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Editor Interviews

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Read all the editors' answers to Duotrope's interview question: How important do you feel it is for publishers to embrace modern technologies? Learn more.

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

Q: How important do you feel it is for publishers to embrace modern technologies?

A: We feel it is very important for publishers to embrace technology. As a digital publication only, at this present time, we feel like technology should present a field of possibilities, and not a barrier or a paywall to entry.
Technology for us provides reach for both the readers and creators who would perhaps never get to experience certain publications if they were solely traditional.
We think it is important for all the publishers to embrace technology and use it for their publications, without abandoning or neglecting their traditional values. We believe technology should be beneficial and accessible to everyone, and it is important that all publishers embrace it - in order for it to thrive in the educational, inspirational and accessibility sense.

A: Things like electronic submissions make life a lot easier, but at the end of the day, we’re making books. Broadly speaking, the things that made a book good in 1850 are the same things that make a book good today.

A: We live in a tech-driven world, and so that’s why we’ve moved to online submissions, online publishing and an active social media presence. Traditional paper publications have a limited scope and reach, while modern technologies make writing, especially poetry, more accessible to a wider audience.

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

A: Moist loves new media—Instagram, socials, getting the word out about poetry, creating digital space and access to poetry. But we need every kind of poetry journal—print, blog, website, social, as each kind of journal has a place and a role in supporting authors.

A: It is important for publishers to embrace modern technologies, since many journals like Lunaris Review are self-funded and volunteer work, it is important to make the process manageable, efficient, and as cost-effective as possible. Of course, modern technologies are not without financial cost implications.

A: Everything we do is electronic.

Doug Jacquier, Editor of Witcraft, 28 February 2024

A: We cannot imagine attempting to do this without laptops, word processors, the internet, and all. That said, we can't help hearing the reverse of that question: "How important do you feel it is for modern tech [companies, businesses, et. al.] to embrace publishers?" We wish we could afford to use Submittable, for example, but even if we could we’re not sure we’d want to knowing how overpriced the service is. In point of fact, we miss out on potential contributors because we don’t subscribe to such services. God bless organizations like Duotrope who don’t price gouge in the realm of art. We hope that potential contributors like you care enough about what we’re trying to do to send us your work via email even though it’s nearly as out of fashion as snail mail submissions.

A: It's been years since we've received any submissions via paper mail, and I think that's a good thing -- email is just so much faster and more convenient, not to mention saving trees and fuel. And of course many of our readers now read our books in ebook format. But Hard Case Crime is an intentionally old-fashioned line of books, created to revive a particular style -- the mid-century "pulp" paperback -- and so I feel our paper editions, with their glorious painted covers, are the "real" product in some way, and I would prefer for all our readers to get to experience our books in that way. So while we do embrace modern ways of getting things done, we also like the best artifacts of the past.

A: It's really important for publishers to embrace modern technologies to make the submission process more economically friendly, paperless, and allow submissions of different forms (for example, visual poetry).

A: A Sci Fi publication that doesn't embrace the future is a bit of a silly thing isn't it?
That being said do not send us anything that has been so much as whispered to by "A.I". It's insulting to the process.

A: I think it's important not to become a dinosaur and to stay current. The recent battle with AI-generated work is a good example of a problem.

Richard Thomas, Editor-in-Chief / Editor of Gamut Magazine, 01 February 2024

A: Since we are an on-line magazine, knowing how to use a computer is kinda important.

Gary A. Markette, Senior editor of Anotherealm, 28 January 2024