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Editor Interviews

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Read all the editors' answers to Duotrope's interview question: If you publish writing, how much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it? Learn more.

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Here is a small sampling from our recent Editor Interviews. We have interviewed over 2,200 editors.

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

A: All poems are entirely read.

A: We read all of the submission from beginning to end.
We don't believe in 'isn't right' because the focus of our publication is to create the space for the submitter's piece, not fit it into a pre-existing box.
The pieces we reject are pieces that do not follow our submission guidelines, encompassing our list of material we do not want to publish, submissions which are not sent as an Attachment but in the body of the email instead, or when the submitter ceases communication.

A: Depends on the submission, but roughly a third of a novel is a good rule of thumb. If there’s no discernible plot by then, or I’ve been given no reason to empathize with the main character, there’s not much that can be done. If I have been hooked in some way, though, I’ll read to the end. On the opposite end of the spectrum, in some rare cases it’s clear within a page or two that what I’m reading isn’t a good fit for Stonehewer, but even then, I like to read on a while — you never know when a cuttable opening might lead to a worthy story.
Short stories are different. If there’s one knockout piece, I’m liable to read the whole collection searching for a repeat of that feeling. But if the first two or three stories fail to grab me, I’m not likely to go on. So put your best foot forward!

A: Poetry is always read all the way through, and sometimes several times before we make a decision. Longer prose pieces that are accepted have been read thoroughly by multiple editors.

Margaret R. Sáraco and Mary Brancaccio, Poetry Editors of Platform Review, 04 March 2024

A: Since we publish poems, and they tend to be no longer than a page, we read the entire submission—even when we suspect it’s not quite right for us. It’s an honor to spend time with a submitter’s work.

A: The piece goes through a two-layered process of reading by different entities before acceptance.

A: Both the editorial team and I read all submissions carefully, in their entirety, before making a decision.

Phoenix Alexander, Editor-in-Chief, Vector of Vector, 29 February 2024

A: All pieces are read to the end and always at least twice.

Doug Jacquier, Editor of Witcraft, 28 February 2024

A: We usually read every submission in its entirely. However, our M.O. is to not accept anything that would require substantial revisions—so, in such cases, we might reject something without finishing reading it. To us, it's the submitter's responsibility to send us a publishable manuscript. (If you're seeking notes, revisions, or edits, M.M. and Jim offer editing services at reasonable rates. Details can be found on their respective sites or via email inquiry.)

A: Sometimes the first page is enough for us to say no, if the writing just isn't good at all -- a surprisingly large fraction of the submissions we get fall into this category. If the writing is at least decent on a sentence-by-sentence level, the first few pages are usually enough for me to decide whether I'm finding a book compelling or not. If were in a bookstore and picked this book up and read the first few pages, would I want to take it home with me and read the rest? Or would I put it down and keep looking for something else? It's the same test for the unpublished books that come in to us. On a typical day we might have 2 or 3 or 5 or 7 novels arrive in our inbox, and there is no way for us to read them all, so we briefly dip into each and see which one (if any) makes us want to keep reading. A few pages is almost always enough.

A: We genuinely read every piece to the end. All submissions are read numerous times by Jonathan and I (Nidhi) and we have Zoom meetings where we discuss the craft behind every poem.

A: We read each piece a few times over to get a sense of its intention and effect. All submissions are passed to at least two editors for review, and everything is read until the end. We take notes on the unique qualities of all submissions and prepare individual feedback for writers aged 13-22.