In July 2013, I served as the “editor-in-residence” for the Codex Writing Group, which meant basically I was asking a month-long AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) interview. With Codex’s permission, I’m re-posting the Q&As here on my blog. The questions were all provided by members of Codex.

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Since you edit both online and “print” (for whatever value print is these days), do you think there’s a certain type of story that’s better suited for an online magazine? Or is there a certain “look” for a story that’s better online (or print)? In other words, do you think the medium makes a difference to a story?

Not really, not if you’re talking about fairly typical, traditional narratives. Obviously we can all think of experimental type things that might be better suited to the web (hyperfiction, etc.), but that goes the other way too — text that requires a lot of formatting manipulation tends to work a little better in print, where the “display” is not fluid.

There are probably stories that will be MORE SUCCESSFUL if published online, due to the potential viral nature of having things freely available on the internet, as opposed to something that you’d have to find and buy in a store (or order). But that doesn’t really make the experience of the story any better (except for the author, if it goes viral, I guess).

P.S. Any advice on on living with a writer?

Here is my two-fold piece of advice:

1. Remind your writer of the things they’ve accomplished often, even if they were very recent as they tend to quickly forget such things.

2. Keep your writer well-stocked in wine/chocolate/coffee/vice-of-choice.

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