Six Questions for Tyler Hauth, Editor-in-Chief, Muddy Paw Press

Muddy Paw Press is an Indie Publisher of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror with an annual magazine. “That said, we're looking for fiction that has literary merit above all else.” Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this press?

Tyler Hauth: I think the goal here was twofold: first, to make publishing more accessible to aspiring authors trying to get a foot in the door, and second, to offer another high quality venue for writers of the genres we love - Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror. With both the press where we're publishing novels and novellas and the magazine where we're focused on short stories, we're always looking for new talents that haven't managed to get published yet (although it turns out most of the writers we've connected with so far are established in the industry in some way, as in having been previously published at least once). That caveat might be because we've had such a huge pool of submissions to choose from so far, and is a good thing, ultimately, because with more options comes more selectivity and that selectivity breeds excellence and it's really, at the end of the day, excellent writing that we're looking to pick up and show to the world. 

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

TH: Hook, hook, and hook. We received over 1000 submissions in 2 months. What does that mean? It means it's literally impossible to read them all completely through. And so the ones that actually get read are the ones that COMPEL us to read them. If you don't sink at least a single claw into us by the end of the first few paragraphs, there's a good chance you'll get rejected. There simply isn't enough time to read to page 4 or 5 for every submission we receive. What is a good hook? For one of the stories I accepted recently it was incredible prose. There wasn't actually a gripping conflict or an incredible plot that hit me first... it was just the prose. This is rare. Most of the time, it's the former things I've mentioned--some kind of intriguing exigence or a situation that really jumps at me. In either event, you've got to grab me by the shirt and say, read this! read it now! 

I'm never so much looking for previous publications or a great education or a nice letter. What I'm looking for is a story that commands my attention, and does so fast. Incidentally, that's what readers are looking for, too. When is the last time you've been into a bookstore? It might have been a minute, and if so, look around close the next time you're in. Look at the customers perusing the books on display. They pick up the book... they look at the cover... sometimes they flip it over and read the back. Sometimes that's all they need. Others, they open up the book and take a look at that first page. Their eyes narrow, focus... they read.

And then they close the book and put it back. Quickly. They don't give it more than 15 seconds when this happens. They were looking for something and they didn't find it. Other times they keep going.. 30... 45 seconds. Nearly every time they hold onto it for a minute, they put it under their arm and buy it. Would it change the way you wrote if you had that scene in mind? Someone is going to pick this up--an editor is going to pick it up. They're going to give me 15 seconds.. or if I'm really lucky, 30 or 45. And before the little second hand on my watch goes around 60 times, they're going to have bought in to what I'm selling or they're going to be rejecting me. Whether that rejection is being put back on the shelf or being tossed into the deleted folder is irrelevant. You failed to capture them. It really does happen that fast. I could go on about this at length... the importance of the cover, the title, the blurb, the first sentence, the first paragraph, how that builds into the second paragraph... but I don't want to derail this interview.

SQF: What most often turns you off to a submission?

TH: Typos. Purple prose. Typos or bad grammar in general. Awkward phrases. Cliches. Basically, things I see as being lazy. Oh, and passive voice or "telling." I don't mind being told a story, but I normally want to be shown things at first.  

SQF: What do you look for in the opening paragraphs/chapters of a submission?

TH: I touched on this a bit earlier. Let's consider it from a novel, although this is true of a short story in a lot of ways, too. What I'm really looking for in the first page (not just the first chapter!) is for a conflict to present itself and for an interesting character to be grappling with it. That conflict doesn't necessarily have to be the primary conflict that fuels the whole novel, but it should probably be related to it in some way (take a look at the opening pages of the Hunger Games for example--or Stephen King's Firestarter). What I really hate is when the character rolls out of bed, mulls over their day, thinks about an old memory, farts around in the bathroom, drinks some coffee... you get where I'm going with this. Cut all that out for the love of everything that's ever been written or printed on a sheet of brilliant white paper! I'll get to know the character later--preferably while they're tortured over some really unique conflict that I haven't seen before (or haven't seen handled this way before, or seen in this setting before, or seen through the lens of a character like this before). 

And obviously, we like the genres we represent a lot. And so when there are familiar elements that make those genres what they are in evidence, that's a good thing, too. 

SQF: Is there a word limit for the novels you publish?

TH: No, although we appreciate novels that fall into the general realm of the industry. So we're talking anywhere from 70,000 to 200,000, with anything over 100,000 being looked at with a more critical eye (but no matter the length, the opening chapter is still the one that's going to decide, almost definitely, whether we read on). 

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

TH: I don't know that there's a specific question I was fishing for, but I'll tell you we've got a really good team at Muddy Paw Press and we appreciate getting the chance to engage with you and your audience. We're really striving to publish excellent books in our genres. Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror--there was a time not so long ago when these kinds of stories were looked down upon. In some places, they still are. We take great pride in being able to push the line just a little bit further every day by finding and publishing genuinely incredible stories. So thanks for helping out with that.

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