Where those submissions go
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)
I guess I could call this confessions of an idealistic editor, but I’m not making a 70s made-for-TV film so I won’t.
In the early days of flipped eye publishing I saw every submission as a chance to enhance the experience that most aspiring writers have when they submit work to a publisher. I responded to every submission, telling each writer what I liked and didn’t like about their work, what could be improved easily, who I thought they should read, and what magazines to submit to. It was a tall order, but we were new and I was only editing three writers so I was able to keep up with it. Besides, I had been the submitting writer so many times and was so incensed when editors/agents/magazines who asked you NOT to make simultaneous submissions did not respond. I actually got several writers writing back to thank me – and, of course, submissions ballooned because that was effectively a FREE reading service.
Seven years on, I find myself editing twenty two writers, working with two extra editors and – yes – with no time to respond to all submissions. Admittedly, it crept up on me, so I didn’t actually take steps to let writers know of the changes (I do believe clear communication is the foundation of the contract, regardless of how transient, between editor and writer/aspiring writer), but we have ALWAYS said that we accept simultaneous submissions – after all, if an editor likes your work, they should step up and say so! And we don’t require SAEs, which I maintain are a waste of time – in fact, we prefer initial queries by e-mail.
What we have done now, though (a few years late), is create an auto-response that lets writers know EXACTLY what is likely to happen to their submission – where it goes. And the text reads something like this:
Your submission has been received by flipped eye publishing and will now go through a number of stages. You may or may not get a response depending, primarily, on whether or not your submission makes it beyond our initial readers. During low submission periods we endeavour to respond to all submissions, but we cannot promise this.
The stages are as follows:
- Your submission is read by our initial readers, who will pick work that is well-structured, edited and presented and forward what they choose to our selection readers. LIKELIHOOD OF RESPONSE IF YOU DON’T MAKE IT PAST THE INITIAL READERS – 12%
- Your submission is perused by our selection readers who will select work based on originality, style and the priorities of our three editors, sending the chosen work on to specific editors according to their assessment of the work. All fiction submissions will go to Nii Ayikwei Parkes. LIKELIHOOD OF RESPONSE IF YOU DON’T MAKE IT PAST THE SELECTION READERS – 30%
- Your work is read by one of our three editors who then pick the work they like and share it with the other editors at our editorial meetings (held every six weeks). LIKELIHOOD OF RESPONSE IF YOU DON’T MAKE IT PAST AN EDITOR – 62%
- Your work is championed by an editor at an editorial meeting. If it is approved, the editor who chose your work will contact you to discuss the possibility of publishing you. LIKELIHOOD OF RESPONSE IF YOU DON’T MAKE IT PAST THE EDITORIAL MEETING – 99%
So, we still love bits of your work – but we can’t always tell you which. We live in crunchy times…
»»
when they submit work to a publisher. I responded to every submission, telling each writer what I liked and didn’t like about their work, what
could be improved easily, who I thought they should read, and what magazines to submit to. It was a tall order, but we were new and I was
only editing three writers so I was able to keep up with it. Besides, I had been the submitting writer so many times and was so incensed
when editors/agents/magazines who asked you NOT to make simultaneous submissions did not respond. I actually got several writers
writing back to thank me – and, of course, submissions ballooned because that was effectively a FREE reading service.
Seven years on, I find myself editing twenty two writers, working with two extra editors and – yes – with no time to respond to all
submissions. Admittedly, it crept up on me, so I didn’t actually take steps to let writers know of the changes (I do believe clear
communication is the foundation of the contract, regardless of how transient, between editor and writer/aspiring writer), but we have
ALWAYS said that we accept simultaneous submissions – after all, if an editor likes your work, they should step up and say so! And we
don’t require SAEs, which I maintain are a waste of time – in fact, we prefer initial queries by e-mail.
What we have done now, though (a few years late), is create an auto-response that lets writers know EXACTLY what is likely to happen to
their submission – where it goes. And the text reads something like this:
Your submission has been received by flipped eye publishing and will now go through a number of stages. You may or may not get a
response depending, primarily, on whether or not your submission makes it beyond our initial readers. During low submission periods we
endeavour to respond to all submissions, but we cannot promise this.
The stages are as follows:
1. Your submission is read by our initial readers, who will pick work that is well-structured, edited and presented and forward what they
choose to our selection readers. LIKELIHOOD OF RESPONSE IF YOU DON’T MAKE IT PAST THE INITIAL READERS – 12%
2. Your submission is perused by our selection readers who will select work based on originality, style and the priorities of our three
editors, sending the chosen work on to specific editors according to their assessment of the work. All fiction submissions will go to Nii
Ayikwei Parkes. LIKELIHOOD OF RESPONSE IF YOU DON’T MAKE IT PAST THE SELECTION READERS – 30%
3. Your work is read by one of our three editors who then pick the work they like and share it with the other editors at our editorial meetings
(held every six weeks). LIKELIHOOD OF RESPONSE IF YOU DON’T MAKE IT PAST AN EDITOR – 62%
4. Your work is championed by an editor at an editorial meeting. If it is approved, the editor who chose your work will contact you to
discuss the possibility of publishing you. LIKELIHOOD OF RESPONSE IF YOU DON’T MAKE IT PAST THE EDITORIAL MEETING – 99%
So, we still love bits of your work – but we can’t always tell you which. We live in crunchy times…
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