Very good series of blog entries from a new Assistant Editor at Lightspeed Magazine: excellent guide to how to submit and the right attitude to have about rejection. I really like her honesty, too, about her own journey as a writer:

http://inkhaven.net/tag/lessons-from-the-slush-pile/

Terry

Hello,

Thanks for the link. This is a very interesting article and I agree that her honesty is refreshing.

I read one of the stories she recommended and it was bizarre and interesting and very well written. it's a good example on what she's talking about regarding voice, structure and, most importantly, having something to say.

Fi

thanks for posting that link, Terry - it makes for interesting reading. It's true that many of us write until it's good enough (we think) and then send it off, instead of waiting that extra month or two and coming back to it. There's always something that can be improved with fresh eyes.

(I guess this still happens when you have a book published, does it? That read it and think, 'I wish I'd changed that bit'

<Added>

that you read it

It's also important, of course, to know your markets. Which is not as easy as it might sound, when most editors simply say that they're looking for outstanding, exceptional, brilliant, etc, stories. But they do have their preferences and their base line needs. Speaking very generally, it could be argued that the print magazines tend to be more conservative in their tastes than the online mags. Print mags are dependent on recurring subscriptions, which means there's a need to keep their regulars happy with stuff that doesn't vary too much from their norm. I subscribed to one recently and was surprised to find that the style and content of the stories didn't vary much from what I'd read in the same magazine back in the 60s! Online mags by contrast have different financing systems and therefore perhaps tend to be more experimental.

Terry