We are at present a bit less than halfway through the slush pile from our 2021 open call for short fiction. We received 350 manuscripts, and have 174 to go. We’ve accepted five so far, and 66 are going into second reads. The remainder are not yet reviewed or have been declined.
It’s a slow process! Declines are almost always a matter a taste, and do not reflect objectively on the work itself. Second reads mean that one of our editors feels the story needs more eyes on it before a decision can be made.
We hope to begin a new publishing cycle in February, and are not sure at this time whether we’ll be offering fresh fiction each week to start, though we hope to work up to that.
We’re considering some new submissions cycles starting in the spring, including one for fantastical flash fiction. Also possible is an experiment with timing — for example, rather than doing one lumbering schlep of an open call per year, perhaps opening submissions regularly during the first week of each month.
All worthy ideas. Meanwhile, we have a significant number of manuscripts left to review — 20 per day before the end of the month, if we’re to be able to launch a new publishing cycle of some sort in February.
Back to it!
