I want to blog a bit about slush.  Big surprise, right?  Seems there's always something to say on the matter.  Like today, for instance.  While perusing a forum, I came across a statement that ...well ...made me want to blog.  The poster didn't single out any markets, but in reference to the short story markets, he claimed that for markets demanding you go the IRC route from abroad, the truth of the matter is that a good many of these markets receive 99% of their material from writers they already know or who are commissioned or on spec.

Naturally this got my slush hackles up (picture sheets of fantasy manuscripts, rippling along my spine in the breeze).  I've posted slush statistics before (and here) If you crunch the numbers, maybe the top 1% or so of all the slush gets accepted for publication.  But the accepted material overall?  I'm afraid the % is much higher.  IMNSHO, this is a major distinction.  Also, define writers these markets "already know."  I knew 4 of my slush survivors (though only 1 in person) before they were accepted by us (and for every slush survivor I've known, I've rejected at least 50 times that number I've also known, so no cries of favortism please).  And just because a writer has published a novel with a major house like Tor, Bantam Spectra, etc., it does not mean we've heard of you.  There are a lot of novels published every year.  We can't keep track of everyone.  That's why cover letters are sometimes helpful.  So if we take a story from these people, where do they fit in regards to that 99%?

Now granted, this is all in regards to Realms of Fantasy.  But do you imagine it's like this with just this magazine?  And as to "commissioned and on spec," these are far from uniform practices among magazines when it comes to fiction.  Many mags rarely go these routes, especially after they've established themselves.  Magazine editors like finding slush survivors.  We like choosing stories according to our tastes.  On spec or commission has its place, and more than that depending on your business model.  But grouping a bunch of (unnamed) mags as part of that aforementioned 99%?  Come on.  Off the top of my head I can think of just a few established genre mags that are strictly or mostly commissioned or on spec with their fiction on anything resembling a regular basis. 

Sometimes I wonder where people get their information.