Friday, March 11, 2022

Six Questions for Andy Brown, Editor, Scrawl Place

Scrawl Place is part visitor’s guide, part literary journal. It publishes creative non-fiction, fiction, poetry and hybrids to 900 words. “My only fixed criteria is that your submission be about or connected to or associated with a specific, physical place that someone could visit. The more specific the place, the better. How that manifests in terms of content, style and form is up to you.” Learn more here.


SQF: Why did you start this magazine?


Andy Brown: Before COVID, I traveled somewhat regularly, usually a mix of business and pleasure. When I wasn’t traveling, I could still move about freely and explore my neighborhood and city. 


Suddenly, I couldn’t go anywhere. I spent more time online than ever before, falling in love again with the vibrant community of literary journals and connecting with other writers. I thought about how much fun it would be to publish their work. I thought, maybe I could visit places vicariously through their words. Scrawl Place was born out of lockdown.


There is a parallel origin story. Seventeen years ago, I started an indie literary press with some friends. It failed. I realize now it never had a chance, but I had such high hopes at the time. I wanted to publish writers whose work I admired. I wanted to pay them for it. And I wanted it to be self-sustaining. 


That last part is why it failed. We refused to charge fees. We rejected the contest model. We couldn’t sell enough books to cover our costs. We were busy with full-time jobs and relationships and everything else that takes priority over literary publishing projects. Plus, we didn’t know what we were doing. I always wanted to try again.


Fast-forward to now. I want to do all the same things. I want to publish writing that I admire. I want to pay writers. I understand why journals charge reading and contest fees, but I’ll never do it. Yet I still want the site to be self-sustaining. Scrawl Place is me trying again.


I’m not sure if any of that will work out in the long run, but I have a much better idea how to go about it this time around.



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


AB: One thing I look for right away is whether the writer has unambiguously put the reader in a place. By “place,” I mean somewhere you could point to on a map. If the place is fictional or vague or interchangeable with any other place, then I will probably decline to publish it, even if I otherwise like the piece. The more specific the place, the more likely it belongs on Scrawl Place


That said, there is such a thing as “too specific.” I’ve gotten submissions about the writer’s backyard or a room in their house. Readers can’t really visit these places, so they’re not a good fit for a literary travel publication.


Another thing I look for is writing that understands and speaks to the audience. The audience, as I imagine it, wants to be taken vicariously to new places or to experience familiar places in new ways. The intended audience also likes to read. They may or may not be writers, but they like to travel, and they like to read.


To check if you’re writing for this audience, ask whether the submission might lead someone to visit the place in question. If you can do that by telling a story or writing a poem, I want to publish it. I already have a whole new bucket list of places to visit, just from reading submissions. Almost all are places that would never have crossed my mind before.


A third thing I look for is writing that entertains (in a broad sense). I don’t mean laughter and happy endings, necessarily. I mean writing that assumes it must earn the audience’s attention.



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


AB: I have almost no interest in conventional travel writing, especially the kind that “reviews” a destination. 


There’s also a common narrative arc in travel writing that I dislike. It goes something like this: 


A “reluctant traveler” musters the courage to explore a so-called strange land and culture. Then, surprise! Their fears were unfounded. They’re glad they went after all. And they had a revelation: People are more like each other than not. The end. 


Submissions built on that arc will almost always be declined. 



SQF: What do you look for in the opening paragraph(s)/stanza(s) of a submission?


AB: I’m not overly concerned about the first paragraph or stanza. I read every submission at least twice to get a sense of the whole piece. If I decide the piece belongs on Scrawl Place, but I think the beginning could be improved (or anything else), I’ll ask the author if they’re open to suggested edits before I decide one way or another. If they are, it becomes a fulfilling collaborative effort. If not, we both move on, and I hope they submit again, because there was something I really liked about their work. 



SQF: Many editors list erotica, or sex for sex sake, as hard sells. What are hard sells for your publication?


AB: Acceptance rates at literary journals are low, even for a new journal like Scrawl Place. In that sense, every submission is a hard sell!


Regarding content, I don’t include explicit prohibitions in the guidelines. That’s mostly because I get submissions from around the world. I don’t want to preemptively limit what someone writing from a different culture or tradition sends me.


It doesn’t hurt to be familiar with what the journal has published in the past, but if a writer is on the fence, is wondering if something crosses a line, they’re welcome to submit their work. The worst thing that can happen is I decline to publish it.



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


AB: Can you tell us about your own love of travel and where has it taken you? (The question was suggested to me by Fiona McKay, a Scrawl Place contributor).


My answer: I love traveling for a lot of reasons, but deep down it’s because I associate mobility with freedom. The ability to pick up and go is precious to me. I feel freer and happier and more like the person I imagine myself to be when I’m traveling than I do after too much time at home.


As for destinations, I’m infatuated with Spain. I’ve been four times, and I can’t wait to go again. I’d like to live there one day. I also took a memorable trip across the United States, by way of Amtrak, from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, with stops in Chicago, Omaha, Denver, and Salt Lake City. And despite how many times I’ve visited, I’ve yet to tire of Las Vegas (the Strip and beyond). If things work out, my wife and I plan to live and work there remotely for a month sometime in 2022.


But I’m not choosy, and my willingness to tag along has taken me places I may not have gone otherwise. Lichtenstein comes to mind. A friend of mine spoke at a conference there and wanted some company, so why not? Another time, a friend who knows his way around Israel and Palestine invited me to travel with him for a couple weeks, and that was an experience I’ll never forget. 


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



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