We are very busy with all the hundreds of stories in slush. Thanks for sending us your story!
Here's some miscellaneous feedback for authors:
- Do follow standard formatting conventions. Weird fonts, giant or tiny text sizes, extra spacing after paragraphs, and other odd stuff makes editors cranky.
- If you email us to withdraw your story, please try to include the date you sent the original submission.
- Don't bother summarizing your story in the cover letter. If I can't tell what the story is from reading it, a summary isn't going to help.
- Don't list dozens or hundreds of credits in your cover letter. If you want to include credits, just pick the top three or so. If you aren't sure what the 'top' means, go ahead and include the most recent.
- Don't tell us if you're unpublished in the cover letter. It's not an advertisement.
- I like to see title, genre, word-count and author contact info in the cover letter. If you want to include a bio--keep it short. We will request an updated bio from authors upon acceptance.
- We don't send email acknowledgements of story receipt (It caused too many problems.). But we won't keep you in suspense longer than four months. Every once in a while we get an email that an author has been waiting to hear from us for six months or more... No. Sorry, your story got lost in cyberspace.
- Authors who submit at the beginning of the submission period may do better than authors who submit at the last minute. Most editors try to keep ahead of slush. But, somehow, the end of the period always ends up being hectic. Thus, the beginning of the submission period is more relaxed. A more relaxed editor is more likely to take more time with your story.
Good luck!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment