Fiction submission advice

Jan 28, 2015

Every now and then I take on a guest editing spot. It’s not something I could ever do too much, because I’m a writer and that’s where my focus lies, but I enjoy trawling through a slush pile occasionally to find some gems that deserve publication. I’m currently reading slush as a guest editor for issue 2 of Another Dimension magazine. This is a new magazine that’s subject to a successful Kickstarter to get up and running, but it comes with a strong pedigree. It’s the brainchild of Angel Leigh McCoy, of Wily Writers fame. She knows what she’s doing, let me tell you. You can find the submission guidelines and all you need to know here.

However, while looking for those gems in the slush you do have to dig through a lot of… not gems. My reading recently drove me to Twitter for a little bit of a rant. I thought I might repeat my key points here. These things apply to every kind of submission, so bear them in mind regardless of market.

  • When submitting a story to a magazine, ensure your opening sentence isn’t missing an entire word.
  • When submitting a story to a magazine, don’t use both 1st and 3rd person in your opening paragraph. Pick one.
  • When submitting a story to a magazine, ensure your story contains, you know, a story. Not just a sequence of events.
  • When submitting a story to a magazine, first try reading your dialogue aloud. That’s right, *no-one* speaks like that.
  • When submitting a story to a magazine, READ THE FUCKING GUIDELINES!

I realise that those few points above might seem bloody obvious, but you’d be amazed how many submissions fail to comply to one (or many!) of them. If you get those things covered then believe me, you’ll immediately jump ahead of a lot of your competition. Pay extra special attention to the last one. It’s in all caps for a reason.

Now get writing and submitting and good luck!

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