the downsides of growth
Summary
Blogger: NiiRole: Senior Editor
Area: Fiction & Poetry
Original Career: Scientist
Editor of the main poetry imprints until 2007, now focussing on fiction. Editor since 2001 » »
Books
As Editor:14-2: twenty eight love poems
Dance the Guns to Silence (with Kadija Sesay)
x-24: unclassified (with Tash Aw) mouthmark series
waterways poetry
lubin & kleyner
As Author:
eyes of a boy, lips of a man (1999)
When I started out as an editor, one of my favourite things was to finish my ‘working day’ and then settle down to read the unsolicited manuscripts we had received during the day. Conscious of my own frustrations as a writer, rarely hearing back from editors when I sent work out (sometimes even when my work was used I found out after the fact!), I spent time writing comments on the manuscripts and sent replies within a week or two. It was great for a while; I was only getting about eight unsolicited MSS a week and the flow was very manageable. In fact, I started to meet people who would come up to me and say, Oh, thank you so much for your feedback on my poem – it was very helpful and I had a lady who had a short story published in a journal after she got me suggested edits. At the time I was only responsible for three writers and was able to edit a quarterly magazine called x magazine (which is where half the unsolicited MSS came from – for some reason people think if you publish a magazine you can publish anything!).
Of course, it wasn’t to last. Soon I had seven authors and I was missing deadlines for x magazine (the latest issue is currently 7 months delayed). In another year we had won some accolades and the unsolicited manuscript volume became incredible. To give you some perspective, after we won our first PBS Pamphlet Choice we received forty manuscripts in two weeks. There was no way my old ways were going to survive – no way! It’s the very real trade off that has to happen as a small press grows in reputation and its backlist starts to demand administration hours.
So now, I respond to most MSS by e-mail if I get to it and if I don’t like the work I don’t bother responding – it’s way too much work. In some ways I have become the editors I thought treated me so unfairly, but I like to tell myself I’m different because I still feel guilty about not responding and I still write to anyone who sends me something I like – even if it’s not good enough for us yet. If I don’t like it… Well, it’s a rough world out there – sorry »»
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