Over the
Transom
The New Normal?
By Sandy Raschke
I was recently sorting through
my
Calliope archives, and looking at the hundreds of
stories we’ve published since 1995. I estimate that more than
one-third came from new writers who earned their first
publication credits in our pages. Now with the arrival of
online magazines, the potential for becoming a published writer
has exploded, with thousands of publications open to submissions
of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and even novels. But
lately, I’ve spied a big impediment to submissions: the advent
of submission “managers,” in which you download your work into a
giant cauldron, and WAIT for something or someone to get back to
you. I’ve heard tales from writer-friends that sometimes the
work they submitted using these
managers simply
disappeared and after waiting months without a reply, had to
submit their work again. Writers also have to set up an
“account,” in some cases, in order to submit their work through
this procedure; more than a few think the information required
is intrusive.
I’ve been approached by
some of these software vendors and I imagine Cynthia has, too.
In my wildest dreams, I would never succumb to a “process” of
having manuscripts submitted to
Calliope collected by
some anonymous hand. Okay, it’s true that we don’t receive
hundreds of submissions a week, or even in six months, and I
guess some editors are content to work through the accumulated
stories, etc., captured by the “Submission Manager,” after it
spits out a “reply” email to the contributor. Rather than
collect a pile of stories, I read each submission as it comes in
at least twice, making notes about each one and whether it meets
our guidelines and editorial focus. If it doesn’t, I send the
contributor a reply to that effect, and if it does, I read the
story through a few more times and see where it can fit within
the allotted space for fiction; then I reply, offering the
contributor publication in
(top)
our pages. Occasionally, I’ll ask for a re-write, or a
clarification of some aspect of the story. Sometimes, I see the
“potential” for publication and offer to work with the
contributor to bring the story to publishable form. Every
contributor gets a personal response and a mini-critique, if
warranted; no fiction writer has ever gotten a form letter
rejection from Calliope. That is the beauty of
remaining small.
I can sympathize with editors when they get bombarded by
hundreds of submissions, most not following the guidelines (and
Calliope has its share, too), and have to set up a form
of “triage,” so they can dump the unworthy and concentrate on
the stories, etc., that meet their needs. But I still think
that the Submission Manager approach is too impersonal and
somewhat inhumane.
Lately, a few would-be
contributors who don’t feel it’s necessary
to submit a short bio to go with their story have criticized me
for putting that requirement in our guidelines. Most literary
magazines don’t ask for a bio until after the piece has been
accepted. True, but as a magazine for writers, we have
a different editorial focus. We want to know what
drives/motivates contributors to write, how they approach their
craft and what experience they can bring to our readers and
subscribers, as a means to encourage the fence-sitters (and
you know who you are) to take that first step toward
publication. If I don’t know that you’ve never been published
before, how can I seek out promising newcomers to grace our
pages?
So, for now, the requirement that a
short bio accompany the story stays. Maybe, if we get more
“sophisticated,” with “Submission Managers” and form letter
replies, we’ll change our minds. Until then, each contributor
will receive the personal attention that he or she deserves, and
Calliope will remain the “best little writers’
magazine” in continuous circulation for over fifteen years, and
counting.