Blog – Page 18 – John Joseph Adams

Codex Q&A: How many slush stories do you read per day?

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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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.

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Codex Q&A: If you could gather all the “almost-sold-to-Lightspeed” writers in one room, what advice would you give them?

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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.

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Codex Q&A: What do you feel is the secret ingredient that makes Lightspeed unique?

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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.

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Codex Q&A: What would you most like to change about the sf genre (fiction and/or industry)?

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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.

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Codex Q&A: Do you notice any common difference in submissions from within the U.S. versus international submissions?

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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.

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Codex Q&A: Do you still geek out and “fan-slime” creators you admire?

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Do you still geek out and “fan-slime” creators you admire? If so, what was your most recent “I can’t believe I’m talking to this person” moment?

I don’t think I’ve ever “fan-slimed” anyone, but I certainly have geeked out on the inside. (And may have been a bit awkward in their presence, but because I was nervous and a nerd, not because I was gushing at them.) My default social mode at conventions and the like where I might run into someone famous is, “Don’t bother them.” I figure I’ll end up running into them at some point naturally without actively seeking them out, or else they’ll take the initiative to come talk to me, or I’ll end up invited to the same dinner as them.

My most recent inner geek out was at the Nebula Awards recently when I found myself talking with Trevor Quachri, the new editor of Analog, when here comes Robert Silverberg, and then here comes Joe and Gay Haldeman. And so there we are talking in the lobby, and Bob Silverberg (he insists I call him Bob) suggests we go to lunch. So then suddenly I’m not just CHATTING with Bob Silverberg and Joe Haldeman, I’m HAVING LUNCH WITH THEM. So that was all very cool. As if that wasn’t cool enough, Trevor even insisted on picking up the check! (Ahhhh…expense account!) And then also, this cool thing happened.

On the flip side, at World Horror this year, I was the editor guest of honor. The opening ceremonies were in this big room with a bunch of banquet tables, and there was a finger-food buffet and there was a cash bar setup. As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, I don’t drink, and I didn’t feel like spending three bucks on a diet coke, so I just took a seat and waited for things to get going. I didn’t see any familiar faces, so I just sat there by myself. Two young women ended up sitting at the table with me, and so we chatted for a bit. I introduced myself as just “John” since, I mean, it’s weird to say your full name when you meet someone, right? So they didn’t realize who I was. At some point, one of the con organizers came over and handed me a couple of drink tickets that I should have gotten earlier. After she left, one of the young women asked me why they just handed me those drink tickets, and I said, “Oh, uh, it’s because I’m one of the guests of honor.” And they were pretty flabbergasted, so that was kind of funny. But then, almost literally just as I was saying that, who joins us at our table but ANOTHER guest of honor — Ramsey Campbell. I had never actually met him, but I had published an original story of his in Nightmare, so I was pleased to meet him, and I did geek out a little just then. I always do find it a little intimidating to make conversation with, you know, legends, though.

Prior to all of that, one of my “geek out” disappointments was narrowly missing the chance to meet Neil Gaiman. This was back when he was GOH at the Worldcon in Montreal a couple of years ago. At that point, I had reprinted a couple of his stories, so I figured he might know who I was (otherwise I wouldn’t have even thought about bothering him). And I didn’t seek him out, but as I was exiting the green room one time, I saw him approaching, which was almost like spotting a unicorn, because even though he was a GOH, he was never seen walking the halls of the convention. (I still don’t understand how his handlers manage that. Does he have an invisibility cloak? Admittedly it’s probably pretty necessary, as he’d get mobbed as he tried to get from place to place.) Anyway, I saw him coming and was just about to say a quick hello and go on my way, but before he got close enough to extend a hand or anything, he got a phone call, so I just walked past and let him enter the green room in peace. I did end up meeting him a couple years later, and HE GAVE ME FIVE GOLD DOUBLOONS

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Codex Q&A: Do you ever get Editor’s Block?

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Do you ever get Editor’s Block?

I wouldn’t call it editor’s block, certainly, but there have been occasions where I had a hard time making up my mind about a story. What I do in those situations is usually solicit a lot of different feedback from my staff and slush readers, in the hopes that one of them will say something in their comments that will crystallize things for me and/or I’ll get enough of a sense of consensus that it will help me get off the fence.

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Codex Q&A: How quickly do you read?

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How quickly do you read? Ever timed yourself?

I don’t know how fast, but I’m not among the world’s fastest readers or anything. I don’t even know if I read particularly fast for someone who reads all the time. I think there’s a certain danger in reading very quickly if you’re an editor. Obviously when you’re actually editing a ms. you have to slow down, but when you’re doing that initial read, I think it’s also important to not blow through the story, because you need to stop and appreciate the language and absorb all the nuance etc., that I suspect most people will miss if they’re reading at speed-reading speeds.

Years ago, I was working at a Barnes & Noble, and one of the managers there was one of those people who can read a whole 400 page novel in like an hour. I was SO JEALOUS of that guy. I would love to be able to do that as a reader…though, as I said above, I’m not sure if that would actually be good for me as an editor.

I tried a couple times to improve my reading speed just because there’s so much that I’d like to read but will never have time for, but none of that seems to have helped. If anything, I think I’ve slowed down as a reader. When I was younger and first really devoting myself to reading, for a while there, I was reading a book a day at least, and a couple of days I read more than one book (my crowning achievement was three in one day). Of course, that mostly just meant I had no life and I more or less spent all day reading the book in question. Still, it feels like I must have read more quickly back then.

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Codex Q&A: What’s your editing ritual?

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What’s your editing ritual? Do you squeeze a dozen rubber duckies before sitting down before the slush pile? Do you have a hundred interns bow down before the inbox? Surely it can’t be anything banal…

My only real ritual is that I get myself trapped in this cycle of:

1. Email
2. Twitter
3. RSS Feeds
4. (repeat)

So you get up, read and respond to email, then move onto Twitter, then move onto RSS feeds, and then by the time you’re done with all that, there’s more email, and more twitter, and then more RSS feeds…

Otherwise, my process is fairly chaotic, depending on what my deadlines are looking like and what I feel like working on. I keep telling myself that I need to make a schedule so that I’m sure to get certain things done on a more regular schedule, but making that schedule is just one more thing on my todo list that I haven’t gotten to yet.

When I read submissions, I read them on my iPad Mini, using the Kindle app. The Moksha Submission System we use has a feature that will forward all recommended stories to my Kindle (or in this case my Kindle app), so I just open up my Kindle app and all my subs are in there. The system renames them for me, so a story will look like this on my Kindle:

LS – Keyes – 5500 – Flowers For Algernon

Unfortunately, Kindle doesn’t let you really reorganize your library in any useful way (except you can sort by date or alphabetical); you can’t create folders and sort subs that way, for instance.

Usually when I’m settling down to read, I’ll sit on the couch in the living room, or lay in bed, or most often I’ll use the chair I have in the closet in my office. The closet doubles as my podcast recording studio. These days I’ve taken to standing while recording, but previously I had been recording while sitting, so I got a nice comfy chair that fit in the closet nicely. Now it’s basically just my reading chair.

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Codex Q&A: How do you feel about authors interacting with readers that leave comments on their stories?

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How do you feel about authors interacting with readers that leave comments on their stories? (Assuming they’re not flying off the handle if there’s a negative comment.) I’m always unsure if I should be replying or interacting with people that comment on my stories since I don’t see many other authors do it.

I think it’s generally fine. Readers seem to really like interacting with authors, so it’s always a cool thing for them to trade comments with authors directly. I think maybe you wouldn’t want to reply to every comment or anything, but I think it’s generally fine to pop by and just say something like “Thanks for all the kind words” or something of the sort. And I think it’s certainly fine to respond if readers leave comments that have questions or are looking for clarification (if you feel like explicating something that you may have wanted left vague in the text).

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