Q: Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.
A: Explosive short stories!
Q: What other current publications (or publishers) do you admire most?
A: Rewrite The Stars Review
Q: If you publish writing, who are your favorite writers? If you publish art, who are your favorite artists?
A: My favorite writers are Kazuo Ishiguro, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carlo Rovelli (technically a physicist but his writing is beautiful), and Emily Dickinson.
Q: What sets your publication apart from others that publish similar material?
A: Rather than centering on one theme, Fireworks aims to capture one level of emotion (hence our love of "explosive" stories). While our writers and characters span countries, ages, and interests, they all grab readers' attention with their engaging tales.
Q: What is the best advice you can give people who are considering submitting work to your publication?
A: If you're not sure if you should submit, we're here to tell you that you should :) We love reading and are always excited for more, so all we want to know is that you love your piece, after that it's a joy for us to experience your writing, so let's see what you've got!
Q: Describe the ideal submission.
A: A story from 200 to 1000 words that grabs our attention from the very beginning and keeps us hooked until the very end. We want your characters/plot to be so captivating that we are satisfied with the ending yet disappointed there is not more to read. Fireworks is a place to experience an explosive story in a short amount of reading time, so take advantage of every word you write! Other than that, its up to you!
Q: What do submitters most often get wrong about your submissions process?
A: We often receive submissions over our word count. While we understand that it can be difficult to stop yourself from writing more and more when you are engrossed in a plot, we are aiming to publish short stories that convey complex narratives or themes in crunched times. It's a challenge, we know! While we love reading your stories, no matter the length, we simply do not have time to get through your multi-chapter submissions that we can't publish, so please consider this when submitting!
Q: How much do you want to know about the person submitting to you?
A: This part is totally up to you, what do you want to share with us? **Note -- we love hearing which country you are writing from, as we are always amazed at how far Fireworks has spread.
Q: If you publish writing, how much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it?
A: We try to read every piece to the end to make sure we aren't missing anything, but as we know many readers might stop reading if they are not interested in the first few paragraphs, we weight the beginning of your stories very heavily in our decisions.
Q: What additional evaluations, if any, does a piece go through before it is accepted?
A: After initial evaluations, we double-check for: typos, sensitive content, formatting questions, plot holes, and consistency.
Q: How much do you edit an accepted piece prior to publication?
A: We generally try to avoid any substantive edits, especially considering the short length of our submissions. However, any copy edits or proofreading suggestions we make are always confirmed with our authors before publication.