The Fictional Café publishes flash, short stories and novel excerpts (to 3,000 words), poetry, photographs, art, fiction audio podcasts, and creative nonfiction (interviews, news, reviews). Read the completed guidelines here.
SQF: Why did you start this magazine?
Jack B. Rochester: Fictional Café was launched in 2013 by Caitlin Park and myself. Caitlin was a grad student at Jack’s alma mater. Fictional Café fulfilled a dream for us both: Caitlin to hone her writing, publishing, and editorial skills (she had interned as a manuscript reader for a literary agency and was eager for more challenging editorial work), and me, who had always dreamed of working in a bookstore (go figure).
We agreed the site would be free in every respect, for writers and readers alike, with no advertising, marketing, or selling of any kind. We also agreed to have fun while doing this good thing for the arts. It expanded from fiction and poetry to encompass fine art, photography, podcasts and creative nonfiction.
SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a submission and why?
JBR:
SQF: What most often turns you off to a submission?
JBR: Not being informed it’s a multiple submission. We’ve begun seeing works submitted to us while simultaneously being published on one or more other sites, and not being notified. As a result, we now ask authors to check a box on the Submissions page stating “I understand that Fictional Café only accepts exclusive submissions. We respond within 30 days.”We have great respect for copyright. We protect the work for one year for two reasons: one, to take all possible measures to assure the work isn’t outright stolen or otherwise plagiarized while in our care; two, to reserve the right to publish the work in one of our book anthologies. If we intend to do that, we let the author know before the year has passed. If not, they are certainly free to publish it elsewhere after that period has ended. It’s been our experience that most contributors appreciate this extra care.
SQF: What do you look for in the opening paragraph(s)/stanza(s) of a submission?
JBR: We’re going to answer that question with what the late NPR book reviewer Alan Cheuse once said about how he chose novels to review. He said he looked for a “je ne sais quoi.” In other words, an ineffable quality that connects on a deeper level than words on a screen/sheet of paper. The work has something that strikes a chord inside, and that chord resonates. It doesn’t happen every time, to be sure. Sometimes it’s a hedge: we perceive an emerging talent and want to reward the author with publication. We take a chance, hoping to make a difference in the literary world, both for the author and for Fictional Café.
The other, equally significant, thing we look for in a first paragraph is a clear sense of what the work is about and where it’s going. We’re looking for that first paragraph to hook us into reading the second, and the third, and . . .. Sometimes we see a story where the first several paragraphs are the author trying to find the story to tell. The author needs to have considered this before submitting it and be willing to omit those needless words.
Both of these qualities are different for every reading and for every editor. They manifest in differing proportions for each work, so citing examples doesn’t really help much. It boils down to taking an editorial position that embraces excellence in form and content without regard for the editor’s personal preferences - the point at which a true editor sets their personal “likes” aside and raises the editorial bar to allow new and different work to thrive.
SQF: Is it really important to read the guidelines? Many are so long and boring.
JBR: Well, we try our best to keep them short and to the point. And yes, you absolutely must read our submission guidelines. They’re simple and intended to facilitate our reading your work. Like if you sent us your work in the body of your email message, we wouldn’t read it. We might send it back and ask for a Word or Google Docs file, which we can save to our Cloud and share around the (Slack) editorial table, and publish directly to WordPress. But having read our submission guidelines hopefully also demonstrates the author has spent a little time reviewing our ‘zine to assure and is submitting the kind of quality work we’re looking for.
SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
JBR: Why do eight people give freely of their time and creative energies to make Fictional Café work?So, we know it’s not for money; therefore, it must be for love, right? We derive so much pleasure from reviewing the work of creative individuals, and equally from publishing them. We have several writers we’ve published who wait for their yearlong waiting period to end so they can submit again. We love that, because they not only appreciate the care we put into designing their post, but both of us recognize we’ve become friends who’ve never met but like one another very much.
Thank you, Jack. We all appreciate your taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.
SQF: Why did you start this magazine?
Jack B. Rochester: Fictional Café was launched in 2013 by Caitlin Park and myself. Caitlin was a grad student at Jack’s alma mater. Fictional Café fulfilled a dream for us both: Caitlin to hone her writing, publishing, and editorial skills (she had interned as a manuscript reader for a literary agency and was eager for more challenging editorial work), and me, who had always dreamed of working in a bookstore (go figure).
We agreed the site would be free in every respect, for writers and readers alike, with no advertising, marketing, or selling of any kind. We also agreed to have fun while doing this good thing for the arts. It expanded from fiction and poetry to encompass fine art, photography, podcasts and creative nonfiction.
SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a submission and why?
JBR:
- Innovation in theme and content. We’re mostly into literary fiction, interested in unconventional approaches to plot and character. That said, we don’t reject any genre out of hand; we’ve published innovative westerns, mysteries, human-interest stories. We encourage your readers to read (and view or listen to) the work we post to see what we’re about. We’re looking for “a good story, well told.”
- A writing style and a command of the language to match the promise of the work’s innovative theme and content.
- A manuscript that’s been revised and edited by its author at least once (yes, we can tell), and thoroughly proofread. We don’t always reject a manuscript because of typos, misspellings, missing close quotes or other mechanical problems, but it definitely lowers our regard for the work. We expect the author to present us with a finished work in which they have paid attention to every detail.
SQF: What most often turns you off to a submission?
JBR: Not being informed it’s a multiple submission. We’ve begun seeing works submitted to us while simultaneously being published on one or more other sites, and not being notified. As a result, we now ask authors to check a box on the Submissions page stating “I understand that Fictional Café only accepts exclusive submissions. We respond within 30 days.”We have great respect for copyright. We protect the work for one year for two reasons: one, to take all possible measures to assure the work isn’t outright stolen or otherwise plagiarized while in our care; two, to reserve the right to publish the work in one of our book anthologies. If we intend to do that, we let the author know before the year has passed. If not, they are certainly free to publish it elsewhere after that period has ended. It’s been our experience that most contributors appreciate this extra care.
SQF: What do you look for in the opening paragraph(s)/stanza(s) of a submission?
JBR: We’re going to answer that question with what the late NPR book reviewer Alan Cheuse once said about how he chose novels to review. He said he looked for a “je ne sais quoi.” In other words, an ineffable quality that connects on a deeper level than words on a screen/sheet of paper. The work has something that strikes a chord inside, and that chord resonates. It doesn’t happen every time, to be sure. Sometimes it’s a hedge: we perceive an emerging talent and want to reward the author with publication. We take a chance, hoping to make a difference in the literary world, both for the author and for Fictional Café.
The other, equally significant, thing we look for in a first paragraph is a clear sense of what the work is about and where it’s going. We’re looking for that first paragraph to hook us into reading the second, and the third, and . . .. Sometimes we see a story where the first several paragraphs are the author trying to find the story to tell. The author needs to have considered this before submitting it and be willing to omit those needless words.
Both of these qualities are different for every reading and for every editor. They manifest in differing proportions for each work, so citing examples doesn’t really help much. It boils down to taking an editorial position that embraces excellence in form and content without regard for the editor’s personal preferences - the point at which a true editor sets their personal “likes” aside and raises the editorial bar to allow new and different work to thrive.
SQF: Is it really important to read the guidelines? Many are so long and boring.
JBR: Well, we try our best to keep them short and to the point. And yes, you absolutely must read our submission guidelines. They’re simple and intended to facilitate our reading your work. Like if you sent us your work in the body of your email message, we wouldn’t read it. We might send it back and ask for a Word or Google Docs file, which we can save to our Cloud and share around the (Slack) editorial table, and publish directly to WordPress. But having read our submission guidelines hopefully also demonstrates the author has spent a little time reviewing our ‘zine to assure and is submitting the kind of quality work we’re looking for.
SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
JBR: Why do eight people give freely of their time and creative energies to make Fictional Café work?So, we know it’s not for money; therefore, it must be for love, right? We derive so much pleasure from reviewing the work of creative individuals, and equally from publishing them. We have several writers we’ve published who wait for their yearlong waiting period to end so they can submit again. We love that, because they not only appreciate the care we put into designing their post, but both of us recognize we’ve become friends who’ve never met but like one another very much.
Thank you, Jack. We all appreciate your taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.
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