Editor Interview: Micromance Magazine

The Best Flash Romance

Prosetrics Literary Magazine
Raw Lit
Dear Booze
Epistemic Lit
Spillwords Press
Literary Revelations

Ash Douglas - poetry and short stories
Bob MacAfee - poetry
Devon Webb - poetry
Katie Fitzgerald - flash romance
Scott MacLeod - flash fiction/microfiction
Johannah Simon - microfiction
Mina Beckett - romance
Pam Martin-Lawrence - romantasy/romance
Just to name a few...

There are other publications that are love themed, but they focus on ALL types of love - familial, friendship, the love of pets, etc., along with romantic love. The closest to Micromance is much more exclusive, publishing 1000 word genre romance stories only. At Micromance we are the only flash fiction lit mag 100% focused on what we call Love Lit - romance of all sub genres, literary love stories, women's fiction/chick lit with an emphasis on love, and, of course, we accept romantic poetry. As EIC, I work closely with contributors, actively promote contributors and the magazine, and do my best to create a supportive community of readers and writers. We are open to writers of all skill levels, writing experiences and backgrounds, and have been the first publication credit for several writers, and the first romance credit for several others. I have also founded The Cupid Prize for Excellence in Love Lit to both celebrate and bring awareness to flash romance and its writers. We also ranked 4th in Chill Subs 2024 Community Favorites for the Flash Fiction category, drastically setting us apart from similar publications.

The best advice I can give someone considering submitting is SUBMIT! It's going to be a yes or no, and if your work is well-written and sticks to the romance/love theme, your chances of acceptance are very good. If, for some reason, the answer is "no," I will tell you why, explain more of what I'm looking for, and invite you to submit again.

The ideal submission is the story or poem that touches me somehow - whether it makes me laugh or makes me cry. I love the pieces that can be felt. And I've been lucky as EIC at Micromance to experience this often.

My guidelines are pretty simple and I'm not a tyrant about them. For instance, I ask that pieces be in Times New Roman 12pt, but if a story arrives in Garamond I'm not going to reject it. I've only rejected a handful of pieces for not following guidelines - one wasn't in English, the two or three others were not romance/love themed.

I don't require cover letters, but most writers are used to sending some sort of introduction, and that's fine. I encourage writers to include previous publication credits and any awards/accolades they've received in their bios, but they bear no weight on my decisions or on my impressions of the writer.

I read each piece to the end. If it's well-crafted, carries a decent plot, and fits the romance theme, even if it's not to my liking, I'll accept it. Just because I didn't like it doesn't mean my readers won't. There have been several stories/poems I didn't personally like but were extremely well-received by my audience.

Some pieces are such incredible stories that even if they aren't quite what I'm looking for, I'll consider them. I hate the idea of losing a great story, yet I have to make certain the romantic vibe of Micromance is maintained. This consideration takes a bit longer, sometimes longer than I'd like, as I read the piece, set it aside and come back to it another day, in another mood, from another perspective.

I tend to read pieces as they come in and often know immediately if they're in or not. Then I set aside a time to reread submissions I received in the last couple days, email the writers with a publication date, copy the pieces into the drafts folder on Micromance's Substack, schedule the pieces for posting, and find or create graphics for a post header that compliment the story or poem.

I do my best to catch typos and punctuation errors, and those I'll correct myself. If I come across continuity errors, awkward sentences, perhaps an omitted or misplaced word, etc., I'll contact the writer and point out those issues and allow them to revise and resubmit. I do have a couple non-native English speaking contributors and a couple creatively talented contributors with reading disabilities, and I will work with them to strengthen their writing, and often they allow me to go in and correct and revise whatever needs to be corrected, trusting I'll keep those rewrites in their voice, their style.

Yes... The Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, and, of course, The Cupid Prize for Excellence in Love Lit. Micromance also recognizes its most active, supportive and encouraging contributors with the Sharing The Love Service Award.