1) As an editor and writer, I find it interesting to interview various editors within our industry.
2) I think a lot of those who tune into my blog appreciate this feature, so why the heck not.
3) I think a lot of the editors get a kick out of participating, particularly those who are also writers and are more used to answering questions about their writing.
I never really expected anything else to result from these interviews. Then the other day I received an email from Matthew Kressel. Matt is the publisher/editor of Sybil's Garage, a highly respected small press mag within speculative circles. He was also the guest for Editorial Musings--Issue 10. As part of that interview, I asked Matt the following question, and received the following answer:
Do you have any additional editorial aspirations?
In the near term I will continue to publish Sybil's Garage, but in the longer term, I plan to publish original novels and anthologies under the Senses Five Press flag. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. I been using the fantastic Small Beer Press and others as our model. We already publish chapbooks, like Kris Dikeman's Seven Things, and we will soon be adding several more to our library. We'll also be publishing a Best of Altered Fluid anthology at some point in the future. In general, I want to expand Senses Five Press into a full publishing house.
This is one of my standard questions (I'm sure some of you have noticed I ask certain questions over and over--I use a basic boilerplate model for these interviews and then tweak where necessary with each guest). So given this, I never expected it to have a hand in leading to an anthology!But here's a snippet from that email I received from Matt the other day:
Through your interview, Ekaterina Sedia got wind that I was looking to publish an anthology, and pitched one to me. So we will be soon printing an original antho with such authors as Catherynne Valente, Hal Duncan, Jay Lake, and others. It's pretty cool, so I just wanted to say thanks.
Well I'll be buggered. :) Never expected anything like this. Wanted to post about it right away, but Matt asked me to wait until the contract was finalized. The contract is finalized now, so Matt has told me it's okay to post. As for additional details regarding the anthology, I'll raid Jay Lake's blog:
Senses Five Press at </a></b></a>
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squirrelmonkey have announced Paper Cities. This is an anthology of fantastic urban fiction, with contributions from Steve Berman, Barth Anderson, Cat Sparks, Kaaron Warren, Forrest Aguirre, Catherynne Valente, Stephanie Campisi, Hal Duncan, Anna Tambour, Mark Teppo, Darin Bradley, Greg Van Eekhout and more. My own story is "Promises", and it concerns Biggest Sister and the Tribade, those criminal masterminds of the City Imperishable. All in all I have to say this is a very cool development and it's definitely a reason for me to continue with Editorial Musings, because you never know who might be reading this. Hope you all check out the anthology!
Surely you've all been anxiously checking my blog, looking forward to that latest issue of Editorial Musings, because it's the middle of the monsth. Well, far be it from me to disappoint. This month's interview will be with Matthew Kressel, the publisher/editor of Sybil's Garage:
Another middle of the month must mean another issue of Editorial Musings. This month's guest will be Paul G. Tremblay:
Born and raised in Dungvaren, Ireland, Kealan Patrick Burke is an award-winning author described by Publishers Weekly as "a newcomer worth watching." Some of his works include the novels Currency of Souls and The Hides, the novellas The Turtle Boy (Bram Stoker Award Winner, 2004) and Vessels, and the collection Ravenous Ghosts. He has also sold fiction to a number of publications, including Postscripts, Cemetery Dance, Grave Tales, Shivers II, Shivers III, Shivers IV, Looking Glass, Masques V, Subterranean, Evermore, Inhuman, Horror World, Surreal, and Corpse Blossoms. Aside from his accomplishments as an author, Kealan also edited the anthologies: Taverns of the Dead, Night Visions 12, (both recipients of starred reviews in Publishers Weekly), Brimstone Turnpike, Quietly Now: A Tribute to Charles L. Grant (International Horror Guild Nominee, 2004), and the charity anthology Tales from the Gorezone. You can contact Kealan at: kealan@kealanpatrickburke.com or visit his website at www.kealanpatrickburke.com.
How did you end up working for Subterranean Magazine?
I knew Bill Schafer (owner and publisher at Subterranean Press) for a few years by the time he decided to start Subterranean. I'd edited an anthology for him (Night Visions 12), and when he offered me a shot at trying to place a story in the premiere issue of the magazine, I jumped at it. Took me more than one try to meet his high standards, but I managed to win him over with a story called "The Grief Frequency". Shortly thereafter, with the first issue available on the stands, he asked if I'd be interested in coming on board Subterranean as an associate editor. It was another offer I jumped at.
What are your responsibilities there as Associate Editor?
Generally, I proofread every issue, sell some advertising, make sure checks get sent out to contributors etc. But truthfully, it doesn't involve much more than that. I don't read submissions, though very occasionally, I will, with Bill's approval, solicit a story from someone I think would be a good fit for the magazine, or make recommendations to Bill based on stuff I've come across in my own reading.
When it first started, I think people assumed it was going to be another Cemetery Dance (not that that would have been a bad thing), and certainly the inaugural issue didn't do much to dispel that assumption, as it was primarily horror, but from the second issue onward, Bill took the magazine into more sf/f/df territory. These days, it has more in common with magazines like F&SF and Asimov's than anything else, and regularly features contributions from some Subterranean Press mainstays, as well as some of the biggest names in the aforementioned genres. It is not uncommon to find fiction from luminaries like Orson Scott Card, Ray Bradbury, Phillip Jose Farmer, Poppy Z. Brite, Cherie Priest, Elizabeth Bear, Neal Barrett Jr., and others gracing the pages. In addition, there are the expected interviews, and a superb critical analysis/book review section from Dorman T. Shindler. Occasionally, there will be themed issues, such as the Sci-Fi Cliché issue, guest-edited by John Scalzi.
Last time I checked Subterranean is closed to unsolicited submissions. Are there any plans to change this policy? If so, when?
I honestly can't say. Whether or not it will ever open to submissions is entirely Bill's call, but personally, I can't see it happening. Not unless he takes on more staff to handle it. After as many years as he's been in the business, he knows very well how much time slushpiles take up. As do I. Maybe if he wasn't simultaneously running a high-output book line, there'd be some chance, but right now, I'd be very surprised to see it.
Besides your editorial duties with Subterranean you’re also an accomplished anthologist. Can you tell us how you got started on this side of the speculative business?
I wish I had a more interesting answer for this but I'm going to have to stick with the plain and simple truth. I'd wanted to do an anthology ever since reading Kirby McCauley's Dark Forces anthology, and the Stephen Jones/David Sutton Dark Terrors books way back when. Then, shortly after moving to the States, I suddenly found it within my power to, if not do one, then at least try. And that's what I did. I drew up a list of my favorite horror writers, tracked down their contact info (or bribed their agents—kidding), and put together an anthology of bar-themed horror stories entitled Taverns of the Dead. At the same time I connected with Richard Chizmar at Cemetery Dance Publications, who liked the idea and agreed to publish the book.
Aside from Taverns of the Dead, which featured bar-themed stories by Peter Straub, Ramsey Campbell, Charles deLint, Jack Cady, Steve Tem, Terry Lamsley, Nicholas Royle, and Neil Gaiman, to name a few, I also edited a book entitled Quietly Now: A Tribute to Charles L. Grant, which featured stories and essays by some of the genre's biggest names (King, Straub, Lansdale, and more) all, as the title suggests, as a thank you to one of horror/dark fantasy's greatest purveyors, now sadly passed away. Then there's Tales from the Gorezone, a charity anthology I put together some years back consisting of stories from members of the now-defunct Gorezone website. All proceeds went to PROTECT.
Any anthologies in the works/due to be published/recently released?
As mentioned earlier, I edited the twelfth installment of the venerable Night Visions series for Subterranean Press, with stories by P.D. Cacek, Simon Clark and Mark Morris, and cover art by Russell Dickerson. This has just been released and should be on the shelves soon. Due from Cemetery Dance is Brimstone Turnpike, a quintet of novellas by Thomas F. Monteleone, Scott Nicholson, Tim Waggoner, Harry Shannon and Michael Oliveri, all revolving around a character named Johnny Divine, who sits on a rocking chair at the titular location, dispensing "souvenirs" from his battered red suitcase to a character from each novella, thereby influencing their lives in unusual ways.
Other than those, I'm playing around with ideas and talking to some people, but I'm not working on anything definite anthology-wise at the moment.
On average, what percentage of stories do you solicit in advance for your anthologies?
With the exception of Tales from the Gorezone, which was open to anyone registered as a member of the Gorezone message board, and Hour of Pain, which never saw print (see below), all of them.
Can you give us an idea about the average amount of submissions you receive for the open slots in your anthologies?
I edited an anthology years ago called Hour of Pain, which found a publisher and then that publisher vanished into the ether, and as the book was done for the sole purpose of highlighting the dearth of talent in the small press outside of the big names, and therefore featured no recognizable, or to put it in publishing terms, "saleable" names, the book never happened. That was open to submissions and during the six-month reading period, I estimate I received close to four hundred stories. Of that number, I selected twenty.
For Tales from the Gorezone, restricted to members of the Gorezone message board, the numbers were lower. Of the one hundred stories I was sent for that, I think I took about eighteen.
I wrote a bit about this in a column for the Cemetery Dance website, which is a lot longer and more in-depth than we have room for here, but to sum it up I'd say one of the most important things I learned doing these books is not to sell out, or—as pretentious as it may sound—amend your vision to suit others. Sure, there are guidelines, but if you're going to put together a book, be sure you know why you're doing it, then do it. Don't accept bad stories just because they're written by ordinarily good authors, or will sell the book for you, because the euphoria of that sale will last only until the reviews come out, and as hard a sell as anthologies are these days, that concession you made to avoid looking bad to one of your authors may be the reason you find it even harder to sell the next one. Don't be afraid to reject stories you don't think suit the book, and don't make promises you can't keep. Remember above all else: A good story is a good story; a bad one, isn't. Sounds obvious, doesn't it? You'd be amazed how blurry the lines can get when you're dealing with your heroes.
Don't just do an anthology because it seems like the popular thing to do. Do one because you love them. And for Chrissakes, don't do a "royalty-only" anthology that essentially means you'll have your writers busting their asses for no pay, and no readers. If you want a professional anthology, you get a professional publisher to publish a book of professional stories by professional writers. There was a time when this didn't need to be said. Go to www.ralan.com and look at the anthologies currently open to submissions. The ratio of pay versus "royalty-only" (i.e. no pay) is alarming.
For those readers interested, the column I wrote about this subject is here: (http://www.cemeterydance.com/page/CDP/W
Personally, I love to blab on and on about my slush discoveries. What about you? Any stories you’ve discovered for your various anthologies you’d like to tell us about?
A British writer named Paul Finch wrote a story called "Children Don't Play Here Anymore" for my Quietly Now anthology, which has stayed with me in the years since. It was a beautiful and haunting tale, as was Darren Godfrey's "Storage Unit" for the same book. These were writers not many people were familiar with, and they proved they were more than qualified to share a table of contents with the greats. From the veterans then, Mark Morris wrote a story for Night Visions 12 called "What Nature Abhors" which I class as one of the scariest and most unsettling tales I've ever read. Charles L. Grant and Jack Cady wrote the kind of tales I'd been hoping and praying they'd deliver for Taverns of the Dead, as did everyone in that book. I felt blessed. Like I said earlier though, I reject stories I don't like, no matter who writes them, so I'm absolutely proud of every story I've accepted for my anthologies.
It's a pretty common one: formatting errors. I absolutely hate it when someone sends me a story and it's one big massive block of text with no spacing, or paragraphs. It used to mean I'd have to spent hours fixing it myself just to read it. Not any more. These days I either return the story with a note asking for the story to be reformatted, or I delete it, depending on my mood. With the amount of guidelines freely available around the 'Net and in books, there's no excuse for not preparing your submission properly.
People who ignore guidelines get on my nerves too, particularly those with the attitude that their work is so exceptional, they don't need to follow the guidelines because you'll be so blown away by their immense talent to notice they sent a vampire story for an absolutely-no-vampire-stories anthology. Or a 40,000-word novella when the limit is 5,000 words. Or a splatter/gore-soaked zombie tale to a traditional ghost story anthology, or vice-versa. Or poetry for a prose-only antho. Not adhering to the guidelines shows a lack of interest on the part of the writer, and if they're not willing to take the time to read them, why should we read the story?
Charles L. Grant, Ramsey Campbell, Steve Rasnic Tem, Christopher Fowler, Joe Hill, Nicholas Royle, Glen Hirshberg, Peter Crowther, Mark Morris, Simon Clark, Norman Partridge, Susanna Clarke, Larry McMurtry, John Connolly, Jeffrey Deaver, Ed Gorman, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Bentley Little, Al Sarrantonio, Tim Lebbon, Dan Simmons, Terry Lamsley, Simon Clark, Jack Ketchum, T.E.D Klein, Jack Cady, Michael Marshall Smith, David B. Silva, Kim Newman, Chet Williamson, Joe Lansdale, Michael Chabon. That's off the top of my head. No doubt I'm forgetting a boatload. I read a bit of everything.
I'd like to edit a ghost story magazine in the vein of Ash-Tree's All Hallows, or a mystery/ghost story magazine like The Strand. I'd also like to land a mass-market paperback deal for one of my anthologies. It would be nice to see the books get a wider readership.
I think, from picking through so many stories over the years I find it easier to identify the flaws in my own. And like general reading for pleasure, exposure to so much damn fine work has made me want to be a better writer.
Does the writer in you have any non-editorial advice for the hordes of scribes out there?
Don't give up. I have faced more heartbreak, self-doubt, and disappointment in this profession than in any other I've put my hand to. But in the end, quitting is too easy. Anyone can do that. The same can't be said for this creative madness we call writing.
Thanks so much for your time.
You're very welcome. I hope I wasn't too boring.
Big thanks to Kealan for doing this interview. Next month I hope to avoid these sorts of mistakes, so hopefully you'll continue to tune in when I interview . . .???
Hey Kids,
So it's the middle of the month (or close enough), which means it's time for another edition of Editorial Musings. This month's interview will be conducted with the infamously outrageous Nick Mamatas, editor of Clarkesworld Magazine.
Hey Kids,
Another month=another issue of Editorial Musings. This month's contestant is writer/editor, Tim Pratt:
Hey Kids,
It's the middle of the month, which means it's time for another edition of Editorial Musings. This month I'll be conducting an interview with my good buddy, John Joseph Adams, aka JJA, aka the Slush God.
http://scififantasyfiction.suite101.c
*Note: In the section where I mention dragons I failed to mention either of the offerings in the current issue of RoF. The reason is simple: I did the interview before I knew what stories had been published. No slight intended.
This month's editorial interview will be with Jetse de Vries, one of the assistant editors at Interzone Magazine:
( Read more... )
It's the middle of the month, which means it's time for more Editorial Musings. Since my plea to Barbarienne to teach me how to do that shortening feature on these interviews went ignored, this musing shall once again be of an ungodly length. So anyway, this month's interview will be taking with Edmund R. Schubert.
Bio:
Edmund R. Schubert loves stories. Always has; always will. When he was in the second grade, his teacher would bribe him with trips to the library to get him to do his math and science. Little has changed since then.
Hired as editor of Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show (http://www.InterGalacticMedicineShow.c
Additionally, in 2004, Edmund's story, "Unfathomed," won first prize in Lynx Eye's 8th Annual Captivating Beginnings Contest, and "Reality Check On Register Two" was included in StorySouth’s list of Notable Stories. In 2005 "I Have To Go Now" was selected by the editors of The Writers Post Journal for inclusion in their annual "Best of 2005" issue (published Feb. '06).
His novel, The Legend of Dreaming Creek, is scheduled to be released in trade paperback in June of 2007 by LBF Books.
He also writes non-fiction, and is executive editor of a quarterly business magazine, North Carolina Career Network Magazine. He writes an occasional newspaper column for the Greensboro News & Record, and a monthly non-fiction column for The Horror Library (www.HorrorLibrary.net).
Despite all this, Edmund still maintains that his greatest achievement was when the underground newspaper he published in college made him the subject of a professor's lecture -- in abnormal psychology.
His fiction web-site is: www.edmundrschubert.com and his new blog can be found at www.SideShowFreaks.blogspot.com/
1. How did you end up becoming the new editor for Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show?
There was a phone-in contest and I was caller #9. Caller #8 got to be Scott’s new gardener, which is what I was really aiming for. But sometimes you have to take what you get and make the most of it.
2. What are your responsibilities as editor?
To a degree the job is still evolving, and I suspect it will continue to do so for a while. But my primary responsibility is to go through the stories that make it out of the slush pile, pick the ones that will be published, and organize each issue into something that will make for an overall reading experience people will enjoy. There’s a longer answer, but it’s not nearly as interesting.
3. What has the editorial transition been like?
Challenging right now, mainly because I’m trying to juggle the editorial calendars for two magazines at once. On the other hand, it has forced me to really focus and get organized, so it’s been helpful, too.
Scott and I met once early on and went though a stack of stories. I told him which I liked and which I didn’t, and why or why not. He agreed with my assessments and pretty much said, “Okay, it’s yours. Go get ‘em.” I have to confess to being nervous when I showed him the first story I thought we should buy – a story called “Xoco’s Fire” by Oliver Dale – but when Scott looked it over and said, “Yeah, I’d have bought this in a heartbeat - if I had had time to read it,” I knew things were going to work out.
4. Now that OSC has handed off the editorial reins, how much involvement does he have with the magazine?
Scott has made it clear that he still wants to be involved in the selection of the art. He hasn’t said so directly, but I suspect that’s because the art is something he simply enjoys very much. In the midst of all his responsibilities, he wants to hang on to something that is a source of pleasure to him.
However, he has directly said that he expects me to leave my fingerprints all over future issues of IGMS, and that I need to think of myself not as a surrogate Orson Scott Card, but as the editor who molds and shapes IGMS. So his involvement with the selection of stories is going to be limited to those times when a story happens to come across his desk and really captures his attention – at which point he’ll say, “Ed, publish this” and I’ll say, “Yes, sir!”
Actually, he and I have had conversations about that possibility – him discovering a particular story – and we might run such stories in IGMS under a banner that says, “Uncle Orson’s Pick” or something like that. It may not happen more than once a year, but if it does it will be noted.
5. No two editors ever have the exact same tastes. How much do you expect the content of the magazine to change with your hand guiding it?
If Scott and I didn’t, at a certain level, see eye to eye, he wouldn’t have hired me in the first place. So neither of us have any concerns that I’m going to run off into the weeds and do something peculiar. On the other hand, as much as I feel a responsibility to represent Scott and his tastes well, nothing is going to change the fact that some stories will speak to me and some will not. And the ones that do are the ones I’m going to publish. How much or how little that will change the magazine is something only time will tell.
6. What sorts of stories would you recommend writers to send along for consideration? What sorts would you advise against?
InterGalactic Medicine Show publishes all sorts of fiction, as long as it contains an element of the fantastic (and it’s a fantastic story). Hard or soft SF is fine; contemporary or high fantasy. Tales of the weird. Even the odd ghost story or light horror would be okay.
Our submission guidelines say “PG-13,” but I hope no one thinks that means they can’t write about challenging subject matter. We want challenging subject matter; we’re just not interested in gore or sex or profanity. Most stories I’ve seen that include those elements would be just as provocative – if not more so – without them.
7. What makes this magazine different from Baen’s Universe, the other online spec magazine to which one must subscribe in order to read the stories?
Given that Jim Baen just passed away, I’m going to take this opportunity to express my condolences to his family and many friends, and leave it at that. I wish them the best.
8. Personally, I love to blab on and on about my slush discoveries. What about you? Any authors or stories you’ve discovered that you’d like to mention?
I can’t claim to have discovered him because he had already had a couple of stories accepted by Asimov’s, but James Maxey is a writer who I believe the world will be hearing a lot from. Within a few days of being hired to edit IGMS I was on the phone asking him if a particular story he wrote (“To Know All Things That Are In The Earth”) was available. It wasn’t at the moment, but eventually I managed to get a hold of it. (The process involved a drunken money, a half naked bottle of tequila, a beautiful woman with a banana, and a video camera. To say any more would be tactless and I won’t subject James to that.) But I think James is an immensely talented writer who we’ll all be hearing from on a regular basis.
I was also particularly impressed with a story I found in the pile passed along by assistant editor, Sara Ellis, called “The Box of Beautiful Things.” It’s by a British writer named Brian Dolton, and I was particularly struck by this story. In a very short space Dolton painted a beautiful picture involving an intriguing character, and then did something that was at once completely unexpected, yet completely logical. You asked earlier about the kind of stories I like, and “The Box of Beautiful Things” is a perfect example of just that.
Both of these stories will be in the next issue (along with “Xoco’s Fire,” which I mentioned earlier, and Tim Pratt’s “Dream Engine”).
Rick Novy’s “The Adjoa Gambit” is the only story left over from Scott’s selections, so you’re very quickly going to get a look at the kinds of stories you can expect from me.
9. Who are some of your favorite authors, both in and outside of the genre?
My top favorites are Mark Twain, Ray Bradbury, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Steinbeck. All four write wonderfully and tell great stories. The art of story-telling is not the same thing as the art of writing well, but I think those four do both better than anyone else.
I’m also, to a slightly lesser degree, a big fan of Stephen King (his early stuff, anyway) and Orson Scott Card (and you know I’m not sucking up here, since I put Scott in the second-tier of favorites). But I think those two authors are some of the best pure storytellers around. I think they both consistently choose to use a very simple, direct style in their stories so as to put themselves in the background (“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” said The Wizard of Oz) to make the reader pay attention to the tale.
And frankly that’s what I’m looking to publish in IGMS. I think so many magazines - and consequently so many writers - have gotten obsessed with the ‘writing’ that they’ve forgotten about storytelling. That’s sad, because that’s what readers want. They want stories. As much as writers and publishers bemoan the shrinking readership of many magazines, I think they are the ones to blame for the current state of things by forgetting the importance of the story.
I was recently talking with a certain fantasy magazine editor (I’m not going to name names; I’m too new at this to burn bridges already), but he told me that he was planning on emphasizing the writer’s styles in his magazine. He said was encouraging a lot of college students to submit because they had such great ‘style’ and didn’t even know it. Maybe I am going to burn some bridges here, but I’ve got to tell you, I’ve met very few folks who I didn’t think were ruined as writers by MFA programs. Absolutely ruined.
Am I saying that style and quality of writing aren’t important? Not at all. A writer’s style is very important – just look at my list of all-time favorite writers – but if you look at that list, you’ll also see that those are writers who never forgot to tell their readers a story.
10. What is your favorite part about working at IGMS?
What’s not my favorite part? It’s a dream job and I count my blessing every day that I have it.
11. What are your pet peeves as an editor?
Not enough cash with submissions. Don’t writers realize the way to get published is to slip large amounts of cash in their SASEs?
Really, it’s a little early to have pet peeves. I may have a different answer six months or a year from now, but at the moment I’m still having too much fun to be peeved about anything.
12. On average, how many submissions a month does your magazine receive?
As of May it was down to about 100 per month. It used to be higher, but the slow response times have - understandably - affected some writer’s willingness to submit to IGMS. I expect that number to go back up once the next issue comes out (in August) and people know the response time will reliably be in the 60 to 90 day range.
13. What percentage is science fiction vs. fantasy?
It’s a little early for me to have an accurate picture of that. At first blush I’d say something in the 60% - 40% range, with a slight preponderance of Fantasy. But that’s a very preliminary estimate.
14. I know you’re still new to the magazine, but can you give us an idea of what percentage of science fiction vs. fantasy is being accepted for publication?
I’m trying for a balance, of course. The plan is four fantasy stories (with a blend of high fantasy and contemporary fantasy), and three SF stories. Add Scott’s “Ender” tale to the count and that makes four and four. Those numbers will vary a bit, of course, but that’s the plan.
15. I know you work as the editor to another magazine. Have these experiences proven helpful at all with IGMS?
Yes and no. (Pretty insightful, eh?)
Seriously… On the one hand, I’m sure my experience as executive editor of a business magazine helped me land the job as editor of IGMS in the first place. NC Career Network Magazine is based in Greensboro, where Scott lives, and I know he had seen the magazine before calling me about taking over IGMS. And there are certain things that translate from fiction to non-fiction, i.e. presenting a balance of content, working with writers to help them fine tune their work, circulation concerns and other issues related to the business-side of all magazines, etc.
But on the other hand, fiction and non-fiction are very different animals. Technically they may be related, but they’re not the same. No where near. The people doing the writing are different kinds of writers; and the readers, the ultimate reason for putting the magazine out, are looking for a different kind of experience, so in some respects I’m starting from scratch.
16. Do you have additional editorial aspirations?
At the moment, if anyone else asked me to edit anything, I’d probably smack them. But that’s today. Tomorrow? Who knows; I do enjoy the editorial process...
17. I know that you also write speculative fiction. Has working at IGMS helped your writing at all?
Oh yes. Working on IGMS has absolutely helped my writing. If nothing else, seeing how many good stories are out there has made me realize how important it is to do everything possible to take your work to the highest level you can. Being ‘good’ is no where near good enough, and seeing this first-hand has really energized me – no, it has really forced me - to step up the quality of what I write. Whether I succeed in that or not remains to be seen, but editing IGMS has definitely been to my advantage as a writer.
Thanks so much for your time.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Links of interest:
http://www.InterGalacticMedicineShow.co
http://www.EdmundRSchubert.com
So, big thanks to Edmund for a great interview, and be certain to check out his/Orson Scott Card's webzine. And also, stay tuned for next month when I interview ???
This month's issue of editorial musings features an interview with Chris Cevasco.
BIO: Christopher M. Cevasco is the editor/publisher of Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction. His own fiction has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Allen K's Inhuman, The Leading Edge, Twilight Tales, Flashquake, Simulacrum, The Horror Express, Dreaming in R'lyeh, and Lovecraft's Weird Mysteries. He's had book reviews published at Strange Horizons, and he recently sold four poems to Dark Wisdom. Chris will be attending the 2006 Clarion East Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop. He and his wife live in Brooklyn, NY, with a puffer fish named Spiny Norman.
http://www.paradoxmag.com
1. What made you decide to start your own magazine?
My primary motivation in creating Paradox was a perception that there was a gap in the short fiction market. In addition to being an editor and publisher, I am a writer, and I tend mainly to write stories that are very steeped in history. The more purely historical, the harder it is to find markets for these tales, and often even my historical fantasy work comes back with a rejection slip indicating that the story was just a little too heavy on the history for the magazine's target audience. I realized that if I was experiencing this problem, other writers must be as well, and that's when I started thinking about creating a magazine that would cater to those writers.
And I hoped it would also generate interest among readers who enjoy historical works. Historical novels abound, but there was no print magazine of which I was aware exclusively dedicated to short historical fiction in either its mainstream or genre forms—at least not in the English language. Now there is.
2. Some people may be curious as to how they might start their own print magazine. Can you tell us a little about what those initial phases of starting your magazine entailed, before you released the first issue?
With the advances in personal computer technology over the past decade, it's now quite feasible to be able to do all of the design and layout of a magazine on a home computer. The actual printing/binding of the magazine is another matter, and I had to shop around for a while before I settled on an offset printer who inspired confidence and who offered reasonable, competitive rates. Actually, the printer I used for the debut issue turned out to be a disaster in a thousand different ways, and I ran screaming from them. But I found a new company beginning with the second issue, and I've been happily using them ever since.
Another one of the early hurdles was getting word out about the magazine—both so people would start placing orders and subscribing, and so authors would start submitting their work for consideration. For the latter, sending information about the magazine to the various market resource sites was indispensable—sites like Ralan.com. I designed a website for the magazine as well, so that people could access writers guidelines, place orders, preview the content of upcoming issues, etc., and the site eventually expanded to include an online discussion forum. I contacted various online bookstores to list the magazine in their inventory—it's available through sites like ProjectPulp, Clarkesworld Books, and Shocklines.
Then I had to give some thought to distribution—a real Catch-22 for a new publication with a limited (1000-copy) print run per issue. Because I'm not printing 250,000 copies of each issue, my print cost per copy is much, much higher than that of more widely circulated magazines. When I add the distributor's cut to the equation, it means that every copy of the magazine I sell in a brick-and-mortar bookstore actually loses money for me. I still like to have some magazines on the shelves just for PR purposes, and so I do have a professional distributor—Ubiquity Distributors which operates out of Brooklyn—getting the magazine out to bookstores and newsstands across the country, but I've kept this very limited in scope, and I haven't even tried to approach any of the major chain stores like Barnes & Noble.
In terms of the rest of the process, I basically learned as I went along what worked and what didn't. I'm still learning.
3. You once told me that you don't have a slush reader. Does being the publisher and the sole editor of the magazine ever get overwhelming?
There are certainly periods during which it feels like there are too many tasks to possibly get done in the time available, but somehow I've managed to keep from drowning. I guess it all comes down to me being a bit of a control freak—it's difficult for me to delegate authority, and when I do, I fret over what's being done. So to the extent that it's overwhelming, I can only blame myself. And in some ways, it's been an incredibly rewarding experience wearing all the different hats normally worn by an entire staff of editors and personnel; I've gotten to learn each aspect of publishing a magazine intimately through first hand experience—editing, design and layout, accounting (okay, that's actually no fun at all), advertising, distribution, etc.
4. Who are some of your favorite authors, both in and outside of the genre?
It might sound like a bit of a cliché, but the two authors who have had the biggest influence on me and who continue to be my very favorites are J.R.R. Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft. Discovering them was like being struck by lightning twice, and the impact they've had and continue to have on me, as a writer and otherwise, are manifold. I've also recently become a huge fan of Gardner Dozois's writing—I'm frankly awed by the way he uses language so seemingly effortlessly but with such profoundly beautiful effect. His short stories are brilliant, and his short novel, Strangers, is one of the best—perhaps the best—science fiction novels I've read. Other genre writers that are among my favorites are Connie Willis, Lucius Shepard, Piers Anthony, Robert Jordan, Joe Haldeman, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Poe.
Unsurprisingly, I'm also a big fan of historical fiction. I particularly enjoy Bernard Cornwell's novels. I'm currently about half way through Gary Jennings's epic Aztec, which is a truly amazing book. And (some might say bizarrely) I find myself drawn to long historical accounts of the British Isles written during the Middle Ages. Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th-Century Historia Regum Britanniae is something I return to again and again . . .
5. What sorts of stories would you advise writers to send to Paradox? What sorts of stories should they avoid sending along?
Well, as set forth in the Paradox submission guidelines, all stories submitted to Paradox must have some integral, real-world historical/mythological context. As long as that requirement is satisfied, I'm open to anything—time travel, Arthuriana, alternate history, horror, historical fantasy, etc. And of course I welcome submissions of straight-forward historical fiction with no SF/F content.
I typically include at least one alternate history tale in each issue, and I'd like to include even more, but oddly enough, I don't get nearly enough of these tales sent to me. I think this might be because writing that sort of tale is actually very labor intensive if it's done right. The writer not only has to understand the historical period in which the point of divergence takes place, but he or she has to research any number of political, religious, and social trends that took place in the decades or centuries following the point of divergence in the real timeline so as to come up with plausible ways in which the divergence event impacted those trends in the alternate timeline. Then, on top of that, you need to have a good story to tell—and that means something beyond simply showing the reader the divergence.
In terms of what not to send, the guidelines state that I'm not interested in seeing any vampire or were-animal stories. I actually enjoy a good vampire tale or a werewolf tale, but I just feel there are enough markets out there already printing (or even focusing) on these types of stories, so it would be somewhat redundant for me to include them in Paradox. I'd rather focus on other types of stories. I also state that I'm not interested in stories about anthropomorphic dinosaurs, because while those can be fun, they typically feel too whimsical (almost Disney-esque), which is not really the tone I'm going for with the magazine. Apart from that, however, I hesitate to set any firm restrictions.
6. Personally, I love to blab on and on about my slush discoveries. What about you? Any stories you've discovered that you'd like to mention, either forthcoming or already published?
I'm quite fond of all the stories I've published in Paradox—after all, I decided to publish them! But just to narrow down the field a bit, I'll interpret your use of the word "slush discoveries" to mean stories by first time authors—writers who sold their first piece of fiction to Paradox. One writer who comes to mind is Rita Oakes, whose grim, Napoleonic era war story set in Spain, "By Bayonet and Brush," was featured in the debut issue of the magazine. The story subsequently received an honorable mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and Rita went on to sell fiction elsewhere, including to the anthology, The Many Faces of Van Helsing, edited by Jeanne Cavelos. A second very powerful story by Rita, about the Roma people in the immediate aftermath of World War II, appeared in Paradox #6. Wendy A Shaffer is another author who made her first fiction sale to me—an Arthurian piece, also featured in the debut issue of Paradox. Since then I've come across her fiction elsewhere, including her wonderful "Portrait of an Unidentified Angel" a couple of years ago in Realms of Fantasy. I've actually published a little over a half-dozen first time authors in the past nine issues of Paradox, and I think every one of them shows incredible promise. It would not surprise me at all to see big things in the future from all of them.
7. You've started your own print magazine at a time when print magazines in speculative fiction seem to have an uncertain future at best. Despite this, I know that your readership is growing, so you must be doing something right. What advice would you give to anyone that is thinking about starting his own speculative print magazine?
Be patient. And be prepared to lose money—at least initially. Also, don't expect to ever make any money publishing a literary magazine; breaking even should be the realistic long-term goal. Starting a speculative print magazine has to be a labor of love.
8. What is your favorite part of working on the magazine?
The best thing is probably getting to spend my time immersed in a creative process that focuses on history and writing—two areas that have long been near and dear to my heart—and having the satisfaction of seeing a finished product with each new issue of the magazine.
9. What are your pet peeves as an editor?
I don't have many, but I guess there are a few. Failing to read the submission guidelines is a main one. There's nothing more annoying than reading through a submission and realizing part-way through that there's absolutely no historical context to the story—stories of far future science fiction, high fantasy, etc. Other pet peeves: writers who insist on trying to submit electronically when I only accept print submissions (and who then become irate when I remind them of this); writers who ask if I'd be willing to look at a rewrite of a previously-rejected story even though I state in my response letters that I do not consider unsolicited rewrites; etc. You get the idea. Probably the same pet peeves that most editors have.
I suppose one pet peeve that's more specific to Paradox is one I already alluded to. My main reason for rejecting alternate history submissions is that the writer has failed to understand the story cannot be about the point of divergence—simply showing the reader a scene in which JFK dodges the bullet or in which the South wins a decisive battle such that it proves victorious in the U.S. Civil War. The divergence point should never—and let me repeat that—never be the point of the story. The divergence point is something the writer needs to work out in his/her mind, and it has to be the basis for the world that is used as the setting for the story, but that's it. It’s simply a jumping off point, something the reader learns about during the course of the story, or perhaps actually witnesses in an early scene, but the story itself has to be about something else taking place in the world that is brought about by the point of divergence. Otherwise all the writer has done is come up with an idea for an alternate history without actually following through with it.
10. On average, how many submissions a month does your magazine receive?
It actually varies wildly (not sure why), but typically it's about 75 to 100 per month.
11. What percentage of your submissions is historical fiction vs. speculative historical fiction?
When I first opened to submissions back in the autumn of 2002, the overwhelming majority of submissions had speculative elements—something around 90% of them, I'd say. Originally I was open to the possibility of publishing a handful of purely speculative (i.e., non-historical) tales to sprinkle in among the historical ones, and I did in fact publish a few of these spread out over the first few issues, but I soon decided that a tighter historical focus made more sense in terms of establishing the magazine's identity. Now, as a more narrowly focused market and as more historical fiction writers are finding out about Paradox, those submission numbers have shifted to something closer to 65% speculative, 35% non-speculative.
12. What percentage of historical fiction vs. speculative fiction would you say is generally accepted/published?
Well, the magazine is published twice per year, and each issue features between six and eight stories (depending on the length of the stories). Typically in an issue with seven stories, two will be purely historical, three will be speculative historical, and two will be on the fence—stories that might or might not be speculative depending on how the reader interprets the story. So how that all breaks down into percentages . . . well, I'm sure to get the math wrong, so I won't hazard a guess.
13. How much time do you put in each week on the magazine?
That really varies depending on the time of the year. I have a regular day-job from 9 to 5, so the magazine is like a second job that begins each night when I get home and spills over into the weekends. It's sometimes hard to find time to sleep. Generally, during the two months leading up to the publication of each issue, I have to focus on the magazine exclusively in my time off from work, but the rest of the time, the only Paradox work I do is handling e-mail correspondence received through the Paradox website and reading and responding to submissions to keep up with the slush pile—something I can mostly do on the train as I commute to work each day (I've got about an hour train ride in each direction, which is ideal for reading the slush).
14. Do you have additional editorial aspirations?
At some point in the future, I'd like to do a best-of-Paradox anthology. And I have a few other ideas for anthologies, collections, and chapbooks floating around in my mind, but nothing solid as of yet.
15. I know that you also write speculative fiction. Has your editorial work helped your writing at all?
I definitely think it has. I try to provide some specific feedback on every submission received (even if it's just a quick sentence about why the piece didn't work for me), and the process of having to read all those stories with a critical eye and then having to articulate the problem with the story has forced me to be similarly critical when I sit down to write my own fiction.
Big thanks to Chris for a great interview. Since the link is provided, you should all feel free to check out the Paradox website. And it goes without saying that you should you subscribe if you like the magazine. Chris is doing a wonderful thing for the speculative community, so let's give him some incentive to KEEP doing this. Also, I posted a while back that AZTEC by Gary Jennings is an amazing book, but now you've heard from the expert. So check that out too! And tune in next month when I interview . . .???
So below you'll find a bio for Nancy Fulda, along with some Q&A, and finally some links of interest. So, without further adieu:
Nancy Fulda is a mother, an author and, most recently, an Editorial Associate at Baen's Universe. In addition to some rather dry technical papers on
artificial intelligence, her publications include Let
There Be Write at Strange Horizons and The Man Who Murdered Himself, originally published in All the Rage This Year: The Phobos Science Fiction Anthology. Nancy lives in Germany with her husband, their two children, and no cats. Her hobbies include painting, dancing and sleeping.
1. How did you end up working for Baen’s Magazine?
Quite by accident, actually. I’d submitted a few stories over the online forum, and liked the community there. So I stuck around, critiquing stories and joining the conversations. About a week later I got an email from Paula. She said she was looking for some people with an editorial eye and she’d noticed my critiques. She asked if I’d like to hop aboard as an Editorial Associate. I was ecstatic.
2. What are your responsibilities as Editorial Associate?
Well, there’s the slush, and then there’s the other slush. Baen’s has two separate submissions procedures, a web submission form and the Baen’s Universe Slush conference (details here). I read about 50% of both. The other Editorial Associates do the same, so every story gets seen by several people. On top of that, Paula reads at least the first few paragraphs of absolutely everything. (She has, on occasion, been accused of being an AI in disguise.)
Editorial Associates are encouraged to give feedback on stories submitted through Baen’s Universe Slush. Detailed critiques are time-consuming, so I only comment on about 10% of what I read. We also have authority to request RTFs for stories we particularly like. I try to use that privilege sparingly, though. Eric already has a huge pile of reading to catch up on.
3. Could you describe your interactions with the other members of the editorial staff?
We interact primarily through our submissions database. There’s a comments field where we discuss the merits of each story, and whether we recommend passing it along to Eric. Occasionally, Paula sends out an email asking for feedback on a specific story, and that always spawns an interesting discussion.
It’s odd, really. I’m working with a bunch of people I’ve never met in real life, and I may not get the chance to meet them for years. They could be aliens, for all I know. Albeit very nice ones.
4. Who are some of your favorite authors, both in and outside of the genre?
Within the genre: Orson Scott Card. Lois McMaster Bujold. Larry Niven.
Outside the genre: C.S. Lewis. Eli Goldratt.
5. What sorts of stories would you advise writers to send to Baen’s Magazine? What sorts of stories should they avoid sending along?
Our market niche is upbeat, action/adventure stories. Eric describes us as “competing with the customer’s beer money”. What we do not want—ever—is for the reader to finish a story and think, “What a bummer. I wish I’d bought a beer instead.”
Not that we won’t buy dark stories, or stories with no action in them. Eric’s done both. But he says the most common reason he rejects stories that have been passed up to him is that they’re just too downbeat.
6. Personally, I love to blab on and on about my slush discoveries. What about you? Any forthcoming stories you’ve discovered that you’d like to tell us about?
I’m afraid I haven’t been with the magazine long enough for that. All of the stories I’ve helped recommend to Eric are still sitting on his desk, waiting for a decision.
7. With the rates Baen’s Magazine is paying authors, it’s generating a lot of attention, and also attracting submissions from lots of big names. But so far the online speculative magazines have yet to become commercial successes. Why do you think Baen’s Magazine will be different?
Several reasons. First, Baen’s is starting with a built-in market. They’ve been publishing electronic novels for nearly ten years now, and those customers are primed and ready for a magazine like this: upbeat, short fiction that has the feel of a novel. Second, Baen’s provides substantially more material per issue than most other magazines, including the print ones, and we’re creating a community associated with the magazine through the Universe Club. There’s more there for your money.
But the biggest reason I think Baen’s will succeed is the one you’ve already mentioned. Eric is paying top rates—up to 25 cents a word—for stories by well-known authors. That pay rate is tempting enough to get short stories out of authors who would normally focus their attention on novels. Big name authors means better quality stories and increased subscriptions from those authors’ fans.
Is it working? Looks like. I can’t remember the numbers, but the last public posting regarding Universe Club memberships was pretty good. I also expect to see a big jump in subscriptions once the magazine comes out next month. Immediate gratification, and all that.
8. What is your favorite part about working with the magazine?
Working with authors via the Slush Conference. There’s something exhilarating about helping a story reach its full potential, and then seeing that effort rewarded when Paula requests the RTF for the final version. And one editorial associate really can make a difference. I remember one story, in particular, that most of us didn’t think much of at first. But one of the Associates saw a gem inside, and worked with the author through five rewrites. The end result was quite good, and Paula’s requested the RTF now.
9. What are your pet peeves as an editor?
You mean the ones that’ll make me drop a manuscript, or the ones that just annoy me? I can’t stand it when people write “loose” when they mean “lose” or “choose” when they mean “chose”, but I won’t put down a manuscript because of that. The real show-stoppers are documented in The Seven Deadly Sins of Slush Stories
10. On average, how many submissions a month does your magazine receive?
I’d say about 300. I think Paula’s expecting that to pick up after the first issue comes out.
11. What percentage would you say is fantasy vs. science fiction?
About half-and-half. We don’t seem to suffer from a dearth of science fiction the way other magazines sometimes do.
12. What percentage of fantasy vs. science fiction would you say has been accepted so far?
Same. Eric tries to keep things balanced.
13. How much time do you put in each week on the magazine?
10-15 hours.
14. Do you have additional editorial aspirations?
At the moment, no. But who knows? I never expected to be a slush reader for the highest-paying online magazine in the genre, but I sure jumped at the chance.
15. I know that you also write speculative fiction. Has your editorial work helped your writing at all?
Ah… hindered rather than helped, I would say. I think the quality of my stories has increased dramatically since I started with Baen’s, but I’m not nearly as prolific. There’s just no time for it. And I miss hanging out with all my old online critique groups. After digging through a pile of slush, the last thing I want to do is go read and comment on more stories. I just want to go write my own.
Thanks so much for your time.
Thanks for inviting me :) It’s been fun.
Baen's Universe Issue 1 Cover Image:
http://www.baens-universe.com/img/3C508
Baen's Universe Staff:
http://www.baens-universe.com/authors/J
Preview edition of the magazine:
http://preview.baens-universe.com/
http://www.apexdigest.com/Online/Na
So once again, a big thanks to Nancy for taking time out of her schedule to contribute to my humble blog. I hope everyone found this information as interesting and juicy as yours truly did. Stay tuned for next month, when I interview . . .???
