Q: Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.
A: Electric nuggets of genre
Q: What other current publications (or publishers) do you admire most?
A: Space Squid has an ongoing partnership with and admiration of Drabblecast. The Drabblecast podcast has a very similar philosophy of bringing to the public quirky content that they will enjoy whether they want to or not.
Q: If you publish writing, who are your favorite writers? If you publish art, who are your favorite artists?
A: Space Squid loves every single writer we've published equally, Chris Nakashima-Brown, J.M. McDermott, Chris Roberson, Jennifer Pelland, Rahul Kanakia, and too many others to mention. If they wrote stories in the 1000 word range, then Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, and E.E. 'Doc' Smith would all have a free pass into Space Squid.
Q: What sets your publication apart from others that publish similar material?
A: There are no other publications like Space Squid. Space Squid is the very last resort for everyone who has a story that knocks readers on their butt, but can't convince the weasels at reputable markets to publish it. Space Squid is the frothing junkyard dog of genre fiction.
Q: What is the best advice you can give people who are considering submitting work to your publication?
A: We currently web-publish one story a month, free. That means if you get published, you get spotlighted on the homepage WITH a custom illustration or two, sometimes by an award-winning artist. We also have PDFs of older issues (back when we did issues) and special collections.
We try to send print editions of our story collections to top anthology editors. That means your story has a chance to get called up to the big leagues. We're minor league, but we're equal opportunity.
You should visit the site ASAP or download one of our PDFs and skim through it. Ideally, you should print up the PDF, staple the pages together, and put the whole wad on top of your toilet tank. You're only two enchilada platters away from reading a whole issue. Then, while you're still delirious from that much ultra-intense Space Squid fiction and comics, you should pound out 1000 words of nonsense (hopefully not on toilet paper) and submit that instead of your 5000 words of aliens sodomizing rednecks.
Q: Describe the ideal submission.
A: Space Squid wants flash that breaks every single rule. There should be no beginning, middle, and end. There should be no character arc or fifteen-point plot outline. There should be no damn Joseph Campbell journey of the damn hero. There should be only awesome.
Q: What do submitters most often get wrong about your submissions process?
A: Space Squid is very flexible with how we take submissions. But to make the process less likely to annoy the slush reader, you will want to have in the body of your email, in this order: your email address, your name, and the title of the story. Keep personal information down to two sentences or so. Let us know if we've met personally, or if you've published in Space Squid before. Everything else is entirely unnecessary and will not be read. You'll be lucky if I keep my attention on the first two paragraphs of your story before rejecting it, so no point in taxing my skimming skills before then.
Q: How much do you want to know about the person submitting to you?
A: Nope.
Q: If you publish writing, how much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it?
A: Space Squid is predicated on the assumption that no one actually wants to read. If I get impatient with the story, then so will the readers. I typically read the first paragraph, but if that doesn't grab me I start skimming and rejection comes soon after.
Q: What additional evaluations, if any, does a piece go through before it is accepted?
A: For some reason, stories that include Barack Obama get more credence than they would otherwise.
We are fond of humor, but we're more fond of smart, meticulous, funny writers who know how to structure a story, make you laugh and cry at the same time, and do the grammur.
Q: What is a day in the life of an editor like for you?
A: Breakfast tacos. Coffee. Then Mexican martinis. Sometimes nachos. When the temperature hits 98 degrees, Lone Star flavored with Twang is really good. After dark it's skinny-dipping at the spillway and more Mexican martinis. Then barbacoa tacos before bed.
Q: How important do you feel it is for publishers to embrace modern technologies?
A: Space Squid is deeply committed to pursuing dead media. We intend to always have a meat-space incarnation, no matter how many brain implants we might have.