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Editor Interview: Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine

Q: Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.

A: thought provoking SF

Q: What other current publications (or publishers) do you admire most?

A: On Spec

Q: If you publish writing, who are your favorite writers? If you publish art, who are your favorite artists?

A: Lynda Williams, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, Dave Duncan, Frank Herbert, Robert Silverberg, Theodore Sturgeon... etc.

Q: What sets your publication apart from others that publish similar material?

A: We have a unique style of choice for our stories. As a two-person publishing team. Stephanie, who leans more towards fantasy, and Karl who leans more towards hard science, choose stories that they both love. This gives the stories in Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine a wider appeal than many other SF magazines. Add to that Karl Johanson's easy to read and funny articles about science, and readers find themselves thinking when they thought they were just being entertained.

Q: What is the best advice you can give people who are considering submitting work to your publication?

A: Please, read the guidelines first, and if you get a chance read the magazine. That is actually the best advice we can give for submitting to any publication.

Q: Describe the ideal submission.

A: If we could describe the ideal submission, we would just write it ourselves. The ideal submission for Neo-opsis is a short story that draws us in so much so that we forget we are reading the story and feel like we are there.

Q: What do submitters most often get wrong about your submissions process?

A: Submitting stories when we are closed to submissions. We get so many stories, when we are open for submissions, that we have to close down our acceptance period to allow publishing to catch-up to the stories we have accepted. As a two person publishing company there are limits to how quickly we can process submissions.

Q: How much do you want to know about the person submitting to you?

A: We care about the quality of the story, if it fits our publication, and the word count. Beyond that we need to know the legal name of the writer, the pseudonym (if they use one), and their contact information, email and mailing address. We don't need to know their publishing credits, or descriptions of the story, because the story needs to be able to stand on its own.

Q: If you publish writing, how much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it?

A: If a story is well written, I will read it all the way through. By well written, I mean that the language, grammar, spelling, and sentence structure is good. If a story is badly written, then after trying to read the first page, I may just scan through the rest of the story. If it is written in the same manner, then I'll reject it. To qualify, I am reading short story submissions. A publisher of novels would not have the time to read all submissions all the way through.

Q: What additional evaluations, if any, does a piece go through before it is accepted?

A: I, Stephanie Johanson, am the first filter for Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine, the gatekeeper so to speak. If I don't like a submission it goes no further. If I like it and feel it fits our publication then the submission will be passed to Karl Johanson. He does a quick read of all the submissions forwarded to him, which often is about 5% of those submitted to Neo-opsis. Karl rejects those he feels don't fit. He then rereads those he has put into the last stage of consideration and makes his final picks for publication.

Q: What is a day in the life of an editor like for you?

A: When Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine is open for submissions, my day starts with checking emailed submissions. Each submission is entered in the list of received. Then I start reading submissions in the order in which they were received. Mail arrives close to noon or after 1:00 pm. If stories have arrived by mail they will be opened entered in the list of received and put into a filing cabinet near my desk. Rejected submissions will be marked as rejected and an email will be sent off to the writer saying when the story was received, the date of rejection, and perhaps brief comments or an explanation will be given. Submissions that I like and feel fit well with our publication will be forwarded to Karl Johanson with a brief explanation or comments on why I feel the submission is a good fit for our publication. I will then send an email to the writer, telling them that their story has passed the first stage of consideration. I may make comments like "your story made me laugh out loud", or "your story brought tears to my eyes", but I will also try to estimate when the writer will be likely to get the final response from editor Karl Johanson. Somewhere in there I will break for lunch and then for dinner, but depending on how quickly the submissions are coming in, my day is basically full of reading, responding, and paperwork.

Q: How important do you feel it is for publishers to embrace modern technologies?

A: I like the feel of paper in my hands. I enjoy a good book, but our world is going digital. I prefer getting story submissions by email. It is much easier than processing a lot of paper. The costs of publishing on paper is getting too high. Add on top of that the costs of distribution, and it means fewer readers are going to be willing to pay what it really costs to publish a literary magazine or book. Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine is going to eventually go digital, but at this point we still have some readers who are loyal to paper. We don't want to lose those readers. Going digital may bring us more readers, but it may be even harder to get beyond the costs of production, because readers want their digital content free or close to it. I don't know if embracing modern tech or staying with tradition is going to work, but either way the publishing industry is in for a lot of change.