entre bastidores

As you know, we closed submissions for the awesome August 31, 2019 issue of Electric Spec July 15, 2019. Consequently, we are working on the issue entre bastidores. We received many, many lovely speculative fiction stories. Thank you for sending us your stories!

All the editors are currently going through slush and sending out rejection emails or notices of hold-for-voting.

Here are some recent sugestions I've gleaned:

• Do send us your file as an attachment in the correct format (rtf).
• Do send only one story at a time.
• Do include a brief cover letter.
• Do proofread for grammar and spelling issues. A few mistakes aren't a big deal, but a lot of mistakes will get you rejected.
• Do obey our word-ount rules, namely, 250-words to 7,000-words. A further tip: it's difficult to tell a story in less than a thousand words. Another tip: a story with more than 5,000-words makes editors tired; if your story is over 5,000-words make sure you need all those words!
• Grab the reader (aka the editor) on the first page. Short stories don't work with 250-plus words of setup--at least at this market.
• Do set the scene on the first page. As a reader, I don't want to be confused about where we are and/or who or what is there.

That's it for now. Next time, more entre bastidores!