November, 2010:

So I’ve been around the traps a bit writing wise, and done all sorts of cool things in the past few years. I’ve dabbled in just about everything, and have been a slusher, reviewer, critiquer, general dogsbody, sympathetic ear, and always a writer. Some parts of my writerly adolescence were frustrating, but it was all educational, and overall a whole heap of fun. But one thing I’ve never done is put on the editor hat, something I decided to remedy at last year’s Natcon when I had a natter with fellow scribblers David Conyers and David Kernot.

I’m now one of the co-editors for Midnight Echo, the magazine of the Australian Horror Writers Association. We’re slowly putting together issue #6, the themed SF/Horror issue, and submissions are open until Jan 31st next year, so if that’s your bag you’ve still got a bit of time to send something in.

(Firstly I should mention that I’m only speaking as myself, 1/3rd of this hive-mind editor, and these opinions are strictly my own, not necessarily those of the issue #6 collective)

So we’re starting to plough through the subs, and I’m going through the usual grimaces and woes that others have frequently expressed before me. I know there are a few shibboleths that aren’t expressly given out when you decide to write stories, but these are easy enough to find out online. Firstly, always ALWAYS write in standard manuscript format. By itself it won’t get you over the line but you’ve got to give yourself the best chance.  Follow this hyperlink, and set up your manuscripts this way.

http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html

You are not the exception to this standard, and your two page story in justified alignment with no paragraph breaks (or indeed, no paragraphs) isn’t an edgy stream-of-consciousness thing; it’s migraine fodder and a way to the rejection pile.  The font etc of Shunn’s example might not be pretty, but it’s an industry standard and one any new writer would be wise to follow.  If you can’t handle looking at it, write it any way you like, then change it to look like this when you’re finished.  Also, standard format tweaked in strange ways is just not cool – crazy headers and four-inch margins on either side do not earn any love.

Also, stories that don’t meet the guidelines or the target market?  ALWAYS READ THE GUIDELINES.  There’s a home for everything, and oodles of other markets on places like duotrope.com that would love to see the definitive were-wombat paranormal romance novella or the essay about your sister’s pony.  Just sending your stuff out to any old place proves you’re not paying attention, especially if the target market is drastically different to the type of story you’re telling.  It also indicates that you are possibly sending it out as a simultaneous submission (ie to several markets at once) which is often a no-no.  This market doesn’t accept this or multiple subs (more than one story at once), being busted doing this sort of thing isn’t the end of the world, but it’s a faux pas and not exactly professional.

These are minor technical quibbles, and it’s not all misery and hair-shirts.  There’s been some great stories in the pile, and it’s a buzz to pick these out of the slush and put them in for the 2nd round of reading.  It’s early days yet (by all accounts 50% of the slush comes in during the last week of the reading period) but I’m reasonably confident that we can come up with the goods on this one.

One thing that does concern me are the low levels of submissions from female authors.  Again, it’s still early days, but to date we’ve only received approximately 29% of our subs from women writers.  When I signed up for this gig, one of the things I was very conscious about was trying to do the right thing by everyone.  Easy folks, pitchforks away, I’m not talking about setting quotas or any of that other stuff that often revs some people up when gender table-of-contents issues are discussed.  Very simply, I would hate for my first foray into (co-)editorship to be an uninclusive sausage-fest.  But if women writers don’t send us submissions, we can’t read them!

I guess one of the things that might be putting some people off is the fact that this issue is actively seeking science fiction, and is headed up by three white male writers.  But I for one would be just as happy to see the next Marianne De Pierres as much as the next Greg Egan.  There are some very talented folks out toiling under the Aussie SF umbrella, and just about every genre writing thing I’ve ever been to has been split roughly down the middle gender-wise.  There’s no reason why TOCs can’t turn out similarly, without any special effort expended, simply because a large initial pool of fiction would allow this to happen naturally (and probably unconsciously).

In closing, go on, have a go.  You’ve got nothing to lose, and it’s a gorgeous magazine to get a story into.  If you have any questions or want to pick my brain about this or anything else, feel free to comment here or I can be emailed at mail@jasonfischer.com.au if you want to ask something privately.