Monday, June 22, 2009

Poetry and Submissions

(This post is in the nature of random musing and is subject to me changing my mind. I'm posting it for anyone interested in the other side of the desk.)

Nine more days until the deadline for the first issue for Emerald Tales is past. I've already received enough submissions that I will be able to publish the first issue on time and without having to extend the dealine. I was rather sweating it out a bit wondering if I was going to have anything to publish. So, there's a relief.

I've received a lot more poetry submissions than I thought I would. And what I am getting is a bit shorter than I had imagined and planned for.

The stories are also running a bit shorter than I had planned for and I am getting an awful lot of Fantasy stories.

As time draws closer to the deadline, the number of submissions in my inbox creeps up. I'm sure I am going to have quite a bit more submissions in the next nine days.

I had original planned for 6 or 7 stories and 1 poem for the first issue of Emerald Tales. Based on what I have received so far, I'm considering a few more poems placed between the stories. I'm also considering maybe a second mag with just Fantasy stories in it. But, that's just a maybe. I won't be making any additions or changes to my original plan until I see what I have on July 1.

It's interesting, isn't it? One starts out with a plan of what they think they're going to do, then they get into the reality of the situation and it is a bit different from what one imagined it would be. And one is faced with the decision to stick to the original plan or modify it.
(heh, look at the lack of agreement in those pronouns. I should change it ... Eh, I changed one. I'm leaving the rest to drive the grammar nazis nutso.)

Editing this to add: I am interested in all genres. I would love to see a few Westerns and Romance stories. Keep the Fantasy stories coming in, I may just start up a second magazine earlier than I had planned. Whatever genre you write in, I want to read your story.

6 comments:

  1. Great to hear that you've got all the subs you need, Diana.

    I believe it's common for themed mags to recieve a lot of fantasy submissions. It's a lot easier to stick to a theme when you don't have as rigid a set of genre-rules to adhere to, after all. :-)

    Good luck getting through all the subs; your listings on a couple sites, compared with your relatively high payments means you're going to get a LOT of them!


    Good luck,
    Adam

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  2. Awesome! I think it's better to be OVERwhelmed than UNDERwhelmed, eh?

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  3. Are you happy with a lot of fantasy stories, or are there genres you wish you were seeing more of?

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  4. Actually, I wanted stories from all genres. I haven't seen a Western or a Romance, yet. I'd love to get a few subs from those genres.

    Whatever you genre you write in, I am interested in reading your story.

    Diana

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  5. At least with lots of (hopefully appropriate) submissions, you can pick and choose, eh? O:)

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  6. Hello Diana,

    I just found your blog and joined. I'm a fellow writer that will be submitting some time in the future. (More fantasy because that's what I write...oh well) Thank you for this wonderful insight into publishing!

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