So You Want to Start a Zine Pt. 4

Let's talk about submissions. This can be the most daunting task you'll face as an editor. It's also the main reason why you should consider not doing everything yourself. It may be difficult to get submissions in the beginning, but it won't take long before you get more submissions than you know how to keep track of. We'll break this down in three section.

Getting Submissions
In some ways, this is as simple as posting online (whether on your own page, MySpace, Facebook, a respected message board, etc.) that you are a new fiction market looking for submissions. However, there are a few places that you can have your information posted that will help drive traffic to you. They include:

Ralan
Duotrope's Digest
Spicy Green Iguana
Story Pilot
Science Fiction Poetry Association

There are more (and I know that I'm overlooking someone...), but that's more than enough to start. These are places that people go to when looking for a new market. If you're listed there, writers will find you.

But you shouldn't stop there. This is for the new writers, the writers with promise, the writers who are up-and-coming. They are great. They often give you something you've never seen before. But an issue full of unheard of authors will be a tough sell for a new magazine.

Once you're established you can start publishing more and more new writers (although you'll likely get more submissions from established writers, too), but until then, you should seek out writers with some name recognition.

How do you do this? Well these days, lots of writers also blog or have a website (or both) and there's often a way to contact them through their online presence. Heck, try MySpace and Facebook, too for that matter.

This doesn't mean you should go around asking Stephn King or William Gibson or Michael Crichton for stories just because they have a website (but you know, if you never ask, the answer will always be 'no'), but there are a lot of people writing out there. But even this online communication can be tough when you're not established.

I started out a little established because I had worked in the field. But, I also went to conventions and spent time chatting with authors. I know a lot of people feel differently, but for me conventions are the life blood of short fiction. Maybe it's because my day-to-day existence is not steeped in speculative fiction (but rather in a library) so it's only in conventions that I feel I get to interact with the field.

Nonetheless, I think going to conventions is paramount to your magazine's success. It shows people that there is a person behind the madness. It allows you to talk to writers that you would never get a chance to meet away other way. And if you present yourself as not barking mad, it's quite possible that you will be able to interest people in sending you a story.

To summarize: create a web presence noting you are a new market, go to conventions and talk to people.

Note: don't try this if you've ignored my advice and you've decided to not pay for stories. The professionals will brand you as unprofessional and word will get around quickly that you are not someone to work with.

Reading Submissions
OK, first things first. Are you going to accept print or electronic submissions? This may not be a concern these days as nearly all writers (and certainly all new) have some sort of electronic access. However, you may want to provide some sort of mailing address should someone need to mail you a physical object (like a check, or a box of cookies, or a manuscript). I dislike getting mail submissions. I'd rather get them all electronically, but I still get a few through the mail.

You'll want an e-mail address that can be dedicated to submission receiving. Trust me. You do not want to share your every day e-mail account with the submission account. You'll be overwhelmed. (of course, if you're like me and you have about ten e-mail accounts, that's just as overwhelming)

You'll need to decide if you want to accept stories as attachments or in the body of the e-mail or both. I do both. This is to make things easier for the writer. I do have guidelines for the formatting of the story, but I'm very lenient if someone sends me a story written in Times Roman rather than Courier.

There is one thing with which I am strict: your story has to have your name and e-mail on it somewhere or it will be rejected. You'd be amazed at how many people send stories that don't have their name on them. And before you point out that I still have your original e-mail, and putting aside the volume of e-mail I receive, I had a laptop get stolen which meant all of those e-mails disappeared.

So now you have all your submissions. I used to print them all out, but now I think that's a waste of paper and I read online. Set a schedule for reading them so they don't sit. (Don't be like me and let submissions pile up until you have irritated authors writing to you for decisions on their story. Also, if you're planning on moving halfway across the country and starting a new job, close to submissions until you get settled. You'll appreciate it later.) It becomes very easy to ignore submissions while you work on other things and it also becomes very easy for them to pile up to an insurmountable amount.

To help alleviate this stress, find a few people who can help read submissions. You will get a lot of stories that aren't good enough, and if your readers can cut out half the submissions you receive, that's half you don't have to read. When you look for readers, be very clear the types of things you are looking for. I went 12 issues without readers, so I was able to point to a dozen issues of published fiction to say 'that's what I'm looking for.'

You probably won't be so lucky. However, you can point to things othe people have published and tell your readers that's the type of thing you're looking for.

To be honest, the reading is easier than you'd think. You know what you like and dislike, and you'll encounter a lot of stuff that's just not good enough. It's finding the time that's hardest.

Responding to Submissions
Will you have a canned response that you send out to people or will you provide personalized rejections. I used to do all personalized rejections, but it only made my reading time longer. I still do some personalized rejections when I was really close to accepting a story, but I don't have time for comments on all stories.

I know that writers appreciate comments back on their stories. Even if they're not very explicit; it can be helpful for a writer to know that the ending didn't work, or that the story's set up was faulty. It gives them somewhere to start if they decide to revise.

Don't get wrapped up in feelings about rejecting stories. You will have to do it. You will hurt people by rejecting your stores. You will receive hurtful comments back from people after you reject their story. It's the way it is. Writing is a very personal business and people put their hearts into their fiction.

All the same, you can't let this bother you. You may all be sitting there saying 'why would it bother me?' Maybe it's only me who thinks about this, I don't know. This is why it's better to read and respond as quickly as possible. You aren't building up expectations in an author's mind that their story is under serious consideration when all it's doing is sitting in your in-box.