The editor of Storyglossia sent an email to writers last week that included this helpful bit of information:
WHAT WE WANT TO SEE LESS OF
Stories on the general theme of dementia, Alzheimer’s, and caring for aged parents–we’ve had our fill of those for now.
Prose poems or scene snippets masquerading as flash fiction.
Lame first sentences–seriously, the low quality of first sentences in submissions is appalling. Believe me, your chances of getting a fair reading of your submission–and not just at Storyglossia–will dramatically improve if your first sentence is a killer hook.
WHAT WE WANT TO SEE MORE OF
“Experimental” and “non-traditional” approaches to story.
Humor. Note, however, that the sense of humor in the Storyglossia editorial sanctums is dry and dark. Did “Waiting for Godot” make you laugh? As the saying goes, make us laugh and…
Stories in the 2500-3500 word range. The golden mean of story length, and the most difficult length to master. But that’s what we want.
I think that’s great. Why should writers be left to guess what an editor’s looking for? Of course we should always follow the commonsense advice of reading a few issues of a journal to see what’s been published before, but that’s not going to tell you that the editor is sick of demented parent stories or that he is looking for something different from what he published in the last issue.
Do you think a prose poemish flash fiction piece on my grandmother’s dementia, with the opening sentence “My grandmother has Alzheimer’s” would make them laugh?
Send it in on scented pink paper, handwritten in purple ink. That’ll catch his eye for sure!
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