What’s the Slush Pile Like, Anyway? Part 2

I promised you a part two to this post last week and I finally got around to writing it. Yay!. We already talked about the submissions process, our file management system, and the types of stories we receive over at the Goldfish. So today, we’re going to take a look at the types of submitters we encounter. Who submits stories to us? What do they do right? What do they do wrong?

It’s time to get real about the slush pile.

The Submitters

The vast majority of people who submit to us are awesome. Really, they’re a cool lot just looking to get their stories out there. I can totally relate! However, there’s always a few bad eggs in the crate. Or wait, is it carton? What the heck do eggs come in again? I’m having a brain fart. Maybe “bad eggs” is a bad metaphor.

Source: Victor1558

What I’m trying to say is not everyone who submits to us has it all together. Maybe they’re new to the submissions process. Maybe they think they’re better than writer’s guidelines. Who knows? In general though (and I am being very, very general here), people who submit to our little magazine (and stand out for the wrong reasons) fall into these categories:

• The Rapid Fire – He sends a story. Not five minutes after a form rejection hits his inbox, he sends another story. And another. And another. Until we call the Rapid Fire maneuver, “Pulling a INSERT NAME OF SUBMITTER HERE.”
• The Beggar – She gets a form rejection and responds to it (mistake #1) asking for feedback on why the story was rejected (mistake #2). Listen, I know how hard it is to be rejected, but doing this will not cast you in a favorable light with any editor. I promise it’s not just use being big ‘ol meanies.
• The “I Don’t Care Who You Are” – This submitter can’t be bothered with learning our names. I’m actually cool with “Dear Editors” because there are two editors to address here at Goldfish Grimm. Even so, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with a magazine’s site well enough that you locate (and know) the editors’ names. It shows us you care. And we’re very needy people.
• The Perpetual Confusion – Oh dear. This submitter is confused. Or maybe he or she just can’t be bothered to read the submission guidelines? Whatever the reason, the Perpetual Confusion sends in stories that are pasted into an email. They send us .docx files. They send stories outside of our word limits. Hell, they send us stories out of our genres. So confused!
• The Plot Pointer – This one really irks me. Sending along a summary of a short story seems counterintuitive. The whole point of a short story is that you can read it all in one sitting. Providing a summary removes all the lead up and suspense to the final page. Don’t do it!
• The Corporate Communicator – This submitter is professional as hell. She doesn’t just send in her short story (which, as her cover letter assures us, is of high quality), she sends in a résumé as well, listing out all of her credentials that in no way shape or form relate to being a short story writer. She also sends in a list of publication credits. Two or three would be fine here, but sending a list (mistake #1), as an attachment (mistake #2), that’s over two pages long (mistake #3) is just…no.

Have you ever found yourself in one of the above categories? Not to worry. Nearly every writer has at some point. But you can make a change. Be thorough when making your submissions. Be mindful. And most of all, respect that we editors are people, too.

Happy submitting!

“Revenge is a Star in the Sky” Published in Bards and Sages Quarterly

2013 has been a slow year for me publication-wise but I’m pleased to reported by flash tale, “Revenge is a Star in the Sky,” appears in the April issue of Bard and Sages Quarterly alongside several of my writing friends, which is pretty cool. Here’s an excerpt:

She looked at the darkened sky that lay beyond her bedroom window. The stars mocked her with their twinkling. She lifted an eyebrow. I’ll grow up, I’ll get over it, she thought, smirking. Her eyes fell on one star in particular. It shone brighter than the rest and she knew why. She would make them pay.

And I have a treat for you, dear readers. Want to buy a copy? Go to the following link:

https://www.createspace.com/4229437

Then enter this code at checkout to get 10% off the print price: AK3ENESC

“A Mother’s Words Are Lasting Scars” Published at One Forty Fiction

I had a Twitter flash piece published today over at One Forty Fiction called “A Mother’s Words Are Lasting Scars.” It was just a little thing that I jotted down one day as a fragment of poetry. Gave it a second look last week, sent it out, and here we are.

Hope you enjoy it.

“Carapace” Published at Ray Gun Revival

This post is super delayed, but I definitely wanted to take a moment to jot down my thoughts about the latest story I’ve had published. It’s called “Carapace” and you can check it out right now at Ray Gun Revival.

This story actually started as a very brief flash piece. I think I wrote it for a 100-word flash competition but I can’t remember when or what for. Needless to say, I didn’t win. The story sat on my hard drive for several months until I revisited it and decided to expand it. A whole world came out in the revision and I was pretty pleased with the result. I got excellent feedback from beta readers too, including Lydia S. Gray.

It’s super pulpy and not very much like other things I write, but that may be why it was so fun. I hope you enjoy it!

On “Knit” and the Writing Process

I thought I’d try out something new here. I recently had a short story published at The Drabblecast, and I was thinking it might be fun to go into a bit of detail about my approach to the story and how it met its final form.

This is the first story I consider to be a part of my most current batch. Even though it was written in 2010, my approach was considerably different on this tale than on those previous.

What was the difference, you might be asking?

Simple: I didn’t fret about quality.

Well, at least in the drafting phase. This was the first time I can recall throwing caution to the wind and writing a story just because I wanted to. Because certain words sounded nice together. Because I wanted to tell something creepy and beautiful at the same time.

And the first draft was horrendous, as most first drafts are. It made next to no sense and was filled with tangents that took the story off course. So I focused the plot and trimmed it down. I cut out phrases I thought were cool. I killed my darlings.

Once satisfied, “Knit” was sent to 9 different markets, one after the other. I piled up the rejections. I received additional feedback from beta readers along the way and made a few subtle tweaks for clarity and consistency. Finally, I sent the story off to The Drabblecast.

But the acceptance didn’t come right away. I received a rewrite request first that required me to cut the story again by about 300 words. Much of the rewrite revolved around removing a distracting subplot involving the mother character. Basically, I had to focus the story more on the father to make it fulfilling emotionally.

They were right. I made the revisions, showed a few beta readers and off it went. Yay for acceptance!

I’m proud of “Knit” and the process required to get to the end product. I wrote freely for the first time. I channeled personal anguish into the tale–something that I’ve since done with regularity. And the story that I was left with is filled with darkness, yet there is beauty there. If sadness can be beautiful.

I hope you all enjoyed the end result.