Editor Interviews

A lot of reading and responding to contributor questions! We spend time each week liaising between readers, genre editors, contributors, our designer, our printer, the Syracuse University staff. We shovel snow off our steps. We shovel snow off our cars. And we make sure poems are lineated correctly.

I like to read submissions on transport - I can concentrate better. That's it.

We're a mom and pop shop, so many hats are worn each day, but we're proud of that: we are involved in every aspect of publishing and give close personal attention to every book.

As the publication has grown, my job has gone from doing everything, to making sure everything gets done, while maintaining the vision of the publication. I'm still the final person to say yes/no on if a story is accepted for publication, but almost everything else is now done by a small army of dedicated volunteers.

I have a job.

When SoFloPoJo began in 2016, we designed the operation on a frugal budget. We do all our graphic arts, web design, layout, web maintenance, video editing, and social media, so there is no downtime. Still, the most important thing in the submission reading process is to bring a receptive mind to the task. It would be a disservice to the author to do any less. That sometimes means the first thing an editor has to deal with are the distractions and deadlines that would interfere with an effective reading process.
As to hour-by-hour, day-to-day tasks, it depends on where we are in the reading cycle. We have four three-month reading cycles each year and always receive more submissions in the last month of each cycle than in the preceding two months.

I'm lucky to have free time in the morning before going to work, but nothing gets done until I've had a double espresso.
I read through the pieces after the readers have left their comments and scores, and add mine before moving the work to one of the folders (YES-NO-MAYBE)
Once I've read the latest submissions, I spend time emailing replies, trying to personalise using the comments left by the readers and editors. I take a little longer to reply for the artwork because of the need for the visual pieces to link the written ones- to create a flow.
After work, in the evening, I get back to reading the submissions.

This happens more on an annual basis; daily is mostly the first one.
- Read through new submissions.
- Check email account.
- Assign to staff.
- Read staff remarks about previous submissions.
- Read those submissions to consider the staff responses.
- Re-assign submissions for further readings.
- Assign strong submissions to entire staff.
- Meet with staff, discuss stronger submissions.
- Contact authors whose work we've accepted.
- Assign interviews/edits of accepted works to authors.
- Work on layout, design.
- Work on launch party.
- Work out payments for authors.
- Solicit contest judges.
- Place ads for contests.
- Ship issues.

During our open submission reading periods, I'm attached to my computer.

I read, then read some more, and then spend a little extra time reading. Afterward, I review any notes I've made, along with those from the First Reader. The highlight of my day comes when I reach the end of a story and realize I was so completely immersed that I forgot I was reading at all.

The Hooghly Review is an unpaid passion project. I am a college professor in my daytime. I devote the rest of my time to writing, editing, chores and hobbies. You can expect me to read and respond to submissions anytime: in between my lectures, lying on my couch at home, in the park during my evening walk, on the toilet seat, or when I wake up past midnight to take a leak.

We all work at regular jobs for a living. ActiveMuse is a passion that we take up late light and and weekends

Reading submissions for The Rebis is time consuming but one of my favorite parts of the process! As the editor-in-chief, I set aside dedicated time to slowly read through every submission, often returning to a piece more than once. My first question is always did this move me? If yes, I sit with it for longer. I also zoom out and think about listening for conversations between the pieces we are getting. I love fresh and surprising takes on the archetype we are exploring symbolically. I love contradiction and tension. It's like weaving a tapestry. Every piece has to stand on its own, but it also has to deepen the meaning of the collection as a whole.

As both a tenth-grader in India with major exams coming up this year, and an editor for two other magazines besides The Blue Bell Review, I have to maintain a strict schedule to keep up with my tasks. I wake up really early to get homework done, respond to emails, go to school, come back, take a break (play football or read fiction), review submissions, study and then work on whatever extracurriculars I have on that particular day.
First I go over the pieces that came in recently, and then send them to the other editors. After that I go over all the poems I am supposed to review each day, and jot down thoughts in my notebook. Then it is just a matter of sending the acceptance/rejection email.

One of the best things about my work with Ruadán is that I get to wear many hats, so the workday varies day by day. There are collaborations with the team, discussions with the authors, a heck of a lot of reading, and of course, editing. My favorite part of the job is working with the authors.

A day in the life of an editor rarely begins at the same hour. Our editors are based across Asia, Europe, and North America; it often feels as though we are doing the same work in parallel, from different corners of the world. Our weekly meetings are perhaps the closest we come to sharing the same room—one person's morning coffee meets another's late-night thoughts, and conversations unfold across time zones.
Every submission that passes our initial screening is read and independently scored by each editor. The highest-rated pieces are brought to our weekly editorial meetings, where we discuss them before making a final decision. Much of our work happens beyond the page. Alongside editing, we liaise with contributors, help organise launch parties, take part in book fairs, and look for new ways to expand what the magazine can be—from recording podcasts and hosting online writing workshops to exploring new ways of connecting with our community.

I am a working artist with a lot on my plate. When the opportunity presents itself, me or my coeditor log into our email account, work on new pages, and spread news of Sybil's newest releases or works associated with previous contributors.

Now that we have a full-sized team behind Blood Tree Literature, the editorial process has a few moving parts. Submissions of each genre are divided equally to members of each genre team to read and vote on, then positively voted pieces are passed to the other members, then we meet to discuss all the net-positive-voted submissions. Some submissions are quickly decided on, some take multiple discussions. We try to let authors know their acceptance status as quickly as possible so that we don't miss out on pieces under simultaneous submission. Then between the time of acceptance to the issue's release day, it's mostly admin from there: collect their signed publication contract, process their honorarium, work through any edits with the author, draft the piece's webdesign, get any of their books or literary businesses added to our Contributor Books and Publications/Programs pages, get the webdesign approved by the author plus any final edits or bio updates, then schedule the issue and its promos to go live! Besides the initial announcement to our newsletter subscribers and on social media, every piece in an issue gets its own Instagram post with an excerpt, and paired with one of our featured artist's pieces (which I try to pair by vibe LOL).

I'm semi-retired and am self-employed, so I mostly get to spend each day as I like!
Any day of the week can be a work day or a rest day for me. Within such an arrangement, I prioritise the most urgent needs / tasks of the business (magazine and anthologies) first, and work through the pecking order. Flexibility is key. So is downtime and rest! Almost without exception I'll always take a half-hour power nap in the afternoon, if working at home.
Submissions: I read each submission as it comes in (be it prose or poetry) as a first pass, then refer it on to my fellow editors (prose to a fellow prose editor, and poetry to our poetry editor). We then convene at set points to discuss all submissions, regardless of type, before making our final choices within the first three weeks of the third month of each quarter.

This is a part-time job for me, so my busiest time is during the first few weeks of the month. I do everything: edit, layout, write columns, then set up publication. I usually get the last two weeks of the month to myself.

I really want to paint some fun, wild image in this question but I guess it's really part field archaeologist, part grunt work. It's meticulous and magic. It's work but it's joyful. Sending declines is the worst.

During the reading process I will do my assigned reading when I get home from work. By day I work at a preschool. So in the evening and weekends, after dinner, I'll open up the submission folder and read the weeks works on my iPad. I usually have my iPad pencil on hand to make notes directly on the work as necessary. Twice a week we get on a call for about two hours to discuss that weeks works. Usually we have 12-16 submitters for that meeting, and we will read and discuss between 24-34 works for the week.

When a submission comes in it is assigned a reader. This is either a specific editor, or one of our in-house readers. We are pretty quick with turn around, but that is because we get a limited number of submissions. Poetry is harder because we get so much. Scholarship takes the longest, which I always feel bad about but it takes a lot more time to identify a content expert, give them ample time to read, and then get reader reports back to authors. That process can take months, if not longer.

Too much time sitting at my desk until my dogs bother me to go outside - and thank goodness they do.

I will start by reading new submissions and assigning them to the Readers, labeling them with the tag for the current issue. I may add notes for the readers on which poems I prefer from the submission. (I have not noticed that this influences them either for or against. They definitely have their own opinions.) Some days this is all I do, for hours. Other days, I will go on to re-read in-progress submissions and the Readers' notes. If we have collectively decided the work is not right for us, I will reject it, sometimes explaining what we found was strong about the submission, sometimes suggesting a way it might be strengthened. If we have decided we all love the work and it is a good fit for the issue, I will write up a permission form, put the submission name and the author's bio on a list of Contributors, put the submission title and the author's name in an Excel spreadsheet for that issue, then accept the piece and hope that the author still wants us to publish it.
Some days I work with the managing editor and the intern to format the magazine and the magazine cover.
Some days I work on the poetry contest, finding a judge, setting up the contest, and so on.

A day in the life of an editor at Red River Review usually means moving between reading, production, and keeping the journal running — often around a day job. I might be reading submissions, rereading work under consideration, or talking through pieces with the associate editor. I might also be laying out an issue, managing the archive, gathering contributor materials, checking permissions, preparing the newsletter, handling marketing, or thinking through how to bring readers to the work.
Since the relaunch, the role has involved more than choosing what to publish. It means shaping each issue, maintaining the archive, presenting the work well, and building systems that will help Red River Review grow into its expanded vision. Like many independent literary projects, it happens in the margins of ordinary life, which makes sustainability and care with time especially important.

I'll usually download submissions and sort them into folders for specific staff to review. I'll meet with specific design staff to discuss the creation of the edition. I will also respond to emails (such as those requesting clarification).

Both Editors are also writers so we spend much of our time writing which means we understand, like, admire, and want to help other writers. Both Editors have dedicated their lives (literally) to art and artists. Every day is all about writing and writers (and artists). We're not interested in writers who are only in it for the money. We ARE interested in writers who NEED to write no matter what. Those are the kind of writers we are and so they are the kind of writers we like best.

Checking for submissions, reading a handful of stories or poetry submissions, making decisions, making edit suggestions for accepted pieces, emailing writers, handling social media needs, lining up the details for each month's content drop.

I remember meeting a high powered editor in NYC who once admitted that if he was having a bad morning, all the work he read that day tended to also be bad. I've taken this to heart and read submissions at different times of the day to combat my natural low energy periods. I also like to read backwards on my list to ensure I'm not tired or fatigued by the time I get to certain pieces. Reading for me is intensive. I will look up definitions frequently, even words, I use regularly. When I'm tired, it's time for art therapy, which means switching over to visual art submissions as a form of restoration.

Since we only judge the contest once per year, I will defer this to the year-round editors.

I really only get a couple of hours a day to dedicate to reading and editing, so I try to make that time as distraction-free as possible.

Full-time student, part-time worker, part-time editor—every day I spend reading one thing or another, but to get to read through submissions is always a highlight of my day. To sit down and scour through hundreds of stories to read something that I feel will connect with an audience on a greater scale? Nothing beats that.

We have a fantastic small team of volunteer submission reviewers, who go through the influx of submissions, sharing their views and suggestions. My work-day is an amalgamation of different things, from reviewing submissions, to updating writers on their submission progress and guiding them through the next steps. One moment I could be reviewing a writer's work once it's been accepted, sharing my feedback and suggestions, and the next I could be preparing the next steps for the upcoming publication. However, submission review normally entails reading through 20+ submissions per day.

I handle most parts of the publishing process myself, so my days can vary greatly depending on what book is in what stage. Some days I'm deep in developmental edits, doing a book's layout, or talking to a cover designer. Other days I'm making graphics for social media, looking at marketing options, or going over an editor's feedback. One of the best parts of the job is that there are so many different hats to wear; no two days are the same!

A submission lands in a bed of flowers. Electric Pam offers it a glass of milk; Liminal Neil teaches it to smell the difference between lavender and mountain sage. Two hands reach down from the ether. One hand has short, clean nails and the other has freakishly long fingers and they hold the submission between them like a child. Four eyes look at it before its fate is decided.

As the editor-in-chief, my genre editors send me packets of the best work they've found each month. Generally, my poetry packets are 50 pages, and I read 3-4 of them each reading period. I comment on everything and flag the poems that I consider yes, no, or maybe and the yeses/maybes go to the table discussion and the no's get declined. For prose, I generally get 60 stories each reading period, and I comment on these and send yes/no/maybes to the fiction editor. For our final table discussion, we tend to bring 24 poems that we need to cut by half, and 14 stories that we need to cut by half.

We have around 20 submissions editors who read in pairs and a senior submissions editor who coordinates the reading. I personally deal with rejections and the occasional acceptance early in the morning, reading submissions that are not clear rejections, and communicating with authors.

There isn’t a single “day,” but a steady rhythm. Submissions are read in focused blocks alongside other editorial work. First reads are about attention and tone-whether the voice holds and the piece knows what it’s doing. Promising work is set aside and reread later, often after some distance. Final decisions are made deliberately rather than on a single pass.

Cracking open our submissions is always a thrill! We never know what we’re going to get, and I carry the excitement in my mind, with each story I open, will THIS be our winner?

After an initial read-through of material, we may go back to some of the material that is slated for rejection to see if there is some quality to a piece that we missed upon original examination. On an occasional basis, a piece will surprise us with an additional reading and be moved to the acceptance bin.

I am always reading submissions. I am nonstop. It is odd if I take a day off from reading and opining on submissions. I enjoy editing Poetries in English and it most importantly, kills my boredom.

Sometimes I'm part of the first-round reading and other times, I'll work on the second-round submissions. It's a different headspace for me, and changes what I'm looking for. For some stories, we'll have a discussion between team members about its merits, while for others, it's a clearer decision. I make all of the final decisions about submissions, and once that happens, I'll file each of them in either an acceptance or a to-be-rejected folder. To keep ourselves organized, we file stories to batch them together, because sending out responses is a different task that we set aside time to do separate from reading and considering.
I'm responsible for a lot more than just submissions, and while it's a vital piece of my job, it's one of many tasks within my role that I juggle.

Our entire staff is volunteer, so our editors work on submissions when they can, be it at night after work or on weekends or during lunch or while our kid naps. That said, we read closely because we take our editorial work seriously and we want to publish amazing pieces.

Our typical turnaround time is about 3-6 months, though we're starting to shorten that timeline. Once a piece is submitted, it goes through a couple rounds of review before either being rejected or accepted. Once accepted, we'll send a contract to the author, work together through any edits, then conduct an author interview to follow the story after publication.

Interestingly, reading submissions is probably the smallest part of my job. Most of it is administration: checking emails and communicating with writers; making sure listings (and our website) are current and correct; and managing our Patreon. Additionally, I am a graphic designer by trade so all the artwork, designs, and layouts are done by me.

Our team works pretty independently once we email acceptances. Editors work directly with the author, and once the story is finalized, I move into typesetting and cover design. For the past five years, I've been doing this alongside my PhD, so my time has been constrained especially since I also handle the marketing and book sales. I really rely on my editorial team and their expertise, and I'm lucky to have some great editors working with for Rad.

Reading a lot of poetry. A lot.
The magazine itself requires a lot of graphic design, so I spend most of the day hunched over my computer and giving myself back pain. It's loads of fun. :)

I'm a student and a full time receptionist and I do a lot of boring stuff on the day-to-day. This is my free time project, and something that helps stimulate my brain and remind me how much I love writing communities.

Sadly, there isn't much editing involved in my position. I spend a lot of time emailing editors to remind them of deadlines and check on progress. If we are about to go to print, I will be copy editing. Right now, I am preparing for our spring reading, doing interviews to fill staff positions, filing our taxes, ordering swag for AWP, and soliciting material for our Writer's Regimen program for summer.

I suspect like most editors, my day is busy. In terms of a behind-the-scenes sneak peek of the submission process: Picture a dishevelled English woman with a cup of strong tea sitting at her computer, surrounded by books, with a view of a bucolic English landscape, a dog pestering her to be taken for its walk, reading your writing, and thinking carefully about it.

N/A

My partner Joel Goldman and I read every submission. If one of us doesn't like it, its dead. So if he reads something before I do, and doesn't like it, its a pass. I don't have to look at it. But if he really likes it, he'll pass it along and I'll read it (This works both ways, of course). If we both like it, we'll ask for the manuscript. We both have to love the book for us to acquire it. Luckily, most of the time, we agree. On those rare occasions when we don't, it's a pass. We don't try to convince each other to acquire a book one of us isn't immediately enthusiastic about. We often get multiple agented and unagented submissions a day and we divvy them up and keep a detailed spreadsheet on the status of all of them.
Joel tends to handle the business side of things... negotiating contracts, dealing with the accountants, lawyers, printers, etc. I tend to handle the advertising, promotion, covers, editing, and book/author scouting. That said, it's not cut-and-dry. He'll often get involved in advertising and I might be pulled into a negotiation.

I'm also a writer, so sometimes I'm receiving my own acceptances and rejections even as I'm sending them. (I send the rejections with closed eyes and a whispered apology--very Midwestern of me.) I'm also a writing teacher, so my days are filled with reading, writing, offering feedback--and appreciating the power of words. We do produce only one issue a year, about all our team of volunteer editors (we all have other full time jobs) can handle. I think this means that like our writers and artists our lives are stuffed to the brim with all the meaningful stuff that makes us want to make art, and share art, all the more.

Well, today I have been: answering interviews from Duotrope, thanking authors from the previous issue, sending out some invoices, updating the website, making a video to try to increase sales and writing letters to prospective authors for the next issue. In the evenings, l read.
It's a cycle - it will be much more reading and layout in the months leading up to the release of an issue. Less Social Media and website updates.

There isn’t a typical day. Some days I read for an hour before work; other days I read late at night with too much coffee or not enough wine. I often reread pieces that linger and try to offer feedback—especially on stories that came close. In between, I take notes, mull decisions, and try to hold space for both the work and the people behind it. I know the waiting can be the hardest part of submitting. I do my best to respond quickly, though I’m not always able.

I have two part-time, non-literary jobs, plus I’m a gardener, and a husband. I also like to write stories of my own. Every day is just a matter of dividing my time between what most needs attention.

I spend a lot of my time managing the VOLTA website, responding to emails, corresponding with our social media editor, and doing outreach. During production I do a lot of work for the design side of things.

I'll read through submissions as they're received. I then forward the strongest to either my story or poetry editor for additional review. We rate pieces individually. We then compare our ratings to determine which works to include. I have the final say but trust in my staff.

We both have full lives outside of Viridine. Jobs, families, the general stressors of everyday life. However, we set aside time to read the submissions and rate them with comments in an exported spreadsheet. We then discuss these during weekly meetings in local cafes, where we try to make one coffee last for several hours and make decisions about which pieces we'd like to accept.

About 30% of the time is spent reading submissions, 30% working on books that are about to be published, another 30% on marketing books that have recently been published, and 10% conferencing with the other editors.

I'm most often sitting on my couch with my two dogs, Max & Scooter, by my side. I start with any daily submissions, giving each a read through before making any decisions. If there are any entries that are really awful, I'll send a formal rejection letter with no feedback. If there are any entries that are sort of good, I might offer a line or two for how the author could improve the work--although I will not ask for him/her to submit that piece again. I try to make all decisions within 24-48 hours, as I know from being on the writing end that it is super frustrating to wait months and months for decisions -- only to find out your piece was rejected anyway. I strive to be the kind of editor who establishes a personal connection to my writers and will go above and beyond to help them in their writing careers. I value the editors who have helped me along the way, especially Rich Soos at Cholla Needles, and I want to be the type of editor that writers and artists can return to again and again for submissions, publishing advice, or even just to say hey. For me, it's about building community and relationships.

I tend to read in 30 minute stints. If there's a definite acceptance or decline that's easy to manage but if I am not sure I leave the story in the pile to return to at another session. Some of those stories get read at several sessions as so often my own mood and energy levels can impact my reading.

I'm not a full-time editor. I receive around 10 submissions a day, but I don't read every day. I probably get to the queue every other day, to make sure I do keep on top of giving responses in 4 days. I read while listening to music, and then send emails in batches, usually while listening to a video essay. Because I don't go through a submission service, I have to transfer all the info from my form to the email and then add notes-- so probably not the most efficient but I've got my system down somewhat.

Read, write, read—breathe. Send out emails. Close my eyes and rest for a few minutes.

Our 2026 manuscript contests runs APRIL 1 through JUNE 30th. Winners are selected and announced by October.
During the year, I also co-edit WWPH Writes, our bi-weekly literary journal, which is free to subscribe to and free to submit to for any DMV writer. Please consider subscribing and submitting to WWPH Writes.

Everything goes on a giant spreadsheet. We download all the work to our devices, read it and make notes, then discuss it.

I set aside time in the morning and the evening to read through submissions and I check in frequently and will read some throughout the day. There's some coordination with our readers on pieces that are close to a final decision. I try to publish any newly accepted pieces in the morning usually around 6-7am CST. For submissions through Duosuma, we try to get that all turned around and make a decision within a few days. For email submissions, they get a little more backed up, but we still try to work through them quickly.

My first cup of tea in the morning is for personal correspondence with other writers and check-ins with house authors. I read manuscripts until lunch with a short nap at 10:30, then do some errands or else switch my reading to what books I'm reading for pleasure (Truman Capote, Gertrude Stein, John Lingan, Tennessee Williams, John O'hara) or for book reviewing or essay writing (April Bernard, Matthew Bialer, Barbara Guest). A second short nap at three and then I'm back to submissions until the golden hour.

I don't think anyone would take on this job without loving it. It's a lot of work, with very little downtime between. Preparing for submission periods, creating forms, write ups, spreadsheets, managing the website, managing social media, supporting ALL of our contributors from EVERY issue, reading subs, making decisions, sending personalized rejections, hard choices, acceptance, and then the whole process for getting an issue from conception to publication. Oh, and then the yearly anthology, cover design, graphics for marketing...

I work on Villain Era sporadically, usually on the weekends, so there are weeks where it doesn't get attention. It's a one-person labor of love. I try to respond to submissions within 30 days if I can help it.

I open the submission email, click the doc, and read it.

After I finish my 40-hour-a-week dayjob, I'll log into Submittable and scan down to the oldest submission flagged by my slush-readers to be second round. I'll read it and think about it. If it doesn't appeal, I'll send a rejection. If it does, I'll make a note, adding it to my pile of maybes. Then I'll repeat that process until my spouse announces dinner is ready.
After dinner, if there's nothing else I have to do that evening, I'll come back to the editing desk. As I go, I keep a document with the likely story slots numbered, and I shuffle titles around. It's not just if the story is one I like, it also has to fit with the others in the anthology, creating a varied but cohesive whole, like a mix tape.

Reading, judging, and managing our catalogue

I wear a lot of hats, so I pick a time devoted solely to reading manuscripts when I won't be interrupted. So I may go a week or two without reading, then spend all day Sunday doing nothing but reading manuscripts. Or I'll stay up past midnight on a Tuesday reading submissions. I might read on my phone sitting on the couch or laying in bed or sit at my desk on the computer with lo-fi music playing in the background. And go through lots and lots of water. I don't know why reading is such thirsty work. lol

I read things in the morning before I go to my day job. Then I reread them after work if I'm interested in them. A few days later, I read them again. If the piece still makes me think or feel, I accept it. Rarely, I accept a piece on the first read, but it has to be REALLY good.

Ideally, I spend an hour or two once each week going through the week's submissions and sorting them based on whether or not they meet the quality bar to be published. I typically schedule each day's stories a day or two in advance and notify the authors by email. Each weekend I review the past week's stories and select a Story of the Week, and each month I review the Story of the Week winners and pick a Story of the Month winner from among them.

As editor-in-chief, my days vary widely depending on the stage of a project or the publishing calendar. In general, our readers first assess the submissions for fit and readiness. I love then going through the reader reports, seeing which books are generating the most excitement, and taking a closer look myself.

I work on Broad Ripple Review every single day. Some days I am reading submissions, responding to reader recommendations, or reviewing copy edited work. Other days I am working directly with writers as we shape a piece for publication. The work also includes social media, website updates, newsletters, event planning, and promotion of the issue and our contributors. Although we have a wonderful editorial team, it is the editor who has to keep the work moving and hold the vision for each issue. The role is creative, administrative, and logistical. It requires attention to detail and a commitment to carrying each piece with care from submission to publication and beyond.

We have a diverse group of readers based throughout the Appalachian region. They read submissions and make notes for our internal review.

When we are in a reading period:
I get up early (3:00 AM to 4:00 AM), get some coffee and I'm usually working on stories within an hour or so of waking up. Our submission form auto-fills a spreadsheet and places their file in a folder for us, so everything is generally read in the order it came in. We've also set up the automation of the form to rename any files to a standard format that makes it easier for us to find each entry. I read as much as I can until either it's time to get ready for my day job around 7:00 AM, or my mind is too burned out from all the words to give another work it's proper consideration. Some mornings that can mean upwards of 20 submissions unless I'm the co-editor playing catch up. If that's the case, I can go through considerably more because I won't be reading the whole thing.
Once we get to the end of the period, I start scheduling time to send replies so we can stay within our guidelines on response times. I put on some background music, then use a three-step process to respond to each submission in turn. We have to reply to the email with our response, mark the spreadsheet accordingly, and file the downloaded document in the proper hold or reject folder. But with practice and some automation built into the email program (I use Thunderbird email client instead of web clients), we can usually respond to about 100 an hour. Not quite as good as using Moksha perhaps, but it's a bit more affordable for us.
Jennifer's process is more chaotic because her damn job is more chaotic. We'll just leave it at that.

Check my email, read, make breakfast for my daughter, sometimes scribble some notes, read over whatever project I am currently composing, make dinner for my wife.

I monitor email throughout the week, and do most of the reading in the evening or late night. Late night seems to be when most authors submit their work. Pieces are formatted and scheduled for publication as soon as they are accepted. Usually, there is a day each week when one of us sets up that week's cover page and double checks that everything looks right.

In addition to Muleskinner, I work with Los Angeles County's Anti-Racism, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative where I focus on bringing together various County departments and community-based organizations to help prevent transition age youth and older adults from becoming homeless. It is hard and sometimes frustrating work that is made palatable by the hour or two per day I spend with the beautiful work we receive. I also golf.

Submissions are read and reviewed by our esteemed genre editors. We record each submission in a confidential digital interface shared by the editorial team. Each individual who submits work to us receives personalized, individualized communication.

Taylor forwards all fiction and poetry submissions to my email address so I can read them. I just work my way from the oldest to the newest.

Each issue has shown up differently in terms of my process, but generally I like to check in on our submissions as often as I have the time. Right now this means weekly submission review and dedicating some hours to sitting down with some tea and my laptop to review all of the fantastic submissions we receive. I also run our website and socials, so I try to stay up on those things at the same time. I have a full time job outside of Apricity as well as a variety of other commitments, but Apricity is a deep love of mine that I will always find time and resources for.

We do a lot of grant writing because we’re independent, shoestring, and would like to be able to pay our staff (including myself!) fairly. A lot of my day-to-day experience is mentoring our interns and volunteers in producing podcasts and newsletters, and we also run Young Writers or Emerging Writers programs where I work with writers on developing and executing a story idea. Because we only publish one edition a year, submissions are much less a part of the everyday. SWN co-founder Jessica White now heads an advisory panel of scientists, writers and artists who help inform our edition themes and content.

Editing in the morning, and then email, email, email...broken up by zoom meetings!

I spend a lot of time doing journal-adjacent things, like looking for funding, promoting the journal, being interviewed, and cultivating relationships with contributers, other editors, and other journals. I also spend a lot of time reading submissions and providing feedback.

Submissions are filed to be read blindly and information on the piece is filled into an Excel spreadsheet, which is used to determine if a piece is accepted or rejected (or needs a second reading). Submissions are read in large batches, and responses are typically sent out within those batches.

It is a lot of administrative work—making sure the order of the pieces makes sense and that they look consistent stylistically so they fit cohesively on the website alongside other work we have published. I am also usually engaged in multiple conversations with the different editors, instructors, students, and sometimes writers, to prepare for upcoming projects for the magazine.

Much of the reading happens late, early, or on weekends and holidays since all our staff have day jobs and busy lives. Our staff meets once a fortnight in person and connects frequently between meetings to keep all the the plates spinning. We consult often, collaborate enthusiastically, support each other and regroup when life happens, and celebrate large and small successes.

Most of my job in the “reading stage” is communicating with the staff. The readers are the front line of the conversation; in my role, I facilitate that conversation and hear their impressions and perceptions while entering into that discussion as needed.
Once the selections have been made, I communicate with authors and work with staff to put the journal together, including formatting, ordering, and line editing as needed.

Just sweating in a pink room, drinking coffee in my underpants.
A lot of it is going through it, line-by-line, and seeing if it moves something in me. Yeah, all the parts needs to fit. Grammar, sentence structure, the story you are trying to tell. But I need to feel something. That's the point of writing, isn't it? Make the reader feel something. Good or bad. Fine art or pulps. I need to feel it.
Anything to stop thinking about these pink walls, my god.

I generally read submissions within a day or two of their arrival in the inbox.

I read the submissions as they come in, about once or twice a week. And I sort them into the relevant sections that align with our themes. I set time aside to work on editing the ones I want to publish and send out the rejections and acceptances. The rest of the time, I work on looking for images to go along with the published pieces, marketing, and researching more ways I can get people's work out there. Now that we also run events, I invite those who were published with us to join our open mics as headliners to share their writing aloud. Publishing is not only about being published but also about finding ways to get more people to read the work being published. And our ultimate goal is to have our publishing business foster engagement, community and connection.

Goodness, it's very busy, and I have a tight schedule as I am also the owner of my publishing company, so I wear multiple hats in this role at the moment. But with editing specifically, all the submissions are downloaded onto a spreadsheet. I schedule time once or twice a week to read the submissions as they are coming in, and as I read them, I write notes on the spreadsheet. I also mark if the piece is a yes or no. Then, when making selections, I transfer all the yeses onto another spreadsheet and reread the pieces, and again add notes if necessary. This way, I can eliminate those that are too similar to each other or speak about the same thing. And it is where I make final decisions. I also tend to go back to the original spreadsheet to glance over any submissions that may be marked as a no, but after reading all the pieces, I may find one that would work better with the final publication. I then edit the work I want to publish, send out rejections and acceptances, and begin working on the design of the publication. That's it in a nutshell, at least with the editing process.

We are all volunteers, so we all work full-time jobs (typically in academia). My work as a professor of English often dictates my availability. I work on the press after a long day of work, so I'm often up late reading, designing, editing, or handling business requests.

Busy! With Collaborature, it is my goal to connect writers with other writers. I run an interview every other Friday about someone in the writing community. These interviews are geared towards how the individual works collaboratively in their writing and community. Sometimes the person featured may not have written collaboratively much, and that is okay. I want to support writers and give them a venue to get their work out there. I seek out people whom I might not be familiar with to interview. I conduct interviews via written Q&A or via Zoom, if requested. If you would like to be featured, email: [email protected]
I try to keep ahead with scheduling posts, but with all my commitments, I often schedule posts a week beforehand. As a single mother, a host for dVerse Poets Pub, a judge for Writer’s Digest’s Self-Published Book Awards, my schedule is not short of tasks to be completed.

When I'm reading submissions –– which I do periodically throughout a reading period, not all at once at the end –– I'm usually listening to something ambient, drinking a cup of coffee. While assessing submissions, I'm clicking through in-progress issues for future months, seeing if there's a spot for a given submission in any of them. Because I check the inbox regularly, rather than saving everything until the reading period is over, I review submissions in short bursts and stop when I get fatigued.

Long blog about this process here: https://www.bookmarktype.com/blog/what-happens-when-you-submit

After opening a story, I'll skim it for religious and sci-fi references and to get a quick sense of the voice. From there, I'll mark some brief notes on whether it fits our criteria. For those that pass, I'll do a full read through and add more detailed notes about what I like and don't like, as well as a rating out of 5. Our other editor does the same, and then we discuss between us what we'd like to pursue among those that both of us rated highly.

During our submission periods, we read submissions on a daily basis so that we can get back to writers as quickly as possible.

We tend to read submissions in chunks. So, you might get an answer 24 hours after you submit — or 24 days, depending on our personal schedules. We promise you won't wait 24 months...or years.
Depending on which genre you've submitted and which editor reads your work, you might receive an immediate offer of acceptance, or your piece may need to go to the table for discussion. Sometimes, a piece will be accepted conditionally with a request for revision, or sent back for revision without a firm offer of acceptance. But if you are asked for a revision, take heart: in the end, we've published 95% of the manuscripts we have sent back to the shop.
Poetry generally takes longer than prose. If you haven't heard back, it's okay to query, but please give us at least a month. In general, no news is good news (see above).
We have several tiers of rejection notices, ranging from "thanks, but no thanks" all the way up to "please know that your we loved your work and your piece came close". We think it's important for writers to know that their work was considered seriously and that we value their time and talent. Often, we write a small personal note at the bottom of the form. We give authors a chance to decline feedback if they don't want to hear our ideas.

I take an afternoon at least once a week to sit down and read new submissions with a sharp and focused mind, normally with some coffee.

Every day is different. I wear so many hats, running Hobeck Books is only one of my hats. I am also a freelance publishing project manager and editor so I could be working on a copyedit, managing spreadsheets for Oxford University Press, updating listings in Bloomsbury's Writers' & Artists' Yearbook (one of my regular freelance gigs), or I could be helping clients to get their self-published books into print, talking to printers, cover designers or translators. I love my job - it is so varied. If I am working on Hobeck it could be copyediting one of our future publications, creating assets for social media marketing, working out royalty payments, briefing cover designers or recording our weekly podcast with my co-host and co-director (we interview a different people involved in publishing or writing every week). On top of all that, I run the Henshaw Press Short Story Competition, which is a charity competition that runs four times a year.

Each morning I send updates to those who have been published that day on FEED THE HOLY, congratulating them for their publication. I also correspond with authors regarding their submissions. If I accept the submissions, I let them know the dates of publication and promise to reply to their submission emails with the links closer to those dates. It’s difficult to return submissions, but I do so with kindness. I don’t have time to critique those works, but usually it’s a matter of not understanding the call for submissions or guidelines. I spend time creating the posts. On average, each post takes up to a half hour to design. Record-keeping also takes time. I maintain spreadsheets and folders. Also, correspondences with authors takes time as friendships develop. By the way, all of this is volunteer work, and I love it.

I wake up early, check the submissions, answer emails, then do the various fundraising activities: social media, seeking grants and other support, setting up events such as the live streamed reading on June 29th. I have to think several issues in advance while seeking support and that takes a lot of time and energy. If we are in the design period, I may spend a good part of the morning talking to the web team. The afternoon is reserved for my own writing and art and the usual household chores that visit everyone's life. The selection process is quite convivial. We are geographically spread out all over the map, so we set up a zoom call. It can take most of a Saturday or Sunday morning or lunch time, so there's coffee and tea on our desks for those of us in PST, and lunch in EST, and for one reader, a late night snack on another continent. (We try for "time zone sensitivity".)
We do a little check in and then dive into the slush pile and find our favorites. Each reader reads a section of the story and tells us why she/he/they/gher likes that particular story or poem and we talk about it together. There's lots of discussion back and forth and questions and ideas. Sometimes we all agree on something and it's a fast yes or no, sometimes we spend a quite a while on one or two pieces.
Once we have a list we agree upon, we look for balance and diversity and how all the pieces, stories and poetry, fit together within the theme of the issue.
Once we have consensus we are done. The design team meets, selects artists, Helena and I do the final pairings, we send out the acceptances and rejections and all the accepted stories and poems go to the copy editors.

Submission reading begins a week after we start receiving submissions when we first open the submission window. The submissions are read many, many times before a decision is made, and it can be overwhelming, especially if there’s a lingering rejection, because no one likes rejections, right? And it weighs heavy on me, but some decisions are to be made. It’s a great feeling that I can’t describe in words to read so many beautiful pieces that evoke so much emotion and intense feelings of relatability, happiness, sadness, and sometimes even anger when they’re AI-generated.

I'll say this: I only read submissions if I'm in a good mood. I feel I owe it to writers to show up happy, excited, and caffeinated. Reading slush is not always easy, but I bring a positive attitude to it. I think it's unfair to slash through submissions with a machete.

Each day after lunch I look at all the new submissions that have come in. A very few will get rejected straight away - usually because they've come into the wrong call, the material is clearly wrong for that call or is entirely the wrong length. The rest will be scored on length, suitability for the call, how easy the text will be to process, the quality of the writing, how well we know the author and their professionalism. When we have capacity for publishing another book - we usually do about two a month but it does vary - we'll offer a contract to the highest scoring author. We have eight editors. Only one can reject but all of us can accpet. If we accept we are also saying we have the time to see this book through the editorial process. Even if we don't have time, we can indicate that we think this submission is acceptable. We won't keep a submission more than three months and if we eventually have to decline an acceptable submission we invite the author to try again in six months time. We probably spend no more than an hour a day on this. The rest of the time we are editing, proof-reading, designing the book and marketing. And there is other admin, of course.

Reading submissions is only a small part of what we do. I spend about an hour a day on this. As do our other editors.

Each day after lunch I look at all the new submissions that have come in. A very few will get rejected straight away - usually because they've come into the wrong call, the material is clearly wrong for that call or is entirely the wrong length. The rest will be scored on length, suitability for the call, how easy the text will be to process, the quality of the writing, how well we know the author and their professionalism. When we have capacity for publishing another book - we usually do about two a month but it does vary - we'll offer a contract to the highest scoring author.
We probably spend no more than an hour a day on this. The rest of the time we are editing, proof-reading, designing the book and marketing. And there is other admin, of course.

I will read the piece to the end and then determine whether it is worthy of being sent to the rest of the team for evaluation.

Initially, we send out response emails to let the submitter know that their work has been acknowledged (or not, if sent in the wrong format or not following submission guidelines) and we will let them know of any rejection or submission in due time. Then, we will look over all submissions and make decisions, and send back an email if you have been rejected or accepted.

Apex is pretty transparent - there's a flow chart for both processes on our website - but in general it's first reads, second reads, tiebreakers, and editor reads. Two down votes at any stage of the process gets the story returned to the author. Lesley Conner and Rebecca Treasure have final say on short stories and flash fiction respectively.

We read submissions throughout the submission period. Once the deadline has passed, however, we divide the submissions amongst our team to make decisions. Then, we send out the acceptances and rejections. We get to work right away with reading, editing, and proofreading the pieces. Then, we lay out the journal for publication.

I work an unrelated job and moonlight as a book publisher. We are a small indie press.

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.

Email, email, email! I try to set aside a Friday afternoon to actually read submissions. I look at what we already have in the works, share the material with my staff, sometimes put it aside to reconsider when I'm less stressed. Most often, I'm sending (hopefully not to depressing) emails declining the submission.

We first read through all the new submissions individually on the day that they are sent, and assign one of three labels: Accept, Decline or Uncertain. In the cases where all the editors agree on a piece being accepted or declined, we proceed accordingly without further discussion. In the cases where opinions are mixed, we discuss our differences on the following day. The majority's decision holds.

When a submission is received, I log the person's information and check for compliance. If any points are missing, I will contact the individual. Then I prepare the document to be shared with the reading committee. I read the item once for content and decide if it is generally appropriate for our audience. Subsequent readings will review for technical issues and overall readiness for publication. The reading committee meets to discuss the merits of each submission before deciding if an item will be accepted as is, returned to the author for some revision, or declined.

I'm a full-time graduate student, so I'm also doing research, reading, and classwork around the same time. I do a promotion schedule for each issue, and try to schedule out social media content a month at a time, so that I can focus on my work, but I check our submissions queue once or twice a week and try to get emails out to submitters within 2 weeks. I feel like I'm probably in full gear one weekend a month, designing the issue, planning content, reading submissions and responding to queries, because I want to make good use and respect my academic work as well.

Whenever a submission comes in, we always manually acknowledge its receipt. We also check whether it's been previously published or whether it's under consideration elsewhere (unless the writer has been kind enough to clarify this in their cover letter). Three editors are assigned to each piece, who record their thoughts and final decision. As general editor, I also read every piece and offer my thoughts. In 99% of cases, consensus wins, and that determines whether a piece is published or not.
In short, we spend half our time ensuring proper and transparent work-flow, and half our time reading submitted work. It's easy to tell which half is our favourite!

When our Expos are open, depending on the parameters of the project, and the number of entries, I will schedule myself to read a certain number for a limited period, then stop and repeat from day to day.

I spend much of my time making sure everyone is happy and included in all the work we do whether this is deciding which theme to focus on in upcoming editions, work we publish, edits required. A happy team makes for a happy, and sustainable publication. There is a heinous level of admin but each day we try to make the publication a little smoother and improve our ability to help support authors a little more.

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.

On days that I read submissions, it looks like this:
5AM: Lift and walk five miles
7AM: Read 10 subs
9AM: Emails
11AM: Take a walk around the block or play with the cats
12PM: Read 20 submissions
3PM: Check all social media
4PM: Done for the day

Every day is different, though. Somedays I have to be across town so the schedule changes. And I do not read daily. I cannot. But I love helping out when I can.

Because we accept submissions on a rolling basis, every morning, I check our email to sort new submissions into fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. This way, if we are only accepting a certain category at the time, I can easily filter work to review. Once a week, our volunteer readers are assigned new pieces to read, which I then re-read the following week and tag with relevant themes. When it's time to choose work for the next issue, I use these tags before reviewing new, unsorted submissions. I personally send out acceptances and rejections every few days, or as soon as possible. I think it's a pretty well-oiled machine.

It's a lot more work than I anticipated. Luckily, I love it. We read submissions, preschedule them, answer author questions, write newsletters, celebrate our authors, and meet regularly as a board and discuss how to do what we do better.

As a student and the editor of The Cawnpore Magazine, my days are a mix of studying and managing the magazine. In the morning, I focus on my college work, but once I’m done with that, I dive into the submissions. I start by checking our inbox and reading through the new pieces that have come in. I usually begin by seeing if they align with the current issue’s theme that’s the first filter. I also spend time communicating with my team and making sure we’re on track with deadlines, so it’s a bit of juggling! It’s a busy day, but seeing a final piece come together is always worth it.

As I read submissions, I think about how to help authors achieve a quicker and more comprehensive understanding of our shared universe, and this results in frequent updates to the website.

The e-zine has had 15 issues so far, so we aren’t widely known. I open to submissions twice a year, once in summer and once in winter, and I usually close the subs window after 2 - 3 months. I post calls for submissions on various Facebook writing groups / pages, and every morning I check the submissions inbox, read everything that’s been sent to me and send off responses acknowledging that I’ve received them. Closer to the end of the subs window I start picking out what stories and poems I like - usually six or seven that work well together, and make edits in red font. I send acceptance emails after the subs window ends and ask the writers to check my editing suggestions and approve them. Then it’s on to the illustrating - I have to admit there’s only me working here!

We check our inbox daily and are usually quick to respond to submissions (usually within one week for poetry, and within two months for fiction).

I check my email and Slack to see if there is anything I need to attend to urgently. After which I look at my reading queue, read and vote on as many submissions as I can. I reach out to our publisher, Li Quintana, for updates and also update the Sheet and Drive as required.

Morning, noon, night. During breaks at my day job. At cafés. On buses. I read submissions whenever I get the chance.

We spend a lot of time reading, reviewing, and writing reports for our editorial board. We also have regular staff meetings to discuss current and future projects.

I attend a writing group regularly and practice giving feedback on writing. I read about the craft of writing comedy and do my best to apply those lessons to my own writing and to my editing process. Over the last 8 years, I have reviewed more than 800 pieces of writing.

Taking care of everything else =) We're all volunteers, so we do the editor business in between our day jobs; reading lots of submissions, prepping the next issue, endless communication and coordination.

I get to read the gems of poetry, fictions, stories, and plays submitted while sipping wine. I get to discuss these amazing works of art and craft with friends and them share them with others. My worst, most agonizing part is not being able to publish them all. I've felt the sting of "rejection" and can only offer this consolation: poets and writers are wonderful creators - don't let anyone's opinion stop you! Keep creating and expressing and word-smithing. Every story finds a home.

Short & sweet answer: A lot of admin and reading.
Long answer: My day includes reading pieces, processing feedback, filling in lots of forms, communicating with our staff of approx 20, planning events and our newsletters via Substack and working on new offerings from Fahmidan! I'd say I spend approximately 20 hours a week on Fahmidan currently though this can vary between 10-30 depending on workload.

Half of it is reading, responding to, and logging (in a big spreadsheet) e-mails. The other half is reading. Hearth Stories generally gets between 350 and 500 submissions per reading period (so far), so there is a lot of reading to be done and a lot of e-mail to be answered.

In addition to producing the FictionWeek Literary Review, I read every submission as soon as it is received.

I read submissions at the beginning of each month. Normally it takes 1-3 days to do the prior month's unsolicited MS.

I read the work I was submitted either for Urtica/Beakful or Datura when I feel like it. It can sometimes take me months before answering. I'm a sloth, a procrastinator born.
When I finally start, nothing, no one can stop me. It can be done in one or two days.

The average routine involves reading submissions every day; updating and maintaining our submissions trackers; creating social media posts; selecting/commissioning illustrators; writer outreach; responding to submissions and queries across email and social media accounts; strategizing and planning future events; and editing accepted works to strengthen the piece or fit our in-house style.

I work full time, have a family, travel some, and manage Centaur alone, barring the web designer on retainer. That means I have to be organized, so I check the email box early each morning, stay on top of acceptances, declines, and correspondence, and plan each quarterly issue early so I can get the art and content in to be laid out.

I wait for a pause in my lively and varied work life so I can approach submissions from a place of openness. Sometimes that means I read subs at 5 am with a puppy on my lap, sometimes it means I read subs in the evening with a cup of tea. When I'm not entirely sure about a piece, I go back to it a few days later to be sure I've given it fair consideration before accepting/rejecting it.

Usually I try to handle submissions in batches! Between submission reading, website layout, and additional side projects, there's always something to do!

We are a volunteer editing staff, so the work we do is periodic and often late at night.

We are very busy people. Between the three of us we have four jobs, five music projects, six calls on hold, and a partridge in a pear tree. Additionally, we’re writers, too. So, in the interests of our mental health, we often alternate taking steps back from editor duties so not to overwhelm ourselves. That said, at least two of us are always actively reading and voting on submissions, if not daily, weekly. Our response time is between four minutes and four months.

As a passion project, most of Suburban Witchcraft Magazine is crafted on the weekends. We read submissions on a rolling-basis and our magazine is un-themed.
The submission reading process is consistently opening our inbox and being immersed inside glimpses of the literary, the photographic and the art.
Our reading process most often includes a synergy of inspiration where the editor most often paints, writes and photographs which simultaneously reflects on the upcoming issue's design.
Reading submissions feels very enlightening, enriching, vulnerable and delicate.

We’re a small press, so I wear a lot of hats, and every day is different. This comes in handy while editing — I can take breaks, work on something else, and give myself important time to mull your story over in both my conscious and unconscious minds.

Margaret R. Sáraco, Poetry Editor: While I check the submissions frequently, I enjoy reading several submissions in one sitting. Once I have my editor hat on, I take a deep dive into the work. I read the poems several times. Mary and I will discuss the work every couple of weeks, going through each submission. Because we are writers as well, we feel it is important to take time when making decisions.
Mary Brancaccio, Poetry Editor: I log in weekly to check our submissions, usually mid-week after a morning cup of tea. I’ll read through and log new work, then take time to read through the work and think about it. I will post my initial reaction and any questions to my colleague. Every two weeks or so, we will run through our line-up and finalize decisions and posting schedules.

Since Hard Case Crime is a one-man labor of love, I do a bit of everything and every day is a grab-bag of whatever needs to get done. Everything from reading submissions and sending contracts for those rare few we do select to commissioning cover art and working with the artists on what it should look like to typesetting and proofreading and writing marketing copy and trying to get reviewers to pay attention when a book is coming out. Soup to nuts.

CE:
(sits in front of laptop)
Been a while since I logged into the Punk Monk email!
(logs in)
Wow! So many submissions!
(reads some)
Wow! Such awesome submissions!
(reads more)
Wow! People still don't read the guidelines!
(accepts, rejects, schedules publications, etc)

I sit down at a computer and edit. Who's mystified by this process? It's very boring. Trust me. My cat sits on my mouse hand most of the time like she's guarding an egg in a nest?

Most of us work other full time jobs and review submissions on lunch hours and weekends. It’s exciting to see the submission notifications come in and to discuss each submission at our monthly review sessions.

Please.

I work a day job, so my editing happens at night. I'm also working on my own writing projects too and on the Night to Dawn books. So I might parcel out an hour to check all my emails / Facebook. Another hour goes into reading submission or other chores involved in NTD, and then another hour for my works in progress.

Annulet uses Gmail, still, for journal submissions, and as I'm going through my day, submissions will appear on my phone screen. Sometimes I check them while standing in line at the grocery store, or even in the midst of conversation. Mostly, editing is reading and waiting. In the two or so months before an issue's publication, I'm completely obsessed and spend all my time and energy on the editing, review, and formatting process, morning to morning.

The editor assembles the submissions, sends them to the editorial board members for individual reading and evaluation, we meet to discuss each piece in detail, and then we decide to accept or reject each piece. We try to get back to authors as soon as we can, but the editorial board is composed of busy community college students, most of whom are taking multiple classes, working, and taking care of family responsibilities. Even so, we reply to most submissions within a month.

During open submission periods, our editors read roughly (depending on genre) 15 pieces a week. At the end of each week, we all chat together over videocall to discuss our top picks. From there, we hold on to those we like, accept those we love, and let ones that didn't quite make it go.

Waiting in anticipation of receiving wonderful submissions both from our publishing partners and new folks from around the world.

A day in the life of an editor for me is really a day in the life of guy who works for the man and spends most of his remaining "free" time engaged in various home remodeling projects or taking care of eight rescue lapdogs. Eclectica gets edited on the margins. Along with the rest of the magazine's staff, who generously donate their margins as well, we've managed to keep it afloat.

We do all of our reading first thing in the morning. So we’ll get up, get a coffee and start going through the emails that have arrived during the night (we’re in the UK, so a lot of them come while we’re sleeping). We separate them into two folders: considering and declining. I then start emailing acceptances or rejections from the previous weeks. I always double-check before sending a rejection just in case I missed something or let something slip through that deserves another read.

When a submission comes in it goes into a folder labeled “Issue ___ submissions.” From there it can be moved into one of three other folders; “Issue __ Yes,” “Issue __ Probably,” or “Issue __ No.” some days I’ll go through every submission in order that we received them and make a decision on which folder to sort them into (although until official acceptances/rejections go out they can move around a lot). Other days I’ll scroll through looking only for poetry or only for names I recognize or I’ll open random ones and see if it’s something i want to read that day.

Drinking coffee and reading submissions for several hours a day. Then passing it on to other editors to check out.

I read a lot of stories. If a story catches my attention right away, I will finish the piece right then in that sitting. If I am not drawn in right away, I will come back to the piece two, three, or even more times. I acknowledge that my own frame of mind might keep me from connecting with a piece, so I owe it to the author to spend more time with their work. Sometimes works rise in my esteem with time.

We read submissions all year round with an open heart and an open mind. Once we have collected a sufficient amount of writing and visual art, the planning process begins. That's when we start designing the new issue, keeping in mind everything: color scheme, theme, cover, content, and always trying to sneak in a little something extra to let readers know that The Globe Review isn't just an everyday newspaper!

Each day, I (and the other editors) have a variety of tasks to do; sure, we're reading submissions, our main priority, but we're also communicating with contributors and submitters; copyediting and/or proofreading the issue; communicating with our typesetter/designer; writing blog posts or working with social media; training graduate students at the University of Cincinnati on publication work; sending out single issues or new subscriptions (we don't have a fulfillment service); or otherwise doing the tasks necessary to keep any office going in the business world. We have three permanent employees, and three graduate student editors during the academic year, as well as our team of 8-12 volunteer readers. We do a lot with a small number of people.

A day in the life of an editor is pretty varied and comprises reading submissions, editing, finding illustrations, communicating with authors, and planning social media. The actual reading process involves mentally classifying submissions into rejections, acceptances, and don't knows. When a gem lands in the inbox we don't waste time in making the author an offer. For most stories the decision to accept or not takes some time and, in these cases, I read and reread until I'm able to make a decision. If another opinion is needed, then a reader becomes involved. We aim to reply to authors within three weeks of submission. Once a story has been accepted I begin the process of preparing it for publication.Most importantly, editing suggestions and questions are sent to the author. At the same time I search for illustrations and often a shortlist of two to four images is sent to the author for them to make a choice. Also, we take the opportunity to ask for any revisions to the bio. Of course, all material is copy edited and proofread.

There is a lot of tea involved, mostly oolong before noon and roasted buckwheat into the evening!
My life as a self-employed business owner and editor includes a lot of time on the computer, so I try to break that up by starting early, working late, and a lot of breaks and dog walks in between.

This isn't a full-time gig, but my day job is related to writing and editing. When not reading submissions, I'm fully immersed in the world of story-telling.

Editing a nonprofit literary collection is an act of love done in our free time from our day jobs. We are mostly professors and teachers. There is no money profited but we love meeting new writers, reading submissions, brightening people's lives with a yes, and seeing the final collection in print. It does take a lot of work, but we are delighted to do it.

I wake. (Am I representative of each of SORTES's editors? A question I think each morning at waking.) There's my phone. Coffee, nibbles. I try to ignore my phone. Submissions! I fuss with administration. I fix myself up and go to my Real Job. At lunch (now) I write this. Later, after work, in the little stone sideyard I call my garden, I will read submissions until the dark comes down.

CRAFT has a great team of experienced readers who process contest entries. As editor in chief, I field ongoing questions and concerns, both from readers and submitters. Eventually, I shepherd the longlisted and shortlisted entries through our internal deliberations. I then deliver the shortlist of anonymized work to the contest's guest judge.

My days are mostly a mad scramble. I spend almost 8 hours working non-stop, alongside my dedicated team to make The Wise Owl, a magazine that every literature and art lover will be addicted to. There is lots to do. My day begins with the clock striking 9 a.m. My first order of the day is to take a quick look at my Inbox and respond to the mails we have received. I prefer to respond to all our contributors with a personal email which takes up a lot of my time but is extremely rewarding because it establishes and strengthens our bond with the contributors. The rest of the day is spent in parleys with our Editorial team, social media team and tech team about the content and layouts for the next issue. The best part of my day is the time I spend on reaching out to established poets/writers/artists for interviews. This requires a lot of research. It is painful when on account of time constraints, we are refused an interview but our team celebrates every time a big name in the world of literature or art accepts our request for an interview.
But I love my work, so my gruelling 8-hour schedule flies by and before I know it, it is 6 pm in the evening and I receive a call from my better half or my children telling me it is time to shut down for the day.

I spend about 5 hours each week editing the journal, which includes emailing with authors and peer reviewers, routing submissions through our online system, reading articles, and doing final edits on accepted pieces.

Busy!!, I stand as the editor in chief of.
The Abyss, Drinkers Only , Under The Bleachers , The Black Shamrock Magazine, and also run Whiskey City Press.
So I am one of the more busy editors it's not surprising for my day to start early usally nine in the morning and not end until the wee hours of the morning.
And in between that I write as well so I am always constantly working.

I may read a submission several times, but I depends on my colleagues for advice

After a deadline passes, I'll spend the hours between getting home from work and going to bed assessing what's come in through our form. Each staff member provides input for each piece in a collaborative spreadsheet. As a group, we'll discuss anything that we're on the fence about before we decide what is ultimately accepted. While this process used to take as little time as possible (resulting in a lot of late nights), we're trying to be kinder to ourselves and stretch it out over a month for future issue cycles.

Running the journal is a labor of love and literary expression; there is no typical day. Submissions are read and discussed as soon as we can get to them. We value our contributors' time.

We're all literary publishing hobbyists with full-time day jobs, including teachers, professors, freelance writers, librarians, and more. We work remotely and gather in the summer to construct the issue.

I'm generally assigning submissions to readers in chunks as I progress through our inbox. Then, once we have a number of second reads, I will read those and discuss with the other editors. If we accept a piece, I will make suggested edits and run them by the writer. Which of course then leads to collecting stories into the next issue.

I read very slowly, and as we get closer to going to press my attention is focused on all the details of putting out the magazine. I do all of the copyediting, reviewing of our puzzles, columns, art, etc. I also review the material that goes up on our blog trace-evidence.net and record introductions to each of our story podcasts.

We have several editors now, and how they read and choose is entirely up to them. Incoming submissions are sent randomly among us. For the most part, I read submissions in chronological order of receipt. I read for several hours a day, every day, using the months that we don't receive new submissions to catch up on the backlog. I read the entire submission and then make a decision one way or another. It is a simple mathematical reality with the volume we receive that most submissions must be returned. We want to support the voices of "the ekphrastic family," those writers who are longterm, regular readers and contributors, providing them a forum to frequently share their work. We also value new voices and want to publish those who find us and encourage them to become part of our mission. We publish emerging voices, disenfranchised voices, young voices, diverse voices, global voices. We hope to strike a balance between showcasing our loyal base and new contributors, too.

Mostly making countless bowls of Mac and cheese or spaghetti for my wild children. Additionally, I watch the publication lists of Transit Books and David Godine. I read everything.

We read all the submissions before putting together an issue. If your piece is accepted, our editors have agreed about the merits of the work and are excited to publish it.

I work 8-5; I tend to spend half of my lunch break working on Horror Tree as well as half an hour before work and about an hour 3 nights of the week after my two children are in bed. MUCH of the day-to-day responses and contracts are out of my hands at this point. For me, it is reading stories and leaving my comments on if we should move forward or not (and with edits I feel are needed or not.) Outside of this, I also help in scheduling the posts for our releases, make sure authors are tagged on social media, and help put together our yearly physical releases.

We have a lot of reading to do. We also have to raise money for the Journal. We do not use our own money, so we interact with vendors and bookstores to collect the money or ask subscribers who need to renew.. We need to send letters to accept or reject the submissions. Then, there is the typing process and taking the Journal to the layout designer and printer. We need to get illustrations and ads. We have to schedule meetings with the editors to exchange manuscripts and we all have different schedules and work hours outside of the Journal. We also have readings for the new issues.

Bring submissions to first readers, read vetted manuscripts, send acceptances/rejections.

Our editorial team is part of a community college, and we try to engage ourselves fully each day with its mission of diversity, equity, inclusion, and
academic excellence.

My duties as an editor include: typesetting the latest issue, communicating with the publisher, finding cover art and communicating with the artist, communicating with our writers, sending out orders of past editions, and holding meetings with readers to vote on submissions. Quite busy!

We read our submissions every week. Our turnaround is fairly quick.

We try not to apply superficial criteria but to take each poem on its own terms and see whether it fulfills its own contract.

Once we have accepted a mss for publication, the process begins..... we first go through the mss for punctuation and grammar. and redundancies. We get rid of too many similar simple happenings like picking up a cup of coffee. pouring a cup of coffee; putting the mug down etc. etc. Too many of these bores the reader so we revamp to ensure they are not overused in the mss. A day in the life? Can't describe it as all the days have a feel of their own..

We are a non-profit, non-income venture (for now). We have daily lives and responsibilities. We monitor the site, the social media posts, the submissions and try to read submissions all season in preparation for the next issue. About ten days out from the deadline (1st day of each season) we go into "beast mode" and read, notify and being putting the issue together for launch.

As of now, it’s just me reading submissions and working with authors on stories selected for publication. I’ll read pieces as they come in and make a decision as to whether it will receive a rejection, a request for edits, or an acceptance.

I receive submissions and distribute them to editors, who individually vote on them. I keep track of votes, and if a piece gets more than two "no"s, I reject it. Once pieces have a majority of "yes" votes, we discuss the possibility of publishing it. After I send acceptance emails, the pieces go through a light copyediting process, and contributors are sent mock-ups of what their pieces will look like on our website.

I have an app that allows me to listen to written submissions as I do chores or my dayjob. The best stories are the ones that make me stop and listen in awe. In those cases, I would go back and reread the submissions text. Both times, I make notes during the story. I also discuss with my slush team on why they recommended the story. If there are questions about the story, particularly if the story is told about marginalized people, I may contact the author to get more info, or get a sensitivity reader to help me with the decision making process.

Both editors read each submission, and if we feel a piece has potential for publication, we provide edits and comments on how to improve the writing. We are also happy to provide this feedback even if the piece isn't accepted, if requested.

We are a very small operation—just the two of us. We get together in my living room and read every submission out loud to each other, and then discuss how we feel about them. We track everything in a spreadsheet, and make our decisions piece by piece as we read.

Reading submissions is just one facet of my job. Most days, I open with deep work - things like content or copy edits, cover design, typesetting, or grant applications - before devoting the afternoon to reading submissions. The only exception is the last few days of September, before the contests close; I read as many submissions as I can get my hands on, before I get inundated.

See previous answer. All our staff and readers are volunteers, so we're working on submissions whenever we can around our jobs as teachers, librarians, communications professionals, etc. Our editor-in-chief also teaches an experiential editing class for students at the College of Wooster every semester. We have a Zoom editorial meeting once a month and are in regular email/Slack contact about submissions and other planning.

Submissions are generally read on a daily hour-long commute on the subway. The pieces that hold attention despite the many distractions make it into the ‘Maybe’ pile.

As EIC, I have a more administrative task list than when I was fiction editor, and my primary focus is to make sure nothing is falling through the cracks. While the EIC of Invisible City is always the final person to read and vote on a piece before acceptance, I like for the genre editors to have the freedom to create their own aesthetic within the larger IC aesthetic. That said, I still love going through submissions as they come in. It’s a wonderful feeling to find something exciting in the pile.

Reviewing submissions takes less of our time than working with the authors we have signed. They are our priority.

After submissions close, two weeks of my every spare moment is spent with my spreadsheet and a daily goal of reading a certain number of pieces. You are either a no, yes, maybe, or podcast/newsletter option. It's me, a cup of tea, my laptop, with non-distracting music in the background, and my reading glasses. I make notes on the plot of each story to remember them by. When it's all over I go back to evaluate the maybes. That's my method. After that it's sending out contracts, getting them signed, paying everyone then sending fiction off to the copy editors, and I start formatting the new issue, while writing my own columns and letter from the editor.

I check nonfiction and Forthcoming submissions, glance through our emails. I confer with the managing and associate editors often. I read submissions usually in order sent, except if I recognize a name or am intrigued by a title.

I usually spend anywhere from four to five hours a day reading submissions for the next few issues. I then draft and send contracts to those accepted, followed by time to send payments to those who respond. As a writer myself with deadlines, I then turn to my own work.

The three editors review all material. We look for consensus, however, if one of us is really taken by a piece, we can override a veto. This is rare.

I am not the editor, I manage the show but I do know that the editors can tell very quickly if a person's basic writing skills are there or not.
For us it comes down to, "oh this is a unique storyline, not seen this one before." That is what they are looking for other than the writer can engage them and the writer has the skill to get the reader emotionally involved with the characters enough to care what happens to them.

Our call-for-submissions are opened each month for 3 weeks. When the deadline has been reached, myself and Chloe will hold a submission meeting. I am based in Dundee, and Chloe is in Edinburgh, so these meetings are usually over Skype. If we have an event on the day of a submission deadline, we will often hold our submission meeting after the event, in person, which is always a lot more fun! We like to make a big pot of tea before settling into the meeting. Our submission meetings can last anywhere from 2 - 4 hours, depending on how many submissions we get.

Check my e-mails, work on layout and formatting of work already accepted for publication, look at new work submitted, respond to inquiries (sometimes).

Our small team of half a dozen or so editors work full-time jobs across the publishing industry and scientific research labs during the day. The majority also go to school at night to acquire a master’s degree in publishing. Once we clock out we go to work for Radon, building supportive radical communities and putting out subversive prose and poetry into the world.

I love revealing our dark, cosmic secrets here at Orion's Belt! Though I wish I could say there were witches and folkloric chants involved, our actual process is quite boring. I have to sort through our first round of stories, offer rejection letters, sort through the more refined batch of second-round stories, write more personalized rejection letters, and hope that all our submitters have read our guidelines and don't send us 15,000-word novelettes, which has happened from time to time. We have a large folder wherein we place all first-round stories before they've been sorted, and we have smaller round-two folders for our editors, where all our round-two stories go before they're edited. Now that I have a large team behind me, less time is spent on the editing process, with more time being spent on sending off contracts, preparing our new issues, choosing or designing cover art, and making sure all our first readers and editors know what they're supposed to be doing. Still, all final-round decisions are made by me, with slight input from my top editors.

The magazine only accepts submissions for one week per quarter, and a lot come through during these short reading periods. I begin reading as soon as submissions come in, and a few I will accept immediately before the window has closed. Others I will consider and come back to, at times reading them again to reach a decision. If I'm not sure about a submission I let it sit on my mind for a week or two. If I cannot stop thinking about it then I know I need to accept it, even if that means a long road of rewrites ahead. If a piece doesn't fit the magazine but I really like it I will often give feedback as to why I am rejecting it.

Reading, reading, reading, reading . . . break to walk or eat . . . reading, reading, reading, reading. The moment I get bleary-eyed or fuzzy-headed, I stop reading in order to ensure I'm giving keen attention to each submission.

"Busy!" Each of us has a preferred way of working, mostly a full day of reading and making internal notes on Submittable so other team members can pop in to add comments (one of our editors keeps a detailed spread sheet with every submission in that genre checked across various criteria). We meet every couple of weeks to discuss how it's going and offer help if one is more overloaded than others.

A lot of travel is involved so some work has first been read in Sao Paolo, then read again in London and finally accepted upon arrival in the Mojave of Joshua Tree. Places lend subtle perspectives to a piece and give the editor a sense of the breadth of the subtext...or lack thereof.

As editor, I'm responsible for overseeing every aspect of the book publication process, so the range of my work on any given day can span from reading submissions, to negotiating contracts, to making editorial comments on accepted manuscripts, to accounting, to mailing out review copies and book orders, to working with our designer on layout and book design... There's never enough time!

We have two or three readers on each submission from the slush pile. During the submissions/reading period, our Genre Editors meet monthly with their readers to discuss their favorite pieces, after which they make decisions on those that are ultimately accepted for publication.

I work in a school alongside my role at FFM, so I spend my mornings there and then my afternoons/evenings are filled with reading stories, editing, sending emails, talking with the FFM team and our authors, drinking tea, scheduling stories and other general admin tasks.

I like to read submissions for Saddlebag Dispatches early in my day when I'm not tired and have fewer distractions. I and my Senior Editor, Bob Giel, read each story through and then score it. We use a scoring system which takes into account the opening, the denouement, overall story, grammar, emotional impact and, probably most importantly, historical accuracy. Only then do we move on to the next submission. In this way, we ensure that we are selecting the very best stories and articles for publication regardless of whether they were written by a new and previously unpublished author or an old hand with a shelf full of Spur and Peacemaker awards.
I generally read and score the non-fiction and poetry myself using the same criteria. I stop reading when I begin to feel tired or don't think I'm concentrating fully on the writing. Again, this aids in leveling the playing field for all submissions. Later in the day, I may come back a read some more. On a good day, I'll get through 20,000 to 25,000 words or 5-6 individual pieces.

As EIC I am more like a manager cum overseer who definitely has more knowledge and control of the work been done by reviewers and others. Approaching the day of release of an issue becomes quite hectic at times.

I start work quite early in the morning after taking my dogs out for a walk. Emails are first on the list, then I read a few stories and respond to the writers. The work on the next issue is an ongoing process, so that takes up a fair chunk of most days. The busiest times are when the magazine comes back from the printer and the distribution process begins.

Reading reading reading. Everyone on our staff reads a ton of submissions! We do a lot of chatting about submissions over submittable. If a genre team loves a submission, we send it to our “Acceptance Committee,” where the full board of editors considers and discusses it. We edit all of our prose pieces, so a lot of my time is also spent line editing, reviewing editorial notes, or emailing with contributors. And, of course, there are many administrative tasks that I won’t bore you with! Except the paying writers part! Once a month, the day our issue drops, the first thing I do is pay our contributors. This is one of the most fun parts of the job, aside from sending acceptances and promoting our authors!

It wildly depends on the day of the week. I often don't read submissions until fairly late in the process, so a piece has usually been bumped up by one or two sets of eyes before it gets to me. I usually like to read things twice, though. The first pass is a gut-check, and then a day or two later, I'll check in with myself and how I'm feeling about the piece, and then I'll go back to see if that feeling stays.

Read, drink coffee, read. Rinse and repeat!

I work full-time outside of publishing. Therefore, during the day, I write various emails when and where I can. I spend my nights and weekends doing all the other work related to publishing. This includes blogging, podcasting, social media managements, reviewing submissions, editing manuscripts, marketing, website management, and so on.

The Worcester Review is run by volunteers, not an MFA program, so we all read whenever we can find the time away from day jobs and other commitments.

Like many others, I both write and edit. The editing tends to get done in the evening.

It depends entirely on what stage we are in any given competition. One thing is for sure - we are always busy. Besides recording entries and reading for selection, we almost always have a back-log of requested critiques. These we like to take time over as sometimes the merits of a story take a while to percolate and our aim is to give our writers a personal and in-depth service.

Oh, I have a job and a family, so editing is squeezed in here and there. During prose submission months, I read submissions about three times a week. I send requests for revision and line edits as early as two weeks after receiving a promising submission, though often more like six weeks. I help with sequencing, onboarding readers, award submissions, etc. Our technology platforms allow us to work asynchronously.

All submissions are read chronologically by date, accompanied by a nice cup of coffee or tea.
It is a beautiful honor to get to read so many great pieces.

I read submissions for 3-5 hours per day. In the afternoons I work on laying out the magazine and current books for several hours. Then I sneak in time to read books that arrived in the mail. Many writers send their current books for our library, and I love to read good portions of the books so when folks come to borrow books I can steer them to material they will enjoy. And somehow or another I find an hour a day to keep up with our facebook and web postings, as well as planning events for the month ahead. Just like everyone else, this pandemic year has turned us into zoom zombies, and we had 42 zoom events before becoming burned out on them. Now that things are opening up a little we have returned to outdoor readings in the desert at the Joshua Tree Folk School. We hold this event every month to celebrate the new issue and new books we've published.

I will generally read through 1-2 novel/novella submissions a day, and perhaps 3-5 flash/poetry submissions a day. As I mentioned before, I will generally have an idea early on if I am going to reject a piece. At any given time, I usually have 2-3 full manuscript requests I am reading through as well.

It's hectic but I love my job anyway. My day starts with sipping Indian tea followed by 4-5 coffee errands to the kitchen. As editor-in-chief, I set up a catch-up meeting with the Wingless Dreamer team that consists of editors, and artists to assign them their tasks, discuss the progress, or the next theme of the contests. We also discuss improving our ways to support amateur writers in the best way possible. We talk about the ideas on how to help creative people to harness their creative skills and additional publishing issues among others. Then we all go back to our respective works and stay connected through our online system.
Once the shortlist is finalized we all sit together and discuss each submission one by one. Finally, by the end of our judging process, we chose our winner and start working on the publishing process of the book and its promotions. Alongside, we never stop helping aspiring writers with their work and try to give the best assistance we can. We review their work and help them by giving feedback so that they can improve, learn, and feel confident about their literary work. All this for free of cost.

I check the Guilty email first thing in the morning. If there are submissions, I'll give them a once over to see if they meet all the guidelines. If they don't, they're rejected and if they do, they go into the slush pile. They may be read immediately or later that day or a few days on, depending on what else needs to be done. Writing and editing are my full-time employment, so sometimes I have full days to devote to Guilty and sometimes, I have my own personal work that needs to be done. Either way, I try to respond to all submissions as soon as possible, to keep people from having to wait too long.

When I read essays, I tend to read submissions right when I get them. I also like to let them sit and give them another read a week or two later and try to have a response for the writer within a month of their submission. I know with poetry we usually don't make decisions until we've received all our submissions. Fiction decisions also tend to be made after we've received all of the submissions.
I coach baseball in the spring and summer as well, so response times can vary. But I also always tell the writers to please give us a nudge after the deadline passes. We do sometimes miss pieces. We just published a poem that ended up being our poetry editor's favorite of the issue, but I forgot to send it over to him until we were nudged.
I will say, the sooner you can submit, the better. We will often give feedback asking for some edits or ideas of how to make it better, and it's a lot easier to do that earlier in the submission period.

Cavar: I love reading submissions with a cup of coffee; clearing out the inbox is really soothing for me. I typically do my reading either right after I get up or right before I log off for the night, as a way of warming up or winding down for the day. I put on lyricless music –– either one of those lowfi/instrumental YouTube playlists or something saved on Spotify –– and have a marathon-emailing session to get through all of the clear acceptances and rejects in the inbox. Then, I'll go through the Maybes, leave comments, and check in with co-editors for their thoughts. In the short-term, I usually get through a chunk of emails every session, but my long-term pile of Maybes to reconsider also grows.

Because I'm a Graduate Assistant, I take time to read for an hour or two every day. When I do, I read in silence to maintain a focused perspective. I like to have hot tea to relax and focalize my mind so that I fully understand and embrace the submission. Last night, I read a submission that made me cry. I value that clear head space and silence to really feel the passionate work we receive.

My day is busy!
When we look at submissions, we make a series of decisions about which ones we need to read in detail and print off... It can often be hard saying no to books that are good but don't quite fit our list. But it's joyful when we do find the ones that we love and have to publish.

After a short list of acceptance and rejection is formed. Emails are sent first to help those rejected. Next the acceptance emails are sent. Over the next few weeks art /photo works are sought out and paired with poems, fictions and cnf.

Most of the year, we spend time preparing for the contest, deciding on a theme, preparing a book cover for the anthology in which the winning story might be published, lining up a guest judge with some expertise in that type of work, preparing to publicize the contest, etc.
During the contest months (Jan-Mar) of each year, I accept the submitted stories, assign a number to each submission (since no author information is included with the stories sent to judges), make certain we have received the payment for the submission, and record the information on a spreadsheet.
When the contest closes, I send each story to three randomly selected judges. They evaluate each submission they receive on a numerical scale in several categories and return their scores to me. I record each judge's scores and, based on the highest two scores for each story, we divide the stories into two groups: those that move on the semi-finals and those that do not. I then send all the semi-finalist stories out to all of the judges who then score them afresh. We meet and discuss each story, giving judges an opportunity to adjust their scores as they see fit. Then, we take a final tally and determine which stories become finalists and are sent to our guest judge for ranking. I then notify authors of the status of their stories and notify the winners when we have the guest judge's decision.

So. Many. Emails. I probably respond to over 30-40 emails a day, from submissions to volunteers to writers to marketing.

For me personally, I do a lot of things besides editing. I created HerStry and built everything myself from the website to the marketing material. So I often do web updates or make new graphics. I also do most of the planning of our online events, so a good amount of my time is spent doing that. I also take on private editorial clients. So I tend to dedicate my Fridays to reading submissions to HerStry.

You'd have to ask our editor. For me as the founder, I love everything about publishing Holmes. It's a joy.

HeartWood produces two issues per year; Genre Editors read for two months per issue, so they are reviewing submissions for four months of the year. Their final recommendations are reviewed by the Managing Editor, who accepts or declines all active submissions, and the issue is prepared over the following 6-8 weeks.

Phoebe is only a slice of my life. I, of course, am also a writer, and I am a student and GTA in George Mason University's MFA program. So, I take classes and teach classes. Beyond that, I'm married and try to give as much time to my wife as I can, which usually translates to dinner and a dog walk.

As a full-time teacher and single parent the process is divvied up between very early morning, weekends and holidays. Other moms are also willing to help with copy-editing and proofing when their schedules allow.

We publish four times a year, and are open to submissions four times as well. I would say that each issue represents roughly "one month" of work (meaning "one month of evenings and weekends"): two weeks for the reading period, and another two for editing stories, creating story art, and preparing and releasing each issue. The reading period is especially intensive; we are a small publication, but submissions are increasing each window; this editor's life at the end of July 2021 was divided more or less equally between the day job, story reading, and complete unconsciousness...

The editors, first of all, prepare their mind for the pieces they receive every day.
When they get those pieces, they evaluate and judge on genresical and aesthetical criteria whether the work is good or not.
When a work is accepted, work goes into re-reading and evaluation for the elements of content.
After the content has been verified, we edit for form where we address structural and linguistic flaws.
After a final reading by the editors, the work is sent to the contributors for approval.

I usually don't read more than 2 submissions in a row--especially if I am giving feedback. That way I come to each piece fresh. I keep track of which pieces are worthy of consideration. Choosing the finalists is more complex.

We editors endeavor to put together a rich portfolio of diverse and impactful works, on an issue by issue basis and for our journal's collection as a whole.

I don my good writing helmet and off I go.

Because we receive a very large number of submissions and have a very small staff, each editor reads daily, so as to keep up with the flow. The editors and readers have ongoing conversations about work we’re enthusiastic about.

First thing each morning, I manually assign everything that came in the day prior. We have an amazing bunch of careful readers, and each piece goes to two of them. They aim to leave comments and an up/down/maybe vote within a week. Where there’s consent, things can speed along, with second and third rounds of reading (2 to 4 more people) and discussion happening in the next weeks. Shorter submissions tend to get through more quickly, since 2000+ word pieces need longer stretches of devoted time, and everyone’s slotting this into their schedules as they’re able. Jenn sweeps through a couple times a week to give a final read and send out our official responses. Acceptances get slotted into the schedule and assigned to an editor, some of whom knock ‘em out immediately, while others like to wait until closer to the publication date when everyone’s had some time to see what still resonates. This downtime creates some helpful distance, and our reading notes often prompt our memories for changes we might like to suggest if they otherwise elude us.

Managing ones time is the biggest trick. The balance of family, work, and the enjoyment of life.
Most days we spend at least and hour or two working on Blink-Ink, or a related project. When we are pulling an
issue together, or getting an issue mailed out things become full time for three or four days.
We are always thinking, about the publication. Fiddling around with ideas, and spending time on our own creative work.

Our section editors monitor the submissions we receive on a daily, but more commonly, weekly basis as they delegate new submissions to our reader teams for review. In addition, editors frequently communicate with upcoming contributors to complete publication contracts and exchange edits, usually in coordination with the journal's copy editor. Finally, editors often collaborate with the journal's public relations team on a weekly basis to plan promotion efforts for upcoming releases.

We tend to have 'reading' days and 'responding' days. We will read a lot of submissions one day and then respond to as many as possible the next. CCK is edited alongside a full-time job so there's a lot of juggling! We rarely have whole days to dedicate to our submission box, so managing our time is like putting together a puzzle.

My day varies depending on where we are in the editorial process. I am also the Executive Director for the Center for Healthcare Narratives, and this is where I spend the majority of my daylight hours. Please See Me editorial goes in waves. For example, during Submission periods, I'm reading what comes in and triaging to my Section Editor(s) to make their job easier. Once submissions close, I will read fiction and nonfiction I've flagged for deeper review in the evening, and pass on the pieces I'd like further evaluated by my Guest or Section Editors. I also manage our grants, our administrative needs, as well as oversee our website and social media, so I'd like to get FT Section Editors for Fiction and Nonfiction on board soon.

We receive anywhere from 800 to 1000 submissions during the two-month general submission period each year. Submissions are assigned to a first reader, who votes yes or no and writes comments for other readers to see. A second reader repeats the process. If the two readers disagree with their votes, a third reader breaks the tie. Submissions with two yeses get a "Hold for Further Review" email from me while two no votes get declined. I send all held material to the editorial collectives (one collective is poetry, the other is prose, and they meet independently of one another). The collectives get a week to read each held submission packet before meeting in person to discuss. I conduct the meetings and take notes. Editors may vote anywhere from "No" to "Maybe" to "Yes with revisions" to "Unequivocal Yes" on each piece, and our discussions are fluid and feminist. We are there to listen to each other and respect the (sometimes strong) feelings of others; it very rarely comes down to majority rule and is more of a discussion of what we think works for our publication or what would resonate with our readers. I then send emails: Anyone who was accepted gets a rundown of our publishing timeline and our publication rights information, and anyone who was declined gets detailed notes on what we thought of their work. It's a busy time for the journal!

My colleagues and I are all university teachers so we do a lot more than editing the journal. We only publish once a year and when we work on the submissions it is a short and intense period of readings and discussions. For us, it is a process of evaluation but also learning. We do not assume that our tastes are fixed and are willing to go to some lengths to evaluate ourselves as well.

Fiction on the Web has a staff of one: Me. I usually get at least a dozen submissions a week (sometimes lots more). I squeeze in reading time whenever I can - during a lunch break at work, or while waiting for my daughter's dance class to finish, or in the evening at home. I try to get back to authors within a month, and usually much faster, but sometimes life gets in the way and my reading pile overwhelms me. (A typical week of submissions is about 60,000 words!) If I like a story enough to publish it, I'll copy edit it, format it for the web, and schedule it for publication. I also schedule social media and email about the story.

While we hold ourselves to professional standards, The Awakenings Review is an all-volunteer organization. Most of the readers and editors, including myself, work jobs outside of the journal. So during my days, I log into The Awakenings Review email in the morning before work and in the afternoon after work. From there I forward new submission to our readers and editors, update our database, and forward submissions that are in contention to editors and readers until three decisions are made on each piece. Aside from editing work, I work with the staff of our larger organization, The Awakenings Project, on fundraising, managing subscriptions, and production and fulfillment of the journal.

My team reads and comments on submissions and then bring ones they think are worthwhile to my attention. The review process doesn't formally begin until the submission deadline, though some cursory reading is done during submission periods. The team's dispersed across the country, so all communication happens electronically and by phone.

I'm the Managing Editor, not an actual editor! I leave the hard decisions to other people ...

Every day is different depending upon whether we’re open for submissions or not. When we’re not open for submissions we take a lot of time planning and discussing potential new services, marketing activities and social media campaigns. All our submissions are read by the senior editors and by at least one other guest reader. Work is scored, requiring a minimum score to progress to the longlist stage. We sometimes invite experienced and well-published guest editors to select the shortlist – sometimes it’s down to The Phare’s founding editors.

It's usually just me reading submissions, and some days I'm more overrun than others.

We assign submissions to our contributing editors, and the editor in chief reads whatever they recommend. We try to get back to submitters earlier rather than later, and we encourage those authors whose work we'd like to see more of. We perform light editing on accepted pieces. We answer query letters about reviews and interviews. We promote the magazine. We stare at the screen and wonder whether we shouldn't get back to writing that novel.

The Sun has a team of six readers who do the first round of evaluating unsolicited submissions. If a reader feels a piece has the potential to appear in the magazine, the submission is passed along to another reader. If the second reader concurs, the piece is passed along to our editorial staff. From there, the piece may work its way up to our editor, who has the final say as to what appears in the magazine. Our editor, readers, and other members of the editorial staff meet once a month to discuss any pieces that our editor is unsure about.

We're seeking out and reading/viewing work by diverse writers and artists, always on the lookout for fresh, new perspectives. We're building relationships with and supporting like-minded writers, artists, bookstores, organizations, projects, and events. We're writing and making art ourselves. We're reading and viewing hundreds of unsolicited submissions and collaborating with our full team to choose the top 1-2% of those to publish. We're working with writers to edit/polish pieces before publication. We're copy editing and proofreading, and finally, we're working with our designer to make a beautiful print issue.

Our editor-in-chief is Angela Brommel, and she does a fantastic job of steering the ship, which means she is keenly involved in Citron's day-to-day processes and has our destination in mind. JR Walsh is our online editor and hands-on builder of everything from our quarterly issues to social media to strategy. As senior poetry editor and editor of Zest, I read and shape the direction of our poetry selections while keeping an eye out for arresting contemporary writing we might feature in Zest.

We all lead different lives for me, I work a full time job with a random schedule, have duties to my co-op while also trying submit my own writing into the world, however, I have my days off on Thursdays usually, and take full advantage on what needs to get done, whether that is continuing to edit our website, post away on social media, finding new and improved ways to promote our submission calls, while also building our publication! Our Poetry Editor Asela had this to say as well: "I would wake up, eat breakfast (sometimes while I’m working), and start working on projects for various online literary magazines including Variety Pack as if it’s a 9-5 work and that my day job does not conflict with my editing flow."

Nothing to it really. We read your book. If we really like it, we are honored to get the opportunity to publish it.

Hectic.

Popping into the forum and reading new, and old submissions, and checking/ answering messages through our internal messenger for members.

During our open submission periods in January and July, we have readers who screen out the pieces that obviously aren’t for us, or didn’t follow guidelines. Then I read what’s kicked to me for the final decision. If the writing is awesome but the piece isn’t our vibe, I will sometimes write a personal note and tell the writer what I loved about it, but only if I have the time. The rest of the year is spent sending out contracts, editing pieces that might have been purchased for future issues, layout, looking at art from our staff contributing artists (we don’t accept art through open call), writing the upcoming issue’s editor’s note, copy editing (we have someone who does only that), and proofing the final issue. It gets proofed by three people, and I also proof it a couple of times by reading it aloud. That’s usually where I catch most of the errors.

Lol...We're too busy to answer this question.

My daily consists of answering and sending emails, reviewing submissions to publish on the website, delgating tasks, creating content for social media, spreading awareness of the publication, and managing the website backend. For a while, I thought I could be a one-woman show, but once we started to include other editors, Flora Fiction truly began to blossom. It's with the help of our editorial staff that makes this possible.

during many times of the year we do not have time to read each submission that comes in, esp. prose, but often poetry, too.
we not only edit the magazine, but also do standalone titles, anywhere from 3 to 6 books a year.
& as for the magazine editing, a good 70% of the time involves coralling & editing & coordinating the translations.
on a typical day i have email conversations with 7 or 8 croatian, bosnian, greek, russian, slovenian, bengali, estonian, lithuanian, & icelandic translators. that is all a very necessary process.
so, the day begins with coffee, & then kombucha. then email (& that can take hrs). if there is a pce we read, & it really fails (& that is approx. 25% of the submissions—& in cases of genre, those pieces may be fine, but not for a general readership), then that pce does not go to a second reader, & the contributor is notified. but this may be wks, or even months after the submission...because we are constantly juggling the magazine's requirements with the requirements of the 3 to 6 books a year that we publish.
& we remain essentially a 2 person operation. (not to slight our volunteer, wiki editor, & spanish copy-editor. his plate is quite full, too.)

The first day of submission is always one of anticipation—hoping it’s going to be a good submission round with a lot of submissions that you’ll enjoy reading, and maybe even finding that one special story that you’ll rave about for a while.
The second day of submissions onward is when things get more business-like and rejections of stories that are unsuitable for CRES start to go out.
Then it’s on to recommendations for re-submission, hoping you’ll have at least one story for consideration (sometimes we don’t) and seeing to sending helpful feedback when requested.
Nothing very glamorous in being an editor, but it’s worth it for finding those stories that shine out of the pile and make your day, or sometimes your month!

I and many of our editors read almost daily. We are organized via Submittable, which means instant access by every editor without any pre-screening. This allows us to respoind to submissions quickly, usually within a couple of weeks. Once a desision on a piece is made, I send the rejection or acceptance and immediately paste accepted pieces into the layout of the magazine. We do not accumlate submissions until the end of submission period. We want our submitters to have the earliest answer possible.

Our 300+ editors are all high school students who are juggling all that high school requires: class, homework, sports, extracurriculars, duties at home. Our editors have very different habits:
"When I finish a big homework project or test, I reward myself by checking what is on my docket."
AND
"just played another game of "finish your commentary before midnight Illinois time"! i played this one on hard mode: i forgot to do my commentary earlier today and ended up starting with only 2 and a half hours on the clock! thankfully, all the neurons in my brain fired at once and i completed my commentary in record time for me. and my commentary was good! didn't need to sacrifice anything for time. fate was truly on my side today..."
Each submission has three readers. Every reader writes Specific and General Commentary, as well as "Rationale for Accept/Reject." The second and third readers also give feedback to the prior editors/readers. Then, the Genre Editor, in collaboration with the Executive Editor, composes feedback to the submitter. The Executive Editor work through pieces where accept/reject is not clearcut.

As editor-in-chief, I read less and manage more. I handle more of the business side of the magazine, while the genre editors are reading and managing readers and editing and soliciting. My work is different each day--handling budget concerns, ordering from printers, reaching out for interviews and book reviews, scheduling meetings, etc. etc. However, I still pop in to read. I can't help myself. I want to know what treasure can be found in the oceans of submissions.

I'm a writer of fiction and short essays as well as editing this magazine. My days are different but generally include 2-3 hours of working on my current manuscript, 1 hour of social media postings, and perhaps 2 hours of reading other people's works. I spend most of my time on social media posting about fellow writers in support of their publications.

The reading process involves organizing and compiling submissions, gathering our editorial team for meetings, and making sure we discuss every piece with as much attention, care, detail, and perspective.

The following link is to my first post as Streetlight's fiction editor. It explains my take on the submission process.
https://streetlightmag.com/2015/06/16/the-decider/

We are moving to a weekly publication schedule, and have creative works scheduled for every Friday for the remainder of 2020. So, much of the coming months will be spent preparing each manuscript — proofing it, getting final approval from the author, getting the art set up, entering the story in our content management system, creating an author page w/ photo and bio, etc. We will be running open calls for poetry and visual art as well; these categories each have their own editor or director. We probably won't be opening up a new open call for fiction until this fall or winter. We find reviewing submissions to be arduous as we get a huge number of manuscripts, and want to account for differences in taste when reviewing them. This slows things down as finding readers we consider qualified for our pages — and who also have the time to review manuscripts in bulk — is challenging.

Stories start out being read by editorial staff, who vote on the story in a closed forum with detailed comments. If approved, editors vote on the story next, who take into account feedback from the editorial staff as well as considerations of publishability. If approved on that level, stories move up to the final level, where all editorial staff and editors discuss the story at an in-person meeting, usually a group of forty.

Mostly I just laze around in luxe pajamas, drinking a coffee or a glass of wine depending on my mood, reading submissions from whatever soft surface is most agreeable to our house cats.

Usually I will spend at least an hour or two each day, corresponding with authors and reading their submissions. There's often quite a bit to wade through, and often much of it isn't very good, but then when you find that gem, this makes it all worthwhile.

The first thing I do when a submission appears is I read the entire piece and I make initial notes on what stands out to me, if anything, what seems to work and doesn't. if I'm liking it, I put it aside. The next day I read through it again, looking deeply at the story, the meaning of the story, and other more technical things. If at the end of that I can survive reading it again- I usually accept it. If not, I usually have a good idea as to why it won't work and I can tell the author what I liked and didn't like.
If I don't like it on the first read I wait a couple of days and try again. Sometimes I find I've changed my mind about a piece, so it's always good to read things twice. Then it's a matter of deciding of the pieces I like and work well, which ones I have room to fit in the magazine. Sometimes I really like reading a piece and it's well written, but there's simply no place for it to fit in the issue or the next three issues so I have to reject it. I always try to remind people it's not the end if I reject something, it just means it wasn't a good fit for me or the magazine and there's plenty of opportunity out there to find someone who will accept and publish it. I don't like to see people discouraged.

A lot of reading. We generally receive around 2,000 submissions for prose and another 2,000 for poetry. With a full-time staff of one, and volunteers, this means a lot of time is spent reading. And that's on top of the production side of things: contracting for accepted work, layouts of accepted work, proofreading and editing, and of course the marketing and social media to promote the published magazine.

Reading submissions, keeping up with upcoming book releases, and writing lots of emails. For me particularly, I communicate a lot with my other editors and with student interns. Working with students is perhaps the best part of my day!

Morning coffee on the lanai while reading or editing submissions. Email exchanges with the authors and other editors. More coffee, some video gaming, and an evening with my Lady.

We only publish 4 issues per year and when we have funding, we run our prize. When we get around to new issue time, one of us will often read first and makes notes on which ones we think might be a yes, maybes and then the ones we don't think fit well. Then the other editor will read through everything and we'll compare notes. Usually we agree but we may have a few pieces to discuss and make a final decision on. Then we set about emailing the writers, getting the issue together, ensuring we have the correct biographies and updating the site.

There is a lot of reading and e-mails involved.

It's too unglamorous to discuss.

My editing day tends to be divided into slots, with each slot being preparatory work for a different publication - thus, in the mornings I might be reading submissions for various anthologies, while in the afternoons I might be working on magazine layouts. Accepted submissions are immediately entered into a master document which eventually becomes a book or magazine; rejected submissions are put into a separate file for contacting the authors later.

At times it is hectic and other times it is a normal, lazy day.

(I believe this question was answered in my previous answer.)

Our project publishes continually, usually 20-30 pieces per month, to insure high readership/viewership for every published work. As Associate Editor, I take up the slack for all the others. I usually average about 2-5 hours/day at work on the journal.

It's not glamorous. We thought there would be more time for larger discussions, promotion of pieces internally, the kind of things you see on TV. In reality, it's a lot of strained eyes and trying to remember our Submittable passwords. It's a huge time investment and if you're not careful, can consume all your personal writing time too. So it's all about finding a balance.

I'm also a writer so I write in the mornings and edit in the afternoon and sometimes the evening. Decisions about CafeLit are normally made about 2 p.m.

My day begins with a mug of tea, although when things are much busier and sleep is less sound, that tea becomes a mug of coffee. Or three. Then the emailing begins! That normally leads me up to lunch, which I usually take at my desk – and yes, I know, that is not the healthiest thing in the world – and then I start reading. I will take emails/phone calls as they come, which will normally draw me away for some time, but I always try to come back when I can. If I don't get a chance to revisit the manuscript that day, I take it with me on the train home. I form notes in my mind as I read, and try to write them down when I can (although a crowded tube makes this somewhat difficult), so that if we take the book forward, I already have ideas about how we can shape it in the editorial process.

It's rewarding. There are no complaints. I look forward to reading submissions, and consider it an honor that artists trust me with their material. Before I sit down I clear my head, shake off the day, and open each submission with a clear pair of eyes. It's humbling to read phenomenal work every day. It's a privilege to get solid writing out on today's literary scene.

Because many of our editors balance academic jobs with their own writing and editorial duties, each day is very different from the last. Some days are teaching-heavy. Ideally, most of us try to write each day. Bluestem happens, often, in our homes or the quiet of our offices, where we have the time and space to read. Occasionally, however, Bluestem happens in the form of editorial meetings with student readers, where editors have the chance to discuss work we're considering for the journal or advocate for work that they particularly enjoyed. Each mode of reading and discussion allows for different insights into submitted work.

I make sure the boss at my shitty cheese job isn't around, then I download your submission. I read it. If it makes me laugh and briefly forget my bleak, miserable existence, I message the other editors and say, "Hey this crap is funny." Then they take a peek and if they agree, we put it in the "yes" folder. If it isn't even slightly funny, I curse your name and beg the universe for righteous vengeance. Then I usually slam my fist on my desk and whine about hurting my hand.

I read regularly for two or three hours at a time and am looking for material that is beyond well crafted
and moving towards the sublime.

Besides my THEMA duties, I also edit the alumni magazine for LSU Medical Alumni Association along with design and drawing tiger artwork for special occasions. And I write/illustrate children's books. About the submission reading process for THEMA, after reading each submission, it is put into one of three categories--R (reject), C (consider), and A (accept). Some stories (R) are obviously not meant for THEMA. A few stories (A) are so outstanding that we accept it outright. Most stories fall into the "consider" category and are reread several times.

Southword journal is only one of many projects of ours at the Munster Literature Centre. We also produce literary festivals, residencies, fellowships, competitions, websites, a chapbook publication series, workshops, seminars etc.

We try not to drink before 6:30pm. We don't try very hard.

I'm usually pretty focused on the next book/author coming out. The editing is the most time-consuming. Next most time-consuming would be the interior layout. We're lucky to have fabulous freelance designers. The physical product has looked really good, in my opinion. Unfortunately, reading submissions happens sporadically on weekends. We're just starting to get help with reading so I hope to be better about response times going forward.

I get a submission and first note author name, title and date in my files -- if I don't do this first thing, I might forget completely! Then I read the story. I usually know immediately if something is a good fit or not, but on occasion, I will have to spend some time mulling over a piece. From there, it's the response -- I like to let submitters know, whether their piece was accepted or not, it was read with care.

I try to read first in, first out. One of my goals is to reduce our queue time for the submission process, so if we're in a submission period, I'm checking the new submissions and assigning them to readers who have room/time to read that week. I've asked our first readers to have their assessments for their assignments in three weeks or less. As the stories go through the editorial process, we endeavor to respond as quickly as possible. As a writer, I live for the "no thank you" from editors who take the time to write some personal words of encouragement, so I've been trying to include personal notes in about 20% of the declines for fiction.
The real tragedy of publishing is that we get about 500 submissions during an average call for fiction, and we can publish less than 2% of them, so the most painful part of the process is trying to figure out the 8-10 stories we can publish that issue. We end up absolutely loving about 50 of them, and usually because it takes so long to get through all of the stories, we lose quite a few to other publications before we can respond. That destroys me, particularly because we've usually been debating between two great stories and then suddenly, in like two days time, both of them are withdrawn because someone else got to them first. Our loss, their gain, but still, it stings about once a week.

We are always hopelessly behind, and then we read and read and catch up. When something strikes one of us, we consult the other two.

I tend to read submissions in batches, make initial notes on each piece, then put them aside for a second read. I think about the work we either have accepted or are considering to get a sense of how the piece will fit into the journal. If I like a piece, I begin thinking about placement, artwork, and other nuts and bolts issues.
I spend a lot of time thinking about how the pieces should fit - do I keep three poems by one person together or will they work better if separated? Is the contest winner the right piece to begin with? What should anchor the middle of the book?
I generally edit with a light touch, but sometimes, a piece is good but needs more revision than punctuation. In that case, I ask the writer if they are comfortable with my editing. If not, no hard feelings. We can part company.

As at this very moment, whenever I evaluate submissions: I'm siting in my swivel chair with my feet up on a secondary pillowed chair. I'm staring at my double-wide computer screen, typing, reading etc. A new email comes in with a "bing". I open the email, read the submission, and immediately send either a "yes" or a "no" response. There are no committee meetings or objections, as this is a sole proprietorship, for-profit, small, woman-run, home-office business of which I am the only employee. There is no magician behind this curtain: just imagine yourself on the other side, and interact with me accordingly. PLJ is not run with hope of making a profit, but rather just to help writers connect with readers. I only do ad exchanges with other journals (there are no ads). I don't attempt to make it commercial, nor to sell it via mainstream bookstores. I don't receive funding from any institution that might have swayed my agenda or style. Unlike perhaps everybody else: this is a publication that exists for the sake of my love of writing.

This is one of two half-time jobs for me, alongside a few smaller gigs (the romantic freelance life). I devote two long full days to CRAFT each week, plus odd hours here and there on the other days. On a full day, I might start with some reading, then some editing while I'm most fresh, then the weekly assignments for our readers and editors, followed by tidying up in Submittable, and then filling the social media dock with posts for a few days, then some WordPress work like building pages for the stories. When putting in a ten-hour day, I find it very helpful to change up the work every hour or so.

The Drabblecast has two talented Associate Editors, Samantha Henderson and Sandra Odell, who are both accomplished writers, and they split the bulk of first reads with new submissions. They pass stories on to me that they recommend for further consideration. Ideally all three of us will agree on a story, and that has almost always been the case.

Well, everyday is different. Because I am the publisher here at Common Deer Press, my day might consist of reading, editing, marketing and publicity for our current and upcoming books, discussing book design and typesetting, artwork for covers/interiors, doing interviews, talking to our signed authors, working on financial matters, preparing and negotiating contracts, or discussions with our distributors. Because we are a small house, most of us wear more than one hat.

I'm usually working on a hundred things at once, and since our magazine also publishes regular articles and works with interns, there's lots of writing and editing beyond just reading submissions. I try to be respectful of other writers' work and respond to each submission in a timely manner, but I don't always accomplish that. We also try to organize submissions by season and sometimes pair them with our editorial coverage, so a piece submitted in the fall that's appropriate for summer could get held for several months. Overall, the quality of submissions we receive is phenomenal and it's been a pleasure reading them so far.

I generally check our submissions daily. I'll read the stories and decide if they have potential and provide some comments/editing. Then stories get filed until we make our final selections. At that point, the fun begins because we get to work with the author to polish their story until it shines. Each editor wants their stories to be the best of the month!

Due to the extreme volume of submissions we receive, I can't read everything that hits our Submittable account, but I do read most of it. My student editors work in teams to make sure that each piece gets at least three pairs of eyeballs before it goes on to the next round of consideration or is rejected. Once we narrow things down to a tentative TOC, all of the editors read across genres and we make little tweaks: filling holes and swapping pieces in and out. Meanwhile, we're also soliciting writers, trying to raise awareness of the journal, trying to raise money, trying to innovate. My favorite moments are those in which a special project suddenly synthesizes. (For example, our recent suite of writer-made collages or our Ambitious Student Writers category/award.) But I'm not afraid to fail. I also love those moments where we figure out why something doesn't work. The feeling of pushing the work forward and bringing creative people together is what I'm after. I don't experience that every day, but it's a frequent enough occurrence to keep me going.

This isn't my only project, but every Wednesday (ideally) is set aside just for reading MSFFP subs. I put on music without lyrics (I have a special Spotify playlist for these occasions) and I read subs all day long that day. Then one day per month (usually the last monday) is set aside for recording and editing all of the podcast episodes for the following month. It used to take a lot longer each episode took a full day when I first started the project) but I've gotten a lot faster at recording and editing in the last few years. I've also gotten faster at reading and evaluating submissions, but since the volume of submissions has gone up even faster, I'm usually a little behind, despite. :O

In the fall, the magazine is put together through a class, so in this class, each day we're reading and making decisions. Each pieces is read by two readers, then by an editor, then by me. We decide final decisions in a group meeting, and then send out our rejections and acceptances. The rest of the semester, then, is devoted to putting the journal together.

Answer emails, scanning lists of new submissions, working on the books we publish in the morning before going to my day job. More of the same in the evening.

It's crazy. I try to review around 30 submissions a day, and of those, I'll select maybe 10 for a packet to send to the entire staff. Wednesday nights we meet to discuss the work, then afterwards we might go out for a beer, and the following morning I send around a new packet and it all starts over.

Awe-inspiring appreciation.

I read until my eyes cross. Then, I walk my two security dogs (well-trained Pomeranians). I read until my eyes cross. Then, I call it a day.

Going though the mail. Submissions are either rejected, accepted or go into a stack for further discussion and thought by our editorial team.

Fun. I enjoy going through submissions and seeing what our student editors think and feel about the work presented, and I love reading pieces and seeing the different ways people have of viewing the world. It's also rigorous, in the sense that it's time consuming, but I like the challenge of working through all of it, and watching the direction and shape I can help create for our publication under the editorial umbrella I've been asked to assume.

As reading submissions requires a certain amount of concentration, combining both the creative sides of one's mind and the critical analytical side, I'd tend to read two to three at most in one sitting before taking a break. I'd tend to do one sitting in the morning and, time permitting, one in the evening. I'd make comments directly on the submission in my own file to keep notes and try on the first reading to have an overall assessment that identifies the three things I liked about the submission and potentially the three things that were less strong. I'd add a preliminary overall judgements such as "definitely interesting", "probably interesting", to "less strong/developed" and some "read agains" where I felt my state of mind wasn't giving the piece a fair read. I'd then leave them and go to the next bunch in my next reading window. Once I've gone through the lot, I'd reread the definitely interesting and probably interesting, and the "read agains", and check my choice, adding further comments where helpful. Usually, I'd find someone I trusted to talk about my choice and any concerns or questions I had. Depending on what was promised in the call for submissions, I'd write a thank you letter with both news on the selection and, if appropriate and wished, constructive feedback.
More widely - I've started to read more and more anthologies to see how others have decided on form and structure and balance. I've also started to read across a much wider set of literary genres as I became aware that I'd need to step above or broaden my personal preferences for an anthology to work for a wide set of readers.

The life of a student editor is always busy, between balancing work like reading submissions, communicating with authors, and layout with schoolwork, jobs, and, hopefully, some semblance of a social life (or at least sleep). A lot of late nights go into student editorship, but it's all worth is when the final product rolls off of the press and into your hands.

Busy, full stop. Excited, love to open up new submissions and see what gems are inside. Anxious, we are a new publication, will we ever get another submission or has everyone held a meeting without us and decided that what we do just isn't right. But then one arrives and we all get a little giddy and go into different corners and remember why we started NUNUM in the first place.

Blue Light Press is a labor of love, and all of us have other jobs. I teach at San Francisco State University and Dominican University. I also direct the Blue Light Press On-Line Poetry Workshop (information on our website). We start our ms. selection process with a poetry potluck, where we share wonderful food and each other's company. Then we start reading our stack of submissions.

Our all-volunteer staff makes time to run our journal amid all their other obligations. Once we sit down to work, we might read through three to five pieces in a sitting. Those pieces will either be pushed on to another reader or declined. If two readers come to agreement about a submission, it will be accepted as soon as possible. Sometimes acceptance will be contingent on revisions.

I’ll often read a few stories first thing in the day. I’ll also assign some critiques and stories to my team of two readers, Michal Lemberger and Stefen Styrsky. Then I’ll read throughout the day, when I find myself with a minimum spare half-hour or so.
I don’t rush the reading, so I won’t dive into the pile if I don’t have a good chunk of time. I only read until I feel my attention slipping. Your work deserves the freshest pair of eyes possible.

I'm hopeful. With each submission I open, I'm hopeful that I'll find something that affects me, that I'll discover a new writer, that it will feel like the writer wrote the story with me in mind. It can be really exciting.

Our editorial team is tight knit, and I'm in touch with everybody about the pieces in Submittable. I'll get a text that says, "read this, it blew me away"... if I'm slammed I'll just text back, "take it" and then read it as soon as I can. Most of us are in Atlanta, and we sometimes meet up and read, or I'll meet with a genre editor and go through some pieces literally on the editorial table.

You don't want to know.

I just read them as they come in, mostly in the evening. I carefully pair each submission that we publish with a photograph/image that speaks to the spirit of the piece. That part probably takes the most time, as I agonize over getting the accompanying image just right. I believe that each contributor deserves a beautiful presentation of their work.

Every morning, I wake up, eat breakfast, take a shower, and read a few submissions. If any are exceptional, I'll read them a few more times later in the day (or the next day, after I've let the stories gestate). If I've had to sit on a story for more than a day, it gets a "kind rejection," which is more or less an encouragement to submit more work and a notification for the writer that they made it through round one. Submission fatigue is very real, so I never read more than five submissions per day--usually less.

I'm not active in the judging of this contest, so the best way to get a feel for the process is to read our interview with the judge and their comments on past years' winners.

Coffee. Words. Words. Words. Coffee. More words. More coffee. Yeah, that.

I read submissions throughout the month but not always as they come in. At the same time, another editor also reads each month's submissions. We e-mail each other a list of picks, usually between 8-12 pieces we would like to have make first cut. Once those choices are made, we notify authors as to whether this piece has been rejected or is still in consideration. We then contact the rest of the editorial board during our reading month. We share a communal vote sheet so we know when an editor votes and which pieces that editor chooses. We make our editor picks (if any) after all votes are tallied. An editor notifies the authors of the status of their submissions, both accepted and rejected. We love replies to our acceptance letters and all of the editors read them.

Deliberation is built into our editorial process. If a story is strong, I ask for arguments against it. If a story gets mixed reviews, I ask for someone to argue for it. In addition to our genre editors, we also have editorial interns. A top-50 story my receive nine diverse readings before the editors sit down to select the half-dozen we'll run. These many-voiced deliberations make for better stories and provide some insurance against accepting a story that emerges as a ball of technical problems when we get to the line-by-line editing part of the process.

We read and correspond with other writers, as well as with one another. We also make certain the website is up to speed, check how our pieces are doing on social media, and reply to writers’ submissions and queries. We are currently working to establish The Sunlight Press as a nonprofit and therefore, we are doing the research to secure this status and actively looking at ways to fundraise. Publishing several types of work means exploring how to illustrate pieces; this means looking at photos available online, those submitted by photographers for publication, and those offered by our several volunteer photographers. We talk every Thursday by phone to go over management of the site, submissions, and scheduling pieces for publication. Additionally, we work throughout the week editing work for publication and pairing it with suitable art.

We regularly communicate via email with our writers and artists, answering their questions and occasionally seeking revisions to their work.

As Editor-in Chief: 1. Check email. Many new emails. Respond. 2. Check Submittable. Many new submissions. Change and update labels on pieces. 3. Read a few top-tier submissions. Correspond with managing editors. Most are rejected by managing editors. An acceptance! Hooray! 4. Send acceptance email. 5. Delegate copy-editing. 6. Final copy-editing with grim editor's scythe--culling every excess word. 7. Layout editing of final publication looms...how are all these pieces going to fit together?

One of us works a very demanding full-time job and the other is retired, so we have quite different "days in the life" between the two of us. We have divided up the editorial duties based on the time we have available and our individual strengths. One of us serves as first reader, reading submissions and making initial assessments. (But as we've already described, both of us read most pieces and all pieces we accept are read multiple times by both of us.) On a typical day, in addition to reading submissions, one of us may be working on artwork to accompany a story for the next issue. At least once a week, the other of us does all of the communications with submitters (acceptances and rejections, etc.).

It really depends where we are in the yearly publishing schedule. We do two issues a year, one in July and one in November. The real push is about three months before we go to the printer. So during that time, a typical day would include corresponding with authors about edits to their pieces, doing actual editing work, keeping up with social media postings, updating our website, keeping track of subscriptions, assigning pieces in Submittable to our editorial staff, and dealing with the day-to-day stuff like printing and mailing. As a managing editor I have more administrative duties than our editor-in-chief. I say that I deal with the business-side of the journal, but I'm always reading submissions and editing. We have TSR Online now, with a schedule of publishing one piece per week. I'm always looking for content for that. And, of course, as a writer I try to find time in my day to write something other than emails.

There's a certain fresh feeling when you wake up in the morning to an inbox filled with submissions. Over the course of the day, I read pieces, discuss them through email with other members of the staff, hold a full editorial board meeting, and then send out response messages. As someone who has experience submitting my own work to literary magazines, I'm very dedicated to giving each piece a fair reading.

Oy jeez. What a question!

Back and forth discussion among students, with only occasional guidance from the instructor.

Most of my time is spent reading submissions. I read almost every day. I spend considerable time corresponding with our editorial staff and the writers whose work we've accepted. I also manage the production process — everything from selecting the cover art to sequencing the work in the issue to proofreading. Right after each launch reading, the cycle begins again.

Hectic. Anxiety ridden over marketing, promoting, distribution, filling 200+ pages with quality work; administrative concerns; supervising editorial interns, after teaching a regular load because I do not receive any type of compensation for being editor of SR. Because my first priority is teaching, I have to carve time to read the manuscripts that come up to me. I typically find myself with blurry vision after hours reading manuscripts during breaks and in between grading papers. Sounds glamorous, right?

See above.

Busy, but I love getting to work with our dedicated staff and having the opportunity to meet our submitters. I approach each new submission with hope, eager to discover a new work that will stay with me for days and years.

Open email. Chat with current authors. Chat with publicist. Chat with community connections, reviewers, bloggers, or anyone else that might currently (or will be soon) working on one of our titles. Tackle the slush pile. Get excited about a concept. Get sad about the sample pages that don't work. Get excited about a concept that works and an opener, too. Send off replies. Remind myself I've got requested material to look at. Depending how backlogged said pile of material is, start going through it. Wonder if I'm missing something amazing or said material just isn't there. Remind myself previous authors we took on had texts that I couldn't walk away from. Somewhere in all of that, wander around a bit, drink caffeine, play a few quick games to let my brain rest, and wonder when I'm going to get to my fun reading list.

We tend to get an avalanche of submissions as the deadline approaches. Post deadline, we're always in a crunch to review and evaluate the most promising stories, contact (and pay!) the winner and honorable mentions, select illustrations, edit the pieces, and finally to publish them on the date we've told readers to expect them. In order to avoid being overwhelmed at the end, as soon as we start accepting submissions I try to read and make notes on each one within a couple of days of it's arrival. This generally works well until the point where we're receiving a couple of dozen stories a day. . . .

Our editorial team has four to five editors. We each have a number of submissions assigned to us each week, and we aim to respond to submissions within a month's time. Typically, we go through one to two rounds of edits on stories that we want to pitch to the editor-in-chief, and we always get a second opinion from one of our colleagues before making that final pitch. As a result, our editorial process is often quite collaborative, which allows each individual editor to hone in on their distinct skills while strengthening our team as a unit. Each editor is probably working on three to five stories at a time, though that number tends to shift quite a lot.

I keep my cell phone on me all the time, like everybody else these days. I have the email for The Airgonaut linked to it so that when I get a submission I can then flag it as unread. I do this throughout the day (I only get about five subs a day) and sometimes I get the chance to actually read a submission here and there. Once I'm back home from my day job (I'm a substance abuse counselor) I then sit down with my laptop and open the pieces, read, accept or reject. That's pretty much it for selection. Then on the last day of the month I go in and arrange the next issue and get it ready to go. I push the publish button early the next morning and there it is, the new issue. This is the process, and it's not really difficult at all, especially getting responses to writers in a timely manner. But I guess when you're only getting five submissions a day that can be easier. I publish ten pieces each month, so it's not as involved as when I used to have journals that published on a rolling basis. I greatly prefer the monthly publishing schedule.

It varies a great deal -- there are ebbs and flows that correspond in part to the semester schedule (we are associated with the University of Arkansas MFA program), to the publication cycle (we go to press in September and March), and to the submission calendar (we have free submissions for four months out of the year, paid submissions for another four, and are closed for submissions over the summer).

I oversee the big-picture plans and ensure that our journal is on the right track to being published. I manage our submission periods, organize meetings with our staff, and collaborate with the assistant editor in planning our next steps for So to Speak.

Reading the slush, hoping for gems.

I want to write a song and name it "Life (feat. Submittable Notifications)".

I wake at 0445hrs. Go to the Gym. Get back, read a short story and either ; reject or accept. Go to work. Return at 1700hrs and post a short story that same evening after I've took the kids to bed.

i limit myself to the number of submissions i read each day, and of course take days "off" to do things like work on my own writing, focus on other creative projects, and get out into the world to live a little. but the reading limit is in place mostly because it's not fair to our submitters if they are rejected due to fatigue or efforts to blast through submissions for the sake of clearing our inbox. also, we actually edit work. i used to teach creative writing to undergrads and editing work was one of the best parts of the job. it's exciting as an editor (and writer) to encounter writing that can be better, that has something different and exciting if only pushed and pulled in a few other directions. unfortunately (though understandably), so many journals don't have the time or resources to edit work, but if i get a submission that excites me in some way, i don't mind spending a few hours with it and going back and forth with the writer. sometimes that slows response time down for others, but it's an important part of the literary community.

I edit Star 82 Review for love, so my day is a mix of writing, editing, making art, making food, walking, and teaching as an adjunct professor.

This past year and a half have been a time of rapid change and a steep learning curve for me, so I'm not sure if they will become typical. However, I balance my editing with teaching and writing, and it's highly variable and busy and certainly depends on the day of the week. One day I may be reading and grading work for a course I'm teaching, as well as spending time in the classroom. The next day I may be holding meetings with our website designer, sending in specs to get print bid estimates, and meeting with MFA students who are working on social media projects or other things. I may spend an hour or two on Submittable reading submissions, usually in the evening or on the weekend. But this will also depend on where we are in the production schedule--so some weeks are more devoted to reading submissions, others to doing final editing, others to instructing my editorial interns on how to proofread or setting up manuscript copies for them to proofread. As we get closer to release, we are working more on the layout and cover design, as well as coordinating with the printer. It's a constant juggling act with new objects being thrown in all the time!

When in actual editing mode, that is, when I've bracketed time to edit this journal, time usually separate from my other commitments and concerns, I try to deal with administrative tasks first and then set aside a specific window of time for reading. At my best I set a timer. I try to read a few in a single genre, then take a break and switch to a different genre. Unfortunately, breaks usually now involve other commitments or still being on the computer, but each time I set down to do the work, I try to change that.

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.

My desk is in a house in the woods outside Chapel Hill, NC. The music is on - CD shuffle - it could be Satie or Prince or Miles - I have a big stereo from the 1980s and no neighbors, so it gets pretty loud. I print submissions out, sit back in my chair by the front window, and drink cafe Americano while I read.
If I like it, I make notes as to why (to tell the contributor, of course. People like knowing why, I think.)
If I don't think I can use a piece, I make notes as to what I thought was worthy about it, and what specifically didn't work for me. I use this information in my note back to the submitter. It takes a little time, not too much, and may be of some small value to them to know what was on my mind at the time.
I read at different times of the day. If a piece was on the edge, I set it aside and read it at a different time, just in case it was something about the light, the music, I don't know - the coffee that morning.

The role of editor at A Public Space is part sleuth, part instinct, part persistence, part interrogator, part arranger. We are actively seeking out work and potential contributors as well as reviewing submissions. When reading manuscripts, we are looking for talent. The first few pages don’t have to be perfect, but we are looking for a spark, a mystery, a code to be cracked. We want to look forward to reading the piece five times, because if it’s accepted we’ll be reading it at least that many times.

I work for an Honors College where I get to teach creative writing classes in each genre on a rotating basis as well as other interdisciplinary classes. I'm also busy with my own writing. I'm sending out my work and receiving rejections all the time, too. So, as with most people who run a small press, the process of editing is squeezed in between lots of jobs, hobbies, dreams, and chores. Editing involves so many little things: emailing judges, creating spreadsheets, posting on the website, going to AWP, coordinating with our non-profit (Northern Arizona Book Festival), organizing readings, calling our printer, and lots of constant communication between all these moving parts. And that's to say nothing of actually reading all the manuscripts!

I spend a lot of it chasing my two-year-old son, and a lot of it teaching at Bennington College, and working on my own writing. But every day, I read submissions through Submittable and correspond with writers, at times with my child on my lap. During the academic year, I meet with our editorial assistants at Bennington College once a week. Every week I also meet in Brooklyn with our managing editor. On weekends or quite late at night or very early on weekday mornings I tend to find myself reclining on my living room couch and binging on submissions, usually focusing on one genre at a time.

We operate at Black Bed Sheet Studios in Antelope, CA, just next to Sacramento, since 2008. The "studios" is essentially a residential house in suburban Antelope where the two-car garage and half of the property has been modified into an apartment dwelling/main office complete with a small storefront and customer service window, and a series of offices and areas for book events and film/TV production work. On a typical workday I wake up, turn on the day's news, open the garage and do a few chores before settling into an office chair and face five or more computer screens and begin publishing/marketing/editing/web designing/accounting/troubleshooting problems and everything slated for that day in running this business, and I'm doing that until usually 3-4 in the morning, go to bed, wake up, and do it all over again. In between that throughout the day, as needed, I go back and forth maintaining the household, taking care of my elderly parents who live inside, the cats and the bird and the hamster (who doubles as a mascot for our Black Hamster TV online telecasts) , and maintaining the yard while my better half Francy Weatherman currently works a full time job during the day and comes home and helps, and produces her popular weekend podcast Francy & Friends. From the offices here I service over 100 Black Bed Sheet authors (and growing), publish an average of 30-40 titles a year, and our readers, customers, associates and partners.

The editors at CQ are all PhD students at UNC-Chapel Hill. We work for the journal as well as teach, do our own research and classwork and try to have a personal life. To keep the journal running smoothly, we each have 3-5 hours in the office per week. During these hours we manage undergraduate interns, read submissions, work on layout-and-design, and pay the bills. Most of the rest of our work happens over the internet or in coffee shops/bars/living rooms when we get together for editorial meetings. The Editor in Chief makes sure all the gears keep turning, that the lights stay on, and that each issue is hopefully better than the last. There isn't really an "average day," which is part of what keeps it interesting.

I am a binge-doer, which means that I get things done in one or two days a week of committed effort, rather than by doing a little bit every day. I do this because I am more efficient when I roll up my sleeves and dive in, and a lot more time-wasting when I try to work in small, sane doses. Truth be told, it is the section editors and their collectives who vet submissions on the first pass, so I have a smaller task in considering our content at a later moment in the editorial process. This leaves me free to manage production cycles, design oversight, marketing, fundraising, events, and professional development. We are also introducing new elements to the magazine, like a feature article or interview, and a column dedicated to a topic in experimental or innovative practice. These, I will be editing.

Lots of reading, lots of writing, lots of conversations with others involved in the process, lots of coffee.

Reading. Reading, coffee. Reading, some writing, more reading. Looking at beautiful pictures. Selecting beautiful pictures. Feeding the ducks and geese. Taking notes. Sending rejections. Sending acceptances! Printing some things out so I can sit in a different chair and read them. Two or three days a month: layout! Proofreading with the gang! Looking the final copy in PDF format. Uploading to the printer's e-mail address. Talking on the phone with my webmaster. Talking on our weekly radio show (Tuesdays at 10PM EST on wcomfm.org). Taking a walk outside. Sitting on the swing, listening to the birds. Looking at the trees and the sky and, and, and...

I always seem to read with a big cup of coffee...
I open my email and start reading. That's about it. :)

Because Literally Stories is very much a group venture made up of people with full time "other lives" there is a sharing of the responsibilities, Acknowledgement of submissions are done by any member of the editorial team so that writers don't wait too long to know that their work has been received and this also includes from our end the setting up of the reading process.
Once the stories are read and a decision reached then there is one editor tasked with notification (wherever possible as this gives authors a name to latch on to) and the setting up and posting of the stories on the site is also pretty much the responsibility of one person which we have found works best in order to preclude any doubling up and confusion.

The reading period for the yearly contest is a busy time. (Mainly March, April and May). We are also very keen to promote our winning writers and their further successes and writing opportunities in general and spend a lot of time throughout the year on social media doing this, particularly via twitter. We also make a point of interviewing successful authors for our website. We are very keen to get people reading and writing in the short form.

There's a lot of reading of submissions, a lot of formatting submissions, a lot of distributing submissions via Dropbox to the staff, some consultation on submissions (especially on technical questions). And, of course, an editor must maintain deadlines to get the issue online by the publication date.

I work full-time in the music industry, but spend about 30-40 hours a week on Lunch Ticket. Several hours a day are devoted to emails, either communicating direction of vision, workflow, advising team dynamics, or answering questions to help our submitters like in this Duotrope survey. I am no longer on the front lines of reading submissions, and rarely read something that has not already been accepted for publication. That said, I read every word that Lunch Ticket publishes, from the weekly subscriber newsletter to the weekly blog and Amuse-Bouche publications, to the final Lunch Ticket issue. In addition, I am often working on outreach projects targeted to communities whose writers we'd like to see submit, including YA writers, Literary Translators, and writers of color. My husband says he's a Lunch Ticket widower, but we still manage to have a house full of music and joy.

We generally wait until two weeks before the final writer deadline to read. We use Google Drive to publish submissions and a submission spreadsheet for our Readers. When I read, I turn on some classical, get some coffee, print out the stories, and dive in. We appreciate writers who use Standard Manuscript Format, because there's room to write comments. After the writer deadline, we read the final submissions and hold a meeting to argue for our favorite submissions.
If there is a "favorite" story I haven't read, I read that and decide if it will make the final cut. Finally, I do a word count to see if I can meet the projected budget.

First readers look at raw slush and pass only some of it up to me. Those that get passed up are called "2nd Opinions." I often blind-copy first readers on my feedback to the writers in rejections. Senior staff does video chats and screen shares of 2nd Opinion stories, or phone calls and chats - and make decisions together.
We are one of the few markets who will occasionally do extensive rewrites with authors.

Reading, reading, processing entries, catching up with emails, planning projects, planning ads, deciding award entries for published books, etc.

Breakfast tacos. Coffee. Then Mexican martinis. Sometimes nachos. When the temperature hits 98 degrees, Lone Star flavored with Twang is really good. After dark it's skinny-dipping at the spillway and more Mexican martinis. Then barbacoa tacos before bed.

As editor, my role is really just bringing the staff together. This is no one-woman magazine. It takes a lot of people to make this magazine and to put quality work out into the world. For me, a day in the life of an editor is thinking about what would make the publication better and who on our staff is best suited to do that job. It's a constant collaboration.

A day in the life of an editor is often spent, frankly, doing non-editorial things: work, life, sleeping, etc. We cull through our general submissions on a quarterly basis, or at the request of our editor-in-chief, Thom Didato, and then make acceptance decisions based on the input of our genre editors. We also solicit work sporadically throughout the year.

Once a contest like the Raven has closed, all three senior editors do several binge-reading sessions to start pulling stories into the long list, which can take up to a week. During the next week we read the long-list carefully and start voting. I like to read at night when the world is quieter, so sometimes I will stay up till 3 or 4am -- provided I can sleep in the next day!
For general submissions I don't see most of the stories until they've been past the eyes of one or both of the other senior editors, and I can take those at a more leisurely pace. After that, most of my day is taken up with contracts, proofing, layout and production details, as well as marketing.

Marty: I wake up. I thaw out my lunch. I feed my two cats (who are alive). I check my Submittable. I watch Beavis and Butthead. I pick up my briefcase, kiss my loving fiancée goodbye, and head to my moldy graduate TA office. I print off some lesson plans. I try and explain to my students why poetry is relevant. (LOL.) I give up. I head home. I write a poem. I worry that the poem is unoriginal. I consider submitting it to a publication, and then decide it's too preemptive. I check my MySpace. I read the submissions that YR has received for that day. I feel self-actualized. ¯\_(?)_/¯

Maggie: I wake up. I eat a Toaster Strudel or a donut or maybe some leftover pizza. I feed my dog (who is alive). I check the YR submittable. I watch Daria. I pick up my Jansport, kiss my dog goodbye, & head to my very sleek, chic graduate TA office, where I am admired & complimented all day long. I meet with the meandering line of students queued outside my office & change the world a little bit. I go home. I eat leftover pizza or a donut or maybe some Taco Bell. I feed my living dog again. I write a poem & read YR submissions & talk to Marty about them from my own home because I am allergic to his cats.

Every day I check my Submittable.com account for new submissions and assign them to editors. If an editor needs a second read, I provide that and give my feedback. Most of my work is the design and publication of the issue, which we publish three times a year. My heaviest workload is in the month preceding publication. It can take over 300 hours to design an issue. At this time, all works are proofread again, and then the issues is proofread by the short story editor. During a typical day, I also answer about a dozen emails relating to the magazine from authors with questions or inquiring about their submissions.

Each piece goes through three stages before publication. First we determine if the work falls within our guidelines, then it is sent to one of our editorial assistants. If the assistant thinks it might be a good fit for our magazine it is moved up to the editor for evaluation. The editor makes all the final decisions for publication.

It depends on where I am in the production schedule, but can include approving book covers, proofing media kits, contacting bookstores for author signings, reviewing submissions, and doing final proofs on manuscripts, as well as teaching writing craft. And those are only a few of the myriad tasks that we do.

A typical day usually looks like us sitting at our computers reading a few submissions to keep the pile at bay, and then once a week having an editorial meeting to discuss submissions and other business.

Busy! But good, I enjoy reading new submissions and working with other editors on how to get the best out of a piece. I do a lot of managing and admin on the site, so there is an editor on each section of the site, so you'll have to impress them as well.

Reading, emailing, reading, emailing, walking.

We have a three-month turn around, so I'll read in bursts - mostly after our submission window has closed. The run-up to publication involves a lot of meetings and back-and-forth before we finalize the contents. During submission periods it's quieter, and we'll monitor the account for mix-ups - somebody who's forgotten to attach their story, for instance - and get back to those writers. but otherwise the action generally happens when we're closed to the public. Between times I'm always busy coordinating our event-review section, which is specific to Manchester - we have a team of local reviewers who cover cultural events for us on a rolling basis, and occasional book reviewers.

Slush pile, emails, edits, slush pile, coffee, slush pile.

I wish I had a 42 hour day. (Is that what dyslexic people get?)

VERY BUSY. I read until my eyes bleed. I work through submissions hour after hour, and do my best to stay within a reasonable time frame.

Promoting our authors is important to Karl and me, as is spreading the word that literary fiction can be fun to read and smart. We do everything we can to trumpet great work and give exposure to up-and-coming authors, or authors who are doing innovative things when they publish.

Funnily enough, and rather sadly, very little reading of submissions. It's mostly emailing solicited authors, cover artists, publishers (eg. getting and ARC or permission to publish an excerpt), working with unsolicited authors, learning to use programs like Calibre, running the website and social media, brainstorming cover designs and advertising space with our designer, communicating with our 8 strong team, coming up with better processes and improving efficiency, coming up with marketing plans, developing contracts, accounting, etc, etc. Not really what I thought it would be when I kicked this venture off! However, it is a great deal of fun - all made possible by the awesome volunteers who jumped on board this ship before they knew if it was going to float or not.

Well, I work full time in Digital Marketing. So I get up early, exercise, go to work and then when I get home I work on my website and writing until midnight.

Read submissions to the journal, chapbooks and full manuscripts. Sort them into good, bad and other piles.
Answer emails to authors and other stakeholders in the press.
Deal with nice people who have written fine works of poetry
Write poetry if there is time.
Do accounting in QuickBooks to manage the press.
Find forms of fundraising and do our best to keep the press alive.

Read submissions to the journal, chapbooks and full manuscripts. Sort them into good, bad and other piles.
Answer emails to authors and other stakeholders in the press.
Deal with nice people who have written fine works of poetry.
Write poetry if there is time.
Do accounting in QuickBooks to manage the press.
Find forms of fundraising and do our best to keep the press alive.

Time management is the biggest key because writing submissions constantly flood through the submission gates. And that's a wonderful thing. So for me, being all brand new to Mascara, it's about giving myself a block of time per week to go through the submissions and send them through to our poetry editor. As deputy editor I have to learn the ropes of the journal so I'm flying up to Brisbane to meet with my managing editor and founder of Mascara, Michelle Cahill, at the Queensland Poetry Festival so we can go through the mechanical and technical aspects of on-line publishing. And of course learning the ropes of funding applications. It's actually a privilege to see the scope and quality of work that comes through to Mascara and I really enjoy being privy to that.

Usually it's spent get a tan from too many hours in front of the computer screen (I like to keep the brightness on high). Some of the day to day is what you would expect: managing volunteer readers, creating content for the website, and coordinating reading events. Sometimes I'm afraid I've come to think in calendar apps. There are moments of drudgery, but they don't compare to the moments of joy when reading new work.
For a journal like Little Patuxent Review, nothing could get down with cultivating ethical and meaningful artistic relationships with the community. So in that vein, I spend part of my day developing ways that LPR can better connect communities of readers with communities of writers.

Submission reading is done after all other urgent daily tasks are attended to--often on editors' own time.

Glamour beyond belief. Oarless, we drift on a scented ocean of prose.
Also most of our reading is done on the toilet, as we hide from our jobs.

Well, as I work a day job (at a theatre, so I do lots of reading there as well), am in a serious relationship, have an 18 year-old son and a pretty full life all the way around, I try to attend to the editing duties as much as possible - usually ends up being about 5 hours a week on average. There is no "day-in-the-life" kind of system - maybe more of a "month-in-the-life".
Of course, it all picks up as we get near our two publications dates (Winter issue in January and Summer issue in August) where we're doing a lot of layout work, editing, proofing, etc. The Bond Street Review is published along with chapbooks and a broadside series so it's less a matter of clocking in and out each day and more a matter of what particular project is in front of us.

More work in solicitation as well. Reading done in no fixed fashion, mixed in with other duties. The editor also interacts with art/layout person

One of the biggest responsibilities of being editor is communicating with genre editors, staff, the blog editor, graphic designer, graduate faculty supervisor, departmental supervisor, undergraduate interns, financial consultant, etc. All of these people play significant roles in the production of Sonora Review. My major responsibilities, along with my co-editor Mike Coakley, are securing grant funding, advertising the magazine, developing new projects, organizing community readings, running contests and selecting contest judges, responding to submitter/reader emails, maintaining a database of libraries and individuals that receive our journal (and sending the journals out), AWP considerations, and troubleshooting a miscellany of problems that a lit magazine can encounter.

Generally it's filled with my 5/5 teaching load and other responsibilities. Composition students coming into office hours. Creative writing students coming into my office hours. Faculty meetings and committees. I have to catalog and read submissions within the crazy work load of a tenured community college professor. Coffee. Bad food from the cafeteria. It's as glamorous as I make it sound.

A typical day for us consists of reading submissions. Then toward the end of each month we compile the accepted pieces, reread them for clarity, and begin designing the cover/issue. Running a journal is lots of work, but we enjoy reading a variety of unique voices and having a venue for others to express themselves. If we can help strengthen the practice of reading, by granting others the opportunity to experience something outside of their normal lives, then we’ve accomplished our mission in helping to promote literature and the voices therein.

Pure hell. I'd rather be writing my own stories, not reading yours.

I work with a group of about 4 other women, during the final production process. We sit around a table in my kitchen, crackers and tea close at hand, and we perseverate about every single page: do the art and writing speak to each other, are many cultures represented in the pages of our book, how will we represent this new moon cycle in Aquarius... and on and on. We work using consensus. We are artist and writers, graphic designers, and we process about the work a lot.

For whatever reason, we receive hundreds of more fiction submissions than submissions to any other genre. As we don't charge a reading fee, think carefully about whether a piece might be a good fit for Third Coast. If you've never read an issue or never liked a story you've read in all the Third Coasts you've seen before, perhaps you'd be better off submitting your own work elsewhere. The volume of submissions paired with the comparatively small size of our editorial staff means it might take us a while to get to reading your submission; don't submit a sloppy work that will be rejected as quickly as it was submitted.

Editing is a task that must be squeezed in amongst countless other tasks. As a writer myself, my focus is always more on my own writing. But when I encounter a strong voice in a writer, I always find it worthwhile to work with them.

We look forward to receiving submissions, as if they were presents to be opened. We read the submissions as soon as possible after they come in. We often know right away about acceptances because they jump out at us. For those we reject, we give thought to why the piece isn't for us and how it might be improved, if applicable.

Usually I wake up late and start the day off with a massage before meeting up with a prospective contributor for a two-martini lunch and then.... Oh wait, I slipped back into fiction mode again. Hmm. Let's see. I guess a typical day as editor of MR is incredibly busy because I'm also a writer and a teacher, so I have to find the hours in a day to do all three. If I fail to do this, I become an absolute monster. While this occasionally makes for moments of extreme anxiety, for the most part it's really wonderful to be engaged in three roles--writer, teacher, and editor--that are connected to writing and yet all autonomously discrete in their demands, pleasures, and shades of meaningfulness. There is a lot I've had to learn since taking over as editor. I'd been a fiction editor before at another journal, but when you're responsible for the whole magazine there's a big nasty nest of un-sexy things that need to happen to make the entire operation function. I'll not detail them here, but I spend some of my time doing those sorts of things, but I also get to spend time finding writers I want to publish and communicating with them about their work, as well as meeting up with my wonderfully talented associate editors, Elena Tomorowitz and Allison Campbell, to work on the layout and design of up-coming issues.

My editing style has changed over the years. When Sein und Werden was both a web and print zine, it took a lot more organisational skill and time management (and patience!). Now that it is on line only, it is much easier. I tend to read in bulk now, rather than as and when I receive submissions. I use 'labels' in my email account to separate those I've replied to, and those I have yet to print out etc. When I have them all printed out I read them - in the bath, in bed, on the bus... and then I create a yes, a no, and a maybe pile. Most things end up on the maybe and wait for a second or third reading. I always try to acknowledge submissions because I know how frustrating the waiting can be, especially when you finally query a submission only to be told it was never received. I then look at the accepted pieces to see what might fit where. I do get a lot of enjoyment from piecing bits together, artwork and poetry for example, and like to look for connections between pieces. Sometimes I might solicit work in order to create better flow or to bring a digressive piece back in line with the theme.

Because we publish on a rolling basis, we are always reading submissions. In terms of deciding on work, we have a system of votes that keeps things moving smoothly. Our submission manager allows us to vote and comment on work online, which allows us to collaborate remotely. Once a week we meet in person to discuss specific submissions and the direction of the publication as a whole.

As the co-founder of a small press, I'm not only an editor but also involved with production, design, sales, marketing ... everything! So a day can include anything from reading submissions to editing a manuscript to sending out press releases and review copies to working with interns to corresponding with authors to planning events to approving final proofs. No day is the same, and that's what I love about it.

It depends on the stage of the contest. Before the competition opens each year I need to set it up and create some marketing materials. Once it opens I send out press releases, emails, newsletters and updates through the social networks on a regular basis. I am also responsible for getting entries to our judging panel for them to read and review. Once the competition closes I use a spreadsheet to determine our winners, check that these are correct in the opinion of the judges. I then notify the winners and start the process of compiling this years anthology.

I spend my days at an undisclosed location reading dossiers submitted to me by my informants about writers like you.
These data are fed into our mainframes in Colorado Springs, where Mother Computer analyzes them for any possible threats to our national security.
If Mother Computer notices any threats, I immediately dispatch the Writer Taskforce (Obama trusts me with this Taskforce) to eliminate the writer's family and friends via drone. The writer we leave alive. We still need more writing from them.

We all have day jobs. The editor hat goes on at night and weekends. It's a 3-month cycle of reading and more reading, deciding (the difficult part), writing letters, working with the author/s on any revisions, designing and building the echapbook (website), researching hyperlinks, and finally promoting it (email to subscribers via mailchimp).

We all enjoy reading submissions received and publishing great work.

A stack of mss., a person in a chair, silence.

It's very diverse. My position is a cross between editor-in-chief and managing editor position. I am responsible for content and am often reading and editing poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction that's been accepted for publication. I am distracted from this pleasurable work by crises pertaining to the budget, design, printing, circulation, and marketing. I work closely with those responsible for these important tasks.

Breakfast, a good French whore, poetry in the afternoon, on the welfare, on the take, pipe in my mouth, blood in my eyes, righteousness in my coffee cup.

Gripes! Well, I check e-mails when I wake, mail issues, check submissions, read submissions, update people about the latest news. Check Facebook, respond to any posts, post publications, readings, acceptances by former or current Palookas. Always excited to read that next piece, hoping this next piece will be the leap home. Oh, wait. Hoping this next piece will be an acceptance. :)

Smooth frenzy. Think Steve Reich. Our staff is incredible, however, so that reduces the vascillation in our heads to more Philip Glass a la Koyaanisqatsi.

This is a question for our panelists, who have an intense period (approx a month) to read large numbers of submissions and then finalise their selections. NB our editor does not particiapte in the selection process.

First, I look over all the submissions and make sure that my staff is voting on them. If a piece has enough votes to be accepted or rejected, I send out the appropriate response and schedule the piece. I also look around the site to make sure it looks perfect. Every Sunday, I prepare the week's piece. There's also a bit of promotion, too, such as posting about new content on social media sites.

There's no glamour to our reading process. When the pile of manuscripts becomes alarming in our office, we sit down with a pot of coffee, lock the door, and read though the pile entirely. I don't reference readers' reports beforehand, nor do I hold briefings. Most often, our choices are supported by readers' suggestions. In the end, though, the choices we make in those sessions are what we live by as a journal.

At Bewildering Stories a week is a day and vice-versa. The Managing Editor has no secretary, alas. Mondays are usually devoted to answering e-mail. Tuesday through Thursday, to putting together the next week's issue and, finally, sending the authors our customary preview notice. Friday through Sunday, to correcting errata, discussing Quarterly Review selections with the Review Board, and making up the Readers' Guide and the Challenge questions. And answering e-mail all the while.

We spend more time than we would like to admit doing those mundane behind-the-scenes acts of responding to emails and going over depressing budget reports. Our days also include doing more glamorous things like promoting our contests through Twitter and Facebook, and working together to build an issue that we’re all proud to send out to our subscribers. But the one thing that consistently defines the majority of our time working with Yemassee is reading through submissions.

It varies pretty wildly. Every few days, I sit in my office and access the Submittable queue and look through the rejections. If I see a catchy title or an interesting first paragraph, I'll sometimes read the story through--not because I distrust the readers but more because I'd hope an editor would do the same with my work.
I spend a little more time on the actual "accepted" stories. I generally print them out and read them at home. I try to live with the stories for awhile and think about them when I'm jogging or on the bus. If the characters are compelling enough, sometimes they'll pop into my head at unexpected moments during the day.
I wish I had something more exciting to say here. Sometimes, I'll read submissions before starting on my own work, or before grading papers. We allow simultaneous submissions, so I kind of hate the idea of another journal discovering a great writer before we do.

It really does depend on the day. I check The Blue Route e-mail account at least once a day to see how many new submissions we have received. Once we have received enough, I combine them into a document (without submitter personal information) and send it out to our editorial staff for evaluation. I then set up a meeting time for everyone to get together and discuss the pieces we looked at.

For me? Coffee, get mail, log submissions, organize Submittable submissions, log orders, answer emails, send out orders, update social media, email class, production schedule business, meetings, etc.
It depends for the other editors. But we're all MFA students so our day-in-the-life cams show a lot of going to class, writing, and generally not sleeping.

Worry about general life financial prospects.
Write.
Increased worry about life financial prospects.
HOOT PR.
Read HOOT submissions (all out loud).
Go to our real jobs.
Sleep.

I carry around an iPad and it has all the submissions on it for a first read. If I fall in love, we get a hard copy, so I have a couple hard copies also. As I write this, I am in Chicago to do a meeting with our sales reps. I have 20 manuscripts with me between the iPad and my laptop case which also has all the essentials for this trip. I just brought the laptop bag and my purse because I travel lightly and let manuscripts take precedence over stuff like clothing. I am constantly reading manuscripts and then other books so that I can think about what is being published. Reading is my life.

We receive an enormous quantity of submissions for each issue, which is exactly the sort of problem an editor wants to have. Every day, I triage the submissions coming into our system, and assign them to appropriate editors for reading. I myself read between 30 and 50 submitted poems on an average day, scanning the cover letter before reading through each submission. Every time I approach pile of work before me, I'm hoping for a stunning piece to emerge. I'm truly rooting for the writer to pull off such an exciting poem that I have to call my fellow poetry editor immediately and say, "you've got to read this." In reality, that moment occurs a handful of times each reading period, but every day I read the work, I'm hoping for it.

While teaching full-time, completing several conference papers and then conferencing with them, publishing my own critical work, and taking care of my toddler, I organize the reading process, send out reminders to the board, work on publicizing the journal. When it comes time to assemble the new issue, the editors work long hours typesetting and formatting and soft proofing for hard proof-readers to begin combing the issue for errors. It is a lot of work, but the product is worth the time.

A nice cup of tea, a few biscuits and a full in-box will keep me occupied happily (usually) for a few hours. I set time aside to do it, you can't just skim stuff, it's not fair to the writers.
I'll tend to set it into html there and then, whilst it's fresh in my mind and I can write the introduction to suit.

Are you kidding? Okay, I also work, and I doubt you have many other ballet teacher/writer/editors on board. I spend many hours on my own writing, teaching, etc., and do editing daily, screening submissions sometimes fairly late in the evening, but always with positive anticipation. I feel it's a special thing to be able to put together a journal.

This couldn't possibly be interesting to anyone.

Most of our time is spent on other aspects of the magazine (clerical, fundraising, design, production, etc.) About a sixth of my time and a third of my deputy editor's is spent reading manuscripts, both online and on paper (since we accept submissions in both ways). This is true for half the year, the six months from January to June, which is our reading period. During the other six months we focus on the other aspects of the magazine and do not read submissions, since we collect enough in that first six months to propel us through the rest of the year and beyond. We also ask writers we know to send us work, so some of what we publish comes to us that way. All our Symposia are done that way, and many of our critical reviews -- though we welcome new critics, if any are out there!

I print out all stories that make the first pass, as I cannot read off a screen. I print them out at the beginning of the month and usually hope to have them processed within a week - two weeks tops. I read from shortest to longest length (not word count but page count as printed - so shorter stories in larger font, and thus higher page count, may get read after longer stories in smaller font (don't use this as an indication to shrink your font size in order to get your submission read faster - please have pity on an aging editor). Rejected stories are usually contacted first, then considerations about possible acceptances are made.

A detailed behind-the-scenes look at our submissions process can be found on our blog here: http://haydensferryreview.blogspot.com/2011/07/twittered-questions-answers-revealed.html

Read, read, read. Email. Tweet. Talk to the managing editor, the writers, the interns and try figure out how to sell this magazine.

It’s phenomenal. I spend my days doing what I love to do: reading, writing, blogging, Web site updating, editing, marketing, graphic design, publishing, and turning writers into published authors. No two days are the same, but most start at 5:30 am and go full bore until about 7:00 pm. I save a submission file as a 'first read' file, and I read it on the computer (I don't print it). As I read along, I make first impression notes and edits (as if I'm just any reader), typing my notes in a blue font, highlighting suggested additions in yellow and suggested deletions in red. This is the file the author sees...if the publishing process goes further. It may take a day or two (for a short story), as I have other projects in production that require my time. I try to slow down on weekends, but sometimes that’s not possible.

Now that we use Submishmash, it’s much easier (we were all email before). Editors can read online or download a submission, read the bios, make comments and “vote” on a piece, all within the application. Acceptances and rejections can be done with a click. The editorial groups meet on a regular basis to discuss the most recent submissions. We’re working hard on making our response times as fast as possible.

Today, I spent time corresponding with Random House and Bloodaxe Books. I received submissions back from our readers, which I sorted into ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘maybe’. I promoted the special North East England edition of our magazine which will be published along with our next issue. I also consulted with our chosen photographer regarding ideas for our forthcoming magazine cover. Then I made coffee and updated our Facebook and Twitter pages. This afternoon I will oversee the formatting of StepAway Magazine issue four.

I email submissions to the Kindle and read them in bed, making notes and sorting them into Accept and Reject folders. When I'm putting an issue together, I stop reading the subs and my co-editor takes over.

Me and the other editors (many of which are fake) alternate weeks. So I'll read everything that shows up for one week, and then Eileen will take the next week, and then--I don't know--Bigfoot will take the week after that. And so on. We often forward stuff to one another to get second opinions. But not too often, as that makes us look indecisive. It's a constant power struggle here at Defenestration, and there's no room for the weak.

Because I have a full-time job, many children and writing projects of my own, the editing tends to be done when time can be found, but I generally try to have a clear two or three-hour period to get stuck into the pile of manuscripts. There's always a backlog because submissions arrive with every post. With the assistance of large quantities of coffee I make my way through the pile in strict date of submission order, and when the session's over walk up the hill to the post box with a bag of rejections (sadly the bulk) and a few acceptances.

Material is received by reviewing/assistant editors who go through all submissions, isolating those of particular importance, stripping them of their bios and other identifiable markers. These are then sent onward with recommendations for publishing, to the deputies and editors who read through them. Discussions are held, pieces are identified by each editor where each editor gets at least one pick and the opportunity to argument for/against it. Once a consensus is reached, authors are notified of their success and editing (where required) begins. Once both editor and writer are satisfied, material is compiled and finalized and sent onward to the proofreaders and the creative department.

The three editors at FRiGG read submissions year round, but not necessarily every day. Sometimes we read a whole bunch at once. Sometimes days go by and we don't read any submissions. (Laggards.) If you don't hear from us for a while, it probably means we haven't read your submission yet. We encourage submitters to simultaneously submit so they won't be twiddling their thumbs waiting for an answer from us. If three months have passed since you submitted to us, e-mail us and say, What the heck? (Also, sometimes submissions don't make it to us. They disappear in cyberspace. If you suspect this might have happened, e-mail us to see if we got your submission.)

First, for much of the year, I teach writing to 80-90 college students per semester. This means time is of the essence. But when it comes to Enchanted Conversation, I spend significant time responding to emails, formatting chosen submissions, paying people, drumming up readership, picking and enhancing art for the publication, and generally scrambling to make EC the best I can.

My assistant reads the slush pile as it comes in. Poetry, nonfiction and artwork she forwards directly to me and I make the decision on those myself. For fiction, she does an initial reading and rejects 70% or so. I sort through the rest, often reading the best ones through two or three times. Once I have the creme de la creme, about three per available slot, I often ask a volunteer or two to read them and give me a "literary" critique. Then I make the final decision. Occasionally a story is so good I accept it immediately.

Busy. Busy. And busy. Sometimes I wish I could clone myself, until I think of Michael Keaton in Multiplicity.

When I finally make it out of bed, I switch my laptop on and check for submissions. Depending on whether there's time before I have to attend classes, I read and reply immediately. If not, I usually get around to doing so within the same day. Not a terribly glamorous life, I'm afraid.

We are a very new e-publishing company and have hit the ground running with success born from hard work. We are at our computers well before 7:30am checking out the latest mail and submissions, as well as communicating with our authors. From there it goes on to assigned tasks of reading submissions and editing. Opening up a new submission is a bit like Christmas for us at times, it can be an entertaining surprise that makes us say a collective "yes!" One person will read it, then after stewing and chewing on it for awhile, send it off to another editor for an opinion. We will trade perspectives and at times debate the merits of a submitted piece, but a work is almost always accepted in a mutual agreement of its content. Some of us prefer specific genres and specialize in them, so those that excel in that genre carry more weight in choosing a genre specific piece. There are those rare pieces that will have us in disagreement but if someone feels strongly about accepting the work, it will get accepted and that editor has to take responsibility for it during the entire publishing process.

Reading stories (and I look at all submissions) is only one aspect of my job. Ideally, I spend a week or two each month reading and evaluating stories. The rest of my time is spent on some production work, laying out issues, working with authors on rewrites, writing editorials, blurbs, and the coming attractions page, choosing material for the website, choosing cover art and artists, and myriad other tasks involved in publishing a monthly magazine.

I spend some time each morning with submissions, trying to read at least one thoroughly.

Like most online editors, this is a passion not a vocation. I check my email a couple of times a day except some holidays and try to respond right then. With the amount of subs i get, sometimes they fall off the page, but most writers know within a day or two of submission.

I save up submissions for my two, 3-month reading periods: Sept-Dec and March-June. The rest of the time I am working on setting up local readings, tracking down new writers or working on my own writing.

I love love love getting good work to read and publish. But that's only a fraction of the job. Much of the gig is about broader, organizational strategies, networking, and, in a way, becoming a literary pimp of the journal and the work we love.

Because the volume of submissions is low, I spend most days not editing at all. When submissions come in, I try to answer definite "No"s as soon as I receive them. The rest I may sit on to reread in (ideally!) the next day or two. Since I'm also the art editor and webmaster, I occasionally look for artists online, and there is a flurry of activity at the end of each quarter, when I'm getting the next issue ready to post.

During the reading period we spend ten hours a day with manuscripts. During off periods we take care of the journal's administrative duties and work to expand our readership.

TQR, owing to its public vetting process, doesn't get very many submissions. My theory is that only the strong-willed types who like being able to size up their competition will dare submit to TQR, but then, it's probably a matter of being unknown and/or a nonentity. Our marketing department sucks.So, getting back to your question, it's pretty easy. Gabby and Boligard and Lalo and Maggie and Otto do all the heavy lifting and then I get to sit back in my plush leather chair and decide, upon the sweat of their brow and fruits of their labor, which works die and which ones fly.

Very hectic, but I'm sure everyone tells you that, so I will tell you I'm sitting under an umbrella in the Virgin Islands with a Corona, a plate of maguro sushi, and a laptop.

My pitbull stares at me with eyes asking, "Are you STILL on the computer?" and eventually settles to the floor, snoring. And I read submissions into the night.

Time. Always watching the clock and trying to fit in one more story, one more email reply into my schedule.
The day job keeps me employed, this FFJ moonlighting keeps me engaged, enthralled, enthusiastic.

It's wonderful to share great writing with the online literary community. Running The Molotov Cocktail is a joy. Maybe someday it'll be my day job, but I won't hold my breath.

It's wonderful to share great writing with the online literary community. Running The Molotov Cocktail is a joy. Maybe someday it'll be my day job, but I won't hold my breath.

I am also a writer and a teacher so I usually read submissions only two days a week. As a rule we meet as a group and read aloud to one another from the submissions. Those submissions that survive this process are farmed out to be read more carefully. Those that are received favorably are passed on for second or third readings.

I check the email from my slush readers, accept or reject the stories, send out letters, consider narrators, consider schedule, get stories to narrators and hosts, and update the shared calendar. If I have spare time, I'll look through some anthologies to see if I find appropriate stories to solicit the audio rights.

I check the website daily for new submissions, download them, anonymise them if the author has left their name in, and convert them into Word if they aren't already. Then I save them to that month's folder until after the theme deadline. Once the deadline has passed I send them out to my fellow editors and read them all myself as well, scoring them as YES/NO/MAYBE (and some other categories in between) as I go. Then we all get together in the pub, compare notes and fight for our favourites!

My job is mostly finding ways of promoting the publication, but a lot of my time is taken up with answering emails and letters. But before I leave the office I usually pick up a packet (30 poems or 15 short stories) to read during the evenings when I don't have homework.

I sometimes read submissions while going though the car wash. I stay up too late reading submissions or doing other magazine-related things. I get up in the middle of the night to read submissions or talk to Yahoo tech support. Every minute is precious. There is never enough time.

Well, I have a few jobs, so being an editor is not my 9-5 sit at a desk job. Though I do still sit at the editorial desk daily, and every day is a new adventure. Some daily tasks include: correspondence, administration work like tracking submissions and subscriptions; the design and typesetting of the journal, designing ads and promotional materials, working with new fonts, updating the website, reading submissions, organizing the work that has been accepted and the order in which it will appear; out of the office there are conferences, classes, poetry gatherings, writers workshops and writers groups and more that I attend to network and spread the word about the journal. I'm probably missing a few things, but I think you can see it encompasses varying duties.

My day: working my Real Job (tm); coming home to comb through email submissions; sending out acceptance or rejection emails; prepping the new issue; breaking for chocolate; starting all over again.

As the Editor-in-Chief at Six Sentences, I'm constantly on the lookout for quality pieces to add to the site. I read three times each day - 6am, 12noon and 10pm - for an hour at a time, and select the finest submissions for the website and print anthologies.

Early in a contest, we receive a bunch of stories right away, then things calm down and we might only get a few stories a week. Our contests last three months. We typically receive 50% of our entries in the first two months, another 25% in the next three weeks, and the last 25% in the last week. So that last week is filled with reading and discussing the merits of stories.
The co-publishers have full-time jobs that keep them busy, so the last week of a contest is very hectic for us.
The most fun part, I think, is working with the authors whose entries get selected. We like the editing process and so do most of our authors, once they start working with us. It's all handled over e-mail and a story's editing process can last anywhere from three days to three weeks, depending on how responsive the author is and how much debate there is over suggested changes. Most authors accept most of our suggestions, and we generally don't fight the suggestions they turn down. Once in a while, though, a real discussion breaks out.

Pressurized!
Of course, time is set aside for manuscripts to be read and re-read in a quiet and tranquil environment.

Because Terrain.org is an on-the-side love affair, there really isn’t a typical day, either for me or the genre editors. We try to read and reply on all non-contest submissions within eight weeks, but we also read fairly regularly. The trick is to make sure it’s not the end of the day so we’re not too tired to give submissions the quality attention they deserve. For me, Sunday afternoons are a great time to read and set aside those I’d like to read again. We decline submissions as soon as possible—those we accept we often hold longer so editors can read and comment on them, so we can live with them a bit before making a final decision. Still, every now and then a poetry submission will really sing and then I’ll accept it pretty much right away. No sense in waiting if we know the submission is a good fit—and no sense in risking someone else accepting it, either!

Since the editor also makes coffee, buys toilet paper, delivers packages to the post office, and reads Publishers Weekly, reading a submission must takes its place in a busy, one-man operation. In a way it is neither the most nor the least important of the activities.

Reading and responding two thirds of the time, designing a third of the tme.

The beginnings of about 10-20 pieces are read online in one sitting. Pieces that seem to have some potential are then skimmed through to the end, online. Of these 10-20, perhaps 5 will stand out. These are printed and saved for a time (usually within the week) where a more critical read can be done, using colored markers. Of the 5, 1 or 2 are usually read to completion and kept in a Maybe folder, to be read again weeks later. We always have suggested changes and markups to prose submissions, some minor, some major. In the eight years of our magazine's existence, only two submitters have retracted their work due to our comments, while some well-published authors over the years have been very thankful and appreciative of our careful editing. The biggest joy we have is when we read that shining submission that wows us to death, because of the realization that the author thought highly enough of us to send in such work.

I tend to read through submissions at night, during my downtime at work, while Monica tends to read them on her phone while she’s going to work. So we’ll usually each rate at least a few each day. Unless life gets in the way. Then we’re tearing through the entire inbox on a Sunday afternoon.

For me it involves reading one or two stories most evenings, and occasionally passing them on to other editors to look at. Every couple of weeks or so we have a discussion about whatever we've looked at recently; and once a quarter we have a more intense period of working with artists and putting together an issue. We get to read a lot of great stuff, even stuff that we don't end up publishing.