PostboxMagazine: Scotland’s International Short Story Magazine, to give it its full title, publishes fiction of 1,000-3,000 words (Most are in the 1,000-2,000 range). It’s a print-only publication. Read the complete guidelines here.
SQF: Why did you start this magazine?
Colin Will: I had been an independent publisher (Calder Wood Press: poetry, fiction) for many years, after a career in scientific librarianship, but I wanted to concentrate on my own writing in my later years. I wound up the business in 2017, and, at a meeting with my own publisher, Sheila Wakefield of Red Squirrel Press, I told her I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my spare time. She asked me to become her fiction editor, running the editorial side of her literary fiction imprint, Postbox Press. She had already published a ‘taster’ pamphlet of my short stories in 2016, and she knew how committed I am to the form. She had always had an ambition to publish a short story magazine, and the first issue of Postbox Magazine was published in 2019. I’ve also had the pleasure of editing several novels and collections of short stories.
SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a submission and why?
CW: I like stories which give me a freshness of approach, stories which surprise me with their themes, characters, plots and language.
I like stories which are different from those I’ve read before, which maybe challenge my thoughts about the people an author creates, through their words alone. I may not like these invented people, but it’s good if they make me look at my established ideas and question them.
I like stories which maintain a narrative flow through a beginning, a middle and an end, however obliquely the author deals with questions of structure, or appears to ignore the conventions of short story writing. Ezra Pound said, in a different context, “Make it new!” and I can’t argue with that as a precept.
SQF: What most often turns you off to a submission?
CW:
Writers who haven’t read the submission guidelines.
Clichés. Like an academic researcher discovering a long-lost manuscript by a famous author. Really? And why should anyone, other than a fellow academic, care?
Bad continuity (like characters who change their name halfway through).
Mystical twaddle, the supernatural, stuff like that.
Bad spelling or grammar.
Too many adverbs. They make the writing flabby. And excessive adjectives make it bloated.
SQF: What do you look for in the opening paragraph(s)/stanza(s) of a submission?
CW: The first sentence should be a hook; the second tightens the line. After that, you’re away.
‘So one day he made a list. The things nobody told him about growing old.’
SQF: Many editors list erotica, or sex for sex sake, as hard sells. What are hard sells for your publication?
CW: We’ve never had an erotic story submitted. If we did, I’d read it, of course. I don’t have an editorial agenda, and my publisher doesn’t have a publishing agenda. We publish work by established authors and new authors, and it’s never about the name of the author or the type of fiction; just how well the story works. We sell the magazine on the quality of work of our authors. There are no hard sells. Postbox Magazine is trusted by a loyal and expanding readership to deliver fifteen original, exciting and readable stories, twice a year.
SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
CW: Colin, you’re a writer of short stories, as well as a publisher. What have you learned about writing as a result of reading all the short stories sent to you?
I’ve read the masters of the form – Mansfield, Munro, Carver et al – but reading the stories my fellow writers send me is extremely rewarding. They’re my peers; I’m a short story writer trying to place my stories too. Their ways of solving some of the problems I encounter in writing my own stories have at times astounded me, but in a good way. First person? Close third person? Omniscient third? There are reasons for making the choices we make. In the course of editing the first six issues of the magazine I have read close to six hundred stories, and I’ve learned a lot from many of them. It’s stimulating, and a learning process. Editing, good editing, is a creative activity.
Thank you, Colin. We all appreciate your taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.
No comments:
Post a Comment