Editor Interview: ergot.

Innovative Horror/Weird

Seize The Press, Chthonic Matter, Fence, Vastarien, New Sinews, 3:AM Magazine, Word For / Word, New Directions, NYRB, Two Dollar Radio, Apocalypse Party, CLOAK, Always Crashing, Tragickal, Coffee House Press, Dorothy: A Publishing Project, NOON, Astrophil Press, New World Writing, Black Sun Lit, The Dalkey Archive Press, Deep Vellum, Boiler House Press, Erratum Press, Tartarus, OOMPH Press, Lanternfish, Whiskeytit, Kernpunkt, 11:11 Press.

Writers who are pushing literary boundaries and who are not afraid to peek into darkness. Brian Evenson, Jac Jemc, Blake Butler, B.R. Yeager, Gerald Murnane, Noy Holland, Garielle Lutz, Clarice Lispector, Agota Kristof, Algernon Blackwood, Robert Aickmann, Samuel Beckett, Peter Christopher, Johannes Goransson, Joyelle Mcsweeney, Dylan Thomas, G.C. Waldrep, Can Xue, Camilla Grudova, Otessa Moshfegh, Jesse Ball, Anakana Schofield, Marcus Pactor, Djuna Barnes, J.M. Coetzee, Henrietta Rose-Innes, Paul Auster.

There are a lot of venues that publish horror and weird fiction, a few that publish innovative fiction but very few that publish work at the intersection of these two fields.
There have been a few venues in the past that focused on this sort of work but, as far as we are aware, we are the only venue publishing this sort of work, in the short form, right now.

ergot. has a very specific tone we are going for. Nearly every piece that we publish is different, but there is a general thread (or set of expectations) that run through all of the work we publish.
We seek work that is dark, strange, surreal or horrific in character.
Just as importantly we seek work that pays close attention to the prose. The prose should be precise and skillful and we avoid work written in genre style. We appreciate literary and minimal prose as well as prose that is innovative, experimental or challenging.

We do not read the cover letter before reading the submission and it rarely impacts our decision. The cover letter is professional, concise and to the point.
The work itself is attached as a separate document. The prose is of the highest quality: tight and seemingly effortless. When the piece is finished we like to be left feeling unsettled, uncomfortable and with more questions than answered.
Reading the piece again leaves us feeling even more confused as it seems to have changed between the first and second readings. There is the feeling that the piece is gesturing toward something outside the bounds of logic and language that has not been gestured toward before.
I consider burying the document in a deep hole so that no one else has to live through the experience of reading it. An acceptance is sent instead.

Most of the submissions we get are standard genre horror stories. These might be a great fit at plenty of other venues, but they are not for ergot.

We always read the work first, without looking at the cover letter.
If we like the work, then it doesn't matter who you are. If the piece isn't a good fit, it also doesn't matter who you are.
We don't care how many stories the author has published before, or where they have been published. We don't care how many awards the author has won, where they teach, where they did their MFA, how many pets they have or what their day job is.
Having said that, it is always nice to get a quick hello, an acknowledgment that the editor is taking the time to read your work and an author bio can be interesting - if for no other reason than to see names of other venues we haven't heard of before - but is not necessary.
We do like to see a healthy balance of humility and confidence.
We do take a special pride in publishing writers who have never been published before, and if this is you definitely let us know.

As far as ergot. is concerned: if the prose and sentences aren't solid it doesn't really matter what happens in the plot. Because of this it is often clear within the first few sentences whether a piece is a good fit or not.
We do tend to read flash pieces all of the way through.
If on the other hand the prose quality is high we will generally read most or all of the submission.

The piece is given an initial reading. If we feel that it might fit the site we place it into a 'close read' queue.
Then the store comes to the top of the 'close read' queue it is read once more. 95% of the time the piece is accepted on the second read.

ergot. is pretty small and receives maybe 5-10 submissions a week, so it is pretty low stress.
I (Sam) read all the submissions, usually while on break at my day job. Other than that it's e-mailing with writers, editing, doing the layout and promoting the work on social media.

ergot. closely edits every piece - both proofreading and line edits - prior to publication.
The author has final say over all edits. Some work might get a few suggestions while others get a heavier treatment. It is not uncommon for the author to reject half or more of the suggested edits, but the hope is that the few that stick will improve the piece in a substantial way.
Feedback from authors about our editing process has been overwhelmingly positive.

We currently send most work published to be considered for Ellen Datlow's 'The Best Horror of the Year' anthology. We also have nominated for 'Best of the Net' in the past and will likely continue doing so in the future.