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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I’d like to hear your thoughts on word counts. From a writer’s standpoint, they seem fairly arbitrary. One publication will accept x, but prefers y, another will only accept y, and another takes anything at all. Are these purely practical concerns, do you think, or are there aesthetic decisions about “what makes an effective story” as well? If it’s more than just the practical, why do you think your preferences are what they are?

I personally have a strong preference for short stories, as opposed to longer works. Of course, I do like some longer works–not just novels, but novelettes and novellas, etc.–but typically, most often, short stories work best for me. That said, for Lightspeed setting the word count range was also definitely a practical concern; if you open the doors to longer and longer stories, it makes it harder and harder to fit that into a budget. And I don’t want to publish an issue of the magazine that only has two or three stories in it because I devoted all of my word count to two longer stories instead of finding the usual 8. People sometimes say: well, it’s all digital, so word count shouldn’t matter–there’s no limit to “page count”; of course that’s true, but while there’s no page count, there is, as I mentioned, a budget–and the cost of each issue needs to fit within it.

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From October 1 – October 31, I’ll be running a Kickstarter campaign for a new project called HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!, an anthology of improbable, futuristic, magical, & alternate-world crowdfunding projects. Please check it out, consider backing it, and, if you’re so inclined, spread the word!

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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.

***

What are the chances of you expanding Lightspeed to include a flash story per issue?

I wouldn’t rule it out as something that will never happen, but I don’t have any current plans to implement something like that. I have considered the idea. It most likely would have to wait until we do some kind of major overhaul to the Lightspeed website, since the way it is currently setup doesn’t really give us much if any room to add additional content above and beyond what we already have on the site. Which is not to say that it couldn’t use some re-thinking; webmaster Jeremy Tolbert and I have discussed it on a number of occasions, given the magazine has changed and evolved quite a bit since the original site architecture was originally designed.

The other possibility — which could be implemented more easily — would be that I could add a flash piece to every issue, but make it exclusive to the ebook editions. The question there is: Would more people buy the ebook editions because I add that to each issue? And/or would it make my existing ebook readers happier with the magazine to have such bonus content? (Too bad I didn’t have this as a question on our reader survey.)

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From October 1 – October 31, I’ll be running a Kickstarter campaign for a new project called HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!, an anthology of improbable, futuristic, magical, & alternate-world crowdfunding projects. Please check it out, consider backing it, and, if you’re so inclined, spread the word!

Read More

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.

***

Looking through my rejections, I figure you’ve read more of my fiction than anybody aside from myself, even including my wife. My question is, at which local retailer can I redeem all of my rejection letters? I’d like to upgrade to platinum status.

Also, are the old F&SF ones expired, or can I still redeem those ones?

Anyway, keep doing what you do. You give editors a good name!

My wife and I are currently in negotiations to decide how many rejections a writer needs to present in order to qualify them for a free drink (redeemable at convention bars). We’ll let you know.

***

From October 1 – October 31, I’ll be running a Kickstarter campaign for a new project called HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!, an anthology of improbable, futuristic, magical, & alternate-world crowdfunding projects. Please check it out, consider backing it, and, if you’re so inclined, spread the word!

Read More

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.

***

Has any one from the scientific community ever approached you to study how you violate causality by sending rejections so fast they arrive before the story was sent? There’s got to be a path to alternate energy sources in that line of inquiry.

I have not yet been approached about such a study. If I were, I would gladly participate. I am happy to do my part to benefit humanity.

***

From October 1 – October 31, I’ll be running a Kickstarter campaign for a new project called HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!, an anthology of improbable, futuristic, magical, & alternate-world crowdfunding projects. Please check it out, consider backing it, and, if you’re so inclined, spread the word!

Read More

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.

***

How much weight beyond general guidance do you put in the slusher’s score. For example, if someone marks a submission as a 10, do you put a lot of weight on that piece, more than you would perhaps otherwise?

If I happen to notice that the reader gave the story a 10, I’ll certainly go into reading it with high hopes. Sometimes, if I don’t notice that beforehand (i.e., I just open up my Kindle and start reading without referencing the submission system), if the story doesn’t click for me, I’ll go back and give it another shot at another time if the reader rated it very highly. Sometimes I’ll also ask for a second opinion from other staff.

How many stories generally get passed to you with a 10?

Not too many. Keep in mind, 10 is supposed to be reserved for stories that are among the best ever. Like I would give a 10 to “Flowers for Algernon” and “The Deathbird” and stuff like that, but there’s lots of stuff I LOVE that I would still hesitate to give a 10. Of course, everyone doesn’t necessarily rate things EXACTLY as I do.

It doesn’t appear that that’s something I can check in the submission system, alas. Though I imagine it wouldn’t be that hard for the sysadmin to figure out. All the data is in there, after all. Of course we used to use a different sub system, so this would only have data going back to Jan. 2012 or so.

Are there slushers (without naming names, of course) that have consistently shown a talent for mirroring your tastes such that you always feel good about their top recommendations?

That’s kind of hard to say, just because I have my “slush scale” set so that readers should be mostly just saving me from having to look at stuff that clearly isn’t ready for prime time, so if they’re doing their job right, they’re passing up a lot of stuff to me that they know probably isn’t good enough, but it IS good enough to warrant letting me take a look.

That said, I have noticed certain readers seem to match up with me more often than some of the other readers. Not to the extent that I think I’ve discovered an editorial twin or anything, but still.

***

From October 1 – October 31, I’ll be running a Kickstarter campaign for a new project called HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!, an anthology of improbable, futuristic, magical, & alternate-world crowdfunding projects. Please check it out, consider backing it, and, if you’re so inclined, spread the word!

Read More

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.

***

About how many slush stories do you read per day?

I’m not really sure. I’d guess between 3-10 a day. I bet I could get Matt Kressel, who developed the Moksha system, to generate a report for me to tell me, but it doesn’t currently let me look that up. I would guess it’s more like 3-5 most of the time.

***

From October 1 – October 31, I’ll be running a Kickstarter campaign for a new project called HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!, an anthology of improbable, futuristic, magical, & alternate-world crowdfunding projects. Please check it out, consider backing it, and, if you’re so inclined, spread the word!

Read More

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.

***

If you could gather all the “almost-sold-to-Lightspeed” writers in one room, and give them a message or tell them something, what would it be?

Oh, man, that’s so hard! I guess I’d just say KEEP TRYING, and to remind you all that, believe it or not, I’m actually pulling for you guys.

***

From October 1 – October 31, I’ll be running a Kickstarter campaign for a new project called HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!, an anthology of improbable, futuristic, magical, & alternate-world crowdfunding projects. Please check it out, consider backing it, and, if you’re so inclined, spread the word!

Read More

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.

***

What do you feel is the secret ingredient that makes Lightspeed unique among its peers?

If there’s one unique ingredient to Lightspeed, it would have to be … well, ME, I guess. Really that’s the main thing that distinguishes the magazine. Ultimately we’re not that dissimilar from Clarkesworld in terms of business/publication model, so given there’s another magazine that’s so like Lightspeed in most respects, really the only thing that could make Lightspeed unique is how I run the ship. And what I think I bring to the table is an editorial vision that is a nice blend of commercial and literary that allows LS (and my anthologies) to be both commercially and critically successful. I wish there was a less egotistical way of answering that question, but that’s about all I can come up with.

***

From October 1 – October 31, I’ll be running a Kickstarter campaign for a new project called HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!, an anthology of improbable, futuristic, magical, & alternate-world crowdfunding projects. Please check it out, consider backing it, and, if you’re so inclined, spread the word!

Read More

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.

***

What would you most like to change about the sf genre?(fiction and/or industry)?

If I was just waving a magic wand, and I could make anything about the business side of things change, I’d magically make short fiction much more popular (and thus anthologies easier to sell).  I guess that’s kind of the low-hanging-fruit answer.

***

From October 1 – October 31, I’ll be running a Kickstarter campaign for a new project called HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!, an anthology of improbable, futuristic, magical, & alternate-world crowdfunding projects. Please check it out, consider backing it, and, if you’re so inclined, spread the word!

Read More

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.

***

Do you notice any common differences in submissions from within the U.S. versus other-English speaking countries versus other international submissions?

Aside from punctuation and spelling…not really! I’m sure I could detect some such trends if I really tried to analyze stories from around the world, but off the top of my head, just incidentally as I read submissions? No, haven’t picked up on anything like that. Though, I don’t always notice where the author is from unless I’m buying their story.

***

From October 1 – October 31, I’ll be running a Kickstarter campaign for a new project called HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!, an anthology of improbable, futuristic, magical, & alternate-world crowdfunding projects. Please check it out, consider backing it, and, if you’re so inclined, spread the word!

Read More