardized rejection form is to try that particular story somewhere else and try a different story at the market from which you received the rejection notice. The editor who said she keeps a “blacklist” must not be a writer. She must not have ever had to contend with the horrible feeling that you’ve sent your best work out and the editor you sent it to is an imbecile who didn’t “get it.” That of course leads me to wonder why this woman would bother editing a journal in the first place. If you don’t have knowledge and empathy for the struggles writers go through (especially in a time when they are expected to produce work for no pay), you should NOT be an editor. It’s a very good thing I don’t know who that particular editor is because I would put her on my SHITLIST!

I have been known to send nasty notes to editors who have sent me rejection notices I didn’t consider professional. Most recently, I sent a very snide email to the editor(s) of Fifth Wednesday. The wording of the rejection notice they sent me was unprofessional and to add an insult, they asked me if I wanted to subscribe to their magazine. This is a matter of chicken v. the egg. Was my response “unprofessional”? You bet. Was it a response to an unprofessional provocation? Absolutely. Now, the editor(s) of Fifth Wednesday may put me on a “blacklist,” but I have no desire to be published in a magazine that shows the lack of respect for writers their rejection notice demonstrated. Thus, I haven’t lost a thing.

Most of the time, however, responding in a snide manner is not appropriate. If you receive a rejection notice that looks standardized, it probably means your story wasn’t even close. It probably means that your story needs enough work that the editor doesn’t have the time to let you know all the details. If, however, an editor passes on your story but gives you tips on how to improve it (or maybe just tells you what’s “wrong” with your story), I think it’s OK to ask the editor further questions. Some editors might get annoyed by that, but if they’re willing to give advice in the first place, they should be prepared for the possibility of being asked to give follow up advice. It’s called courtesy. Not a difficult ethic to establish.

If a writer sends me a nasty email after I’ve rejected a story of his or hers, I assume the writer is just starting out. A seasoned writer understands that this is a subjective business and a rejection is more a reflection of the editor’s taste than the quality of the story itself. I have only received two grumpy replies to rejection notices. I chuckled and deleted the emails. In the future, I might send a notice to the writer explaining why that sort of response isn’t a good idea (that there are hyper-sensitive so-called editors out there who “blacklist” anyone who hurts their feelings).

One note I’d like to make here concerning Pulp Modern—I have sent “rejection” notices with suggestions for improving the story. I don’t mind taking another look at a story under those circumstances. However, I do want to see that a writer took some time in revising his or her work. When I receive a ‘revised’ story thirty minutes after sending the “rejection” notice, I wonder how much effort was put into the revision.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

AC: Q: Do you make editorial suggestions to writers who have been accepted and what should those writers do with your suggestions?

A: Thanks for asking that. I go through each story accepted and make notes along the side (thank God for MS Word!). If the story was accepted, chances are I won’t have too many suggestions. Sometimes I love one particular thing about a story, so I’ll accept it with the intention of helping the writer improve it. In those cases, I’ve been known to make up to a hundred or more comments. I tell a writer that he or she may make any changes he or she agrees with, but that’s really like an old mafia guy saying, “Maybe you should leave town for a while…” I expect the writer to make the changes. I’ve been writing for thirty years. I know a thing or two about basic craft. If I ask a writer to remove extraneous adverbs, I would like to see him or her do as I have asked. I am trying to publish clean prose in Pulp Modern. I need writers to cooperate with me on this.

Thank you, Alex. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 1/19--Six Questions for Editor, H.O.D. (A Handful of Dust)

Six Questions for John Kenyon, Editor, Grift Magazine

2012-01-12T02:00:00.022-05:00

EDITOR’S NOTE: The first issue of Grift is scheduled for February.

About this publication:

Grift Magazine will appear in print three times yearly, and will feature a mix of short crime fiction, interviews, essays/features and reviews. In addition, GriftMagazine.com will feature a weekly flash fiction story, as well as occasional reviews, interviews and news. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

JK: I started Grift for a couple of reasons. First, I edit publications for a living and I love crime fiction, so it is me bringing skills I have to a project that satisfies my interests. Second, what I hope to offer is a bit different from everything else out there. There are many fine publications that I love to read that each offer elements that we will feature, but none do exactly what we will do. Filling that niche with a high-quality publication is the goal.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

JK: Strong characters, tight writing and an enticing narrative voice. Somewhere threaded in among those three things is plot, of course, but without those three, a plot might as well be an outline. You need strong characters that the reader can connect with immediately, people who feel real and whose actions mean something to the reader. You need tight writing because crime fiction stories have gotta move – they need a forward trajectory that keeps the reader invested. And an enticing narrative voice is the vehicle that carries the story. You want the reader to spend their time with your work, so you should tell it in a way that keeps them hooked and wanting more. They don't need to like the people in your story, but they should like the story.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

JK: I'm just wading through the batch of submissions for the first issue now, but thus far I can say that it is writing that doesn't connect all the dots: thin characterization, flabby sentences, plot points that don't make sense… it all comes down to lazy writing. I don't mean to suggest that anyone who finishes and submits a story is lazy; far from it. But if I need to work to figure out what is going on, if I need to provide the links to make the story work, then it wasn't ready for submission, and it's certainly not ready for the printed page.

I suppose that's just one reason, huh? Another is not following the guidelines in terms of manuscript presentation or length.

SQF: What is it about the characters that make them jump off the page?

JK: They need to feel real. I might not want to meet these people, ever. They may do cartoonishly impossible things. They may not even be human… but they must feel real. I must believe, within the boundaries of this story, that they exist and are capable of the things they are being made by the author to do. I want to get inside of them to learn why they do what they do, and the less overtly this is done, the better.  

SQF: Will you publish a story an author posted on a personal blog?

JK: I would rather not, but it would depend on the story. If I expect people to pay for this magazine, I think they should expect to get all new content in exchange for their money. That stance may change for the right story, and I may hear from readers that the benefit of having a story printed and bound between covers is enough payback for their money. If so, I'll then fall back on my guiding principle when selecting what to run: the best story wins.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

JK: The tendency in crime fiction seems to be toward violent acts and gore. How will Grift compare?

Look, I love the visceral rush of well-written psycho-noir or whatever it's being called these days. If Allan Guthrie puts pen to paper, I'm there, no matter the cringe-worthy acts he depicts. But he does it well. Very well. Some writers seem to mask developing talents with extreme acts of violence. In the right hands, these kinds of stories offer a vicarious, escapist thrill. But I think it is much more thrilling to read about things more grounded in our everyday experiences. The bad choice or wrong turn that leads to unintended consequences. Sure, that can mean torture at the hands of a drooling nut job eluding dozens of cops. But it's more likely to bring you face-to-face with one desperate guy just trying to make it to the next day. Those stories, ones that engage the mind as much as the gut, are what I'm looking for. As I say in the submission guidelines, "it’s not the size of the gun, it’s what you do with it," and "think clever, not cleaver." 

Thank you, John. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 1/16--Six Questions for Alec Cizak, Pulp Modern

Six Questions for Chris Rhatigan, Editor, All Due Respect

2012-01-09T02:00:00.016-05:00

All Due Respect publishes crime fiction. That means fiction about crime. Not solving crime. Not bemoaning crime. Fiction about people who are criminals and maybe a little bit about why they are criminals, so long as you don't go Dr. Phil on it. Learn more here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

CR:

Polished writing. The piece should flow from beginning to end. Read it out loud before sending it. Also, I'm more likely to accept things that sound like crime fiction.
A solid plot. A beginning, a middle, an end. At the end, the tension should either be resolved or suspended in an interesting way.
Cracking dialog. I like good dialog writers. That's one of the reasons I read crime fiction.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

CR:

The story is not something we do. If you've written a police procedural, a whodunit, a serial killer story, something with a cat or whatever, I probably won't accept it unless you're doing something really original. In other words -- read a few of the stories at All Due Respect first before sending your work.
Not enough action. If you have 1000 words of people talking at a table or standing around, I'm probably not going to take it. The vast majority of stories we publish have a good amount of action. There doesn't have to be shit blowing up on every page, but the characters should take actions that have results.
The tone isn't right. We do noir and hardboiled fiction, which has a specific feel.

SQF: What common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

CR: As a reader, I should have a good understanding of what the central conflict of the story is by the end of the first page. This is part of a larger problem that I frequently see -- work that isn't ready for show time yet. Cut out a lot of the back story, limit exposition as much as possible, make sure every line sounds good -- self-edit your work until you can't stand it before you send it out.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

CR: Yes. All Due Respect has a quick turnaround time and you will receive personal comments about your story as long as you don't blatantly ignore the guidelines.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

CR: Often, the stories I reject will probably get accepted somewhere else, as they should be. All a rejection means is that I didn't care for that particular story or thought it didn't fit in with All Due Respect. Sometimes I encourage writers to submit again -- and if I say that, I mean it.

I'm usually pretty clear with my comments, but if writers have questions about what I said they can contact me. I won't bite!

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

CR: What do you like about being an editor?

I like sending out acceptances. I'm a writer, so I know how good it feels to have your work validated. When possible, I like helping writers make their work better.

I feel strongly about the role of zines in the online crime fiction community, which is a (perhaps surprisingly...) warm and welcoming group of writers and readers. I look forward to making a contribution by running this excellent zine that Founding Editor Alec Cizak established.

Thank you, Chris. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 1/12--Six Questions for John Kenyon, Editor, Grift Magazine

Six Questions for Nicolette Wong, Editor, A-Minor Magazine

2012-01-05T02:00:00.027-05:00

A-Minor publishes literary and experimental fiction to 500 words, poetry, genre-blurring and hybrid works and artworks. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

NW: I look for honesty, daring and quiet and well-crafted works. Stories and poems that tell the truth we live but can't begin to conceive, and sing with such simplicity that reveals a deeper ambivalence.

I look for risks. Writers who push the limits of voice, language and imagery in what they're doing. Form is never the question. If someone has a pair of quatrains that take surprising turns and make the heart stand still, please, let me have them.

I look for fresh voices that may not be recognized at other venues. When I read a story or a poem that makes me go, "This feels like something for (name of any hugely popular literary magazine)," chances are it's not for A-Minor.

It's for this reason that I seek genre-blurring and hybrid works, art/text and anything else a writer has to astound me. Some of us write both prose and poetry or our writing treads a fine line between the two. Many writers are also visual artists. I hope to create a venue for those who explore different possibilities in their works.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

NW: Sentimentality - when I sense the writer's emotional attachment to the work all over the page, trying to drive the readers to a particular stop. This is the top reason many submissions get rejected even when the writing has a lot of merit. I get turned off when I feel the work isn't what it's trying to be, e.g. bitter interior monologue disguised as poetry. The last reason? The work doesn't stand out.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

NW: Throwaway comedy, ethics, gimmicks, cliches, implosions, adverbs. The blanket bombing approach - writers who haven't read anything at A-Minor, or send another batch of stories or poems right after their works have been rejected. It'd be more constructive for both parties, if the writers took a bit of time to think it over and send something new.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

NW: I give honest answers when there's something I'd like to comment on. Some perfectly good stories and poems aren't a snug fit for the zine, so I explain what I'm looking for and encourage the writers to submit again in the future. Some works are good but don't make the cut, and I tell the writers where I think the writing falls short.

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

NW: Every line I write must be as fantastic as it can be, because one weak turn could send an otherwise good story or poem to the rejection pile.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

NW: The question: "How did you become the editor of A-Minor Magazine?" My answer: "The founder of A-Minor, Sheldon Lee Compton, was looking for someone to pick up the zine. I said yes because I'm a fan of his work. Who isn't?"

Thank you, Nicolette. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 1/9--Six Questions for Chris Rhatigan, Editor, All Due Respect

Six Questions for Mandy Ward, Editor, Welcome to Wherever

2012-01-02T02:00:00.004-05:00

“Welcome to Wherever is a kind of writer’s 'Take a Break.' We want the webzine to 1) Entertain; 2) Inform; 3)Encourage.

We publish poetry, short stories (250 to 5,000 words), and serialized stories (8,000 to 15,000 words) in any genre and subject. In addition, the site publishes book reviews and articles (currently interested in articles of Food, Lifestyles, Health, and Arts & Crafts). We also have a regular competition, as well as a Guest Artist each month.” Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

MW:

A great first page – it has to hook me within half a page minimum.
A well told, complete story – I hate being left with the feeling that there should be something more.
A polished effort – I know how difficult it is to see the mistakes in your own work; I always have trouble seeing my mistakes!

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

MW: When I first read a story, I read as a reader and not as an editor. I won’t see spelling mistakes or anything else; I am purely concentrating on the story that the writer is telling. Like any reader I am looking for something to draw me away from the mundanity of sitting at my desk. If the story doesn’t provide that, then it will get rejected.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

MW: Assuming that the reader already knows the characters is the biggest one. I’ve made the same mistake before in my own stories and although it can be difficult to add back story in a seamless fashion, I need to feel that I know the characters to be able to engage with them.

The second biggest is not reading the submission guidelines. I have a separate page for them, it’s marked “About Welcome to Wherever…” and it explains exactly what I am after. Granted I have a broad area for submissions, but that should make it easier, not harder.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

MW: I try to. With the poetry I receive it’s hard to, because poetry is such a subjective emotional thing – very much like art. All I know is if I like it or not.

With the fiction, it’s easier because I can break it down and analyse it. So if I reject a story, it will be accompanied by a note on what I thought could be done better. As long as it’s within the submission period, the writer is free to re-submit.

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

MW: The most important thing I have learned is to polish everything. Even the initial email to query the editor should be well polished; even if it’s only a quick one!

Make sure that you reread your emails before sending them; I had one writer query me about sending his work in, but he forgot to turn the CAPS Lock off and didn’t reread his email because he was snatching time to do it at work.

I was very nice about the situation – I’ve been in that situation before, so I understood, and it turned out that I liked his work anyway, so he got into the webzine on that strength.

BUT (and this is a big one) it almost turned me right off him. If he hadn’t been so nice when I emailed him back, I could very well have rejected him outright.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

MW: Ummm… I hate questions like this – makes me feel like I’m in a job interview… I’ll have to get back to you on that one, because I can’t think of one!

Thank you, Mandy. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 1/5--Six Questions for Nicolette Wong, Editor, A-Minor Magazine

Six Questions for Paul Mullin, Editor, 50 to 1

2011-12-29T02:00:00.003-05:00

50 to 1 publishes stories of around fifty words and first lines. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

PM: The biggest thing I look for (and this applies to both) is impact. In my opinion, with something this short you can go one of two ways: make it really dense and powerful or make it flowing and sort of poetic. Either way, because it is so short, it really needs to stick with the reader, so providing some kind of punch -- whether it's a fantastic turn of phrase, a funny side or a crazy, twisty ending -- is a big plus. For first lines, something that makes me quite fond of a submission is thinking, "If this were at the beginning of a book or longer story, would I bother to read the rest?" If the answer is yes, you can bet I'm publishing it.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

PM: I'm a journalist by trade, so one thing that really turns me off to a submission is bad grammar or spelling. It might not totally kill the submission for me, but it is certainly a strike against. Another reason is if the story/1st line is too "out there," for lack of a better phrase. I try to be as open-minded as I can when reading things, but there are still times when a submission escapes me. Perhaps it's my own lack of imagination, but I try to publish things that will be as widely appealing as possible. The flip side to that is that a story can also be a bit too boring -- whether because it doesn't really have that punch I look for or because it doesn't tackle a subject that holds much interest.

SQF: What common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

PM: Most times (besides the grammar/spelling problems I mentioned earlier) it's because submissions don't follow the rules. For instance, unless I am absolutely, outrageously, inappropriately in love with a story, I won't keep it if it's below or above the 50-word mark.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

PM: Generally I don't. More often, if I think a story is right at the cusp of acceptance, I write back to the author asking them to tweak it ever so slightly to bring it up to where it needs to be for publishing.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

PM: I don't receive too many return comments, actually, so no blacklist here. The one thing authors should know is that my rejection is not a "please don't send me anything else" type of message. I'd love to see people who don't make it keep reading 50 to 1 and then resubmit at a later date -- and that brings up a good point. The more you read what goes up, the more familiar you'll get with what I'm looking for. And no, I wouldn't mind questions. I like dialogue very much (it's actually something I wish I got more of in my own rejections, but I don't want to bother editors who are far busier than I am).

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

PM: "When will 50 to 1 do something bigger and more awesome?"

Well, this is actually something that Glen, the previous editor, spoke to me about when he handed over the reigns of 50 to 1 this past March. One of the things he expressed interest in (and regret that he never got to do it) was put together the kind of "Best Of" compilation you see bigger publications come out with. I think that's an interest I share, but first I have to figure out a good time to stop and go back!

Thank you, Paul. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 12/29--Six Questions for Mandy Ward, Editor, Welcome to Wherever

Six Questions for Steve Isaak, Editor, Microstory A Week

2011-12-26T09:06:00.000-05:00

Microstory A Week publishes polished fiction to 600 words. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

SI: I wanted to create a site that would serve as a resource center – via the hundred+ publishing sites on the blog roll – for myself and fellow writers, and provide a mixed genre site where writers can experiment, without some Strunk & White wielding dictator of an editor shooting submissions down just because the writers are trying something new.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

SI:

Well-written, well-edited, polished work that has the spark of the author’s personality – it’s not a generic write, it has something of the author in it to set it apart from other stories.
Cleverness, quirkiness – something that pushes the boundaries, gently or otherwise (I’m a big fan of fantasist/oddball writers like Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Patricia Highsmith, Richard Matheson and Chuck Palahniuk, whose works, even when flawed, work because they’re imprinted with those authors’ trademark elements/cleverness).
A willingness to experiment, to respect the genres they’re working within, while expanding them, even if it’s only slightly.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

SI: Something that’s clichéd/generic, sloppily written (i.e., unfocused) or is merely a scene – there’s no backstory or hint of a future story in it – won’t find a home on Microstory. Sometimes mood pieces merely need to hint at something for me to publish it, but generally speaking, I will reject stuff that doesn’t somewhat (even slightly) give a clear indication of what’s happening.

SQF: Approximately what percentage of your submissions do you accept?

SI: Thus far, I’ve rejected about 20% of the stories I’ve been sent. Even then, I try to work with the author, give them detailed reasons why the stories didn’t work with me – and I encourage them to send further work, with the suggested improvements: in short, I’m trying to be the editor that I’d want to deal with.

SQF: Will you publish a story an author posted on a personal blog?

SI: Yes.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

SI: Nope.

Thank you, Steve. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.29--

NEXT POST: 12/Six Questions for Paul Mullin, Editor, 50 to 1

Six Questions for Calum Kerr, Editor, Word Gumbo

2011-12-22T02:00:00.022-05:00

Word Gumbo is a bi-monthly e-zine that publishes fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and more. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

CK: As Word Gumbo is aimed towards a theme for each issue, we are looking for stories which interpret that theme in interesting ways. Sometimes writers mention the words in the theme, but that's not enough, we want the story to be based around it.

Personally, I like to see work that is well-written. That can mean something as simple as good punctuation, spelling and grammar - at a minimum - but also inventive turns of phrase, interesting use of language, innovation and the avoidance of cliché and redundancy.

Finally, I guess it comes down to personal choice. Something which grips me and makes me want to read on. So I like a story which gets straight in, rather than wasting time introducing the characters or setting the scene. And, I like a surprise in the end - not necessarily a traditional 'twist' but some sense of closure or resolution which emerges naturally from the story without being signposted too heavily.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

CK: The top reason is not adhering to our guidelines. It sounds so simple, but we have set word lengths, set submission quantities, a policy of no simultaneous submissions, and a policy of anonymity. Not meeting those is the quickest way to find your piece being rejected.

The next reason is to do with theme. I know this fits in with my answer to question one, but it is a key reason and one which I find frustrating. A writer can send in a story which is wonderfully written, entertaining, engaging and moving but if it has no connection to the theme at all, we can't accept it. I'm not asking that writers always write something new specifically for the theme - that is unrealistic. But, if their story doesn't fit the theme, it is a waste of their time and mine to send it in. They should hold onto it and, if they particularly want it to appear in Word Gumbo, be patient and wait for an more appropriate topic.

For my third reason I'm tempted to go on about the quality of the writing, but I guess that's covered by my answers to one. So, I suppose the remaining reason would be our desire not to feature any one writer too much. Some writers submit stories, poems, non-fiction and scripts all for the same issue. If that happens we are likely to reject work in one or more categories in order to feature the best of what they have submitted. So, submissions in multiple categories can mean that a writer can be competing against him or herself.

SQF: What common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

CK: Poor proof-reading is one of them. If I like a story and there are spelling mistakes or missing words - missing 'the's and 'a's are a common error - then my editor's eye kicks in and I start looking for mistakes and not paying attention to the story. Another problem is where the writer has learned a new and interesting word - 'rebarbative' for instance - and seems desperate to use it, even though it ruins the flow and the voice of the story.

I suppose that leads to one of my big turn-offs. A story has its own voice - even in the third person - and if that voice is choppy or inconsistent (unless intentionally done) - then it drives you away from the story.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

CK: No, we don't. I used to when I previously ran a small magazine and while, in the main, they were well received, they occasionally led to abuse and, in one case, threatening letters. So, we provide a simple 'thanks but no thanks'. If someone came back and specifically requested some feedback, we would provide it, but only on request.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

CK: I don't have a blacklist. Well, not as yet. Not for the poor response to rejections. I do have one for people who have found our address and have decided to spam us with every story they write, with no regard for guidelines, deadlines, or theme.

As a writer myself I am used to receiving rejections - some with feedback, some without - and my response is always to just say to myself, 'Fine. I'll send them something else.' The majority of things I reject are to do with not meeting the theme, or poor proof-reading. That said, what I accept is almost always going to be based on the slightly woolly concept that 'I like it'. If authors read previous issues of the magazine, they can maybe get an idea about what kind of thing I like, and then they can decide if their writing is likely to fit. And, no, polite questions are always welcome.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

CK: I wish you'd asked if I enjoy my job as editor. My reply would be yes, immensely. I ran a small magazine about 10 years ago before passing it on to a colleague when I started my PhD in 2001. I hadn't realised, until I started Gumbo Press back in April 2011 how much I had missed it. I get to communicate with all these wonderful writers. I get to read their latest work first. I get to give people the good news that their work has been accepted. It's a great experience. Also, because it is all anonymous, I don't know until after I've been through the submissions whose work I have accepted. It's really nice when I find I have accepted work by friends and colleagues - or really respected writers - on their merits rather than because I know them. It's a fun job, and I'm so glad to be back.

Thank you, Calum. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 12/26--Six Questions for Steve Isaak, Editor, Microstory A Week

Six Questions for Patrick Trotti, Editor, (Short) Fiction Collective

2011-12-19T02:00:00.027-05:00

“(Short) Fiction Collective is an online literary journal based in New York striving to publish the best fiction from new and seasoned authors around the world. Started in May 2010, (S)FC wants to foster an environment where the quality of writing is the most important thing.” Learn more here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

PT: The top three things I look for in a story are a sense of craft/attention to detail, originality and a sense of purpose. I think all three tie into one another, especially craft/attention to detail and a sense of purpose. When I read a story, I'm giving myself up to an author and allowing him/her to transport me to another place. In a way I'm very vulnerable while reading, and I want that vulnerability to be paid off by having the feeling that the author has a larger plan at work and that he/she has taken the time to craft a compelling story and that he/she, to put it bluntly, knows what they’re doing. There's nothing worse, in my humble opinion, than to read an otherwise engaging story and somewhere along the line just get a sense of being disappointed by a lack of diligence in terms of staying true to the story/character arcs that present themselves in the beginning. Originality is a bit harder to quantify, but I think it's much more complex than just saying "be unique." I love stories where I feel the author is taking a chance or is putting themselves or their characters out there in a way, either emotionally or physically, that I've never come across before.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

PT: Some of the top reasons a story is rejected are that the first sentence doesn't grab my attention, the ending is a huge letdown, or that there is no real feeling of immediacy in terms of there being nothing really at stake for the characters. I have a very short attention span and with every story I receive I give the author one paragraph’s worth of goodwill in order to get me into the story and wanting to read more. If the author can't continue to hold my attention, then that’s a bad sign. Don’t get me wrong, I always read a story at least twice before deciding on whether to accept or reject it, but the stories that don’t capture me make it awfully hard to get through the second time. As far as the ending goes, I don’t subscribe to any one taste as far as loving “happy endings” or “sad endings.” I’m not a huge fan of reading a great story and then the final paragraph/sentence just kind of falls off a cliff or sums everything up way too quickly just to end it in a concise manner. I feel like I was cheated or something, and it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Finally, if there is nothing at stake with the characters in the story, then why am I reading it? It’s sort of like life, I’m going to move on to the next thing if nothing of real importance is happening in front of me.

SQF: What common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

PT: Can't say that I've found common mistakes as every writer is different, but I can't stand it when someone doesn't follow the submission guidelines! Other than that, I think things like basic story/paragraph/sentence structure can sort of get jumbled with any writer at any given time.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

PT: Yes. Although this is a labor of love and I'm just a one man outfit, I do personally respond to every submission and try to provide comments with each one. I appreciate a writer opening themselves up to me and sharing their work, and I in turn try and reward that with, hopefully, helpful comments.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

PT: I don't mind at all if authors respond politely about the comments they receive. I just ask that it's as concise as possible because I am only one man, and I do have other things I'm trying to juggle. I love corresponding with authors in the hopes to improve a story, etc. I just don't have the time to go line by line and give a detailed response which I've been asked for before.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

PT: Haha...I guess ask: In one sentence, what should an author know before submitting to you?
Follow the guidelines, be willing to take chances and knock my socks off!

Thank you, Patrick. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 12/22--Six Questions for Calum Kerr, Editor, Word Gumbo

Six Questions for Stephen M. Wilson, Poetry Editor, Abyss and Apex

2011-12-15T02:00:00.025-05:00

Abyss & Apex Magazine of Speculative Fiction publishes speculative fiction and poetry. As for poetry, the editor "likes to see strong, emotionally resonant, literary-quality poetry with a clear speculative element, as well as scifaiku and what some call 'science poetry' or 'astronomy poetry.' Both traditional and modern or nontraditional formats are encouraged, and we have no length restrictions for poetry. Wow us with a sestina, or stun us in free verse. We admire poetry that exceeds our expectations in scansion, imagery, emotional impact and creative wordplay. We love language, and we like to see it worked for all it’s worth. Our love of poetry exceeds the space and funds we have to publish it, so we accept only the very best; amaze us!" Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a poem and why?

SW: First, I’d like to point out that I just took over as Poetry Editor for Abyss & Apex in June 2011, so I didn’t write the poetry guidelines above and at some point I might write my own version of them. With that said, I agree with them which is probably why Editor-In-Chief Wendy S. Delmater chose me for the job—I understand the aesthetics of what A&A is looking for from its poetry contributors.

As to the question, I think a poem should pack an emotional punch be it melancholy, romantic, humorous or even angry, which, in my mind is the point of poetry. Those emotions need to be relevant to people’s lives in some way, especially when dealing with speculative genres such as SF and fantasy where too much focus on world building, setting and description can distract from the human side of a piece.

Layers are important. Where an amateur can be ambiguous in a way that is confusing, a skilled poet can use ambiguity as an advantage. At the opposite end of that, there are many words in the English language that are synonymous to each other, but finding that one word which perfectly encapsulates what the writer intends to convey can make all the difference between a good poem and an amazing one. I respect the classics and am a big fan of allusions when done with subtly and deftness.

Whether in concept or style, uniqueness is important. I’m a sucker for surrealism and odd structures. I also like writing that pushes boundaries. Of course, without the aspects of emotions and layers mentioned above, uniqueness alone is not enough.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a poem is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

SW: Well the most obvious reason is that they are just not good. This may seem to be a subjective thing, but I’ve been doing this for several years—I currently edit three separate publications—and with that kind of experience and exposure to so much of what is being written and submitted, it’s not hard to discern between quality and crap. I’m a hands-on editor, though, and, if I see something with potential, I’m not afraid to offer editorial suggestions and work with a poet to help improve a piece to make it more publishable.

Another is not following the guidelines. Personally, I’m a big fan of horror, but A&A is specifically a SF and fantasy venue and implicitly states in the guidelines that they do not publish horror. Along the same lines, people submit poetry that is not speculative in nature.

Another reason, and the saddest one, is sheer numbers. Abyss & Apex is listed first alphabetically in many market listings and I could easily receive a hundred plus submissions, with 2 or 3 poems in each, per quarterly reading period with slots for only maybe 3-12 poems max in each of the quarterly issues.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a poem?

SW: Wordiness. I don’t mean length, but excessive descriptors—what a poet leaves out of a poem, and therefore to the imagination of the reader, is just as important as what they decide to included. The “show don’t tell” rule applies to poetry just as much as, if not more than, it does to fiction.

Something that is prevalent in speculative genres, especially fantasy, is the reinterpretation of myths and fairy tales. There is a long history of this in both fiction and poetry with works such as Anne Sexton’s Transformations, many of the short stories of Angela Carter, and a whole series of anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling as modern examples. I enjoy these when they are done well (and have done some of this in my own writing), but it seems that in the last several years, there is a new crop of writers and several journals that write and publish these sort of pieces exclusively. I wouldn’t call it a “mistake” per say, but what can affect my take on a poem of this particular ilk is if I’ve seen better versions of whatever is trending at the time. And they do trend in cycles whether it is a retelling of the Tam Lin story from a feminist perspective or a contemporary version of Medusa. So, as an editor, it is not uncommon to see several versions of whatever the flavor-of-the-month is during one reading period. If there is one really good, really unique version, it is going to make the rest uninteresting. This “trending” is not endemic to fantasy, SF does it also—one year everyone writes about the moon, the next everyone writes about Mars or DNA or … And with horror, vampires and zombies have both become cliché (but there are still good poems written about both).

I’m not as easily bothered as some editors are by such things as spelling errors or typos. I believe that just because someone uses “your” instead of “you’re” or “it’s” instead of “its” that that doesn’t mean they can’t be brilliant writers—maybe English is not their first language, or they might be dyslexic or have come to trust the spellchecker too much (as many of us do in this day-and-age). If a piece is otherwise interesting, these are easy corrections to make with a good proof reading.

SQF: What is the best part of being an editor?

SW: There are both technical and creative skills involved with editing that fulfill left and right brain functions. I like the sense of collaboration and community involved with editing. Many editors are also readers and writers of whatever genres that they are working in. As a reader, I love to share things that I’ve enjoyed reading with other readers. As a writer, I constantly learn new ideas and techniques to use in my own writing.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

SW: As a writer, I don’t understand the need to respond to a rejection. But, as an editor, I guess I wouldn’t mind a response, as long as it wasn’t an attack. When I first started editing poetry, which was back in 2005 for Doorways Magazine, I had the luxury of writing to people whose writing I liked and asking them if they would submit something. That worked for the first few issues and I was able to avoid sending out rejections, which was something, as a writer, I was a little uncomfortable doing. Then the magazine’s editor asked me to have an open reading period. At first, I was very uncomfortable with the idea that I would have to reject other writers. It ended up being a blessing in disguise because I was exposed to some great writers that I otherwise would’ve never had the opportunity to read or accept for publication.

I still have qualms about the rejection process, especially because the spec poetry community is relatively small and I know many of the poets who submit, but it is part of the job. With Abyss & Apex, we have a standard rejection form, which does make it easier, and I have three assistant editors to help me with sending these out, both of which makes it feel less personal to me.

As far as blacklisting, I believe a good editor knows how to be objective and separate the artist from the art and their personal feelings from their professional ones. I am passionately against blacklisting or any other form of censorship based on someone’s personality or politics or religion or sexual persuasions or whatever. I would only blacklist someone if I perceived them as an actual threat or they were a serial killer or a pedophile or something. I know that there are a handful of editors who will never publish me, even if I sent them a masterpiece, because we have butted-heads in social outlets such as LiveJournal or Facebook. I find that to be ridiculous and unprofessional, but that’s their right, and knowing this, I wouldn’t waste my time submitting to them.

What would I like poets to know about poems I reject? I would like them to read my answers to questions 1-3 carefully.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

SW: Maybe, who are some of my favorite poets? That answer can change from day to day, but there are a handful of poets that are always on that list. Some of my favorite living poets include: W. S. Merwin, Ray Bradbury, Jane Yolen, Ursula K. Le Guin, Linda D. Addison, Mike Arnzen, and John Edward Lawson. As for the classics, I’m a fan of Yates, Byron, Shelley, Blake, Milton, Goethe, Poe, Frost, and the highly underappreciated Gerard Manley Hopkins. This is, of course, hardly a comprehensive list.

Thank you, Stephen. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 12/19--Six Questions for Patrick Trotti, Editor, (Short) Fiction Collective

Six Questions for E.S. Wynn, Editor, Daily Love

2011-12-12T02:00:00.005-05:00

Daily Love publishes a new love story every day. The editors are looking for fiction to 4,000 words (1,000 or less preferred) poetry, experimental forms, etc. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

EW: For Daily Love, I tend to look for uniqueness and skill in storytelling above all else. Sure, there aren't a lot of untold stories within the love poetry / romance genre, but that doesn't mean a told-to-death story can't be a good story. Being a daily magazine, Daily Love is pretty open when it comes to submissions. Writers with a firm story to tell who can infuse that story with elements that make it fresh and provocative are sure to be accepted at Daily Love, though always make sure to proofread anything you send my way.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

EW: I think the number one reason I reject pieces that come into Daily Love has got to be typos. I'm not going to reject a piece outright if a few words are misspelled, but if I have to go through and radically rebuild the whole thing from scratch because every other sentence has a serious grammatical error, the story better be the most amazing story I've ever read. Sad laments about broken hearts tend to get tossed aside as well, mostly because there are so many of them. Everyday at least five poorly written poems cross my desk about how much it hurts that "he" or "she" left the writer and how much the writer wants that person back, even if just for one more kiss. I'm not faulting people for their feelings and I'm certainly not devaluing them, but if Daily Love was all this kind of poetry, who would want to read it? I wouldn't. Not every story has to be a happy ascent into the heavens of bliss (I get a ton of those too), but realistic, romantic, heart-gripping love stories with both pain and happiness are what really hit my sweet spot. The third reason is most certainly length. Granted, Daily Love isn't exclusively a flash-length fiction site, but as both an editor and a reader, I prefer writing under 800 words. Writers who send me something in the 2,000 to 5,000 word range usually have to wait a week (or two) for me to stop putting off reading their work, and by then, the schedule has often filled up.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

EW: If anything for me is a pet peeve, its rhyming couplets. I have read so many rhyming couplets at this point that I have to fight my instincts and not immediately reject them without a cursory read. Now, poems that rhyme in strange and creative ways (not couplets!) and show a great deal of poetic skill through elegant consonance and alliteration are intriguing, but the best pieces (in my opinion) rhyme only when it suits the emotion of a particular line. Poetry isn't soft serve ice cream. You can't just squirt it into a form and call it a poem because the words you chose rhyme. Poetry is liquid emotion. It is art. It is thought, condensed.

SQF: What is it about the characters in a story that makes them pop off the page and grab hold of you?

EW: Realistic dialog is the thing that usually hooks me. Characters with interesting, well-defined traits hook me. I love stories that aren't fairytale happy or tragedy sad. Love is life, it is real life, and real life is happy, sad, comical and strange all at once. The best stories often are too.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

EW: When I first started editing, I was against the idea of the blacklist, but as time has gone on, I've had to institute one. I have never blacklisted someone for responding to rejections with frustration or anger because I understand where they are coming from (and I think penalizing them for something I too have felt in my younger days is both petty and elitist), but I have blacklisted (after a warning) those who try to pull stories out of my schedule even after a solid agreement has been made. One of the most infuriating things that any writer has ever done to me is to send me a submission, wait until I accept it, load it into the schedule and move on before suddenly deciding the day before the launch that another, perhaps more prestigious (in their eyes) or higher paying magazine should have it instead. Sending a submission to Daily Love constitutes a legally binding agreement to allow the site to publish that story if it is accepted by Daily Love before another site agrees to publish it. Backing out once everyone has come to a complete agreement is not only extremely irritating, it constitutes the breaking of trust and of a contract. I don't mind if writers send polite questions, ask for clarification, or even call me dirty names because I've rejected their masterpiece (all have happened before) I just ask that they don't send me a story, thank me for accepting it, turn around and sell it to another magazine, then yank the rug out from under my feet the day before the story is scheduled to hit the site. Nothing is more unprofessional and callous in my opinion. It's like writing a check you know is going to bounce and then giving it to a starving street musician who is playing to try to make the rent.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

EW: I think one of the most interesting things I have encountered while editing for Daily Love is the number of people who send me stories under one name and then later ask me to change that name to a separate pen name. I don't mind doing it, and I understand the reasons why people choose to do it, but the frequency of it is interesting, for lack of a better word. For better or worse, love and sex are still very much sensitive subjects in the minds of men and women.

Thank you, Earl. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 12/15--Six Questions for Stephen M. Wilson, Poetry Editor, Abyss and Apex

Six Questions for Nicole Monaghan, Editor, Nailpolish Stories

2011-12-08T02:00:00.019-05:00

Nailpolish Stories publishes literary fiction of exactly 25 words (not counting the title) on a monthly schedule. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

NM: I think it's about connectivity for me. Literature, both reading and writing it, is that something that has the power to connect every human being. Regardless of race, sex, sexuality, social "class," family history, lifestyle, personality, etc., of the reader or writer, words touch, linger, uplift, validate, heal, and connect with their honesty, multitude of meanings, with what they conjure up, and with how they try to make sense of life or reveal life's lack of sense. Music (in large part due to lyrics) is the only other artform that does this so purely. Every literary project is another "arm" for me to connect myself to who I want to be, to others, and to connect to more literature and inspire others to make connections.

SQF: The stories are only 25 words. What do you look for in a story and why?

NM: I look for the same things in these tiny pieces that I love in longer pieces, suggestions of deeply human things, words placed uniquely, unique word choices and characters--or suggestions of characters--who I care about and recognize. The more is suggested, the better. Squeeze it in there with words that hold lots of weight.

SQF: What turns you off to a story, other than it not fitting into your answer to question one and why?

NM: I dislike flowery language. Flowery is for flowers. Give me cold, hard words that just are. If the story is 25 words, and more than a few of them are adjectives, you are describing more than storytelling. I think confident writers don't lean on adjectives. They face the problem of finding stellar nouns and verbs. (I leaned on stellar--didn't say I was always confident).

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

NM: I might, but probably not. I am a very experienced reject-ee, so I understand wanting to know the why of a rejection. I am, however, more likely to give commentary on a piece I really like and want to accept, but that doesn't seem quite right. I have offered editorial suggestions, the tweaking of a word or two, with the understanding that the author can tell me to shove it and send their work the way it is somewhere else, or maybe they will agree that the change has improved the story, and we will both get what we hoped for.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

NM: As a writer, I very much get the visceral reaction to rejection. We often see our work as an extension of ourselves, and quite frankly, it hurts when it isn't "liked" or "wanted." The thing I've learned is that it really, really isn't about you (me). It's really about the particular editor's literary aesthetics and how any given piece does or doesn't resonate. I have never responded to an editor's rejection, and I think it's bad form to do so. I'd advise all submitters to any publication to accept that the piece wasn't right for that pub, and keep writing, no matter what. Always keep writing. In fact, write even more because someone rejected the piece you loved. And ask yourself again if you really loved it and if so, love it even harder.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

NM: I think a good question is what have I found to be a helpful strategy for improving my own writing, which I'm constantly attempting to do? There's this: walk away from it. Walk away from it again. Leave it to its own devices, and when you come back, believe me, you will see it differently. And you'll make it better. Then, walk away and come back one more time.

Thank you, Nicole. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 12/12--Six Questions for E.S. Wynn, Editor, Daily Love

Six Questions for Josh Goller, Editor, The Molotov Cocktail

2011-12-05T02:00:00.005-05:00

"The Molotov Cocktail is interested in volatile flash fiction (to 1000 words), the kind of prose you cook up in a bathtub and handle with rubber gloves. While literary fiction is certainly welcomed, The Molotov Cocktail isn’t some erudite journal that will only accept stories with at least five layers of metaphor. We want your action, we want your rotten characters, we want viscera." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

JG: Basically, I look for voice, tone, and imagery. A narrative voice that hooks the reader is crucial, whether the piece is in the first- or third-person. I look for a voice that is the antithesis of "writerly," one that is organic and genuine but also surprising and even shocking. This fits into the tone of the piece, which is another important element to the fiction we publish. The tone must fit into our dark and offbeat aesthetic. Typically, a writer who has familiarized herself with the kind of prose we publish will stand a much better chance of hitting the mark. And nothing beats strong imagery, the kind that conjures a strange or surreal picture in the mind's eye.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

JG: Writers don't always adhere to our submission guidelines and failure to do so certainly doesn't bode well for their submission. Also, I don't enjoy reading stories that focus too explicitly on mindless violence or other gross-out tactics. The Molotov Cocktail seeks dark fiction, but not dark for the sake of dark. There still needs to be humanity in the characters, and ideally the dark side of humanity is revealed in these stories. So that's one of the more tricky pitfalls many writers fall into when they submit work. And finally, there is simply the fact that we only have so much space and can't publish every story we receive. Some stories we like but they still don't make the cut because there are others we like better.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

JG: Unoriginal concepts. Stories that fit into a common mold. I don't know how many stories I've read that end with a gunshot. That's not to say we've never published stories that end this way (we have) but it's such a common ending that it won't make a submission stand out or have the impact that the author likely thinks it does. I also see an over-reliance on characters who are high or drunk. And I also encounter a large number of stories from the perspective of serial killers or rapists or other monsters. It takes a lot of skill to pull that off, and few do.

SQF: What is it about the characters in a story that makes them pop off the page and grab hold of you?

JG: As previously mentioned, the voice. Even in the third-person the narrative voice makes or breaks characters for me. Also, it's important to make the character unique, especially for the kind of flash fiction that we publish. Offbeat characters, those who don't have any cookie-cutter qualities, are crucial.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

JG: I've fortunately only run into a handful of unprofessional responses to rejections. I find anyone who gets offended by a rejection, and especially one who responds with an angry tirade, to be comical. It takes a lot of work to get a story accepted for publication and rejections are never personal. I wouldn't encourage authors to respond to rejections at all, though there's nothing wrong with a polite "Thanks for your consideration" response. Asking for additional feedback doesn't bother me, but due to the high volume of submissions it's unlikely I'll be able to respond with an in-depth critique.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

JG: How should writers respond to rejection?

Keep submitting to other publications. Be diligent in researching the best markets for your work. Duotrope Digest (www.duotrope.com) is an invaluable resource for this. And also, consider submitting additional work in the future. I, personally, tend to remember names even of those authors who we have rejected in the past, and I always appreciate the chance to read more work from the same author. Perseverance is the name of the game in the literary world. You're going to receive a lot of rejections, but we all do. You can't let rejection bother you, but rather it should motivate you to keep striving for that elusive publication. It'll only happen to those who keep writing and keep submitting work.

Thank you, Josh. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 12/8--Six Questions for Nicole Monaghan, Editor, Nailpolish Stories

Six Questions for E. S. Wynn, Editor, Fractal Novels

2011-12-01T02:00:00.001-05:00

Fractal Novels is a collaborative art project, which means everyone is encouraged to submit! Read the stories, find a spot that inspires you, then tack on anything (anything– paintings, pictures, words, fragments, found art, sound, anything as long as it is your own creation) and take that spot in a new direction. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: This is an interesting idea. It's like a chain letter, but not. Please explain to our readers the idea behind this site and how it works.

EW: The idea behind the site is to create a sort of cooperative literary project that brings writers together while also allowing each contributor a place and a way to showcase a sample of their work (complete with a space for a link to the writer's other works, if they chose to share them.) Seeds of novel trees are created by the editor (me) or by contributors (with the approval of the editor) as a place for other contributors to join in and build up the world of the novel tree in a cooperative fashion. Each contribution to an existing novel tree is referred to as a "story branch," serving to either further a story within the novel tree, provide a background, flesh out an environment or anything else.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

EW: Generally when it comes to contributions to Fractal Novels, I look for continuity and clear, error-free writing. Fractal Novels is a fun project, but having to clean up someone's error-laden submission sucks all the fun right out of it. I'm an editor, so I do edit posts before I publish them to the site, but I also expect contributors to have enough pride in their work to edit it before seeking publication on Fractal Novels.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

EW: As long as a contribution is clean (error-wise,) and isn't outrageously violent or sexual, I'll try to find a way to work it into the tree it is aimed for. Luckily there hasn't been any competition for a particular set of coordinates, but that may change in the future as the number of submissions continues to pick up. In the case of competition, Fractal Novels also contains coordinates for alternate realities, meaning the original coordinate will usually go to the first contributor while the second would be listed as having occurred in an alternate reality.

SQF: All of the add-ons I read were short. Is this on purpose, or did it simply evolve as the project progressed?

EW: As an editor, I encourage writers to be brief, but there is no word limit for submissions to Fractal Novels. Submissions don't even have to be written-- all media types, as long as they pertain to the novel tree they are being contributed to (and don't infringe on anyone else's copyright) are welcome.

SQF: How will you know when a novel is completed?

EW: The beauty of Fractal Novels is each presents an open world for writers to play in; a literary sandbox, if you will. While individual branches might come to an end, the novels themselves are built to persist for long into the foreseeable future, with each new branch breathing new life into an otherwise lifeless story.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

EW: The Fractal Novels listed on the site are by no means the only novels that are planned for release on the site. Several others are currently in the works (keep watching the site for details!), and I have also been reaching out to other authors in the hopes of bringing larger, more established worlds into the fold as well. Anyone who is interested in planting their own Fractal Novel seed need only contact me at fractalnovels@gmail.com with a clear idea and several sample submissions.

Thank you, Earl. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 12/05--Six Questions for Josh Goller, Editor, The Molotov Cocktail

SQF's Third Anniversary

2011-12-01T01:45:00.005-05:00

Today marks the third anniversary of Six Questions For. . . . Honestly, I wasn't sure when I started that the site would make it this far. In honor of the anniversary, here's the link to the very first post on the site--Six Questions for Nathaniel Tower, Founder and Editor, Bartleby Snopes.

Thanks to all the editors who have participated in this project to date, and thanks to all you readers for your continued support.

Jim

Six Questions for Stephen M. Wilson, Editor, microcosms

2011-11-28T02:00:00.033-05:00

microcosms is a Twitter zine publishing speculative fiction, fantasy and horror poetry. Learn more here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

SW: Well, I have penchant for short form speculative poetry—I was co-editor, for three years (2007-2009), of the SFPA’s annual Dwarf Stars Award anthology, which highlights the best short short (10 lines or less) speculative poems of the year. After being asked to pass the baton on to another editor, I wanted to create a new market that specifically published only poems of this nature—scifaiku, as they’re generally called. There are other great markets that include scifaiku such as Scifaikuest and Star*Line as well as other Twitter zines which publish microfiction (some of them speculative) and micropoetry peppered with the occasional speculative pieces, but at the time that I created microcosms there wasn’t a market that was exclusive to short speculative poetry. This was in April of 2010. I chose April because it’s national poetry month in the US and my birthday is April Fool’s Day.

Twitter was a burgeoning social media outlet, and I thought, why not let the nature of its 140 maximum characters work to my advantage as a format for a market for short poetry. Twitter is a free service as well as a way to reach a large audience, so it seemed a perfect match.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a poem and why?

SW: Well I like unique perspectives and, like with traditional haiku, ideas that juxtapose each other—this often works as a sort of “twist ending”—you think that the piece is about a specific subject and then that kireji (cutting word or sometimes punctuation like an em dash) pops in and you’re sent somewhere else entirely. This works especially well when dealing with speculative subjects.

I like humor and, although I publish all types of speculative works, I tend to like stuff with a dark edge.

Below is a sampling of poetry from microcosms.

This was the debut poem by Joanne Merriam:

alien tourists
the locals roll their eyestalks
at our loud English

A beautiful, existential piece from Geoffrey Landis:

Three things
invisible:
the wind, the hand of God,
consequence of words
not said

Another piece I love by Marge Simon, who I debuted with this year:

Tuesday*

Everything that could go wrong, did.
My alarm didn't go off, so I slept all day.
Awoke to see the stars disappear,
one by one.

And I occasionally publish something of my own:

Märzen, sauerkraut and
braaains!
Zombie Oktoberfeast

Of course, these all are reformatted to fit the perimeters of Twitter. This is how they look when posted at microcosms:

alien tourists/the locals roll their eyestalks/at our loud English//JM

Three things/invisible:/the wind, the hand of God,/consequence of words/not said//GL

Tuesday://Everything that could go wrong, did./My alarm didn't go off, so I slept all day./Awoke to see the stars disappear,/one by one.//MS

Märzen, sauerkraut and/braaains!/Zombie Oktoberfeast/SMW

SQF: What are the top three reasons a poem is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

SW: Because of the limits imposed by the form, it is sort of a specialized market with specific people who know how to write this sort of poetry, so rejections are minimal. The first reason is just the fact that I publish three poems, by one featured author, per week. So if a poet sends me 10 poems for consideration and I pick three, the other seven are technically rejected, I suppose. Another reason is that I receive submissions that are not speculative, or are twitfic instead of poetry.

SQF: Approximately what percentage of your submissions do you accept?

SW: The first year, I tweeted one poem per week day, so approximately 20 poems a month because of that, and the fact that it was a new market, the acceptance rate was easily 75%+ —I actually had to solicit poets to send me stuff. Because of Dwarf Stars, I had a nice list of people to contact to get started. That daily posting became a little hard to keep track of (I posted the same accepted poem twice within a few months), which is why I switched to the one featured poet per week format, which I mentioned in answer #3. I’d say that the % of acceptance is much higher under the new format.

SQF: Will you publish a poem an author posted on a personal blog?

SW: I do publish reprints, but they were usually originally in print markets. I’d probably shy away from stuff from blogs or other Twitter zines only because those particular poems are already easily available to read online.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

SW: Can’t really think of one, although I would like to make a few final comments. First, this is a paying market (at least enough to buy a beer after work as one poet told me she was going to do when I paid her her $3). Also, you don’t need a Twitter account to read microcosms (just click the link: http://twitter.com/#!/microcosms), nor do you need one to submit.

Thank you, Stephen. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 12/01--Six Questions for E. S. Wynn, Editor, Fractal Novels

Six Questions for LT Snow, Editor, Un<>Cut

2011-11-23T02:00:00.025-05:00

Un<>Cut magazine is an independently published biannual arts magazine. We just started publishing last year. Because of this, we are not paying for accepted stories at this time. Guidelines: Any flash subject or genre is acceptable (no erotica). No more than 1500 words. Deadline for submission: May 30 and October 30. To view the magazine, visit this link: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/205562. Please submit to: Un<>Cut Magazine, PO Box 360, Tamworth, NH 03886-0360.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

LT:

The quality of the writing
I like language that completely draws me into a story. I’m looking for a story that’s so compelling that when I’m finished reading it, I’m not aware how much time has passed.
I’m excited by stories whose ideas leave me thinking about them long after I’ve finished reading them.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

LT:

Weak story construction
Numerous grammar/spelling mistakes, i.e., poorly edited
Lack of a strong beginning, middle or end. For me, if it’s missing one of these elements, the story falls apart really fast.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

LT: I think for me, stories that are clearly lacking originality. I’m okay with a story that is influenced or inspired by other authors as long as I get a sense of the writer’s own “footprint.” I’m often looking for young, unpublished writers – most of the time they don’t have the experience to clearly distinguish themselves, so I don’t reject a story simply because the author may still be under the influence of established writers.

SQF: What is it about the characters in a story that makes them pop off the page and grab hold of you?

LT: There are some writers who have the knack for creating a strong image in my mind of their characters. Good writers have command of the language as it relates to the way a character looks, or how a character speaks -- the content of the character’s thoughts as expressed through language. When an author has this ability, I’m totally drawn into a story much the same way great movies pull me right into what’s happening on the screen.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

LT: I’ve never had a reason to keep a blacklist of authors for any reason. If an author asks me why their story or poems were rejected, I will respond as best I can.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

No response provided.

Thank you, LT. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 11/28-- Six Questions for Stephen M. Wilson, Editor, microcosms

Six Questions for E. S. Wynn, Editor, Yesteryear Fiction

2011-11-21T02:00:00.003-05:00

Yesteryear Fiction publishes fantasy fiction to 4,000 words (1,000 or less preferred) every Wednesday. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

EW: For Yesteryear Fiction, the top three things I look for in a story are brevity, good imagery and, of course, elements that fit the piece snugly into the fantasy genre. Yesteryear Fiction was originally founded as a flash-fantasy (fantasy under 800 words) magazine, so I always give shorter pieces preference, but I've had to open up the word limit to allow a number of good stories that would have just been too long otherwise. Good imagery, in my opinion, is poetic, but not too much so. If the work comes off as wooden or turns into an homeric ballad, the writer has gone too far with the piece-- there's just something about that space in between that really hits me where it counts. As for fantasy -- that's easy. Swords and sorcery. No space ships, no lasers, no electric guitars. I have a magazine for that, and its called Farther Stars Than These.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

EW: Honestly I've had to reject very few of the stories that have come into Yesteryear Fiction because they have almost all been of an enviable quality. Fantasy seems to be a popular genre for writers, but not necessarily for readers, meaning that most of the pieces I get have been polished to perfection and its just blind luck that they ended up on my doorstep. Fiction I have had to reject in the past was either outrageously full of typos (usually because of the authors' attempts to translate their stories into English) or overtly biblical (i.e. retellings of stories from the bible using more modern situations and language.)

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

EW: Honestly, there isn't much else when it comes to Yesteryear Fiction. I've only received a few stories from writers who mistakenly believed that sci-fi was the same thing as fantasy, and that's pretty much an automatic disqualification, though I do have a referral system in place that allows me to publish (with the writer's permission of course) good stories in a more appropriate venue (like my sci-fi magazine) instead of just rejecting them because of a silly misunderstanding.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

EW: With Yesteryear Fiction, rarely. I had a bad experience in the past where a writer sent me a story about clowns haunting a man that I turned away because it was mostly typos (and wasn't fantasy). I've found that most of the time, if you tell a writer exactly why you can't publish their story, they will consider you their personal editor and try to exploit you for hours and hours of unpaid work trying to polish everything they've ever written in the hopes that they can monopolize your magazine with their writing.

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

EW: I've learned more about what editors deal with (working as an editor) than I have anything else, and it has given me a great respect for others in my field. Being an editor is not the lazy, lay about job I thought it was when I first started writing (and getting rejections) at 15. Editors work hard to give every writer an equal opportunity to be published, take work home with them out of sheer dedication and then often get yelled at by people they don't publish. It can be rough, and its taught me a level of empathy for others I might never have developed otherwise. When it comes to what editing has taught me about writing, I can say that seeing so many different pieces of fiction cross my desk on a daily basis really widens my mind in regards to what is possible in fiction. In the same way that traveling abroad opens us and makes us into more well-rounded individuals, reading dozens of different viewpoints of dozens of different situations every day has given me a wider and more complete picture of what's already been done, what's been done to death, and how to move beyond it all into something new.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

EW: Some folks have asked me about the transition of Yesteryear Fiction from a daily magazine to a weekly magazine. While I originally felt that providing a daily platform for writers would allow a greater number of good stories to be published, I found that a weekly model provides the kind of viewership that new writers really deserve. After all, not everyone is online every day, and nobody wants to be overlooked because it just happened that their story went up for one day on a day when only a fraction of the average number of visitors happened to visit the site. Sticking to a weekly model gives readers a chance to check in when they're ready and really give each piece a solid (and enjoyable) read.

Thank you, Earl. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 11/23--Six Questions for LT Snow, Editor, Un<>Cut

Six Questions for Jeffrey S. Callico and Nicolette Wong, Editors, Dark Chaos

2011-11-17T02:00:00.021-05:00

This market closed in December, 2011.

“Dark Chaos accepts submissions at any time, and will consider all genres, styles and virtually any subject matter. However, we will not publish material centered around abuse or hatred of anyone, whether it be marital, sexual, mental, physical or otherwise. We also do not accept slanted political or religious work.” Learn more here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

N: Heart, form and precision of language. Whatever the subject matter or genre is, a story must come from the true creative impetus within the author. Precision of imagery and rhythm is hard work, and I expect that from a serious writer.

J: Nicolette is right on the mark for this. For me, a piece of writing has to strike me immediately as something I can't stop reading. I think that covers "three things" quite well.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

N: The piece could do with some rewrite. Borderline obscenity that doesn't accentuate the sentiment of the story or poem. Jeff gets a rash from the work being too bland.

J: So true, bland writing is easy to spot within the first few moments. For Dark Chaos I do prefer more edgy writing, even if it
includes some obscenity. It's not at all a requirement, of course, so all in all if my attention wavers soon, I start thinking about the rejection email.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

N: I get turned off when I see 'over-ambitious' attempts at language - the imagery gets all clustered, esp. when the writer is trying to shock. This often results in incoherent structure in a story or a poem.

J: It's really simple: basic grammatical errors, obvious misspellings, careless typos that the writer should have caught before submitting, and most of all the realization that the writer didn't read the guidelines.

SQF: What is the best part of being an editor?

N: Getting to connect with fellow writers.

J: I second that. Also, discovering new talent out there, some of which is extremely entertaining and sometimes just blows me away.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

N: Jeff sends the rejections pretty much 99% of the time. When a piece or a writer shows certain potential, I chime in on where exactly a piece falls short or why it doesn't fit the zine, and hope that the writer will find some use of the suggestions. Questions are most welcome.

J: My rejection emails are very brief and rarely include any tips for the writer, unless the submission in question is one of those "close but no cigar" types. Then I'll just let the author know they can feel free to send more work. But no, I'm open to any questions the writer may have. That's a lot of what networking is about.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't, and how would you answer it?

N: 'When does Dark Chaos plan to become a cult classic?' My answer: 'Send us your goodies. We're in this together.'

J: 'Do the editors of Dark Chaos have any interest in developing a print journal?' My answer, and I'm sure Nicolette would agree: 'Hell yes!'

Thank you, Nicolette and Jeff. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 11/21--Six Questions for E. S. Wynn, Editor, Yesteryear Fiction

Six Questions for E. S. Wynn, Editor, Smashed Cat Magazine

2011-11-14T02:00:00.036-05:00

Smashed Cat is looking for “stories no longer than 1000 words and ideally in the 500-700 word range. We’re honestly open to just about everything, regardless of format or genre, (as long as its not brimming with sex and/or violence) though we do favor the gritty, strange, bizarre, irreal or brain-bending fiction over just about anything else. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

EW: For Smashed Cat, I'm looking for stories that are profoundly bizarre or try something so new and different that it takes me a moment to truly appreciate it. I already operate one magazine that focuses on strange, experimental and literary fiction (Weirdyear Flash Fiction) so I've often been asked how Smashed Cat is different. Put simply, Smashed Cat is weirder than Weirdyear. If Weirdyear were a mine digging into the depths of the bizarre, Smashed Cat would be the mine next door which tunnels through dark rock until it reaches the sticky core. When it comes to stories for Smashed Cat, it has to be new, it has to be haunting, and most of all, it has to be so profoundly bizarre that the average reader of experimental fiction would read it and say "huh?"

SQF: When reading a story, what clues tell you the story was written by a novice author?

EW: Generally I don't mind reading stories by novice authors. All five of my magazines (six if you include Fractal Novels - SQF: more on this in a post next month) are geared toward giving writers a leg up in the industry. They offer a home for good stories from authors who haven't gained a following yet and a foothold for gaining the following a writer sometimes needs to gain the confidence to keep writing. That being said, if a story comes in totally riddled with grammatical errors and/or simple spelling errors, I'll usually reject it. It's a pet peeve. It's time consuming to track down all the little typos and correct them, and it says on the submission guidelines page: "please proofread before sending." To any and all who write, the key to good proofreading is to slow down. Read slowly, read aloud, and do it twice. You'll be surprised at the results.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

EW: For Smashed Cat, I get turned off by stories that aren't experimental or weird. Sure, I realize that the definition of "weird" is relative (some people think that cross dressing, laughing loud or doing hand stands in the middle of the street are weird) but the level of weird I'm looking for with Smashed Cat is so far beyond slightly abnormal that it might make some readers' toes curl. Honestly, that's the biggest way to get a rejection from Smashed Cat. It may be a magazine bent toward the literary, but if you send me a story about how weird it was that your grandma had a perfectly ordinary skunk as a pet, I'm going to reject it. Religious stories and heavy-handed spiritual references/condemnations (of any type or from any book or creed, including Atheism) often end up in the bin too. I don't have time for preaching from anyone when it comes to fiction.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

EW: I used to, but I found that pointing things out (like a ton of spelling errors that makes editing a story a long and time-consuming process) usually results in an argument about why a story is awesome and I owe it to the writer to publish it. Honestly, writing may be an art, but that doesn't mean writers shouldn't act professionally when submitting to (or receiving rejections from) an editor. Another reason I don't provide comments anymore is that it breaks my heart to have to write something like "I really liked your story, but the schedule is full." I know what its like to be a writer, and I waded through my share of rejections when I was younger. I hate to use a cliche', but more often than not, it hurts me more to send a rejection than it does the writer to receive it. That's one of the reasons why I operate so many magazines. I hate turning away good fiction. I'd publish it all and then some if I could.

SQF: What do you consider to be the primary responsibilities of an editor?

EW: I've asked myself that question many times. I think every editor has the overarching responsibility to read completely though every piece of fiction that crosses his desk (unless its over 5,000 words, then it's okay to skip around.) I've seen too much gold that gets passed over because it doesn't grab like a demon in the first five words, and I refuse to judge a story by its first line. Beyond that, I think it's the author's job to proofread their own story, and the editor's job to catch the (one or two) errors that might be left over. Politeness is important too, but that goes with professionalism. It's not the responsibility of an editor to teach writers how to write (unless that editor is getting paid to do so) coddle any writer, cave to pressure or publish a piece of writing that isn't ready for the spotlight.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

EW: As an editor, the most important piece of advice I feel I could offer to writers is to keep trying. If one editor rejects one story, send that story to another editor of another magazine. Write new stories. Try new things. Persistence is the key, and it does pay off in the long run. I know from experience. Remember, rejection isn't failure. It just means you've found one way that doesn't work. Keep searching and you'll find the way that does.

Thank you, Earl. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 11/17--Six Questions for Jeffrey S. Callico and Nicolette Wong, Editors, Dark Chaos

Six Questions for Mandy Ward, Editor, Welcome to Wherever

2011-11-10T02:00:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Wherever is a kind of writer’s “Take a Break”. We want the webzine to 1) Entertain; 2) Inform; 3)Encourage.

We publish poetry, short stories (250 to 5,000 words), and serialized stories (8,000 to 15,000 words) in any genre and subject. In addition, the site publishes book reviews and articles (currently interested in articles of Food, Lifestyles, Health, and Arts & Crafts). We also have a Quarterly competition, as well as a Guest Artist each month.

There is also a Quarterly E-Book in the works, so everyone who is published in the monthly webzine will be published in the e-book as well.

Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

MW: A great first page – it has to hook me within half a page minimum.

A well told, complete story – I hate being left with the feeling that there should be something more. Word limits were made to be broken and if you’ve had to trim a great story to get into the word limit, then tell me, and I’ll consider the bigger one instead.

A polished effort – I know how difficult it is to see the mistakes in your own work; I always have trouble seeing my mistakes!

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

MW: When I first read a story, I read as a reader and not as an editor. I won’t see spelling mistakes or anything else; I am purely concentrating on the story that the writer is telling. Like any reader I am looking for something to draw me away from the mundanity of sitting at my desk. If the story doesn’t provide that, then it will get rejected.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

MW: Assuming that the reader already knows the characters is the biggest one. Make sure that you include a little back story somewhere! I’ve made the same mistake before in my own stories and although it can be difficult to add back story in a seamless fashion, I need to feel that I know the characters to be able to engage with them.

The second biggest is not reading the submission guidelines. I have a separate page for them, it’s marked “About Welcome to Wherever…” and it explains exactly what I am after. Granted I have a broad area for submissions, but that should make it easier, not harder!

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

MW: I try to. With the poetry I receive it’s hard to comment, because poetry is such a subjective emotional thing – very much like art. All I know is if I like it or not.

With the fiction, it’s easier because I can break it down and analyze it. So if I reject a story, it will be accompanied by a note on what I thought could be done better. As long as it’s within the submission period, the writer is free to re-submit.

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

MW: The most important thing I have learned is to polish everything. Even the initial email to query the editor should be well polished; even if it’s only a quick one!

Make sure that you reread your emails before sending them; I had one writer query me about sending his work in, but he forgot to turn the CAPS Lock off and didn’t reread his email because he was snatching time to do it at work. I was very nice about the situation – I’ve been in that situation before, so I understood, and it turned out that I liked his work anyway, so he got into the webzine on that strength.

BUT (and this is a big one) it almost turned me right off him. If he hadn’t been so nice when I emailed him back, I could very well have rejected him outright.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

MW: Ummm… I hate questions like this – makes me feel like I’m in a job interview…

I suppose it’s this – Which do you prefer, Readers who submit to the webzine or Writers who don’t read the Webzine?

My answer will always be “Readers who submit to the webzine”. I hate it when people treat my webzine as just something in a process. Yes, you need to get publishing credits to gain agent / publisher notice, but you should always read the work in a place you are submitting to! It’s rude to submit to somewhere, get published and not read the other people’s work.

Also I expect those who are published in the webzine to do a certain amount of advertising of the webzine; after all it gains them as much notice as it gains me, so it’s a Win / Win situation. I’m only one person; I have lots of other things to do (including my own writing), and I need the marketing help!

* * *

Yell once if you have a date for me!!

Thank you, Mandy. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 11/14--Six Questions for E. S. Wynn, Editor, Smashed Cat Magazine

Six Questions for Patrick Trotti, Fiction Editor, Feature Magazine

2011-11-07T02:00:00.002-05:00

Feature Mag is an online publishing platform for emerging writers and artists of politics, art and culture. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

PT: A strong sense of voice, compelling characters and the courage to take risks. The voice is simple and complicated, it's the first thing I look for, what hooks/compels me to read on. It's also very vague but I know "it" when I see "it." Compelling characters are a must only if your story involves characters. By no means does this mean that I only want character driven stories but if that's what you're going for, please don't submit simple, flat characters that are hard to imagine/envision. What I mean by the courage to take risks is that I'm looking for an author who is willing to take chances. Whether that be by writing a story backwards chronologically speaking or it means to purposefully not use grammar as a way to force the reader to swallow the story in one fell swoop then go for it! Just make sure whatever you do, that you do it with conviction.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

PT: The top three reasons a story is rejected by our site is that they don't follow the submission guidelines, have no plot/action anywhere in the story or are overly philosophical/political in nature. Simple enough, please follow the submission guidelines, try and write a story that is more complex than a few friends sitting around talking about their lives and leave the philosophy/political rants for the proper venue/forum.

SQF: What common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

PT: That's a hard question to answer specifically because the very things that turn me off to one particular story might be the same things that draw me to another one. I guess it just depends on how well it's written. In general, if you can avoid the overtly loose sampling from your personal favorite authors' styles and search for your own way of telling your particular story than you have a much better shot at getting accepted.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

PT: Absolutely. Being a writer myself, the only thing worse than a rejection is an impersonal one that gives me no critiques/suggestions as to how to improve the story or what didn't work.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

PT: I'd love to say don't be mad when you receive a rejection, but I'd be lying. You should be mad! It's your work and you've taken a lot of time in crafting it. Having said that, while we do encourage polite questions in regards to the comments that they receive in a rejection letter, I do appreciate it if an author would sit with their rejection for a little bit before responding with any, hopefully, legitimate questions regarding their submissions so as to remove some of the emotions involved.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

PT: Hmmmmm....Are there any genres that you prefer over the others?

I'd have to say literary fiction is what I prefer but if I come across an insanely well written post apocalyptic story featuring two headed zombies killing one eyed martians, then I'd love to publish it!

Thank you, Patrick. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 11/10--Six Questions for Mandy Ward, Editor, Welcome to Wherever

Six Questions for Bosley Gravel, Editor, Bosley Gravel's Cavalcade of Terror

2011-11-03T02:00:00.011-04:00

"The Cavalcade of Terror is flash fiction site that actively seeks horror and dark fiction under 1000 words." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

BG: CoT's roots are firmly planted in playful horror. To that end we hope that all submissions are vivid, horrific in some fashion, and lots of fun.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

BG: Most of our submissions are well written, and don't (or wouldn't) require much editing--and we are quite thankful for that. Typically, it’s flat endings, too much telling, and too loud a voice that cause us to reject the story. We reject a lot of good ones since we've switched to a paying market. We simply can't afford to take all the stories we would like to.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

BG: We are happy to look at 'experimental' pieces, but weird artsy attempts that lack story are not likely to be accepted. Anti-art has it's place, but not at CoT. An overly formal cover letter is just annoying, we aren't a big publisher and don't want to be one. Like Van Halen, we've got our own little rock star request in the guidelines. Submissions indulging the request are given a higher priority. We don't like stories that are cruel, mean spirited or hateful. If we ask for a rewrite, please take more than an hour to do that, it's important that you spend some time on it, for both your sanity and ours. Thankfully, our slush is pretty close to what we want, so thanks very much to all who have submitted this past year.

SQF: What is it about the characters in a story that makes them pop off the page and grab hold of you?

BG: A character should want something, and should want it badly. He or she should also be accessible to the reader. Often this can be addressed in terms of what he wants. (He wants the girl, he wants the money, etc, etc ..) However in horror, the protagonist often wants something that is difficult for the average person to align themselves with. (He wants to kill the girl and eat her, he wants to steal the old lady's money, etc, etc.) In these cases, the author must be a bit more tricky. For example in Thomas Harris' 1975 "Black Sunday", one of the bad dudes, (a suicide bomber) had a scene right before he was off to do some truly horrific stuff where he bought a chocolate bar and ate it. Harris took about five words to mention that this person, who was to shortly become a mass murder, had always enjoyed buying chocolate bars, then letting the chocolate melt on his fingers and licking it off. He was instantly humanized. Adding traits and quirks the reader can relate to is important for depth. Without depth of plot and character, you've got nothing but a bunch of words on the page.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

BG: Authors are always free to respond to rejections from CoT. We've not had any problems with angry authors thus far, at least. We are low key and are happy to respond as time permits. In general, we don't offer a lot of feedback since most of the stuff we get is written pretty well, but is rejected because we've got something that is a closer fit.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

BG: Q: Beyond the cash honorarium why should an author contribute to CoT?

A: Have a look here.

Thank you, Bosley. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 11/07--Six Questions for Patrick Trotti, Fiction Editor, Feature Magazine

Six Questions for The Janitors of the d.ustb.in

2011-10-31T02:00:00.020-04:00

d.ustb.in publishes short-stories ranging from one-sentence to 2,500 words in any genre. Adult/mature content is not appropriate for this market. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

TJ: I would love to say we did it out of a sense of altruistic purpose but sadly, it wouldn’t be entirely true. There was an element of selfish motive involved: that of seeing our own stories ‘accepted’. A year ago, I was trying to get one of my sci-fi stories published and found that one of the most frequent reasons for rejection was that I had put the story up on my own personal blog. In my quest for an ‘accepting’ magazine, I found that there were very few Indian magazines and almost none purely for the art of the short-story.

I knew we had to start one right away.

We called it the d.ustb.in because we thought it was a witty name. As more and more submissions began coming in (from people outside India, as well) I realized that the d.ustb.in was, in fact, living up to its name. It had become a true ‘dustbin’ for budding authors and story-tellers. We upgraded our philosophy to match these developments, and we have been welcoming stories from all around the world ever since.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

TJ: The three things we look for in a story are PLOT, EVENT-STRUCTURE and NARRATIVE - we call them the mind, body and soul of a story, respectively. We might make concessions and accept a story with one of them disjointed/missing, but we usually prefer our stories to be sound in these three aspects. This is, of course, assuming that the language and grammar used by the author are not flawed, at the very least.

Some might argue that this is the more traditional definition of a story and that literature has moved beyond such trivialities; that literature has embraced other, more fluid forms of story-telling. However, we strongly believe that without these three elements you might as well be writing an essay or a non-fiction piece.

When you do think about it, it always boils down to the basics, really.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

TJ: We try not to reject any story -- we are, after all, the d.ustb.in!

However, not all submissions are stories and not all stories are, well, stories per se. We particularly dislike authors who submit their pieces without reading the guidelines. It isn’t a good feeling when you read a story that clearly falls outside the guidelines and trust me, it is fairly obvious most of the time but they do get our goat time and again.

Our first check-point is the language and grammar -- skimming through the story gives a fair idea. The second (and more important) check-point is the test for the three essentials outlined in the previous questions. If the story meets our baseline, we accept it. If it doesn’t, our curators suggest edits to the authors to enhance the story. We never reject a story outright; we always provide honest feedback to the author and welcome revisions and counter-views.

In other words: “If the literary world were to host a huge banquet and all authors -- budding and otherwise -- were to be invited as esteemed guests, we would be the non-descript house-keeping staff that stands quietly in a corner waiting to pick up broken dreams and help you rebuild them -- from scratch, if necessary.”

SQF: When reading a story, how do you know it was written by a novice author?

TJ: We don’t.

We take each story at face-value -- whether written by a novice author or an author who has been published multiple times. All authors start as novices and like all other novices, they need a platform to display and hone their skills. We like to believe that we provide such a platform with the d.ustb.in.

Even when we accept stories for publication, we may put stories on hold and ask the authors to submit it to other markets -- the kind that pay for stories. We would rather have an author earn money for their stories than send them to the d.ustb.in. If, for whatever reason, that doesn’t happen, we are always here, just like the ubiquitous dustbin that remains standing in a corner until you need it.

We believe every story deserves a chance to be told. We believe that before a story retires to an author’s personal dustbin, it deserves a place in the d.ustb.in -- given that it qualifies the aforementioned criteria, of course.

SQF: Will you publish a story an author posted on a personal blog?

TJ: Yes. In fact, we encourage authors to submit stories already on their personal blogs. As we mentioned before, our philosophy is quite simple: We tell YOUR stories. Before you retire your story to the dustbin, why not send it to the d.ustb.in?

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

TJ: How long does it take for the d.ustb.in to accept a story?

The short answer would be: As long as it takes for other publications to reject it!

Most of us are working people with regular day-jobs, which means that we may not always have all the time in the world. However, whatever little time we do have, we invest it in the d.ustb.in. As a result, delays are not uncommon when it comes to reading and editing stories. We don’t get much traffic and it has been a good thing so far: we would probably implode under the stress!

Thanks everyone. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 11/03--Six Questions for Bosley Gravel, Editor, Bosley Gravel's Cavalcade of Terror

Six Questions for Laura Roberts, Editor, Black Heart Magazine

2011-10-27T02:00:00.033-04:00

Black Heart Magazine publishes feisty flash fiction to 500 words, saucy short fiction to 1,500 words (posted every Friday) and rebellious poetry (posted every Monday). In addition, the site publishes book reviews, literary commentary, and author interviews. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

LR:

A catchy or compelling title. We use a submissions system, like most online publications, and if I'm not intrigued by your title, I'm not going to be excited about clicking through to read the rest of your piece. And, 9 times out of 10, the people who put no effort into their titles seem to have put equally little effort into the rest of their work. So make it have a little zing!
Quirky characters. I like my stories weird, bent, bizarre, odd. I like ordinary characters in odd situations, and odd characters in ordinary situations. I like learning more about characters that act differently than the average, everyday human. Who wants to read a perfectly nice story about two people who really like each other and get along? No one. It's boring. I need drama, which means action. Put a quirky character into a tight spot and have him or her react.
A satisfying ending. It doesn't have to tie everything up in a neat little bow, but it shouldn't just drop off as if the writer stopped typing in the middle of a sentence, either. Margaret Atwood is famous for her non-endings; I HATE that. Margaret, if you're reading this, can you please write an ending to one of your books now that you're a Canadian institution who could sign her name to the phone book and sell a million copies? Seriously. Beginnings and endings are the hardest to write well, so all writers should focus their efforts on improving these areas.

SQF: When reading a story, what clues tell you the story was written by a novice author?

LR: Usually it's the premise of the story itself. I get a lot of repeated themes that seem to come to mind for beginners. The "Adam and Eve" story, which reveals its "twist" at the end is pretty common. Then there are stories that have no STORY. They're full of emotion, they're very passionate about something, but there is no action. That's not a story. For the most part, you must have more than one character (unless you're writing about Man Vs. Nature, or Man Vs. Self). You should have a snappy title. You should have an actual ending, and preferably a good one -- or at least one that makes sense. I get a lot of stories that make it obvious the author is just sending them to anyone who publishes stories, anywhere. How can I tell? Well, we're not at all into Christian themes, or gore, or black metal, and yet we are constantly receiving pieces that hit these themes. I know we don't have very specific guidelines, since we're looking for work in all different genres, but I think it's pretty clear that we're not about frilly love poems you'd find on a greeting card or how great Sarah Palin is. Even a quick pass through the front-page articles would demonstrate that you've gotten the gist. So don't send us that stuff. Oh, and for the love of Pete, DO NOT email me your piece through our contact form! It's going in the trash. That's why we have a submissions system with Submishmash [Ed: now called Submittable]; I don't want my inbox cluttered with emails from budding poets who have sent me their ENTIRE opus. Really. Just pick three poems you think are good, and we'll let you know.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

LR: Every editor says this, because we're all fascists about grammar and spelling: goddamn, read your work over before you send it out! Use the spell-check on your computer, yes, but then get a live human to read over your piece. Preferably someone who has a clue about the English language and how to use it. Maybe a teacher, or a writing student, or even an actual editor that you will pay to find your errors and correct them.

Oh, and if you're sending out stories to a million different publications, please have the courtesy to get the name of OUR publication right in your cover letter. You may have a brilliant story, but I'm going to be annoyed if you're saying how much you love Harper's or the New Yorker or whoever the heck else you've sent the thing out to. Just be aware, and try to be polite, you know? Let's all start out on the right foot and lead with good impressions, is what I'm saying.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

LR: I don't, mostly because we're really swamped with submissions, and people will tend to keep following up with further emails asking, "Well, WHY didn't you like this?" and "But it was based on a true story!" and whatever else. I think offering comments just invites people to ask further questions, which I don't have the time to answer, so I send a standard rejection letter instead. If people really want to know what's wrong with their piece, I think they should hire a professional to give them the feedback they're looking for. Or just keep on reading and revising and mailing the piece out to different publications. There may not be anything technically wrong with it, but it's just not for us. There are lots of reasons why stories get rejected; as a writer myself, I find it's best not to take anything too personally. Unless, of course, you get a personalized rejection letter informing you that you're a complete idiot, singling you and your piece out by name, from someone whose opinion matters to you. In that case, you might want to keep your day job.

SQF: What do you consider to be the primary responsibilities of an editor?

LR: One might say that an editor edits, but that's pretty simplistic. The primary responsibility of the editor, from my perspective, is to curate interesting stories in an interesting way. If I get great stories right off the bat, that makes my job easier. But if I can see some shiny bits in a piece that isn't quite there, and I can work with you to polish it up into a diamond -- or even a cubic zirconia -- then that's even more satisfying. The problem with that is I find most of the authors I have contacted to say "It's almost there; what if you try this?" are not open to my suggestions. They think their piece is perfect as is, and they won't change a single word. Writers have to be open to editorial suggestions. They don't have to necessarily TAKE the suggestions, and I prefer to be able to discuss with writers why they feel a certain way so we can negotiate and retain the central focus of the piece, but they have to be able to take constructive criticism and think about how it might change or even improve the piece. To me, that's the thing. The editor and the writer are a team. We're not adversaries. Editors want you to be proud of your piece, and to publish the best possible pieces they can. So when they give you advice, it's because they've read a lot of stories, and they have a clue about what they're doing, and they're trying to help you publish a really great story.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

LR: What are some of Black Heart's upcoming projects?

We are currently working on creating digital anthologies, which we sell online via Smashwords, to bring in different types of readers. The anthologies will be released on a quarterly basis, and each will focus on a different genre, thanks to the expertise of many different guest editors. The first in this series of anthologies is called The NOIR Issue, and was guest edited by my crime fiction writing pal, Jimmy Callaway. You can buy a copy of it online at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/71026 in every imaginable digital format for only $2.99.

Our next project, which is currently open for submissions, is an Austin Writers Anthology that will feature the work of established locals, up-and-coming authors, and even a few choice bloggers. If you've got a piece you'd like to contribute on the theme of Austin Places, you can submit (or read the full guidelines) here.

Thank you, Laura. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 10/31- Six Questions for The Janitors of the d.ustb.in

Six Questions for Katey Schultz, Managing Editor, Cheek Teeth

2011-10-24T02:00:00.003-04:00

"Cheek Teeth is the blog of TRACHODON magazine, updated twice weekly in the following categories: Flash Fiction, Features, Reviews, Touché, and Fossils." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

KS: When it comes to flash fiction, a writer only has so many words to get the job done. Even still, the stories we publish come to a natural completion—either through tying up loose ends, a slight shift in mood, or (my personal favorite) a particularly fitting metaphor.

Next, I look for uniqueness of voice or perspective. Voice doesn’t always mean five syllable words and perspective doesn’t always mean point of view. What I’m talking about here is a narrator or character’s particular way of seeing the world. Do they notice the fingerprints on the window, or the majestic view on the other side? Do they hear the clock’s incessant second hand, or laughter coming from across the street?

Finally, I look for stories of smart surprise. Smart surprise works best when a writer can create a world or character so thoroughly, that readers go along for the ride without question. The surprise comes into play when that thoroughness is disrupted or confirmed in a crafted manner that enhances story.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

KS: If a story doesn’t have sensory detail, metaphor, or powerful verbs, I get pretty grumpy. Verbs are a writer’s primary tool for moving the story forward. Choosing bland verbs and skimping on detail leads directly to lack of metaphor. Without metaphor, I find myself asking, “So what?”

If a story isn’t properly formatted or punctuated, especially for dialogue, I get impatient. When a writer only has so many words to get the job done, clarity matters tenfold. If I have to stop because I can’t tell whether a white space is intentional or if a line of dialogue is spoken or internal monologue, I’m likely to pass on the story.

If a story relies on the spectacles of aggression, violation, violence, or out-of-this-world oddities that make no move toward crafted literary completion, I will not accept it for publication. Extraordinarily disturbing stories have been written and received much-deserved literary fame—but their trump isn’t in their shock value, it’s in their crafting.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

KS: There aren’t any others. It’s almost always common mistakes that lead to rejection—imprecise word choice, careless formatting, and lack of imagination. In other words, same as above.

SQF: What is the best part of being an editor?

KS: The best part about being an editor is the privilege of publishing another author’s words. Managing a publication like Cheek Teeth keeps me connected to the literary world that I also depend upon for my livelihood. It’s a way of contributing to something bigger while also continuing to grow individually.

I also get a little giddy when an author I respect responds to a solicitation. It feels like receiving a compliment on behalf of a publication I’ve worked hard to be a part of, and it often sparks the beginning of a connection that can lead to some great email conversations following publication.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

KS: Establishing rapport with anyone interested in Cheek Teeth is important to me, and there’s nothing I admire more than a writer willing to seek advice to give something another shot. I don’t mind if an author rejected by Cheek Teeth replies with a polite question, but I appreciate it if that question comes with the expressed desire to improve the story and/or submit additional work to Cheek Teeth in the future.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

KS: I wish you’d asked about the number of writers submitting work compared to the number of writers subscribing to literary magazines. How much overlap is there? How many writers submitting fiction today have also read at least five literary magazines cover-to-cover in the past year? Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer.

I do know from my 10 years of experience with four different literary magazines, that the number of submitters very often outweighs the number of subscribers. Being a writer who doesn’t support the publishing industry is like being a farmer who doesn’t eat produce. I don’t care what you read, just read. And read with abandon. Read magazines you trust and magazines you’ve never heard of before. Give lit mag subscriptions as birthday presents or graduation gifts. Chances are, you’ll make someone’s day and improve your own writing and knowledge of the publishing industry at the same time.

Thank you, Katey. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 10/27-Six Questions for Laura Roberts, Editor, Black Heart Magazine

Six Questions for John R. Guevin, Editor, Biographical Publishing Company

2011-10-20T02:00:00.019-04:00

BPC publishes both fiction and non-fiction covering a variety of topics. "We at BPC are dedicated to providing ways for writers to get their works published . . . easily and quickly. We offer a unique approach which allows authors to control the entire production and marketing of their work. Plus . . . authors can reap the maximum profit from the sale of their books." Learn more here.

SQF: What does BPC offer authors that other presses don't?

JG: A response to all inquiries.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a manuscript?

JG: Content, writing quality, marketability.

SQF: What major mistakes do authors make when pitching their books?

JG: Failure to research the demand for their book.

SQF: Of the books your company publishes each year, how many are by previously unpublished authors?

JG: 60%

SQF: What is your advice to new, unpublished authors looking for a publisher or agent?

JG: Expect to be an active participant in marketing.

SQF: What question do you wish I’d asked that I didn’t? And how would you answer it?

JG: What types of books do you consider for publication?

All fiction and non-fiction works that meet are standards of content, writing quality, marketability.

Thank you, John. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 10/24--Six Questions for Katey Schultz, Managing Editor, Cheek Teeth

Six Questions for Erin McKnight, Founding Editor & Publisher, Queen's Ferry Press

2011-10-17T02:00:00.009-04:00

"Queen’s Ferry Press publishes collections of literary fiction, yet our tastes are eclectic and our definition of collection is open to reinterpretation and reimagining. We aren’t as concerned with adhering to a specific word count as we are with receiving fully realized compilations—meaning we will accept groupings from short short length to episodic works of 40,000 words, and all manner of fiction arrangements in-between." Learn more here.

SQF: 1. What does Queen’s Ferry Press offer authors that other presses don't?

EM: It is the aim of this press to celebrate writers that render literary collections which may not fit neatly within the conventional bounds of other fiction venues. Our intent is to offer groupings that may have been disqualified from publication elsewhere simply due to their variation in length, shape, or form. At Queen’s Ferry, such aberration is honored; we welcome those who color outside narrative lines.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a manuscript?

EM: Emotional depth, attention to connective elements, and adept styling will separate a manuscript from the pack. I want to be moved; writing should resonate. I hope for mastery in construction, in its associated tools and techniques. I lie awake many nights thinking about how words become phrases and phrases sentences; arranging your narrative with care, in terms of language and how it is punctuated, helps me sleep. (I have an infant—I need every minute I can get!)

SQF: What major mistakes do authors make when pitching their books?

EM: It may seem twee, but failing to practice courtesy, consideration, and common sense. Addressing the editor as “Mr.” when she is indeed a “Ms.,” failing to alert that same editor within a respectable period of time that a manuscript has been accepted elsewhere, and overlooking submission guidelines are glaring indicators of a writer who doesn’t want a publisher to want their work.

SQF: This is a new press. Do you plan to publish collections from previously unpublished authors?

EM: Absolutely! I ask for a cover letter that includes a list of any previously published stories or portions, but my goal behind this request is more about getting to know a writer than it is about estimating their prior experience. If the collection is strong, whether it comes from the hand of an established or an emerging author, it will speak for itself—distinguish your manuscript by sharing a little something about yourself.

SQF: What is your advice to new, unpublished authors looking for a publisher or agent?

EM: Take yourself seriously and treat your writing as a business. Allow the dust to settle on a manuscript before sending it out for consideration, approach the submission process and your target publisher(s) with respect, and remember that no editorial decision is ever personal. The literary market may feel roped-off to an inexperienced writer, but skill will ultimately come up trumps.

SQF: What question do you wish I’d asked that I didn’t? And how would you answer it?

EM: Why this kind of undertaking is important in the modern literary world.

The social networking revolution has engendered the kind of access capable of catapulting unpublished writers into the realm of authordom. Projects like Six Questions For… offer crucial insight into, and work to demystify, the publication process—the maligned editor, breathing fire on an ever-growing slush pile, is hopefully an image that will continue to fade as the work that takes place behind the desk continues to be laid bare.

Thank you, Erin. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 10/20--Six Questions for John R. Guevin, Editor, Biographical Publishing Company

Six Questions for Buffi BeCraft, Owner/Editor in Chief, Eirelander Publishing

2011-10-13T02:00:00.009-04:00

"Eirelander Publishing is a hybrid e-publisher/small press publisher with a focus on quality and innovation. Founded in 2009 by Buffi BeCraft, Eirelander Publishing is a New York style publisher. Our goal is to provide readers with a wide range of stories that contain exciting plots and diverse characters." Learn more here.

SQF: What does Eirelander Publishing offer authors that other presses don't?

BB: Eirelander Publishing is a full service, royalty paying epublisher. We are officially listed as a Green Company, so electronic formats are our main priority, though we do have a print on demand program once an ebook has met the requirement of 50 ebook sales. We give a minimum of three thorough edits on all our manuscripts. More if necessary, so that the quality of the book comes first. At this time, we are offering a 45% royalty on all new contacts.

Authors may have input on covers, though we have the final say. Our policy is to offer one redo if the author truly hates his/her cover art. Authors are offered banners and other digital promotional graphics at no charge. (by request) We try to be available as much as possible, and our authors and staff are encouraged to contact us by email or instant message chat if they have any questions.

Eirelander Publishing is proud to announce our Audio book launch this September.

Our brand new private author and staff forum is set up in the Ning social network. This new format offers members chat, discussion boards on a variety of topics from computer help to online marketing tips, apps, and more.

Finally, we judge a book on it's own merits, not on your letter writing abilities or your past awards. Our favorite submission letters include a brief bio about yourself, what line you are submitting for, a short blurb about your book, and your contact information. Don't forget to attach the entire manuscript in RTF or DOC format. Our current turnaround time on submissions is two weeks.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a manuscript?

BB:

The plot lines(s) and character arcs begun in the beginning of the story are completed at the end.
The document formatting is easily readable without having to reformat the entire book simply to read. Example: Special backgrounds and pictures added. Fun fonts meant to get the editor's attention. (It does, and not in a good way.) Strange styles meant to stand out, such as capitalizing all of the main character's POV. Writing the entire book in email style or text message style. Gross grammar mistakes that are easily fixed by a basic spell checker.
Language and sentence structure is easy enough for a high school graduate to follow. We love complex plots and characters, just not sentence structure and words that need a college degree to decipher.

SQF: What major mistakes do authors make when pitching their books?

BB:

Not reading our submission guidelines and following accordingly. This tells the editor that the author can follow basic directions. The number one mistake for guidelines is not including the full manuscript. We do not contract on query or partials.
Arguing the point that they follow the stylistic guide of a particular classics author and refuse to make any changes to his/her book. The literary classics are nice for their time period and we enjoy them, but we are publishing for this time period and contemporary readers.
Bait and switch tactics. Offering the publishing company one book, then once a contract is offered, offering a different book instead.

SQF: Of the books your company publishes each year, how many are by previously unpublished authors?

BB: The number of unpublished authors contracted each year varies. Each book is judged on its own merits; this goes for in-house authors, previously published, and previously self-published works. So far this year we've contracted around 8 books from unpublished authors, some of which are scheduled for release next year. Unpublished authors are always welcome at Eirelander Publishing. If we turn down a work, then authors are welcome to ask what they need to do to revise and resubmit.

SQF: What is your advice to new, unpublished authors looking for a publisher or agent?

BB: First, my biggest piece of advice is not to go into this with starry eyes. A good publisher or agent will work with you to polish your work-- and if they're real good, it will be work. But hopefully an enjoyable and rewarding experience on all sides. Expect to work on your own promotion as well. Publishers do what they can to give all their authors some exposure, but the bulk of your promotion is on your shoulders. Some, like us, will be more than happy to help point you in the right direction.

Second, check your ego at the door. Editors and agents, who have gone out of their way to give you the benefit of their experience, do not appreciate drama queens. Nor do they appreciate dealing with an argumentative author slowing the production process to a crawl.

SQF: What question do you wish I’d asked that I didn’t? And how would you answer it?

BB: How much does the author have to pay to have his/her work published?

Eirelander Publishing is a full service, royalty paying publisher. We do not charge for editing or for artwork or any of the services mentioned earlier. However, we do have a kill cost clause to protect ourselves from fraudulent contracts in which the author only wanted a free full edit before taking his/her book elsewhere. This clause is to reimburse Eirelander Publishing and it's staff for work done on the promise of future sales. Please remember that this is not a fee for publishing and only goes into effect if the author terminates before the contract term is up.

Kill costs are as follows: For the first edit submitted to author, the cost is one hundred dollars (total 100.00usd) For the second edit submitted to author, the cost of the first edit plus one hundred and fifty dollars (total 250.00usd). For the third edit submitted to author, the cost is of the first edit and the second edit plus one hundred dollars (total 350.00usd). The cost of the copy edit is fifty dollars (50.00usd). Cover art may be provided at any time after the first edit is delivered to the author. Cost of cover art is one hundred and fifty dollars (150.00usd).

Thank you, Buffi. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 10/17--Six Questions for Erin McKnight, Founding Editor & Publisher, Queen's Ferry Press

Six Questions for David Smitherman, Publisher/Editor, Palari Publishing

2011-10-10T02:00:00.002-04:00

Palari Publishing specialties are Virginia/regional, nonfiction, mystery, and memoirs. We seek writers on the cutting edge of ideas who do not write in clichés. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: There’s been quite a bit written about the demise of the paper book and the decline in the number of books published. What is your view of the current state of the book and the book market?

DS: The book market has certainly evolved and continues to do so, but the good news is that publishing has increased so there are more options available now than ever before. E-books and POD technology has made book buying much more of an impulse without the need for a bricks-and-mortar store. Those are still great outlets, but the future is online.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a manuscript?

DS: That's easy.

Saleability - does it look like a project others will buy?
Author - does that author seem qualified to write about the topic? Are they committed to promoting? Do they have connections, established history, or an eagerness.
Is it well-written. Doesn't have to be perfect, but the concept and basic readability has to be present.

SQF: What major mistakes do authors make when pitching their books?

DS: Telling the entire plot of the book. That doesn't matter nearly as much as a synopsis of the story, what other books it's like, and how it can be sold.

SQF: Of the books your company publishes each year, how many are by previously unpublished authors?

DS: 75%

SQF: What is your advice to new, unpublished authors looking for a publisher or agent?

DS: If you're unpublished, you'll do better to go directly to small publishers. An agent is likely going to get you the same deal that you could have done yourself. A larger publisher rarely takes on an unknown unless there are unusual circumstances -- a newsworthy event, etc.

Follow the publisher's guidelines closely (include a self-addressed stamp if you send hardcopy), and you can send a gentle followup reminder, but don't be a pest.

SQF: What question do you wish I’d asked that I didn’t? And how would you answer it?

DS: The key to any book selling is promotion and publicity. The more an author presents themselves as either connected or knows people or is just willing to go the extra mile to promote and get attention for their book, the better their chance of getting noticed. The real fact is that if no one knows about the book, it doesn't matter how good it is. It's a real team effort to promote books these days.

Oh, and yes, I have a book coming that I co-wrote, "Two Versions: The Other Side of Fame and Family" by Bill Hudson. Look for it!

Thank you, David. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 10/13--Six Questions for Buffi BeCraft, Owner/Editor in Chief, Eirelander Publishing

Six Questions for Dan Cafaro, Founder and Publisher, Atticus Books

2011-10-06T02:00:00.015-04:00

Atticus Books is a small literary press based in Kensington, MD. The press specializes in "genre-busting literary fiction." In addition to books, Atticus Books publishes the weekly Atticus Review, an online magazine of short stories, poems, electric literature, and musings on publishing and all things related to writing. Learn more about Atticus Books here and Atticus Review here.

SQF: 1. What does Atticus Books offer authors that other presses don't?

DC: We offer a haven for literature-loving loons, a place for poets to hang their halos and tune their pitchforks, and a coop that encourages storytellers to swing the door open and let it fly.

For undiscovered authors seeking to publish short works, Atticus Review is a virtual "chops" training ground and depot for online submissions. Our journal's tagline is "six degrees left of literature," so some writers (and readers) may have to "check their coordinates and reassess their latitudes before they click away," as our EIC, Katrina Gray, so spicily put it in our inaugural issue.

After reading our publishing house's mission statement(s), you may notice that we don't take ourselves too seriously. We embrace the dynamics of the English language with a fervor that's hard to top and a playfulness that's meant to press buttons and push envelopes.

Atticus Books is one of those indie presses that should feel like home when you find us - and we're not bashful to tell you to mess up your room and leave the dirty dishes on the table before you enter the premises. We can use all the help we can get to keep our house in disorder.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a manuscript?

DC:

Does the work make me want to shirk that day's responsibilities and keep reading?
Is there a soulful, probing voice that remains hidden but resonates between the lines of text?
Is there an intangible essence to the writing that's hard to define but compels me to click my heels and dig deeper?

SQF: What major mistakes do authors make when pitching their books?

DC: When an author describes his/her work as literary or tells me it's the best thing he or she has ever written (and/or may ever write), I'm concerned that his/her worldview (and perhaps self-perception) might be too narrow. When an author presses a publisher for a decision or feedback, it usually is a telling sign (from the gods) that the publisher should walk away. When an author clearly has not done his homework and researched and read the published material of the house, it's disarmingly ingenuous, amateurish, and a major turnoff.

SQF: Of the books your company publishes each year, how many are by previously unpublished authors?

DC: In 2010 (our first year of operation), we published two books by debut novelists and a third title (The Absent Traveler: A Novella & Other Stories) by a previously published author. In 2011, we have published five books, ALL debut works of fiction. In 2012, we are anticipating the release of six books, including three debut titles (one novel and two story collections). Our goal for 2013 is to acquire work by female(!) writers, established or previously unpublished. We won't turn away a male writer based on his gender or inexperience alone, but it's quite competitive to secure a slot with us due to the sheer number of unsolicited submissions we receive.

SQF: What is your advice to new, unpublished authors looking for a publisher or agent?

DC: Make a decision early on that either you will play the game by the rules of the conglomerates and tirelessly seek the backing of an agent, or become an active member of the small press community, build rapport with fellow writers and independent publishers, and do all you can do to earn the respect, loyalty, and admiration of your peers.

The literary life is a small fruitful existence with many intrinsic rewards, but unless you're a trust fund baby, I strongly suggest the following: 1) Keep your day job; 2) Mentally prepare to endure as a starving artist; 3) Carve out a patchwork career in the creative arts by complying with the behaviors of this new paradigm of publishing; 4) Create an infectious, informative blog and find readers by interacting with them online; and 5) Be sincere and empathetic. Don't sell your self, be your self.

SQF: What question do you wish I’d asked that I didn’t? And how would you answer it?

DC: How many rejections should a writer be willing to withstand before giving up on the dream of being a published writer? As many as it takes and then some. There are literally tons of literary journals popping up every day. They're all looking for writers to support their cause, so you have absolutely no excuse to pursue this crazy agenda alone. Your day should consist of the following tasks: read, write, submit. All together now: Read, write, submit!

Thank you, Dan. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 10/13--Six Questions for David Smitherman, Publisher/Editor, Palari Publishing

Six Questions for David Moscovich, Editor, Louffa Press

2011-10-03T02:00:00.021-04:00

The mission behind Louffa Press is to create a venue for limited edition print and electronic chapbooks from as wide a perspective and multiplicity of voices as possible. To introduce new and innovative microfiction and non-fiction that bends genres, blurs lines between the arts, and to disturb and contort readers with a very vigorous scrub. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

DM:

1. Sentences that are written like none other.

Plot moves me little, since arguably every story has already been told. Even if it’s about a pig that noses gravel all day, show me the language, the vital, nefarious, brutality of twisted syntax. Hold the pig under my nose, let it reek. Skin it while it’s squealing, roast it with witchcraft, jettison snarling, self-detonating wild boars from a B2-bomber.

Write something I can’t ignore. Give me the guts, and give it to me now.

2. A novel geometry.

I look for a form in the story that comes from a new angle, presents a new frame. There are a million ways to break a recipe, but only a couple ways to break an egg. Inching the tractor’s tires over a spoon which trips a trigger which shocks the chicken who pecks at the egg doesn’t impress – that’s taking it too far. So novelty for the love of novelty isn’t useful, either. Good writing is like guerilla warfare – we can’t predict where or when it will disorient, deface, deconstruct – or by what method.

3. Effortlessness, or the appearance thereof.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

DM:

1. Cliché language

The instant I see a cliché it’s bye-bye.

2. Cluttered, clumsy language or wordiness

Say more with less, and open the double doors for the lady.

3. Conventional narrative, conventional form

Readers are sophisticated and hungry. They want your blood, not Bela Lugosi’s blood. Bela Lugosi is dead.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

DM:

1. Errors of convention or usage. Its is possessive, it’s is a contraction. Their is a pronoun, there is a place (in my heart) for conventions.

2. A huge ego as a character trait can be amusing as hell, as Stanley Elkin provides in stories like The Making of Ashenden, or The Transient. The way Nabokov and Dostoyevsky bring neurosis to the page is art. But for authors to take on the traits of their characters – no, thanks. If I like a story but the author has a major ego hang-up, it can be a problem.

3. Not reading the other work on the website to get snuggly with the general aesthetic.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

Not typically. If a writer is truly aching to know why I didn’t accept something, I’m certainly not beyond giving an answer. If the story is a near miss, I usually try to work with them to make minor changes if they are open to that, but I do not rewrite stories.

It’s important to get rejected. Personally, I love being rejected. It reminds me I still need to work at it. I crave that as a writer, I live for that battle. I think it’s important to remember also that it’s not the writer who is getting rejected as a person, just the story. Maybe the concept is good, but the execution needs a good chest-pumping. Maybe the story itself is feeling overworked, it needs some alone time. Come back to it in six months.

Imagine how language would devolve if one were never rejected. We could all end up speaking like George W. Bush, all you “misunderestimated” me and I know how hard it is to put food on your family.

It is possible to turn rejection into critique. But if it’s critique a writer wants, I would suggest starting a writing group or finding friends who share similar writing interests to workshop in a positive, supportive environment. My experience with editors mostly is that there is no time to offer in-depth critique or often any critique at all, and the opportunities for dialogue in a class or workshop are much more rich and lasting than an email. On the other hand, I’ve had great exchanges with editors over the years who’ve accepted my work, and who knows, if I sent them some of the rejects they might offer some insight.

SQF: What is your advice to new, unpublished authors looking for a publisher or agent?

As Raymond Federman once told me, If you want to write for money, do something else.

To put it another way, Rilke offers better counsel than I ever could in Letters To A Young Poet. I may be guilty of referring to this quote more than once on public record. I cannot claim to have the answers, but I do enjoy Rilke’s response:

No one can advise or help you - no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple "I must," then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse.

SQF: What’s one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

I wished that you asked if Louffa Press needs any interns, because the answer is yes. I’m so glad you asked. I’m looking for interns to help with all aspects of design and also with grant proposal writing. The help Louffa needs most right now is for an anthology of chess themed micro-fictions, an intensive project which has been given the NYFA stamp of approval through their ArtSpire fiscal sponsorship. The drawings are by French graphic novelist Zeami, and the micro-fictions are by more than a dozen authors. It is scheduled to be letterpressed and numbered by the fall of 2012.

***

Louffa Press will be hosting A Night With Steve Katz at KGB Bar in New York City on October 12. Steve’s new letterpressed fiction broadside Slave Husbandry (limited edition of 50) will be available at the reading.

Thank you, David. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 10/06--Six Questions for Dan Cafaro, Founder and Publisher, Atticus Books

Six Questions for Meredith E. Torre, Editor, Bumble Jacket Miscellany

2011-09-29T02:00:00.020-04:00

The Bumble Jacket is a biannual publication featuring the best fiction and poetry "regardless of style, genre, or approach." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

MT: I felt that the poetry and fiction I was reading in popular literary journals were following a particular trend. Poetry was minimalist and abstract in a vague, elitist sort of way that did nothing to move me and fiction often had the same characteristics, packed with good details perhaps, but strung together as nothing more than a cute descriptive exercise. A pretty rotten apple or a lovely shallow vessel that held nothing. The last straw was when I read a "poem" somewhere that was actually nothing more than a list of department stores, with as far as I could discern no interpretation whatsoever. I wondered what the editors were thinking. Naturally, I thought, I could do better than this and then I thought, well why don't you?

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

MT: Complex, well developed characters drive the story and compel us to know more.

A strong crafted tone holds the reader and makes a story memorable. It is the opportunity to exercise a fresh impression on a care worn theme and reinvigorate it with new meaning.

Well-crafted imagery invites interaction into a story at a deeper level. I don't need a story to be imbued with it, but subtle imagery implied goes a long way.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

MT:

One: Not following guidelines. People don't like reading them, I know. I don't like writing rejections. I'll make exceptions for exceptional stories sometimes, but following the guidelines certainly helps.

Two: Cliché plot and poorly crafted characters are the main reasons stories get rejected. I can usually tell right away if a writer hasn't read the journal. Sometimes I'll get something very abstract and that bores me. Some editors think that minimalist stories are cool. I don't. They make me go to sleep. Don't try to be precocious, just write the story.

Three: Writers complaining or professing that they are so artistic I have failed to comprehend their pure genius are asking for a sure fire rejection in the future. I am happy to occasionally offer feedback to a writer that just wants to better focus their submission, but please, don't be mean spirited or blatantly arrogant about it. My job is to run a literary magazine, not be your groupie.

SQF: Approximately what percentage of your submissions do you accept?

MT: Probably as many as 50% of the writers that submitted last year were published and often we accepted writers that were previously rejected if they did their homework and we got a new flavor. We especially enjoy publishing new and emerging writers. Your publishing history means very little to us. We just want a good story.

SQF: Will you publish a story an author posted on a personal blog?

MT: Sorry no, we accept only stories with no previous appearance elsewhere. After that, writers are free to take their stories anywhere else they please. It is appreciated if they kindly credit us with a "first appeared in Bumble Jacket Miscellany," but we don't require it.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

MT: Well, I am afraid I have to say a question pertaining to writer's etiquette is sadly needed. I wish it wasn't a necessary topic to bring up, but it appears to be an important one. I know it is awfully frustrating to receive a rejection. I've gotten them myself many times. It hurts. At the same time, reacting to it badly doesn't endear you to the editors. Retrospectively, I've also received rejections myself that made me wonder if some editors were direly in need of etiquette lessons as well. Therefore, I try to be sensitive when sending out a rejection, and I always encourage those that have received one to try us again. We wish every fellow writer the best in his or her endeavors!

Thank you, Meredith. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 10/3--Six Questions for David Moscovich, Editor, Louffa Press

Six Questions for Bjorn Wahlstrom, Owner/Editor, H.A.L. Publishing

2011-09-26T02:00:00.026-04:00

Ink on paper, mayhem on stage - H.A.L. Publishing specialises in publishing exceptional local and expat/postpat authors in China, for whom this country forms the natural backdrop of an at-times mundane, at-times wholly extraordinary existence. HAL is actively seeking new and inspired authors of all kinds of China related texts, be it short stories, novels or poetry, for publication as well as for our frequent poetry slams. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

BW: Coherence. A story must connect through all parts, characters, and shifts. If it doesn't, any brilliant beginning/idea/language you might have become mere ornaments.

Tension. Do not forget the reader. It's all too common for brilliant writers of poetic style fiction to forget that you still need the reader to understand who is currently saying what, and why your story just took a sudden turn.

Writing from the heart. The mistress of said tension: write close to home, even if writing sci-fi. Kafka's formal injury reports from his day job as an insurance claims officer still bear his distinct drive and so should yours, always. To quote Hank Moody: write about what makes you hard. Our core subject being China, I consider it even more important to take an angle you actually know, and not pretend.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

BW: Texts irrelevant to the HAL's declared field of interest (which is: exceptional stories out of the PR China). If only I had a penny for every photo book/textbook/mathematical thesis I've received and rejected. It's really simple: if you are in need of a dentist you wouldn't go to a heart surgeon, so why send anything but fiction to a publisher of fiction? There is no point what so ever in spamming around a manuscript.

Poorly presented material. I don't read anything that comes in without proper introduction, title, mini-bio etc. On that same note, ridiculous pen names do not increase your odds either.

China bashing. One slight hint of neo-colonial attitude towards China, and you're in the bin.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

BW: Characters named John or Jim taking a walk in the park on the first page. That is, poor beginnings. I can not stress enough the importance of a strong lead-in. If nothing grabs me after five paragraphs or so, I'm already half way to dumping it.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

BW: Only to a very selected few texts, and with very carefully moderated comments. Comments are only provided if I feel the text might still work with certain changes/re-writes. In my experience commenting on a definite rejection, regardless of the reasons, only serves to anger the author. You need a dialogue to improve on a text, and rejection destroys the premises for that dialogue.

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

BW: Most importantly I would say I've learned the importance of calibrating your work as a whole after reaching the end. Much too often does a writer find the right tone for his story only half way through, but never go back and re-work the beginning. Goes for both content, style and language. I've also learned that you should never consider a story finished until your editor has gone over it. Writing is a solitary type of creative work, and we all develop blind spots for flaws in our work. Allow your editor into the process.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

BW: What can an author do to follow up after initially submitting?

I recommend to submit, and then call (if possible) to confirm manuscript received. After that your editor will go through your text in his own tempo, which can be anything between 5 minutes and 1 year. Do not send off email after email to speed up the process which serves only to annoy. Be patient.

Thank you, Bjorn. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 9/29--Six Questions for Meredith E. Torre, Editor, Bumble Jacket Miscellany

Six Questions for Doc O'Donnell, Senior Editor, Dirty Noir

2011-09-22T02:00:00.021-04:00

Dirty Noir publishes dirty realism and noir up to 1,500 words. The editors also consider novellas and novelettes for serialization. Forget genre, forget literary, just keep it dark and dirty. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

D:
Darkness: This can manifest in a number of ways. It needn't be typically noir. In fact, please, don't give me typical, at all. We like dark characters, yes, but I want their actions, and the darkness in their actions, to be a reflection of their inner darkness. I want tortured souls, you know? Real desperadoes. There needs to be a reason for that darkness, otherwise the story simply doesn't resonate. You can write a story about a serial killer, but I want to know what makes him tick. I want to know what caused him to turn to that. I don't have to love him, to sympathise with him, but I need to understand him.

Dirtiness: This word, dirty, I just love it. It, too, can manifest in all sorts of ways. The term Dirty Noir comes from a mash-up of "noir" and "dirty realism". We're talking gritty, rough shit. The real stuff. Cut right to the bone and when you get there, don't stop. Give us something that we, the everyman/woman, can relate to. Think of Bukowski, for instance. The man didn't fuck around. He got right down to it. Whispering all his dirty little secrets to the reader, regardless of what kind of light it shined on him. Why? Because he was giving us all of himself. He was showing us what everyone else was too scared to show us. The truth. Just be real, and give us real emotions, real characters, flawed people. No matter how dirty it makes them look.

Beauty: We want writing that sings and dances off the page. Get dark and dirty, yes, but there's beauty in everything, even the filthy things, so show us those little nuances, however fleeting they are. Sometimes when something is so dark, if you can show a glimpse of hope, of beauty, it makes it so much more palatable. Use language in an inventive way. Eliminate all tired phrases, cliches. There's beauty in everyday things and it's about finding, not the best, most flowery way of showing them, but finding the unique way in which your character would describe it. A personal favourite among the editorial team, and our readers, who does this, sentence after sentence, is Will Christopher Baer.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

D:
Stories with flat characters. The goal is to not write characters, but to create people, people that leap off the page and into our hearts and souls. They get to us. This comes from creating interesting people, unique people. Like each of us, no two characters should ever be the same. They should never speak the same. Which brings up arguably one of the biggest tools in characterisation: Dialogue. If your dialogue is flat and boring, so are your characters. Make the words your characters say mean something.

Exposition-heavy writing. There's nothing worse than a slow-burning story where it's nothing but the narrator, that we don't give a fuck about because the author hasn't shown us him, talking shit, up on his undeserved soapbox. The information dump, as it's known. It's horrible. Give us action. And, by action, I don't mean bullets flying and cars exploding; I mean people interacting, speaking to each other, doing things. You can tell us what you're getting your narrator to boringly dribble in a couple of lines of dialogue between two characters or in the actions of characters. If there's backstory that needs to be known to contextualise the present actions, don't shove a clunky flashback in there either. I mean, you can. Flashbacks are useful tools. But most of the time it's just lazy and not done well. Often, when I see a large portion of a story dedicated to backstory or exposition, I wonder whether the writer is telling the right story. I think, if all this shit that happened in the past is so important, then why the hell are they not telling just that story?

Finally, stories that lack basic grammar and spelling. The nuts and bolts of any piece of writing. If you haven't cared enough about your story to edit for poor grammar, typos, spelling errors and so on, then chances are I'm not going to care about it either. Yes, we're editors. But, we're not nannies. We're not here to clean up after your mess. Think of us as interior decorators. We'll come in after the place is tidy and polish it, open up the room, paint the walls a nice colour. If we get there and there's shit strewn across the floor, dirty undies hanging from bed posts and half eaten sangas in the sheets, we're spinning on the heel of our boots and walking out the door. The only time we'll come back after that is to kick you in the arse with said boots. Seriously, there's nothing worse, really. It screams "I'm not ready to be published". And, you know, we're the kinda guys that listen to the voices. So tighten that shit up before you send it our way.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

DO: A big one that we see a lot of at Dirty Noir is gratuitous sex, violence and bad language (by this, I mean swear words and such). I guess people figure that they can get away with it, for some reason. You can swear and fuck and cut people up, but make it count. Make it matter. Show us the character. Why they're doing it. What they're doing it for. There's simply no point in blood spraying around the joint just for shits and giggle. And, you know, it's just plain fucking sick, really.

SQF: What is the best part of being an editor?

DO: Hmm, the best part. I'm gonna have to say discovering new voices that floor you and make you wonder why they're not being listened to enough. And then the thrill I get when exposing these voices to people and hearing positive feedback about their work.

I'll sneak another one in here and say, that it's pretty damn fulfilling when you see a piece and it impresses you, but you can see exactly what needs to be done to make it just that little bit closer to perfection. Working with authors on a story and fully realising its potential is so much fun.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

DO: Replies to rejection. You know, at this stage of our publication, I'm all for it. I enjoy opening up a dialogue with the writers, especially if they were very close but not quite there. It's fantastic. It's important. We're not above anyone over here. In fact, we're below our writers, if anything. We NEED the writers and readers. Without them, we have no reason to publish the magazine.

I've had a number of writers reply to my rejections, quite positively, too, which left room to further discuss the critique of their work, which, in turn, will hopefully make revision of the piece a little easier and, at the end of the day, assist the author in finding an appropriate home for their baby.

The positive feedback I've received from submitters regarding our personal responses is overwhelming. I never expected it. We always respond with a personal note. Sometimes it may be a few sentences, other times it may be a few paragraphs. At the very least, I like to highlight one positive and one negative point about the submission. Being a writer myself, who submits work regularly, I know how dearly writers hold those personal notes. It's just a little extra something, some cold water, to make the sting of rejection a little more bearable. Sure, it takes a little extra time, but, man, I'd rather have less sleep and know that I’m doing the best job as an editor I can than to send off a cold and impersonal form rejection.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

DO: How about, What are your aspirations and goals for Dirty Noir?

Well, Jim, funny you should ask that because I'd just love to talk a bit about what Dirty Noir is and where we'd like to be in the future.

At this stage, we've been kicking it for a mere 8 weeks, so right now, my goal is to spread the dirty word. We've ripped it up so far and are getting a steady flow of page views, but, you know, I'm greedy and want more, more, more. So, right now, it's just making Dirty Noir a household name among the kinds of people that would dig it. The biggest thing we're doing to make this happen is to just put out good work. Consistent in style and tone and quality. As of today, our current acceptance rate according to Duotrope is about 18%. We want to continue being a competitive market for genre and literary writers alike. It's important to us to have a high standard for a few reasons: we want people to want to publish with us and we want the work we put out to be top-shelf quality. There's no point doing it any other way.

Other than that, we're excited about releasing our debut e-quarterly in October, which'll give writers a little more room to open up with larger word counts. That'll be available on Kindle and Smashwords for the how-can-you-not-buy-it price of ONE dollar and submissions will be called for very shortly.

And then we take over the world or something like that.

Thank you, Doc. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 9/26--Six Questions for Bjorn Wahlstrom, Owner/Editor, H.A.L. Publishing

Six Questions for Dena Rash Guzman, Editor, Unshod Quills

2011-09-19T02:00:00.012-04:00

"Unshod Quills accepts submissions of art and writing based upon themes designated by the editor. It should be noted, however, that Unshod Quills is most partial to publishing poetry and photography." Poetry, prose and translation submissions must be under 1,500 words. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

DG: I look for clarity, inventiveness, and respect for conventions of writing -- I most prefer a combination of the classic and the contemporary. The writing and art I strive to share is cutting edge but accessible, not really safe, but not without relevance to the art and discipline of creativity.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

DG: I mostly reject work due to failure to follow submission guidelines, cliched or boring writing, or failure to proofread the work before it is submitted. Minor grammatical and spelling mistakes are human but if a piece has more than ten, the piece is returned to the author for editing; more than twenty and the piece is automatically rejected. A note to writers -- if proofreading your own work is not your strong suit, have someone edit your submissions before sending them along. Quite frankly, most editors simply do not have time to consider sloppy, lazy submissions.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

DG: I'm generally turned off by attempts at sounding too much like Charles Bukowski, attempts at melding the voice too much toward what is contemporary or classic, and the dreadful art of writing haiku in English.

SQF: What is the best part of being an editor?

DG: I get the privilege of reading new work and seeing new art. I get to see new styles from familiar artists and writers. I get to approach writers I admire and ask them to contribute, and I delight in the excitement of discovering a vibrant, unique emerging artist or writer. That is the best feeling there is, besides the excitement expressed by those being published for the very first time. I love sharing in that joy.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

DG: I do not blacklist, but I do not work with rude people. I could take a city bus if I wanted to be pushed around. Unshod Quills receives hundreds of submissions per reading period, of which there are four annually. I do try to give feedback when it is requested, but it is not always something I can do due to that common beast, the time restraint. What I want authors to know about the pieces I reject is that I myself have had plenty of work rejected. I know the feeling intimately. It's not a personal affront on the writer or even the piece. It's simply a matter of the piece not fitting the space, the piece not being properly edited prior to submission, or even sometimes a matter of the space for a particular theme being already filled. I hope authors will submit again even after a rejection. I don't mind polite requests for details on my comments, but I do not always have the time to respond with the detail I would like to provide.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

DG: How important is it to follow submissions guidelines and once accepted, respond in a timely fashion to communication from the editor?

The importance of following submissions guidelines and keeping in timely contact with the editor is the best bet a writer has to succeed in a professional sense. I can't stress enough how important this is. You, writer, are entering a professional relationship when you submit to a publication. The editor is as well, by accepting or soliciting that work. Both parties should behave accordingly as much as possible, and when miscommunication and mistakes are made, humor and a little bit of understanding are key and create the possibilities of great life long writer/editor relationships.

Thank you, Dena. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 9/22--Six Questions for Doc O'Donnell, Senior Editor, Dirty Noir

Six Questions for Kristin Ginger, Editor, YoYoMagazine

2011-09-15T02:00:00.002-04:00

**With input from co-editors Amber Ginsburg and Rebecca Keller

"We are interested in all kinds of work, including that which can be easily categorized and that which defies labels; we publish a variety of sculpture, installations, poetry, prose poetry, fiction, photography, nonfiction, socially-engaged research, essays, editorials, interdisciplinary creations and art of all stripes and varieties." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

AG: Because we publish art, poetry, and narrative (fiction and nonfiction), our definition of a story is very open. It can be made of images (static or moving), sounds, or words. We look for original interpretations of a subject.

KG: We hope to find fresh voices with insightful takes on challenging topics; we’re particularly interested in artistic collaborations and socially engaged pieces.

RK: I’m also drawn in by an interesting topic or connection, something I didn’t know before, or haven’t seen before, or a poetic or surprising juxtaposition or combination. We are interdisciplinary--if you are using words and images and research together in interesting ways, I am very likely to want to work with you--even if we need to do some editorial work together to bring the piece to stronger focus.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

KG: Spelling and grammar should be a given. Poor writing is the first and most immediate turn off, probably followed by immature or tired takes on a common subject.

AG: Trite metaphors!

RK: Or people who really, truly don’t get it, haven’t read the magazine, or keep sending emails saying they don’t understand our premise and then submit multiple things anyway.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

KG: Sadly, contemporary attention spans are short, and anything in a story that isn’t absolutely necessary starts to weigh it down. Take the time you need to express the story, but no more than that--brevity is usually better than verbosity. Having said that, of course, there are exceptions; we’re always open to longer short stories that, as Amber says, are a slow simmer.

RK: There are also people whose works are really trying to make a broad/generalized (as opposed to individual and specific) political or social point, and are trying to do it though fiction—this is very tough to do and often these fall into allegory or moralizing. So am I being contradictory to say I love it when it is done well, and stories poetry etc. connect to larger political or cultural issues? The devil is in the execution, I guess. But we also publish non-fiction, essays, and other things that are not easily categorized, which is something I love about YoYo.

AG: The three of us, with divergent practices and creative focuses, are almost always in agreement about not only submissions but areas of concern. We each blind edit a work, and while our suggestions might differ slightly, VERY OFTEN all three of us spot the same sentence, visual placement or other concern in a work. It has been curious and quite remarkable.  

SQF: What is it about the characters in a story that makes them pop off the page and grab hold of you?

RK: A sense of a convincing, and interesting, inner life: If a character HAS character and intelligence.

KG: Strong dialogue.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

KG: We believe that stories we reject might very well find a home elsewhere; different publications have different missions. We hope that authors realize a rejection from us is just saying that their work doesn’t fit our vision for this issue, not that we don’t think it should be published by others. Rejection is part of the game. It’s important to get used to it in any artistic profession, and rudeness in response to a rejection only confirms that the rejection was deserved. We are happy to correspond with authors regarding their work--we often have extended email conversations about submissions, both those that were and those that weren’t accepted.

RK: I don’t think we’ve had too many of those so far...but people need to behave with maturity. But, as Kristin says, we have had extended email conversations with submitters--I like to think they were helpful.

AG: Agreed.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

AG: How is your publication different from other publications?

RK: I second that--because we have a unique structure that is responsive and iterative; each issue builds on a conversation and upon other works.

Thank you, Amber, Rebecca, and Kristin. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 9/19--Six Questions for Dena Rash Guzman, Editor, Unshod Quills

Six Questions for Tyler Gobble and Layne Ransom, Editors, Stoked Journal

2011-09-12T02:00:00.027-04:00

Stoked publishes literary poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, as well as interviews and book reviews. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story/poem and why?

SJ: RELENTLESS ENERGY, FUN and PUNCTUATION

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story/poem is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

SJ:

The writer is afraid, like seriously scared, and won't get his/her head out from under the pillow to be like WOO and make us wanna believe in magic.
Story/poem is full of moons and birds and dead white dudes, all just sitting around half-asleep.
A lack of understanding of The Punctuation Balance principles, like too many ////// or not even one semicolon -- WUZZZZZ IN THE WORLD IS UP WITH THAT?

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story/poem?

SJ:

bad sense of self, like ugh I'm a fat kid, or a voice that rolls over itself
obvious lack of editing/revising
that bullshit where the writer includes blurbs from his/her buddies or videos of him/her reading poems which fill up four times as much room as the two poems he/she sent.

SQF: What is it about the characters in a story that makes them pop off the page and grab hold of you?

SJ: ACTION is cool. Make them move, I mean really MAKE THEM MOVE. Also, dynamite and big arms. Also also, we like sexiness but can't really admit that respectably. oopz.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

SJ: I like talking to people. It's no fun being stoked alone.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

TG: A/S/L?
22/M/My Parents' House

Thank you, Tyler and Layne. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 9/15--Six Questions for Kristin Ginger, Editor, YoYoMagazine

Six Questions for Gay Degani, Editor, Flash Fiction Chronicles

2011-09-08T02:00:00.046-04:00

Flash Fiction Chronicles is interested in helping fiction writers create high-quality flash fiction. Learn more here.

SQF: What is Flash Fiction Chronicles?

GD: Flash Fiction Chronicles comes out of Every Day Publishing whose flagship site is Every Day Fiction. It was originally conceived as a blog, an adjunct to the forum that already exists there and the triumvirate at EDP, Camille, Jordan, and Steven, posted on that forum they needed someone to oversee the blog. I was standing in the back row and when no one volunteered, I decided, oh well, why not? It can't be that big a deal the mediate a blog that others will write.

That had been the concept, to give writers who were published at EDF and who participated in the forum a place to write about writing and, yes, link to their stories. So with that in mind, I said yes. Haha! That was over two years ago, and we've turned into something quite different. This happened because they told me I could do anything I wanted: carte blanche, and because although some of the great writers at EDF put up posts, it didn't take me long to realize that if I didn't actively solicit, I would be the only one writing. Thus we morphed from a plain do-it-when-you-want blog to a controlled substance with a mission statement.

Our goal is to help in the growth of quality flash fiction for writers and readers online and in print. This site is dedicated to the discussion of the art and craft of flash fiction, fiction in general, and the issues of writing, marketing, and publishing today.

Amazing what happens when you draft one of those!

SQF: FFC includes articles about flash fiction. What are you looking for in an article submission?

GD: We're very open. We've had to be because it seems most writers of fiction are not tuning up their computers daily to write non-fiction articles. However, we've been very lucky with our contributors and found that just about anything that has to do with the writing life--on the page and off--can work. My ideal article would be around a thousand words (just like a flash) and explore some aspect of craft or writing experience that has the possibility of getting some writer out there in the ether excited about writing or give him or her an answer to a craft problem. We have a list of suggestions for article topics on our About/Submit page. You'll also find our submission manager there from Submishmash. So easy for us and so easy for writers.

SQF: What are the main reasons an article is rejected?

GD: Lack of self-editing. In the beginning, I was willing to help edit any piece that had a kernel of an idea but as we've grown, I find taking the time to do that more and more difficult even with our added staff of Michelle Reale, Jim Harrington, and Erin Kelly. So many people have great ideas, but they don't follow through to a polished article. We also will occasionally get fiction which shows me that many writers, usually new, don't investigate the venues they send to.

SQF: Should writers query before sending an article?

GD: A query isn't necessary and sometimes annoying. I've had writers send me query after query and never deliver the article. I'd rather have a finished, polished, and proof-read article submitted through our sub-manager than to take the time to answer queries. And as we grow we are becoming more and more selective even though we've expanded our publishing from two days a week to three. However, nothing is lost by sending something to us. We want to read it and our acceptance rate is still high.

SQF: Do you provide feedback for rejected articles?

GD: We do. If the article has a good idea, but just needs more info or a slightly different slant so it works for flash, we encourage writers to do that. We accept almost all rewritten articles. We like the effort writers make, and we know that sometimes it takes more than one trip through a piece of writing to get it where it needs to be.

SQF: Besides articles, what other materials will readers find on your site?

GD: Ahhhhhh, well. Now you are talking. With a staff, we've been able to expand some of our features. For example, you, Jim, have helped us tremendously by becoming our Markets editor organizing the different venues by word count. This is an incredible help for those of us who end up with a lot of shorter pieces. Duotrope--as wonderful as it is--can be somewhat cumbersome for flash writers. We also have lists of "havens" for encouragement and motivation as well as "communities" that encourage writers with prompts and feedback. And speaking of prompts, my favorite job is posting our Daily Prompt feature which contains ten random words and a quotation to jump start a writer's day. The wonderful thing about the Daily Prompt is that it's led us to our annual String of 10 Contest.

The String of 10 Contest happens every February. This is the only week we post the same string of ten words and a quotation every day and ask writers to send us their 250 word stories. We have a guest judge who selects the top three stories. Prizes include publication for First Place at Every Day Fiction and a chance (if chosen by the readers and staff at EDF) to be in the Best of Every Day Fiction anthology while Second and Third are published at Flash Fiction Chronicles. All three winners are interviewed at FFC.

We also plan to reinvent our Fabulous Flash feature with Erin Kelly discovering and discussing great flash on-line and we are launching Michelle's Reale's Slant, her personal interviews with writers, editors, and publishers. These two features will be in addition to our two other regular monthly columns, Aubrey Hirsch's First Mondays and Rumjhum Biswas' Rumjhum's Ruminations.

Thank you, Gay. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 9/12--Six Questions for Tyler Gobble and Layne Ransom, Editors, Stoked Journal

Six Questions for Anne M. Stickel, Editor, Black Petals

2011-09-05T00:24:00.000-04:00

Published quarterly, Black Petals is about the dark side of Science Fiction, and the bizarre and unusual in Horror. We publish short fiction, novel excerpts, poetry, and illustrations. We review books too. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

AS: Scary or supernatural elements are best because that's what we're about, but it is perfectly okay for the story to have a happy ending or erotic content. We even had one tale that ended with a recipe! A color-coded system is used to categorize an accepted story with a phrase to summarize content when listed for editing/illustrating purposes:

Violet = violence, the undead, monsters
Black = end-of-the-world, tragic lovers
Green = eerie forces of nature
Blue = science fiction, space aliens
Pink = ghosts, strange gods, demons
Red = psychosis, the surreal

Since stories are illustrated, they should spark an artist's imagination too.

A unique style or at least clear writing (with as few typos/grammos as possible) pleases us. Otherwise, too much time goes into copyediting versus content. Willingness to work with the editor is a must, even for poets. Editor Crist manages the art and web posting.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

AS: When an author submits a piece showing lack of basic mastery of the English language, especially when our posted guidelines have been ignored, and punctuation is hit and miss, the work is likely to be rejected, regardless of content. Always query first.

The story content is merely mainstream, and the speculative element is missing.

The author fails to return the release allowing us to publish the piece, especially if they then tell us that, oh, by the way, it was a simultaneous submission and has been accepted elsewhere.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

AS: Four-letter words are allowed, but not when other words would work better...and they usually do. Using words like 'that' and 'made his way' to the point of distraction is another pet peeve, as is the use of periods where commas (or semicolons) belong and vice versa. The biggest problem, though, is failure to read our posted guidelines and sending us a double-spaced story in the wrong font, especially if the title is in a different font from the body of the text. I once read a book on writing stating that somewhere out there is an editor who will take a piece, no matter what: sorry, not me.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

AS: Usually the comments are brief, since writers are easily offended by being told the detailed reasons for rejection. BP doesn't reject very many stories because we're on the lookout for new voices. Sometimes an author will ask for reasons, and then we go into more detail. Sometimes a story makes it all the way into the 'zine and an author then asks to have it removed because they don't want their stuff out there for personal reasons or suddenly decide they don't like anyone editing them (warts and all). Most are happy with the editing and online appearance (courtesy of webmaster-coeditor K. Crist).

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

AS: Virtually all of our readers are writers too, and many of them teach creative writing. Most of us writers take ourselves way too seriously and fail to have any fun doing it. BP is a for-love-of venue, which is why I enjoy it so much, and have met many unsung but highly accomplished writers (none of them 'famous', but many of them multiply-published). I see the editing as my volunteer job, the way others see working in a homeless shelter or soup kitchen. Really, though, writing is an addiction, and I love hanging out with the other addicts. I expect them all to surpass me, and I want to see them shine bright enough to inspire the next generation of writing readers.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

AS:
Q: How do you like working with other editors?
A: Nothing beats working with one's soul mates.

Thank you, Anne. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 9/8--Six Questions for Gay Degani, Editor, Flash Fiction Chronicles

Six Questions for Sam, Editor, Spilt Milk Magazine

2011-09-01T02:00:00.004-04:00

"We like stories with teeth. We especially like stories about teeth. We like understated oddness and snakes that sleep with one eye open. We like people who can do unusual and arresting things with words, and who can do it well. We are swayed by tone more than content, and if you mesh the subtle and surreal into one seamless wonder, we’d love for you to send us a little something." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

S: Accomplished/confident use of language, finely-honed tone, and (as quoted above), ‘understated oddness.’

I love it when something weird is happening within the narrative, but conveyed in a dry or naturalistic tone, so as a reader you feel like you’re sliding into a strange landscape.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

S: We used to have a pie chart that basically said, “most of what we read, we really like, and a handful we’re not so keen on. There’s another small portion that we adore, and that’s what makes the cut.” I always feel weird rejecting good work, but for the magazine to work we have to go for the creamy bit from the top of the milk bottle, so to speak.

The second reason - failure to read our guidelines.

Third reason – bad manners. For example, whilst withdrawing a submission that’s been accepted elsewhere is fine, to then submit new work and withdraw it the very next day (five times in a row) won’t do you any favours. Ditto stating that your ‘payment terms’ are two copies of another publication. Ouch.

One way of reducing your chances of rejection is simply to read a previous issue (#2 - #5 are free and online).

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

S: I’m not sure I’d call them mistakes, but there are things I’m not particularly fond of, such as anything that seems too forced or self-consciously clever. If something is unpolished, unfinished or contains bits that don’t quite work, it’s not ready to be published – in such instances I’ll usually let the author know in case they want to polish it up and resubmit.

I also struggle to appreciate poetry that dots the words all over the place, but that’s just a personal thing. Some zines will lap that stuff up, so it’s okay to think of them before us.

A lot of people are irked by poor grammar and spelling, which always looks lazy, but if the piece is otherwise amazing I certainly wouldn’t dismiss it.

SQF: What is it about the characters in a story that makes them pop off the page and grab hold of you?

S: Gosh, that’s tricky. Spilt Milk is about the short stuff (500 words or less), so I’m much more interested in voice, tone, mood, and language. I like prose that’s rolled around in some poetry and forgotten to shake it off afterwards.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

S: Finding replies in my inbox is always a little scary, but I’ve yet to encounter anything unprofessional. With regards to what rejected writers should know, it would be that in all likelihood it was a good piece of work that I enjoyed and not to feel disheartened just because one editor didn’t choose to include it. If you wanted to sugar coat it, you could say it’s more about a piece finding the right ‘home’, though I guess truly exceptional work will get snapped up much sooner.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

S: Perhaps something along the lines of ‘why don’t you offer feedback?’.

For the first issue, I worked with writers who sent pieces I felt had potential but needed a little work. So I sent suggestions, saying which bits I felt were strong, and which bits I thought were less successful, and why. It's an incredibly time-consuming process (some pieces went back and forth for a while), and I am in awe of all editors who make the time to engage with their writers in this way.

Like many other magazines, Spilt Milk manifests in my free time, which I now have a lot less of. In order to keep the issues coming, I’d rather send a straightforward rejection than one with a rushed or glib comment in return for something the writer (probably) spent a lot of time and effort creating.

My fear of pedants compels me to state that the many other lovely magazines out there happen in other people's free time; I am not out to claim them all my own.

Thank you, Sam. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 9/5--Six Questions for Anne M. Stickel, Editor, Black Petals

Six Questions for Marjorie Merle, Editor, Underneath the Juniper Tree

2011-08-29T02:00:00.023-04:00

Underneath the Juniper Tree publishes dark, strange, or whimsical children's literature (think Brothers Grimm and Edward Gorey rolled into one) in the following forms: short story, poetry, limerick, and more. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

MM: First, we check that the writer (or artist, as we publish art as well) has followed the guidelines. We have challenges and contests that require varying amounts of text and requirements. If the writer does not adhere to those (for example, some of our challenges want only three sentences) then we won't continue with their piece.

Second, the piece must be creative. I know that "creative" is a very vague and all-encompassing word. Since our niche is eerie and Grimm-like stories or art, we look to see how the writer or artist interprets that. There are so many stories that are macabre and creepy, so we like to see something that surprises us. We especially like when a writer takes an old idea and does something new with it. For example I recently received a piece about a headless boy who, we discover, is the son of the Headless Horseman. The whole story is about how that came to be and all the peculiar things that happen to this boy. We love that sort of thinking. We are particularly fond of robots, as well. We don't get many robot stories in (hint hint).

The third thing we look for is good writing. Good writing not only requires a skill in stringing together words and sentences, but using grammar correctly and effectively. I cannot tell you how many people still double-space after a period. And some pieces I've spent hours just dealing with commas, periods and spaces. This is frustrating when it comes to formatting the piece for our monthly issues. A person doesn't have to be perfect at grammar (that's what we have editors and proofreaders for), but I've seen some writing that looks like it was tossed in a blender and then emailed to us. Commas in the middle of the sentence! "I went, for a walk the sky was blue." It kills me.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

MM: 1) If a story has nothing to do with our niche, I will not accept it. If I'm feeling particularly nice, I will read through the whole thing and give my opinion on the story in and of itself, but I will let the writer know that it doesn't fit our genre. And really a writer should be looking at some of what the publication has published to get a feel if their piece fits in or not.

2) Using "he said" or "she said" or "they said" a lot. There are so many words in the English language, I'm sure you can find something else that could replace "said". Reading writing like that is like eating cardboard.

3) Sending an email with zero information (including the name of the person sending the email) other than their written piece. I don't like writing a person back asking them for their name and what on earth are they sending this to me for? Including a little information pertaining to the publication: "Dear Marjorie, I really love the dark whimsy of Underneath The Juniper Tree. Also, I think you are a very amazing person" is a good start. Then info about yourself. "My name is Mr. Penhands, and I'm writing to you about my submission Some Such Story to be considered for your magazine. I've been writing since I was a fetus and have found myself traveling the world writing all manner of such and such, so and so on."

At Underneath The Juniper Tree we are all volunteers doing this because it's something we're passionate about. Wasting our time is not a good foot in our door. We want to showcase new (and used) talent and don't have time to diddle dawdle through people who like to shoot off work to everyone.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

MM: All these negative questions! Bad writing and inconsiderate people are big turn offs for us reading stories.

SQF: What is the best part of being an editor?

MM: We get to read such amazing work and intriguing stories that we (or at least I) wish we had written. We've also come across some really talented artists that we never would have connected with if we had never started UTJT. What I also love about editing is that I am the one outside this writer's world, and I have a more objective view of the piece. I love being able to stand back and say, "How about this?" and really getting to work with the writers on their pieces. We had one piece come into us that was completely bonkers (not in a good way), and once we were through with the edits (I think we sent the piece back and forth between the editors and the writer about five times) it was a really strong and interesting story.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

MM: When someone tells you your story or artwork isn't good or isn't for them, it's hard to not feel personally scorned. I completely understand that feeling. If I'm not going to accept something, I will tell them in a way that I feel is constructive why it's not right for UTJT. I'll try to think of where their piece might fit better. I've yet to come across really, REALLY horrible writing or a very angry person, so we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there. If I do come across it, I would get feedback from Tex (my ever faithful and disturbing companion) about what he thinks. I wouldn't mind at all if a writer wrote me back (after rejection) and asked me questions as to why I didn't take the piece. If they tell me why I should take the piece, then there might be a problem. But I have no qualms about talking over with a writer what didn't work for us and if they want to try to rework it so it does, I'm completely happy with that.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

MM: "How long should a writer wait for an answer from an editor or publisher about their piece?"

I would say for our publication that if we haven't gotten back to the writer in a week, then their email either was put in our spam folder or flew out of our email sight really quickly. What I would suggest specifically if dealing with us is to email us again just as a reminder. I love reminders. I wouldn't be offended or feel like the writer was wasting my time. Often, I've looked at a piece, but so many things have happened that I haven't had a chance to email back.

Thank you, Marjorie. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 9/1--Six Questions for Sam, Editor, Spilt Milk Magazine

Six Questions for Ben Aleshire, Editor, The Salon: A Journal of Poetry & Fiction

2011-08-25T02:00:00.034-04:00

The Salon publishes poetry, prose and plays. "Writing from all styles and traditions is welcomed; the focus is on clarity, purpose, originality, and inventiveness of language." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

BA: I started The Salon to fill a void that existed in Vermont - a publication that bridges the divide between the gutter and the ivory tower. Those two poles have a lot to learn from each other, and the conversations that happen on the middle of the bridge between them are what we want to get into readers hands. The underground is suspicious of the academy, because they suspect them of being over-paid bourgeois bores, (which many of them are) - and the academy is suspicious of the underground, because they suspect the underground is ignorant and talentless (which many of them are).

Successful writers have the craft needed to communicate ideas effectively, but the cutting edge of art will always be fermenting in the underground. These two groups need each other more than they think, and The Salon is here to unite them in the same pages and at the same readings.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story/poem and why?

BA: All literary magazines say more or less the same thing: Fresh language, writing that moves us, writing that is necessary. I don't have much to add, and analysis of art is not my strong point; its a gut thing, which is also something many editors say. I think the answers to the next question will be more helpful.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story/poem is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

BA:
1. Over-personal writing - writing about mundane everyday activities that has little meaning for anyone other than the author. No one cares that you saw a squirrel at your bird feeder. Or mowed your lawn, or your lover broke up with you. What we do care about is: What changed inside you during this moment? What is the relationship between this moment and the rest of humanity?

2. Boring language and word choice. 'The grass is tall' - 'I went into town' - these are poor sentences. Read Galway Kinnel for really inventive language. Here he describes a saw:

burning
black arcs into some scavenged hemlock plank,
like dark circles under eyes
when the brain thinks too close to the skin

3. Lack of structure. We publish mostly free verse, but almost everything we publish has some kind of structure to it - without even a basic structure, writing (usually) comes across as rambling, unfocused, and slap-dash. Even 'Howl' had a very clear structure to it. If you are writing in lines of varying length, taking random stanza breaks, indenting randomly, not punctuating - consider reformatting the poem in a less sloppy way.

SQF: Approximately what percentage of your submissions do you accept?

BA: We accept a high percentage of submissions; I would say its somewhere around 30%. This is partly due to the nature of a new magazine which publishes only writers living in Vermont or connected to Vermont. Most of the magazine is solicited, but we would like that to change; we would like to see more submissions.

SQF: Will you publish a story/poem an author posted on a personal blog?

BA: No. The whole point of a magazine is that the content is only available in the magazine. Otherwise readers wouldn't have any need to read it!

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

BA: What is your circulation and where is The Salon distributed?

Our circulation is 500 and the magazine is distributed state-wide in around 50 different locations: independent bookstores, libraries, cafes, and subscriptions. We also participate in literary festivals like the Burlington Book Festival, and hold receptions and readings through our partnership with Burlington City Arts.

Thank you, Ben. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 8/29--Six Questions for Marjorie Merle, Editor, Underneath the Juniper Tree

Six Questions for Jonathan Starke, Editor, Palooka

2011-08-22T02:00:00.002-04:00

"Palooka is a journal of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, plays, graphic short stories, graphic essays, comic strips, artwork, and photography. We offer print and electronic versions of our journal and are also an online presence offering samples of the published materials. We're determined to find those writers and artists who are hungry and relevant, flying under the radar, producing great works that are going unnoticed by other journals." Learn more here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

JS: 1) Voice 2) Character 3) Subtlety

I like interesting story lines, but the characters are what matter most to me. I don't feel much about machines or houses or trees. They can be incorporated into the story or poem, and the character might feel sentimentality toward them, but they better not be the main focus. Strong images are big for me. Things I won't forget. Something described in a unique way where I can smell it or taste it or feel it. I like things done subtly. I don't like big metaphors. I don't like symbols and metaphors being pointed out by the author. I want the author's hand to not exist, but I want the voice in the story or poem to absolutely exist. Honest, strong, sure of itself.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

JS: I never reject stories or poems because they don't meet my guidelines. I see a lot of editors saying that, and I understand it's annoying, but that's no reason to just toss a submissions away. You might be passing up on Hemingway because you're annoyed with them missing the guidelines or having typos. Sure, you want professional work, but mistakes happen and typos are inevitable. A clean manuscript is nice, obviously. Anyhow, I pass on stories that are just boring. The traditional literary story is boring to me. There doesn't have to be thunder and car crashes on page one, that's not what I'm saying. The voice must carry me. The characters must be unique and intriguing. I pass on characters and plots I've seen before. I pass on hokey voices that I just can't buy. In poetry, I pass on vaguery, cliches, and lack of strong image and story-telling. I also dislike overt rhyming and fairy-tale endings.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

JS: I pretty much covered it.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

JS: I do when I think the work is very close to publishable OR and most often, when a writer is young or I think they need encouragement (I know this because I check all cover letters after reading pieces and making my decision). I like to encourage those who are just starting out or are pursuing a cool project or who personally address previous issues or make personal comments.

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

JS: Writing is tough. It's really tough. Most journals accept less than five percent of all pieces sent to them. The work is hard enough to do, but then you go out and try and get your stuff published, and it's a really hard endeavor. I had over 400 rejection letters before I had an acceptance. I was always submitting to the best journals in the country, and I was submitting when I began writing, which isn't the smartest idea. It takes a lot of time and patience to break into those top-tier journals, but after several years, it did happen. I've been pretty fortunate the past few years. I think a writer has to just push on, and it's such a lonely endeavor for most of us. You write by yourself and oftentimes writers don't have peers to show their work to. Everyone needs a good editor, and everyone needs to push on and persevere, especially in the face of rejection.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

JS: What do you hate most and love most about being an editor?

I hate rejecting pieces. I love accepting them. Nothing makes me happier than to make a writer or artist's month with a YES.

Thank you, Jonathan. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 8/25--Six Questions for Ben Aleshire, Editor, The Salon: A Journal of Poetry & Fiction

Six Questions for Chasity Thomas, Editor-in-Chief/Founder, Milk Sugar

2011-08-18T02:00:00.007-04:00

Milk Sugar is a bi-monthly journal publishing poetry, fiction to 10,000 words and nonfiction. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

CT: I started Milk Sugar because, for one, I am a lover of the written word and have been for some time. I began work as a teen at my local library because books have always given me solace and there was no other place I wanted to be. Currently, I work as a librarian and read so many great authors, new and old, and I also write in my spare time. I liked the idea of creating a forum for writers of all kinds, and the Internet has made that a lot easier to do. I have had authors tell me that they have sent work into the journal precisely because I specify that I am open to work that is different and not just typical literary work, and that makes me happy. If something is well written and engaging, it shouldn’t matter how, different it is.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

CT: Heart represents the sentiment behind the story. Some people are good technical writers so they know when to dot their i’s and cross their t’s. Their grammar is impeccable and they know how to structure a story, but what they write is just not engaging. I want to be drawn in, that to me is most important. But on the flip side when I say execution, I do mean that the writing should make sense. The story should be well written grammatically and have a structure that keeps the story flowing. Good self editing for me is more than just the technical. It means the writer knows how to keep a good pace when telling a story. How a story flows is important, because I view stories in the same way I do poetry. There is a rhythm to it that a good writer is able to follow.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

CT: Top three reasons for rejection: sloppy writing, not introducing ones self when sending work and nonsensical work.

SQF: Approximately what percentage of your submissions do you accept?

CT: I would say I accept 70% of what I receive. That number is lessening as I get more and more submissions. I try to keep each issue with five stories, five poets and one nonfiction piece, if there is one.

SQF: Will you publish a story an author posted on a personal blog?

CT: I have done it, and I have no problem doing so mainly because putting it on my site means it might get more exposure.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

CT: Hmm, perhaps where I got the name for the magazine. It is hard coming up with something catchy and intriguing but not too silly. I came up with the name Milk Sugar because those are two fundamental items in any kitchen, and I wanted to create a magazine that represents the fundamentals of good writing. Plus, I like the way they sound together.

Thank you, Chasity. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 8/22--Six Questions for Jonathan Starke, Editor, Palooka

Six Questions for Sarah Lynn Knowles, Curator, Storychord

2011-08-15T02:00:00.016-04:00

"Every other Monday, Storychord.com features one story, one image, and a one-song "soundtrack"-- each by underexposed talent." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

SLK: The site melds my three favorite interests—fiction, music, and art—into three-way collaborative packages that feel, to me, like little films almost. It’s fun to work on, and I hope fun to consume. A lot of literary magazines can feel too uptight and academic for non-writers to bother with, I think. Music and art blogs can be a bit intimidating, too, if you’re not an already-in-the-know consumer. So, as someone whose interests are broad but passionate, my hope is that fans of one medium will visit and maybe be enlightened to another format they don’t usually consider too much. I try to keep things simple and really accessible.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

SLK: I’m open to most anything that impresses me. For example, my all-time favorite writers are John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut, and Margaret Atwood; and besides admiring their super-prolific output, I appreciate how well-honed and distinct their voices are. An appropriately stylized voice is important to me, whether it’s subtle or dramatic — not only for written submissions, but for the songs and art that I pair them with. I follow my gut instincts, mostly. So much rides on how the voice of each piece sets a particular tone and makes me feel.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

SLK: Given the collaborative nature of the site. I hold onto submissions for a few months sometimes—even my immediate favorites—until I come across an equally-impressive song/story/image that suits its theme and voice. My inbox is filled with flagged emails from artists and bands I want to use that just don’t mesh with any of the fiction I’ve got on hand. So my advice to potential contributors is just to follow the guidelines and send it in… and if you don’t hear back from me in a few months’ time, feel free to submit something else. Also, it does help to mention upcoming publications, gallery showings, and album releases; I love featuring contributors the same week they’ve got a project releasing/showing in order to help plug it with a link in the bio section.

SQF: Approximately what percentage of your submissions do you accept?

SLK: It varies with the medium. But the percentage is small given that Storychord features just 1 story, 1 song, and 1 image every other week, and the number of submissions I receive has increased now that the publication is in its second year. Plus, the acceptance/rejection project is less straightforward than other publications' given that I'm curating a three-way collaboration between mediums. I honestly am sitting on so much good stuff, just waiting for the right puzzle piece to fit alongside it.

SQF: Will you publish a story an author posted on a personal blog?

SLK: Sure. Storychord does not require exclusive publication rights.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

SLK: I was once asked in another interview, "If you were able to publish an issue of Storychord using a famous author’s story, a famous musician’s song, and a famous artist’s visuals, who would you like to see all together on a page?" The answer was fun to ponder. I think the Storychord issue of my dreams would be my favorite kind of creepy—the kind that sticks with you for days. I’d match a darkly comedic Kurt Vonnegut story with an quirkily eerie Thom Yorke solo track and a never-before-seen addition to Rene Magritte’s surreal masked figure series.

Thank you, Sarah. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 8/18--Six Questions for Chasity Thomas, Editor-in-Chief/Founder, Milk Sugar

Six Questions for Lyn Perry, Editor/Publisher, Resident Aliens Magazine and ResAliens Press

2011-08-11T02:00:00.033-04:00

Lyn Perry is the founding editor of Residential Aliens, an online and print magazine, as well as the publisher of ResAliens Press -- a micropublishing venture that specializes in "spiritually infused speculative fiction."

"Combining spec fic and spirituality, and wanting to contribute to the faith-informed genre fiction, ResAliens Press offers fans of science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural thriller a quality venue in which to share their passion."

Lyn Perry writes:

Although the zine came first (in the form of a blog in 2007), I decided to start a "one man show" small press with the goal of turning this part time hobby into a regular small business. In addition to Residential Aliens magazine, I also edit Fear & Trembling magazine -- an outlet for "spiritual horror" but without the sex, gore, and celebratory evil that one often finds within this genre. My goal as a publisher is to provide free content via these two sites as well as publish various anthologies and single author collections of short stories by some of our recurring authors. Learn more here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

LP: I consider myself a traditionalist when it comes to what I look for in a story: solid plot, intriguing characters, engaging writing. I teach Middle School Language Arts and have to admit I like the basic narrative structure we're all familiar with: inciting incident, rising action, crisis-climax, and denouement. I would say, though, that since truly original plots are few and far between, I place a bit more weight on characterization and the voice of the writer. These two elements, in my opinion, distinguish good stories from poor. If someone sends me an experimental/psychedelic piece because they want to offer something other than a traditionally plotted tale, it'll have a tough time avoiding the delete button.

SQF: When reading a story, what clues tell you the story was written by a novice author?

LP: Based on the above, then, if the plot doesn't go anywhere and the characters are flat and the writing is boring, then these are clues, to me, that the writer needs to brush up on the basics. I don't mind "derivative" works (stories that follow the common tropes we all love or love to hate) as long as there is at least some new slant on the storyline and/or strong characterization. That being said, the more common the plot or scenario, the sharper the writing has to be to make it interesting.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

LP: If a story is ultimately nihilistic, I won't accept it. I admit that I enjoy moral/happy endings. Not that every story has to end with the hero kissing the horse, but there should be some indication of hope, transformation, or resolution for me to find a story fulfilling. Again, this doesn't mean that "everything works out" but I want to be left with the feeling that one day it might. This is what I mean when I say I want to publish "spiritually infused" spec fic -- not every story has to be spiritual, but it should touch on themes of truth and eternality.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

LP: I do. I try to make it clear, however, that I’m just one editor with a biased opinion, lol. What doesn’t work for me may work for another editor and venue. I’ll even try to point the author in the direction of a market that may be a better fit for them. I also have a couple of submission editors that will sometimes comment a bit more in depth on what worked and didn’t work for them in the story. I’ll send those anonymous comments to the author if appropriate. The goal is for all of us to become better at the craft, right? So we all need feedback every now and then.

SQF: What do you consider to be the primary responsibilities of an editor?

LP: I feel my primary role as an editor/publisher is to provide a quality venue for readers and writers of spec fic to share their passion. To help accomplish this, I’ll work with brand new writers to hone their skills and help edit their submissions. What’s fun is that up to about 25% of the fiction I publish are “you’re the first magazine to accept me” stories, which is really gratifying! I want to meet new writers and leave them with a positive submission experience.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

LP: Maybe this question: What new stories/themes/genres would you like to see submitted to Residential Aliens this year?

I enjoy such a wide variety of speculative fiction that I really want a cross section of themes and genres in each issue. One reason I became the editor of Fear & Trembling was because so many people were sending me horror stories, which I didn't think fit my vision at Residential Aliens -- so I found a different outlet for them. So other than horror, ResAliens is open to just about anything (keeping in mind the PGish guideline that I'm shooting for). I'm not necessarily looking for "religious" stories -- for me "spiritually infused" spec fic is broader than that. I like Westerns, so a cross-genre story will definitely get my attention.

Thank you, Lyn. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 8/15--Six Questions for Sarah Lynn Knowles, Curator, Storychord

Six Questions for Sylvia Hiven, Editor, Linger Fiction

2011-08-08T02:00:00.015-04:00

Linger Fiction publishes flash fiction from 150-1,000 words. "We want stuff that’s unforgettable–stories that grab us from the first paragraph and won’t release us until the last word. Even then, the stories should stay with us. We want to think about it on the bus the next morning, and tell our friends about it." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

SH: For a few reasons. First, because I felt that there wasn't really a market for the sort of stories I enjoy, so I thought, why not create it. Also, as a writer myself, I wanted to see how my submissions and stories stacked up against the competition. It is incredibly enlightening to see what sort of stories are out there, what approaches and styles are common, what plots are done over and over, etc.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

SH: An intriguing first line. Confidence in style. Unpredictability. I like to read stories where I feel the writers know what they're doing, but I as a reader have no idea where the story is heading.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

SH: The first reason: poor technique. I will not finish reading a story if it's clear the writer either didn't proof read the story, or simply doesn't have the skill to master basic grammar and technique. Second, if the story is unoriginal and nothing about it stands out. If it bored me, it's going to bore my readers. Third, if the story hinges on a twist where the protagonist dies horribly in the end, and there is no other point to the story.

SQF: Approximately what percentage of your submissions do you accept?

SH: I would say around 3%. I have to essentially fall in love with a story to accept it, and I'm pretty hard to charm.

SQF: Will you publish a story an author posted on a personal blog?

SH: No.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

SH: What is the one thing writers should not do in their stories? Answer: kill off the main character in the end. That isn't the only way to achieve resonance with a reader.

Thank you, Sylvia. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 8/11--Six Questions for Lyn Perry, Editor/Publisher, Resident Aliens Magazine and ResAliens Press

Six Questions for Sue Babcock, Fiction Editor, Silver Blade

2011-08-04T02:00:00.023-04:00

Silver Blade publishes cutting edge science fiction, slipstream and classic and modern fantasy in the following formats: short stories (1,000-4,000 words), flash fiction (100-1,000 words), poetry (no longer than 1,000 words), and art. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

SB: Intensity, great characterization and action.

Intensity: I love stories that engage me on an emotional level. The intensity must flow naturally from the action, characterization and plot, and I do not want to feel manipulated. I want to be awed by the strength, the wickedness, the forgiveness or gentleness of the characters, by the intensity of the characters feelings and resolve, by the action and the risks the main characters take. I want the author to have risked something – to have allowed the reader into his or her most private world where the soul and heart are hidden.

Great characterization: Stories with great plots, but with flat characters leave me saddened by the wasted potential. Characters should live and breathe, should be rounded with good traits and with faults. Even the antagonist should have something the reader can appreciate about him or her (or it). No one is all good or all bad, and I love characters that reflect this complexity.

Action: Silver Blade thrives on action, but the action must emanate naturally from the characters and the plot. I love action that has meaning, is a metaphor for something greater, and leaves me breathless.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

SB: f there is consistently poor grammar and spelling, or if the plot is confusing, clichéd or incomplete, or if it doesn’t meet our guidelines in major ways (such as the wrong genre), I feel that these issues are often the result of poor workshopping and editing, as if the author didn’t care enough about either the story or about the publication it was submitted to. These indications of apathy will turn me off to the story faster than anything else.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

SB: I see a lot of poor hooks and poor endings. I like stories that engage me, if not immediately, at least within the first paragraph or two. Occasionally I have seen stories with a poor hook turn, as if by magic, into something that engages and excites me. The hook does not have to be action, it can be a softer hook, but it still needs to tell me that this story is worth reading.

Poor endings happen, I believe, because the author did not think enough about the theme of the story, did not focus on what the story was really about, and then did not know how to end it.

Both hooks and endings are important, but at Silver Blade we often work on these issues with the author. If, for example, the story has a great theme and plot, but the ending is weak, we’ll work with a willing author to see if we can come to a mutually acceptable resolution. It is this aspect of working with the authors, creating something that shines, that I particularly love about the editing effort.

SQF: What is it about the characters in a story that makes them pop off the page and grab hold of you?

SB: Contrast. I love to see individualism in characters, where each of them has their own voice and behavior that contrasts strongly with others in the story. Also, characters should be like real life, only more so, with contrasting traits. The wicked person should be really wicked, the gentle person should be gentler than anyone can image, but both of these characters should have contrasting traits. Maybe the wicked person wants to destroy the world, but this character really believes in what he or she is doing, and is doing it for altruistic reasons. Or the gentle person has a violent side when stirred up. Nothing in real life is one-sided, and stories should not be built around one-sided characters.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

SB: Authors should know that I am not rejecting them personally. It takes a bit of a tough skin to write and submit your babies to unknown and unseen entities, and I admire and respect the courage of every single author of every submitted story I read. Rejecting (or declining, as Submishmash calls it) a story is often about personal tastes. I love stories with meaning, with action and great characters, but other people at other publications may want something different. Just because a story was not a good fit for me and Silver Blade does not mean that someone else won’t love it. I really do hope every story I read gets accepted someplace.

As for authors asking polite question – ask away. We always try to provide feedback. I have been thanked for this feedback, even in cases in which I was worried that I had been a little too critical. I’m a forthright person, and I’ve never learned to sugar-coat, so my comments, although brief, try to be to the point. I’m always glad to provide more information if the author asks (politely, of course).

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

SB:
Question: Why does Silver Blade exist?

Answer: I’ve browsed through dozens, if not hundreds, of online and print magazines, and frankly wonder in some cases why they exist. I’ve seen websites with such poor layout I can’t figure out how to navigate; I’ve seen websites with colors that startle and bother my eyes so much I have to turn away; I’ve seen websites with poorly edited stories, with no commitment to archiving, with horrible graphics and worse layouts. In each of these cases I wondered what the publisher was trying to accomplish. Silver Blade is supported by the non-profit organization Silver Pen, and we want to encourage reading and writing, and to encourage websites that make someone return again and again, whether to read the stories, or to write and submit. We are by no means perfect. At Silver Blade, we are continually striving to make the site better, more accessible, and easier to find on the web. We are continually experimenting. I love this desire to be better and our mission to engage more readers and writers to spread literature and literacy everywhere.

Thank you, Jim, for providing this invaluable resource of questions through your blog, and for inviting me and Silver Blade to participate!

Thank you, Sue. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 8/8--Six Questions for Sylvia Hiven, Editor, Linger Fiction

Six Questions for John C. Mannone, Poetry Editor, Silver Blade

2011-08-01T02:00:00.002-04:00

Silver Blade publishes cutting edge science fiction, slipstream and classic and modern fantasy in the following formats: short stories (1,000-4,000 words), flash fiction (100-1,000 words), poetry (no longer than 1,000 words), and art. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a poem and why?

JM: By coincidence, I recently explicated these three things in my introductory remarks as guest poetry editor in another venue (Inkspill Magazine, Issue 5, Spring 2011). I’ll reproduce it here:

In making my selections, I look for several things:

First, the poem must grab me; connect on at least one level. I want to see emotional investment by the author. Though I am partial to rich imagery, I realize many contemporary poems are anecdotal. I adopt what Ted Kooser (U. S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006) says, “don’t rely on just the details of a good story to lift it into poetry. . .The story itself is merely the material. You have to do something special with that material if you want it to be a poem” (The Poetry Home Repair Manual, University of Nebraska Press, 2005, page 91).

Second, I look for a well-crafted poem. Though I favor free verse poetry, I appreciate traditional poems, if it isn’t sacrificed for form (inversions, forced rhymes, etc.). I look for the preponderance of crafting elements: poetic and distilled language, fresh expressions and images, music in the words, layered meanings and poetic structure.

If it is a lineated poem, I look for effective line breaks and eschew cut-up prose. If it is a prose poem, I adopt Robert Bly’s (Minnesota Poet Laureate 2008-present) working definition that it is a poem without line breaks (not a piece of prose) (Cited via Del Sol Review)

Third, in the final analysis everything must come together well: the poem sounds fluid when read out loud, has an appropriate appearance on the page, has the deft use of metaphor, is clear and has context. It should leave me with that Emily Dickinson reaction. She said, “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”

SQF: What are the top three reasons a poem is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

JM: Though hinted above, it is worth spotlighting because it is the single most pervasive problem—the attempt to pass off prose, which has been cut-up, as poetry.

Failure to meet our aesthetic: cutting edge science fiction, slipstream, classic and modern fantasy. We like all cross-genre work that displays elements of fantasy, and in poetry, I specifically look for a literary edge. When a submitter has failed to study the poetry in previous issues, especially since I took over as poetry editor in the summer of 2010, it seems evident that a submission was rushed off. I highly recommend poets to examine issue 8 through the current issue before submitting.

Failure to comply with submission guidelines (in particular, we do not favor epic-length poems without query and we do not print previously published work without special consideration).

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a poem?

JM: I am turned off by syntactic errors in the poems. Many of these errors could have been caught with a standard spell-checker. I don’t like beginning-of-line capitalization when there is no real reason for it other than an untrained Word application program. I become suspicious of limited creativity when all the submitted poems have the same structure. Other nuisances include unprofessional cover letters, first person bios, or missing bios. However, none of these have been showstoppers, especially since I work with the poet in resolving typos and minor crafting issues, but it is noteworthy that the careful poet is also usually careful in his/her poetry.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a poem?

JM: I nearly always provide a personal rejection letter. It often has general comments, but I also make specific comments, as well as recommendations, including other markets to consider. Perhaps this will change. I might have to revert to a form rejection when the submission rate increases, but at the moment, I field about 75 poems per submission period (a quarter). And I was also doing that many at the same time for the previously mentioned venue, so I can comfortably handle 150 per quarter. I suspect that when I receive 250-300 submissions per quarter, then I’ll only be able to personalize the short-listed poems. (Then again, if my poetry staff were to grow, I would encourage them to do as I have done.) In the worse case, I believe that Submishmash, our submission manager, can be set up with any one of several form rejections. There should be no more work in sending any of these rejections than it already is in sending one now. Editors can select the appropriate response, but now it will seem a little more personalized and be a little more useful because it won’t be the most generalized rejection possible. As a writer, I know that I would appreciate that, while at the same time respecting the valuable time of editors.

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

JM: Since I’ve become a poetry editor, I have learned a few things about writing. I like to think that they are helping me—shaping me into a better poet/writer:

Though I am always conscious of them, I am amazed at how insidious and ubiquitous clichés are.

I have become more sensitive to experimental forms.

After having seen some traditional forms deftly written, like the sestina, but especially when more modern poetic techniques are applied to them, I have developed a deeper appreciation of them. (But this is not a subliminal suggestion requesting more submissions of traditional poetry.)

Despite the subjectivity of the word, “good,” we are all capable of occasionally producing good work. Whatever one’s measure of that word might be, I am speaking in a relative way for the sake of comparison. I have seen good work (and not so good work) from the same poets whose names I recognize, whether in our venue or in another. But the one thing I learned (or should I say “had verified”) about the process of becoming a poet (or writer) is that good poets consistently produce good poems. And I believe that if the ability is already there, regardless how small, then an impressive publication record can follow with hard work at the learning of the craft and the diligence to pursue adequate markets. I have seen it a number of times in the past few years. So let this be an encouragement to the aspiring poet.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

JM: I wish I could limit my response to one question, but I can’t. However, I will only give one response.

Do you closely work with the poet so that s/he will optimize their accepted work? And does that apply to conditionally accepted work, too?

Do you have any ambitious poetry projects planned for Silver Blade, say involving bilingual submissions?

I am told your poets have been contributing literary quality speculative fiction, do you think they might be eligible for nomination for the Pushcart Prize in poetry?

And the answer to all of those questions is a simple yes.

Thank you, John. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 8/4--Six Questions for Sue Babcock, Fiction Editor, Silver Blade

Six Questions for Matt Shoard, Editor, Fleeting Magazine

2011-07-29T02:00:00.013-04:00

"Fleeting Magazine publishes exclusive short stories and poetry by new and established writers." Learn more here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

MS: Writing that feels fast and slow at the same time and looks at the world like an educated baby. It's hard to pull off, but it's true of everything good you've ever read.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

MS: It sounds like something I could have read millions of times, it sounds like 'writing' rather than writing, or it features people who chuckle - each of these makes the reader feel like they're dying rather than coming to life.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

MS: Adverbs, cliches, caricatures, patronising action, sexism in any direction, vagueness, quirky bios, blanket-bomb approaches to getting published. Writers who haven't read anything on Fleeting, or if they have, have missed the good bits.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

MS: It's frustrating for both parties, but commenting decently on every submission would take weeks. It's one reason I started The Clinic, which is kind of an antidote to that frustration and a way for writers to reach someone who knows what they need to do.

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

MS: To stand out. Editors are looking for reasons to reject you, and they've normally found one by the first or second line. Your writing must burn from the first words.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

MS: "Where is the best short fiction online?" Try nthposition, Guernica, Pulp, Granta, Eclectica, Frigg, Fringe...

Thank you, Matt. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 8/1--Six Questions for John C. Mannone, Poetry Editor, Silver Blade

Six Questions for Shawn and Justin Maddey, Founding Editors, Barge Press

2011-07-27T02:00:00.001-04:00

The editors of Barge Press want "Stuff, not things. Work that bites and claws, does heavy labor with dirty hands, the hard work of thought without remorse for the institutions it challenges. We want writing from writers who have spent time learning their craft only to completely abandon it in search of the new. Barge isn't the place to send things you would see in other journals, just the stuff others might shy away from. Barge reads year-round, just about anything you can throw at us." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a piece and why?

SM: Do you get it (is it BARGE)? Barge has a pretty specific aesthetic, largely born of the aesthetic of brevity and innovation in online literature, but mostly just the delight we find in self-degradation, grossness, and our general outsider degeneracy. We lay this out in, frankly, uncertain terms, but take great care to make sure they're true to us. If you get it, you get it, what we're all about. If you don't, well, you won't know until you do, but we will.

New language. I want to read words I've never read together before and see sentence structures that just blow me away with their strangeness and look at pages that even without reading a word jump out at me. When people talk about a writer's voice, this is what they mean... we want and need in our faces the work of authors who've truly and unforgivingly found theirs and thrown the old this-is-what-a-short-story-or-poem-should-sound-like voice in the garbage next to the pizza box that was in the car for a few months.

Do I care/does it fit? Most of the submissions that have the first two have the third, but we need to get something from a piece -- it needs to affect us in some guttural way, even if it isn't intellectually coherent, needs to make us care about its existence as a work of art (and I'm not talking about caring about characters, we generally don't like characters too much.) Beyond that, where do we see the piece fitting in with where this issue of Barge is going... what is it we're focusing on editorially, and does this work in that frame? In issue two, for example, we're trying to narrow in on more formally innovative works, whereas issue one was more about linguistic play.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a piece is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

SM: Most of what we receive is pretty high quality writing, from the academic or mainstream standpoint. They have good sentences and flow. And characters. And descriptions. And poetic formal cliches. And many, many things that they teach you in writing courses and workshops that tend to just bore us. More than anything else, we find there's this uber-voice that many writers seem to use -- this manner of sentence/line construction and word-choice that rings the same across the board; I like to call it the "author voice", when people try too hard to just sound literary, to sound legitimate or like other things they've read. If you don't have your own voice, you don't get far with us. Length is crucial, too. If you manage to keep our interest, we don't generally read past 15 pages (we've only done so once or twice). It's not just in the guidelines because we get bored easily and have small attention spans and short windows of time -- Barge is roughly 120-140 pages per issue, and we simply are not going to dedicate a fifth of our book to a single author, I don't care who you are. Even 15 pages is pushing it; really 8-10 is a maximum number we would look at and consider seriously without major revision and reduction.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a piece?

SM: People seem to like to submit their work in the wrong category... granted, we label things in a bit of a confusing fashion (which goes back to the "Do you get it" factor), but a category whose guidelines specifically say not to submit your narrative fiction will really earn you negative points for submitting your narrative fiction there. We don't like wolves in sheep's clothing or narrative fiction in non-genre categories.

We also get plenty of submissions from people who seem not to understand or care about professional formatting or courtesy. I would strongly suggest any author beginning to seek publication take the time to learn the industry standards as far as manuscript formatting, writing cover letters, and other such things. It never stops us from reading a piece and considering it for its merits alone... but it can put a bad taste in our mouths. If you submit 15 pages of prose and it's single spaced -- well, that's 30 pages of prose when properly formatted. Likewise, if you're sending multiple submissions, which we very strongly encourage, the limit is 15 pages total, not 15 pages per multiple submission. That's all we get really finicky and frustrated about, just a simple matter of being considerate of the time we put into reading your work, understanding that we all have full-time jobs on top of this, and many, many submissions on top of yours that we need to read as well.

Also, it frustrates us that we don't see enough comic sans.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a piece?

SM: For the first issue, every single submission received a personal rejection note. Largely, we've moved away from that. Once in a while when something catches our eye about an author or piece, we love to send a little note. But if a writer asks for feedback in their cover letter, we're always more than happy to give a brief or sometimes rather lengthy critique -- it slows down the response time pretty dramatically for those pieces, but being available to authors to help them improve is something, in our editorial ethos, we hope to always remain very committed to. And we do like the interactions we get to have with contributors and others submitting. That's one of the main reasons we encourage people to check out Barge Press' Facebook or Twitter presences, as well as to have some fun while we build our identity and aesthetic as a press.

We think the role of the editor, while being more important than ever, has also greatly diminished. We're in a position of some little itty bit of influence, and I feel like it's a duty to live up to that and offer advice or guidance, especially with many younger writers submitting and still learning. Nor do we consider that every single piece submitted is in its perfect final form (or that such a thing exists at all) -- in fact, many of the pieces we do accept we still edit and work on with the authors; whether it's a single line we'd like removed or a major overhaul, we want to be proud of our work not just as curators but as contributors to the refinement of the work and authors we present. This of course is not to say we should be fixing your grammar or spelling errors.

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

SM: It needs more balls. Seriously. The more I see of so-called "well-crafted" work, the more I see the infection of political correctness in a medium it has absolutely no business in... craft is the neutering of an art form, and, in a way, creates a form of self-censorship and a sidelining of literature's say in the art world and forward-thinking. I'm not saying writing ought to be or even needs to be overtly political -- I still believe its primary function is humanity over any particular cause, but in order to achieve that, writers need to be completely honest with themselves and their readers, and I feel like craft very frequently gets in the way of that. Why not just say fuck it? Get wasted and put the craziest shit you can muster on a plate, then send us pictures of your sick dance moves. Learn the craft, then throw it out the window (defenestration being a favorite word of mine) and see what happens. If you worry about who you might insult or whose feelings you might hurt, you're not there yet. If your words sound like other things you've heard before, you're not there yet. If your work looks and feels rational, try enemas and laxatives and eat more bacon than you've ever imagined before, try planting a garden of vienna sausages, chase gin with more gin and chase that with a handful of cheddar, then rip down your neighbor's tree.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

SM: How much time do you spend with each piece?

We feel like it's important (something we mention, even in our form rejections) for those submitting to us to know that we're not just skimming a few sentences and tossing things aside. Every submission, off the bat, is read start to finish by at least two editors -- even if we know two lines in it's not for us, we still feel it should be courtesy to give it a full chance and a full read, because you never do know where a piece might go. It slows us down a little bit, but we want to make sure we're doing things the right way and giving everything proper dues. This usually takes a week or so. Beyond that, anything that might have a chance gets a second round with a much closer reading and discussion. That can back response times for those up as much as several months -- and we still may hold on to those to consider a third or fourth time. All in all, we feel we spend more time with the works submitted to us than most other places, and we make sure everything we accept is what we really want and everything we reject has had as good a chance as possible.

Thank you, Shawn. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 7/29--Six Questions for Matt Shoard, Editor, Fleeting Magazine

Six Questions for Janelle Elyse Kihlstrom, Editor, Melusine

2011-07-25T02:00:00.017-04:00

Melusine, or Woman in the 21st Century, is an online journal of literature and art by women (but not only women) about women (and just about everything else.) The journal publishes short (1,000-5,000 words) or flash fiction (under 1,000 words), visual art and poetry. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

JEK: First of all, I look for careful crafting, a sense that the piece was revised several times, that each element, and, especially with a poem, even each word is there for a reason.

Secondly, I look for content that fits with what the journal is about. Although we're a woman-focused journal, not all pieces have to be about women or from a female perspective (or written by someone who self-identifies as a woman, as we welcome submissions by men as well), but there is certain (admittedly vaguely defined) territory that tends to fit with our aesthetic. It's fair to say that this criteria is pretty subjective and tends to vary from issue to issue.

Thirdly, I'm looking for something that's fresh or different, that pushes a new boundary or explores some new territory. Not every piece we publish fits this last criteria, but I make an effort to include a number that do in each issue.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

JEK: Work is most often rejected because it has, frankly, an amateurish quality that keeps it from achieving its potential. This is probably the number one reason most journals reject work, and I know my own work has been rejected for this reason many times since I began sending it out almost two decades ago. (I like to think, when it is rejected now, it's for other reasons, but I am probably flattering myself.) But there is nothing wrong with writing amateurish work in the first few years of seriously working at the craft, as long as a writer keeps working and revising according to feedback. I suppose it's a cliche, but simple perseverance (not just in re-sending out work, but revising, revising, revising and then re-sending) truly is the key to eventual publication.

The second reason would probably be that the work just doesn't strike a chord with me, even if it is fine writing that may very well be accepted elsewhere. It does come down to a matter of individual taste, which is why rejections should never be taken personally.

A third reason may be that the work is offensive in some overt way, although very little well-written work is rejected for this reason.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

JEK: A lack of attention to details like spelling, punctuation and grammar is always a turnoff to an editor. I have overlooked these things when work excels in other areas, but it does create a subconscious bias against the work that I'm sure writers would want to avoid risking, so I think it's definitely worth that extra effort of a thorough proofread or two and definitely a spell-check. Besides betraying a lack of care on the writer's part, another reason for the subconscious bias is probably clear: more work for me, when it comes time to produce the issue. I can't speak for all editors, but speaking for myself, I am lazy and prefer to avoid additional work if possible.

SQF: What is it about the characters in a story that makes them pop off the page and grab hold of you?

JEK: This is to some extent one of those "I know it when I see it" sorts of things, but I guess it comes down to a matter of authenticity. Good character development doesn't just involve rattling off physical and psychological characteristics or repeatedly revealing key traits; it involves the writer really embodying that character from the inside through their words and then just letting the character do what that character naturally does. It's not an easy trick to pull off, but when a writer manages it, that's one thing that really makes their characters come alive.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

JEK: It seems to me that no response is really necessary when it comes to rejection letters. Writers have responded to rejection letters I have sent them thanking me for the time I took to read their work, and this seems thoughtful, appropriate and professional yet, again, not expected or necessary. To respond with anything between masked indignation and open anger seems incredibly unprofessional. I don't keep a blacklist, but instances like that do stick in the mind, and there have been one or two that soured me toward the idea of a writer's future submissions even when the work itself showed promise. An attitude of bargaining or negotiating for publication is definitely the wrong approach to take with an editor, especially with small press journals that have limited space, time and budget (if any budget at all.)

On the other hand, polite questions in response to comments are entirely welcome. Sometimes I would like to accept a piece with a few changes made, and it's great when editors and writers can work together in this way. I appreciated an instance when my own work was published after I revised a piece based on a suggestion made by an editor, and I have done the same as an editor.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

JEK: I think you pretty much covered it. Hmm ... let's see ... Should writers include a bio if requested? Yes, yes, they should. And that's about it.

Thank you, Janelle. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 7/28--Six Questions for Shawn and Justin Maddey, Founding Editors, Barge Press

Six Questions for Greg Dybec, Editor, Fix it Broken

2011-07-21T02:00:00.002-04:00

"Fix It Broken is looking for previously-unpublished works of fiction that range between 500-1500 words." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

GD: Passion, voice, and wit. I think those three things are extremely evident in great stories.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

GD: If I’m in a bad mood and want other people to feel utterly dissatisfied with life. I’m totally kidding, obviously. That only happened once. Besides it being obvious that the story was barely proofread, the real reason would be that the story doesn’t leave me feeling like I just got kicked in the mouth. It’s pretty much impossible to put into words, but that’s okay, because I know every other writer and editor understands what I'm getting at. It’s the reason we all do what we do. I suppose mouth is interchangeable with heart, gut, brain, soul.

SQF: What common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

GD: Stories that don’t fall within our word count requirement. Submissions like those reek of laziness. Not all the time, but most of the time. Those are the submissions that tend to be lacking a simple hello.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

GD: This is the guilt question. Unfortunately, I’m not able to give feedback to each story I reject due to the amount of submissions we receive and because I’m pretty much working as a one-man team right now. There have been times where I’ve gotten an email back from an author asking for some feedback, and I’ve made sure to find time to provide them with some comments. Sometimes, if there is a story that I feel is so close to “being there,” I will send some comments back with the rejection email. I do personalize each email.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

GD: As I said, if an author politely asks for feedback, I am always more than happy to provide some. I’ve heard all the horror stories about unprofessional emails from authors who feel their stories have been unfairly judged. However, that’s the thing – you are sending your story out to be judged. Fix it Broken has only put out two issues so far (the third will be out this July), and I am happy and shocked to say that I have yet to experience these sort of emails. Only one, in which the author proceeded to tell me I was wrong for rejecting their story but that it was fine because writing is subjective art form. I responded by telling them that hubris is also a subjective art form. That was probably wrong of me.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

GD: I think you asked all the right questions, but since you asked so nicely, I suppose an interesting question would be my blood type or zodiac sign. If all editors answered that question, then they could maybe do studies and gather statistics to find out that publications in which the editor is a B negative Scorpio are more likely to accept a wider variety of stories on a yearly basis.

Thank you, Greg. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 7/25--Six Questions for Janelle Elyse Kihlstrom, Editor, Melusine

Six Questions for Cheryl Anne Gardner, Contributing Editor, Apocrypha & Abstractions

2011-07-18T02:00:00.003-04:00

"Apocrypha and Abstractions specializes in very short (flash) fiction, of 500 words or fewer. All fiction genres are acceptable to us, but we prefer literary minded stories that make a statement in the abstract." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

CAG:

Sharp, tight writing.
Risk taking.
Edgy subject matter.

Since I am talking about flash fiction 500 words or fewer, I am looking for sharp extremely tight writing. Genre is irrelevant to me. I am in it for the message, so I want the subject matter to have some edginess to it. I also want to see that the author is confident; by that I mean that they are willing to take a chance and experiment with the form. Stories that feel work-shopped and contrived don't work for me. I don't feel that the standard story construction dogma is the end all be all of fiction writing, especially for flash fiction this short. I want to see some risk taking. I want to see that the writer has made their own choices and has done it fearlessly. Aesthetically speaking, I like difficult, hard “to get” stories, and when I do “get it,” and I'd better, I need to be bludgeoned by it. I want emotion in the extreme. I like the dark thinky stuff, and more importantly, I want stories that say something in the abstract. I don't care about beginnings, middles, and endings. I don't care about conflict and resolution. I don't care about first sentence hooks or any of the other mainstream writing fashions du jour. I like traditional stories but much prefer voyeuristic vignettes, and I like a liberal amount of ambiguity. Think Antonin Artaud, Henri Barbusse, Fernando Pessoa, and Oliverio Girondo and you've got a good idea of what I like.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

CAG:

Grammatically challenged writing.
No unique voice.
Overwritten.

Grammatically challenged writing will get an instant rejection, so does sentimentality and writing that tries too hard. Second to that is writing that is technically sound but has no unique voice. Stories in which it is obvious that the writer hasn't dug in deep enough or has a limited world view, or rather, stories in which the writer’s emotional immaturity shows through. I’ve been writing for a long time, reading even longer than that, and I’ve learned that technique can be taught; a unique voice has to be earned.

I also don’t like cliché subject matter. As for my definition of overwritten, I don’t care for stories that "explain" too much -- stories leaving nothing to reader interpretation. Stylistically speaking, I have difficulty with stories in which the writer seems ignorant to the fact that all writing is poetry. Clunky overwritten prose just doesn't work for me.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

CAG: A flat uninteresting story that has no mood and movement and is devoid of any social and/or emotional relevance. Life is mundane most of the time, but a good writer can make even the most mundane shock and awe a reader. I don't want gore or language or sex for the sake of it though. Sloppy writing also turns me off, and writing that seems to be "trying too hard" to be literary. We are a “literary minded” site, but I only want to see nickel words in the title, and it had better be good. Lastly, I will reject stories that completely ignore the definitions of the words Apocrypha and Abstraction.

SQF: What is it about the characters in a story that makes them pop off the page and grab hold of you?

CAG: I like fearless writers, and so I like fearless characters. 500 words or fewer doesn’t give you much room for character development, so they have to be extraordinary in-your-face confident and self-aware. Milquetoast just doesn’t work in fiction this short. I like dark and difficult. I like despair and need and insatiable cravings. I like infatuation, obsession, and desire. I like socio-political statements, and I love psychodrama. I enjoy the different and the interesting, and most of all, I value truth and beauty above all else, no matter how gruesome it is. It takes a certain type of character to deliver on that. They need to be muscular and up to the challenge.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

CAG: Since we are a new publication, I've only rejected a few pieces so far, and I did provide commentary. However, I am sure as I get busier with submissions, I may not have time to comment. Of the few I rejected, I actually liked the stories, but they weren’t a good fit for the site, and in one case, the author simply went over the word count limit. I don’t think authors should reply to rejections unless the editors have provided specific commentary on the piece, and even then, I wouldn’t reply with more than a thank you. Editors are busy people, and they don’t have time to get into lengthy critique sessions. As for angry replies, just don’t do it. File the rejection and move on. I’ve had a lot of pieces accepted that were initially rejected. Some of them I reworked, and some I didn’t. More often than not, a rejection has everything to do with “fit” and editorial preference. Check your fit and try somewhere else. I don’t have a blacklist, and hope I never need one.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

CAG: Why I chose the artwork I did for the site:

A: The painting is “The Land of Cockaigne” by Pieter Bruegel, and this abstract surrealistic vision exemplifies our site. I started the site because I write abstract flash and slipstream and I knew I couldn’t be alone, so came up with A & A to showcase abstract flash fiction that doesn’t quite fit mainstream conventions when it comes to story construction. Stare at it for a while; our submission guidelines are posted, but the artwork tells you all you need to know about the type of writing we are looking for in particular.

Thank you, Cheryl Anne. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 7/21--Six Questions for Greg Dybec, Editor, Fix it Broken

Six Questions for John Carr Walker, Editor, Publisher, Trachodon

2011-07-14T02:00:00.015-04:00

"TRACHODON the magazine is born in the spirit of revisiting and renewing the old. Old ideas, old things, and old ways of working. We believe literature and art, in all forms, are timeless, but how they are encountered changes dramatically generation to generation." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

JCW: Clarity, competence, and conflict. I see too many stories that try to be mysterious, to play games with the reader. I like works to be front-loaded--subtly if possible--and direct. Red-herrings and misinformation I find annoying, unless it's Nabakov, who, let's face it, is a magician. Likewise, deliberately poor grammar, misspellings, run-ons and sentence fragments don't in themselves create voice, or style, or do anything but tempt a reader (or editor) to stop reading. Finally, when I say conflict, I mean both tension and action. I want adventure, risk, something life-changing to be at stake.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

JCW: Those three reasons. Often a story is rejected because of all three, which I think suggests that authors have sent us work that's too new. Stories that are still in a state of becoming, still cooking. Remember that a journal editor is different from a book editor: we need to accept stories that are very nearly print-ready. We can't spend months, or even days, working with an author to shape and polish a manuscript. It's got to be ready before it's submitted.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

JCW: I hesitate to use the word "mistakes." Other than those usage errors I mentioned earlier, which are annoying, it's not mistakes that turn me off. It's incompleteness. It's a lack of imagination, or lack of story, or lack of character, etc. If the story doesn't promise me something in the beginning and then fulfill its promise in the end I won't be publishing it.

SQF: What is it about the characters in a story that makes them pop off the page and grab hold of you?

JCW: That's a hard question. There are so many ways. It often comes down to the telling detail--a bit of description, a turn of phrase, a line of dialogue. Telling detail is, of course, always concrete, even when it's figurative. Short stories are especially hard because a writer doesn't have the opportunity to linger over a character's thoughts, features, or habits as a novelist does. The story must keep moving forward, always forward. Consistency, too, is important. A short story writer has to expose a character's fault or weak point early on, and then test that fault or weak point. Really, character has as much to do with story as anything else. The character in context is what matters most. And if we're talking about flash, I think character is secondary to the language of a work. Like I said, it's a hard question to answer in brief.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

JCW: Keeping a blacklist is taking it too far, in my opinion, but I can understand how the frustration might get to you. If a writer receives a form rejection, don't respond to the editor at all. That's my advice. I'm fine with a writer following-up if I've commented directly on his or her work, but keep in mind that I'm not, and won't be, a lit coach. Dropping a "thank you" to the editor who took the time to comment is a nice gesture. Sending something else, a few months or a year later, is more than welcome. Hoped for, even. I would avoid "what did you mean by?" kind of questions. I don't respond to those simply because I've moved on to the next thing.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

JCW: Read the journals you're submitting to. Buy journals whenever possible. If that means submitting fewer stories a year, so be it. Honor those you'd have honor you. Support the work of those you'd have support your work. If you simply can't afford to buy lit journals, put in the time at a library reading room. If you can't do that, then read and submit to online journals. There are tons of great ones. If that's not a possibility either, then I think the writer needs to rethink his or her life. I liken submitters who don't read literary journals to that student who MUST answer all of the teacher's questions, comments on every passing remark, wants to argue every point on whatever side. It's exhausting, frustrating, childish and anti-social. Don't be that person. If you're submitting to journals, read journals. If that sounds impossible or distasteful, I don't know . . . good luck.

Thank you, John. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 7/18--Six Questions for Cheryl Anne Gardner, Contributing Editor, Apocrypha & Abstractions

Six Questions for Rycke Foreman, Executive Chef, 69 Flavors of Paranoia

2011-07-11T02:00:00.006-04:00

69 Flavors of Paranoia publishes short stories (2,500 words or less preferred, will consider up to 3,500) and flash fiction under 1,000 words. Genres accepted include horror, urban-fantasy, slipstream, and speculative. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

RF: Well, we've started 69FoP twice, so I hope ya got a few minutes...

The first time we put the tasty old beast together was in August 1996, when all the right ingredients just sorta collided simultaneously. It was just before the internet really took hold of the world, and as the old timers may remember, getting published back then was hell. Hell, finding horror friendly publications was a hell of its own back then. Anyway, the horror market was trying to grow, but half-a-dozen magazines that had accepted stories of mine had folded before publication, and a few other writers I knew were grumbling about the same thing, so I thought the genre was sputtering.

At the same time, (my wife) Miranda's longtime dream of becoming a graphic artist was coming into focus, and both of us were looking for a place to hone our skills. Within months, 69 Flavors of Paranoia was born. It lasted for three years, then folded on issue #13, shafting a bunch of writers the way I was shafted by many other mags. (Sorry guys!)

Then, almost a decade later, I mentioned that I'd been thinking a lot about 69FoP. Miranda giggled and said she'd been thinking the same thing. Somehow, we managed to put it all together in about 3 months, and launched the online version of 69FoP thirteen years to the day from our original release date. We've been going strong ever since...but then again, the new Menu #13 is coming up soon...

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

RF: I want to be entertained. I do look for good writing and strong story elements, too, but the most important factor is to entertain me!

I've taken a few stories that would have otherwise been rejected, just because they were so completely entertaining, in spite of their flaws. I've also accepted a couple of stories that were well-written enough for me to get past their lackluster story. But mostly, it takes all three.

*A strong opening sentence should get an honorable mention here. Compel me to keep reading!

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

RF: First are stories that read like synopses--the authors tell the stories instead of showing them. In those shorts, we the readers get all the action, all the events, but we never feel the drama on a gut level; we never get sent on the characters' emotional journeys, which is what most good fiction is about.

Second are "first draft" manuscripts, full of typos, misspellings, excessive verbiage, bad grammar, over- or under-punctuation and more. Editors aren't there to clean the entire house, they're there to give the white glove treatment and find the occasional plate stuffed under the couch cushion.

The third no-no is in some ways related to the second: sloppy writing. This could be anything from invoking deus ex machina to wild character inconsistencies to downright (unintentional) contradiction, and almost half of the stories we receive have them. That really drives me crazy!

SQF: Approximately what percentage of your submissions do you accept?

RF: I'll have to guess here, but I'd say we accept about one out of every seven short stories on slow months, and maybe one in twelve when inundated with heavy submissions.

SQF: Will you publish a story an author posted on a personal blog?

RF: We'd consider it. It would have to be removed from that blog, or at least radically altered for its appearance in 69FoP, but sure.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

RF:
Q: "Do you make fun of your contributors behind their backs?"

A: Of course not. All of our contributors are wonderful people who work hard to perfect their craft and entertain our readers to the best of their abilities, and we would never invoke harsh words upon them. Okay, that oughtta hold those little assholes for a while. Wait, is this mic still on...?

Thank you, Rycke. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 7/14--Six Questions for John Carr Walker, Editor, Publisher, Trachodon

Six Questions for Lorie Lewis Ham, Publisher, Kings River Life

2011-07-07T02:00:00.002-04:00

Kings River Life publishes fiction and non-fiction specific to the Kings River area or California in general. The publisher is particularly interested in mystery fiction to 2,000 words, but will accept up to 4000 words & in the area of mystery fiction is willing to stretch the location guidelines. Read the complete guidelines here. For more information email them at life@kingsriverlife.com.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

LLH:

I like a story that is unique because my hope is to make our mystery section different from every other.
Good writing, great story--I think that one is obvious.
Where possible a California connection of some kind--whether it be that the author is from CA or the story is set there. However, we are quickly expanding that so if you don't fit those guidelines check us out anyway.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

LLH:

Too graphic. We are located in the San Joaquin Valley and a lot of our readers are located here. Overall this valley tends to be a little conservative. Of course again for a great story, rules can be bent.
Just not a right fit. Read some of our stories and articles to get a feel for whether yours might
Too long. On the internet people have a short attention span.

SQF: What common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

LLH:

Bad grammar/spelling.
An unnecessary use of bad language or graphic sex. If the story can convince me it's needed, I'll overlook it. So make me believe it's really needed to tell your story well.
A rude writer. If your email communication with me is rude, then I won't even look at your story.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

LLH: Some yes. We don't have time to go into a lot of detail.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

LLH: We need each other--so respect is key. Just because I reject one story, doesn't mean I won't consider another. And I have no problem at all with an author politely asking about comments.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

LLH: Is it important that the author of a published story participate in promoting it's publication?

Answer: I think that in this day and age of the internet it is very important that the writer is willing to take part in promoting their published story whether via Facebook, Twitter or their own email lists. If we work together we can both succeed!

Thank you, Lorie. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 7/11--Six Questions for Rycke Foreman, Executive Chef, 69 Flavors of Paranoia

Six Questions for Kyle J Smith, Editor-in-Chief, weasel and gun: variety magazine

2011-07-04T02:00:00.015-04:00

weasel and gun: variety magazine is a monthly publication of fiction, non-fiction and poetry that tells the stories of now, true and less than; featuring artists of every ilk, even yours. Submissions are accepted in all genres with an orientation towards trial and error and self-revelatory writing. Learn more here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

KS: A good story exists as more than just words on the page; the text enters your body through the mouth, the feelings and intentions seep in through your eyes, ears and that cut on your arm. That's my fartsy answer -- a good story also makes you laugh; not because of a well written punch line, instead the truth of the situation connects so vividly with your experience that you laugh at yourself. And thirdly, the author is present in his work; you know that you learn more about the author from his piece than you would by checking out his eHarmony profile page.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

KS: I don't have three reasons, I have four words -- the page is dead. A story that will please W&G's subscribers has contours, ridges and cliffs. It becomes 3-D off the computer screen, leading the reader to a world that was inside of themselves the entire time. A rejectable piece just talks like it’s more important than its reader.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

KS: If a bio or email is too prideful, I'm more apt to read a bit grumbly. Authors are humble servants to stories and readers.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

KS: If a submission is nearly ready to race, I will give a bit of guidance and encourage the author to submit again.

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

KS: Writing is work. Remember that girl you dated in college who was a lot of fun at first? Sometimes on your way back to your dorm room you would imagine spending the rest of your life with her. Then one Tuesday it wasn't fun or easy any more. It was work and tiring and damn her laugh is annoying. At that point you had two options: ditch her or make a commitment to love her and work, hard. What did you choose?

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

KS: Why do you publish your magazine? In 2011 everyone has a chance, and I'm not just talking about publishers. Maybe in 2041 I won't believe that anymore, and we'll all work on farms again. But today we can all build flashlights and shine down dark hallways.

Thank you, Kyle. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 7/07--Six Questions for Lorie Lewis Ham, Publisher, Kings River Life

Six Questions for Zack Wentz, Editor, New Dead Families

2011-06-30T02:00:00.016-04:00

New Dead Families accepts "surrealism, irrealism, fabulism, slipstream, magic realism, new weird, speculative fiction, science fiction and fantasy of literary quality." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

ZW:

First, fantastic imagination, which is most central to what I’m interested in publishing.
Second, deliberate use of language, because the work must be art, or at least crafted with great care.
Third, there must be something about the piece that strikes me as a bit “strange,” or at least unique. It must be more than just a well-composed genre exercise.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

ZW:

First, the writer doesn’t seem to quite understand the meaning of “speculative” or “fantastic,” or perhaps even “imaginative.” I receive a great number of submissions that employ vigorous and/or unusual language and/or imagery, sometimes quite good, but essentially are “realist” pieces, or purely literary experiments. The imagination needs to be utilized in a way that goes beyond metaphor, and well beyond daily observations or musings. Certainly beyond playing with words in clever or novel fashions. I feel I’ve made this as clear as possible in my guidelines, but occasionally it seems like people submit work when they are on frantic, mass e-submission campaigns, or have seen that I’ve published work by an author they admire, and assume that means they know what I’m looking for without reading enough of the magazine (much less the guidelines). The essence of the problem, most frequently, is that there are too many MFA students out there trying to create “big L” literature, at the cusp of what might be considered the avant garde at any given moment, who just don’t have any background in, or appreciation of, speculative, fantastic, and imaginative writing.
Second, some people don’t seem to put enough effort into editing their work. A great writer is an even greater editor (unless he or she is an exceptionally gifted natural storyteller). I simply can’t imagine why someone would want something with his or her name on it to appear “as is” in too many cases.
Third (and this is simply a personal quirk), it would take a lot for me to accept a piece where the protagonist is some kind of writer. I suppose Mark Leyner can push a pseudo-autobiographical character into what I consider sufficiently speculative territory, but most currently working cannot. Aside from that, writing about writers just bores me, at this point. Barry Malzberg’s Herovit’s World might have been the last work that truly succeeded in that vein (not that it was in any sense autobiographical).

SQF: What common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

ZW: Lately, there are far too many writers playing with semi-colons without understanding how they really work. I also see them used improperly in many print and online journals, and even in some small-press books (which leads me to believe that far too many editors don’t understand how they work either). Comma splices are also quite jarring for me. Occasionally I’ll receive a piece where the writer has used a semi-colon in a place where they should have used a comma, and in another spot there is a comma splice where they could have utilized the mysteriously attractive semi-colon.

Sentence fragments can certainly become tiresome, if the author doesn’t really seem to know what he or she is doing. I am not against completely dismantling the language, if it is for a certain calculated effect, but if you’re going to do this you should be aware of how you might put it back together again. Rules change, of course, and I have a feeling that a great many of them will simply disappear. New modes of electronic communication have drastically altered the way writing is both created, consumed, and considered, more in just the last few years than over the last hundred.

It also irks me when there are too many typos. Spellchecking your work should be the bare minimum. Occasional homonyms, I understand. Even the most professional writers slip up sometimes. If I get to the point where I’m red-penning a piece to bloody ribbons in my mind, however, before I’ve even read it once all the way through, the writer probably just isn’t ready to be published anywhere.

All that being said, I can still be completely won over by work that is not only amateurish, but thoroughly brutish and naïve.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

ZW: I try to, because I always appreciate some indication that my own work has actually been read by a particular human being. I think form e-mails are feeble, if not cowardly, especially if they are from “the editors,” but I do understand how those can, at a certain saturation point, become necessary. Many writers I’ve rejected have responded appreciatively to my taking the time to explain what worked for me and what didn’t in their submissions, but some don’t respond at all. I assume those folks have just scratched me off their lists, and aren’t interested in trying again, but those are the sorts I don’t imagine would deal well with the whole editing process anyway. I have considered asking submitters to indicate whether they would like to receive any comments on their work or not, but I assume that would be just one more step they might forget to take in the submission process, and I genuinely don’t want to make that any more difficult than it needs to be. At any rate, if an editor can’t effectively put into words why a piece doesn’t work for them, they probably aren’t much of an editor. There is only so much time, however, and the last thing you want to get into is a situation where an author is actually arguing with you about why you should have accepted his or her piece for your publication. That hasn’t happened to me, but I’m certain it happens.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

ZW: I’ve never experienced an author or artist behaving in a terribly rude or outlandish fashion, which I am thankful for. I imagine it would be difficult to consider more of his or her work without recalling such behavior, but can’t imagine actually bothering to make a “list,” which seems a bit dramatic. I have gone back and forth in a friendly way with rejected authors before, and sometimes that is enough for them to get a better idea of what I want, and then everyone is happy. There are some, however, who just shouldn’t be published yet, but I don’t know that any writer should ever hear that from anyone besides a teacher, mentor, or trusted friend.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

ZW: This might be a bit much, but I’d say:

What do you hope for the future of writing/art?

At this point, almost completely due to very recent developments in communication/information technology, the financial bottom has fallen out of practically all traditional “creative” commodity industries, ruining them as potential careers. I think this is a very good thing. What I’d like to see, as a result, is these occupations de-glamorized, de-romanticized, de-fetishized, and de-institutionalized to the extent that the only people pursuing them are doing so because they absolutely have to, rather than want to. The literary landscape is, in innumerable ways, more competitive than ever before, and many who are the most successful at getting their work out there are truly more gifted at new sorts of self-promotion than at whatever craft they are ostensibly selling (and/or have simply paid their way through the right institutions to make the right connections, etc., which isn’t such a new approach). I think the yearning for that sort of “success” will eventually wear out, when people realize the attention they might receive for working with certain types of media just isn’t worth the effort, much less the financial “rewards,” and the sort of post-academic, Petri dish work that’s only taken into consideration by competing creators will seem foolish to pursue. Of course, in this scenario, there is still no safeguard against people continuing to produce the kind of mindless claptrap that panders to the lowest common denominator, but I do find it a slightly more noble and authentic impulse to create for the sake of entertaining and storytelling than treating the process of creation as a sort of esoteric athletic event, or means to practice neo-political maneuvers (the dubious drive of “self-expression,” urge to preach, convert, or control, and other complicated impulses which might lead to the creation of an aesthetic object aside).

That’s all something of a pipe dream, but I am extremely excited by the sorts of works that are, or might be, created without any kind of market pressure, or longing to achieve a certain type of cultural status or recognition. Other pressures and desires will always be involved, of course. I would just like to see the results of those pressures and desires unadulterated by potential prestige. This is certainly not to say that all creators who are currently enjoying popularity through their work are achieving it via the means I have framed here as unappealing. This is not the case. Many of these people are hardworking dreamers who would be struggling to create what they think of as beautiful, essential and true regardless, but too many (and any is too many) genuinely are not. This is also not to say that I lay claim the miraculous capacity to discern those possessed by a genuine calling from those who are not, or that it is my duty to do so. My job at New Dead Families is to take the best of what I receive, and try to make it better. I’m hoping for better. Both less and more.

Thank you, Zack. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 7/4--Six Questions for Kyle J Smith, Editor-in-Chief, weasel and gun: variety magazine

Six Questions for Kara Ferguson, Editor, Midnight Screaming

2011-06-27T02:00:00.002-04:00

"Midnight Screaming is currently looking for poetry, flash, and short fiction that is strange and unusual. We like odd, creepy, terrifying, unnerving, and spine tingling stories that are hard to categorize. The editor is especially fond of stories with a bit of humor, sarcasm, or satire. While we will publish horror, we're not impressed with horror which includes graphic violence and blood and guts for shock value. We are not interested in erotica." Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

KF: A story needs to draw me in instantly. We only publish stories up to 3,000 words so the hook has to happen quickly! I like writers who have found their voice and are comfortable in their storytelling. It's easy to spot someone who's struggling with that because the writing feels forced. Everything in Midnight Screaming must have a dark element. It's our thing, that's what we do.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

KF: Submission guidelines, submission guidelines, and did I mention submission guidelines? Aside from that, graphic violence and gore for the shock value of it. I also reject poetry that doesn't use punctuation. Sometimes, the writing is just bad, but honestly I don't see that too often these days. Oh, and single spacing flash and short stories. I spend all day looking at computer screens. My eyes simply cannot take pages of text that aren't double spaced.

SQF: What other common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

KF: Some people just don't proof read. I get stories where there are two or three typos in the first paragraph. Titles can sour me to a story too. The title is the first impression, make it a good one. Untitled, or "You can call it whatever you want" is not acceptable.

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a story?

KF: Only when I really liked the story, but I didn't feel it fit the magazine by not being dark at all, or dark enough. Something along those lines. Honestly, I just do not have the time to give comments on submissions. I wish I did.

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

KF: The first draft is never good enough. Work with a writers' group. Don't take it personally when you get rejected. Don't flood a market with everything you've ever written, it's annoying.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

KF: Hmm, I don't know. These were all great questions! Maybe something about how to market yourself, or networking. To which I would respond: Take advantage of social networking, but stay professional because we might read what you put out there. Go to conventions and conferences! Meet people, make them remember you (in a good way), rub elbows and make connections, and don't be afraid to tell us you met us somewhere. Unless you didn't, that would be bad!

Thank you, Kara. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 6/30--Six Questions for Zack Wentz, Editor, New Dead Families

Six Questions for Terry Martin, Managing Editor/Publisher, Murky Depths

2011-06-23T02:00:00.028-04:00

Murky Depths publishes dark speculative prose from 500-5,000 words, comics from one to ten pages, traditionally metered poetry and is prepared to consider non-fiction if a synopsis sounds right. Also, a synopsis of 250 words could get a story of up to 10,000 words considered. All the artwork is commissioned but artists can send samples or links to their work if they’d like to be considered for a commission. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

TM: A grabbing start, pacy middle, and a satisfying ending.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to question one and why?

TM: Unoriginal in plot and format, badly edited – most typos and grammatical errors should have been ironed out – which is plain carelessness, and not bothering to send the correct genres for Murky Depths.

SQF: What other mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a story?

TM: Not following the guidelines. Telling us we’d like the story – even if we do, that kind of comment grates. “I’d like to send you my story . . .” – you just have! ETC.

SQF: What is the best part of being an editor?

TM: Receiving a story that gets you excited and getting the commissioned artwork back from an artist.

SQF: I read a comment by one editor who said she keeps a blacklist of authors who respond to a rejection in a less than professional manner. I'm sure you know what I mean. What do you want authors to know about the stories you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

TM: Yes, I know what you mean. One of my editors nearly packed it in once because of an arsy response – she’s a tad tougher now though! If the story makes it through the first hurdle but still gets rejected, we try to give a good reason of how we think it could be improved (remember that someone else might like it as it stands). We might respond to a polite question – we have – but then again we might not. No harm in trying though.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

TM: That’s the last question I put to the people we interview in Murky Depths. They never come up with an answer either.

Thank you, Terry. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 6/27--Six Questions for Kara Ferguson, Editor, Midnight Screaming

Six Questions for Sara Ashwood, Editor, Moon Washed Kisses

2011-06-20T02:00:00.004-04:00

"Moon Washed Kisses is a romance webzine that publishes FLASH FICTION and POETRY focusing on what really thrills us all: love. Unlike most publications, we take any genre of romance story including real life, fantasy, historical, contemporary, paranormal, science fiction, fairytale, inspirational, and the like. So long as love, romance, and relationship are the key elements—and so long as the heat level is SWEET—we want to read it!" Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

SA: In the process of submitting our own work, we had both found that magazines/webzines focusing specifically on romantic poetry and short fiction were notoriously difficult to find. Especially poetry. As we got to discussing this problem, we decided to do something about it. Hence, Moon Washed Kisses was born.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a story and why?

SA: For me, adherence to our guidelines is the first thing.

Second, something that rings true; something that I can identify with and that I feel readers will as well.

Third, I want something well written. As editor, I may be willing to do a little work to fix up the occasional grammatical/spelling/punctuation errors, but I don't want to spend half an hour trying to clean up your work. Writers should always, always proofread as many times as necessary to submit a clean manuscript.

SQF: What are the top three reasons a story is rejected, other than not fitting into your answers to the above question and why?

SA: The top three reasons really have to do with what I said above: not adhering to guidelines, doesn't "grab" me, and too full of grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.

SQF: When reading a story, how do you know it was written by a novice author?

SA: Usually by the amount of manuscript errors and/or a rough, unpolished writing style.

SQF: Will you publish a story an author posted on a personal blog?

SA: Not if we're aware that it has been posted on a personal blog. For legal reasons, we only take previously unpublished work--unpublished in any form.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

SA: Hmmmm...not sure how you'd put it into question form, but it would be nice to let readers know their work may sometimes get rejected not because of poor writing or plot, but because it may not be what an editor is looking for at the time. Being rejected once doesn't mean you should stop submitting the piece altogether. If one editor turns you down, try, try again!

Thank you, Sara. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 6/23--Six Questions for Terry Martin, Managing Editor/Publisher, Murky Depths