More messages from the slush pile
In addition to Apex, I’ve read slush for Tor Books, Milkweed Editions, The Town Drunk, and The Mind’s Eye. Each publication has taught me something new about what to look for in a story and what makes stories work. Rather than get into anything too complicated, however, I’m going to pass on a few very basic suggestions based on my own experience and the suggestions of other professional editors.
1. Read the guidelines before you submit your story.
I know that some publications have guidelines that go on for pages, minutely detailing submission formats (“We want 1.7 in. margins!”), submission windows (“Every second Thursday between the hours of 4 and 5 a.m.”), and subject matter (“We only publish stories about rabid werewolves and mermaids with skin conditions.”) So it can be a bit daunting to review all of the guidelines and much easier to simply send your story to the next market and hope the editors like it. And they may like it, even if it’s a steampunk retelling of The Velveteen Rabbit and they only publish scripts for one-act plays taking place on the moon. Even if they enjoy your story, they probably won’t publish it.
Apex publishes dark science fiction, but we get all sorts of fantasy submissions, or submissions that aren’t all that dark, or submissions that have a science fiction element (honest!) that isn’t central to the story. Because we’re pretty specific about what we ask for, these stories are rejected either immediately or much earlier on in the process.
Editors are strapped for time, in general, and may use guidelines as a quick way to weed out stories and novels. (For example, I know of at least one editor who would immediately reject a novel if there was no SASE included with the manuscript.) So think about the guidelines as a job listing and your story as a candidate. Does the story meet all the requirements in the guidelines? Yes? Then your story’s chances of making it to the next round increase exponentially.
2. Know your markets.
Along with reading the guidelines, knowing the market can give you a better chance of being published because you are more aware of the kind of story the editors want. I know that this can be an investment of both time and money. I will admit to not having read all of the markets I’ve submitted to, or even that I’ve been published in. But reading published material from the markets you would like to publish your work can help you decide if the market is really right for you.
Reading the market you’re submitting to can also help you get the “feel” of the market down. Before I sold a story to Aberrant Dreams, I’d been reading through a few of their stories and thought, “Something about these stories reminds me of my own story, ‘Imarja’s Children.’” I submitted that story to them the next day, and it was bought soon afterward.
Another example: When I was starting out slushing for Apex, I forwarded a story on for further review, and the comment that stuck with me was, “This story is interesting, but it isn’t an Apex story.” The more I thought about it, the more I realized that was right. Knowing the type of stories a publication’s audience (and editors) enjoy can also greatly boost your chances of making the sale.
3. Read your story out loud.
One of the best slushing experiences I’ve had was participating in a slush kill. This involved taking a pile of slush (with the names and contact information removed) and reading them out loud. People would listen and raise their hands at the time when they would have stopped reading. Once every hand was raised, we would discuss what it was about the piece would have made us stop reading. Often, we stopped within the first few sentences of the story. (For the record, editors don’t usually stop reading in the first few sentences, but a reader might, and editors are sensitive to this.)
During the slush kill, we would most often stop reading a story for one of two reasons. First, the sentences would be too long to read in one breath. Second, the sentences would sound too pretentious or self-important.
If a sentence couldn’t be finished in one breath, it probably meant that it meandered a bit too much and needed to be broken up to give the reader (either someone who was reading it aloud or someone reading it off the page) time to breathe. Sentences that are broken up too much can become choppy, but also watch for run-on sentences that don’t need to be quite so long.
If the sentence sounded too pretentious or self-important, there was a possibility that the author was trying too hard to be Artistic and Meaningful. Beautiful prose can be a plus, but the main job of the words is to tell a story. If a pretty turn of phrase isn’t helping move the story along, take it out. To quote Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch: “Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.” Rather than helping, fine prose may ultimately hurt the story and its chances of being published.
Reading a story aloud can also help you catch awkward phrasing, misspelled words or other typos, and sentences or paragraphs that don’t flow easily into each other. While you may lose your voice from reading a story aloud too many times, you may also make a sale.
Sarah Brandel tends to write posts in first person without identifying herself. She’s spending more time editing, these days, though she has also had several stories published, including one in Cinema Spec: Tales of Hollywood and Fantasy, an anthology coming in 2009 from Raven Electrick Ink. She believes the recent Midwest cold snap is a sign of the coming apocalypse. But then again, just about everything is. Feel free to peruse her Web site, www.sarahbrandel.com.
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4 Comments
*nods* I catch more mistakes by reading something out loud than any other method.
For some reason, changing the font and going through it again helps too.
I’ve always read my work outloud as a way to refine the story but I’d never heard of the slush kill method you describe. That is a fascinating bit of insight into the process. Thanks for sharing it.
Respects,
S. F. Murphy
Interesting…that slush kill business. I’d imagine it works pretty good, especially more for novels than short fiction.
Thanks for the great article!
Very interesting article. I’m always curious to know how stories are picked and rejected. I too read my work aloud and let someone else read it aloud while I listen. I catch a lot of issues that way and it works pretty well for me. Thanks for the insights.
Thomas