Editor Interview: Space & Time Magazine

SF, Fantasy and Horror

Neil Clarke at Clarkesworld Magazine. He has a winning formula for supporting his online-only publication. Also, Ellen Datlow, who paved the way for many other female editors -- and editors in general -- and remains one of the most talented editors in the business.

I love so many! From the world of fiction, a few of my faves are Neil Gaiman, Jim Butcher, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, and Jonathan Maberry. From poetry, Mike Allen and, of course, Linda Addison.

We like work that blurs the lines between categories of genre fiction. We want science fiction in our horror, horror in our fantasy, etc. Also, we still value poetry and interior illustrations, unlike many magazines that have punted on both.

Read out guidelines first! Err on the side of shorter works (under 10K) and only send work in when we are open for submissions.

Tight prose, solid story with a clear plotline and interesting characters, plus a nice blend of genre categories.

They send in hard-copy submissions without asking permission first and send them outside of our declared reading periods. None of these get read!

I just need to know a little about an author: name, address, how best to reach them (email and/or phone), and a few relevant credits. It does get my attention if they have solid credits, but I only buy on the strength of the story in front of me, not because someone has been published by X or Y publication before.

By the time a work is passed up to me, it has been screened by both a first reader and fiction editor Gerard Houarner, so I read it end-to-end, to confirm that I agree with their decision that it is worth publishing.

It is screened by an associate editor first, then passed to Gerard Houarner, the fiction editor next. Gerard passes anything he wants to buy to me and I give it the final blessing. At that point, it is accepted.

When we have an open reading period, I get a collection of emails from Gerard with stories he is recommending we publish and a brief explanation of why he likes them. I then print them out because I don't like to read online and take them to my local Starbucks to read for a couple of hours. I then give my blessing or, rarely, rejection list to Gerard and he contacts the authors accordingly.

Usually basic proofreading, line editing as needed, and rarely more involved copy editing. Our founder, Gordon Linzner, is kind enough to handle this for S&T.