Editor Interview: Stonecoast Review

Ethical & Genre-breaking

Conjunctions, Clarkesworld, The Sun, Strange Horizons, Asimov's

Writers: Philip K. Dick, China Mieville, Ursula Le Guin, Roger Zelazny
Artists: M.C. Escher, Julie Dillon, any fractal art or surrealism

There are three kinds of stories:
1. Adventurers go forth and slay goblins.
2. A woman has a mid-life crisis when her car breaks down.
3. A goblin has a mid-life crisis when their cart gets smashed by adventurers right before the Great Mushroom Festival.
We want to publish fiction in the third category.
We also want to publish works from traditionally marginalized communities.

Work on your sentences. Can you get symbolism in every single line? How about the five senses? How about the "other" five senses? Compress the prose. More dense. Denser.

Each sentence compels the reader to continue reading. The story ends and the reader feels changed. See: "Spar" by Kij Johnson.

Putting their name in the document title or heading. We use blind submissions. We reject 10-15% of all submissions for this reason...

The work must stand alone. Previous publication credits a mile long are often ignored. A single sentence saying you're published somewhere we've heard of, or if you have an MA or MFA, will get your story a second glance if it's in the "reject" pile. We read the cover letters of authors we intend to publish.

As a first reader, I would read at least a few pages before rejecting a piece. As an editor, I would read the first page. Now, as Editor-in-Chief, I look at every single sentence. If a piece gets the death line, it's usually in the first paragraph. Those sentences could be improved. More dense. Denser.

We use a three-tier system:
Tier 1: Two first-readers review the piece. If one gives a thumbs up, it goes to the genre editor.
Tier 2: Genre editor reviews the piece, rejects it or moves it up.
Tier 3: Managing editors and Editor-in-Chief have a meeting to decide if the piece is a good fit--whether or not we send a customized rejection, a revise/resubmit, or a (hopefully!) provisional acceptance.

As Editor-in Chief: 1. Check email. Many new emails. Respond. 2. Check Submittable. Many new submissions. Change and update labels on pieces. 3. Read a few top-tier submissions. Correspond with managing editors. Most are rejected by managing editors. An acceptance! Hooray! 4. Send acceptance email. 5. Delegate copy-editing. 6. Final copy-editing with grim editor's scythe--culling every excess word. 7. Layout editing of final publication looms...how are all these pieces going to fit together?

Pieces are edited mainly for brevity. Some stories only need a few fixes per page. Some need every sentence tinkered with. Major content edits are typically sent out as revise/resubmits. The author gets final approval, but must explain with sound reasoning why they would refuse any of our changes.

As Editor-in-Chief of Issue #9, it is one of my goals to nominate works for both the Nebula and Hugo awards, among others.