Narrowing the Field
Well, now you’ve gone and done it.
You’ve fired off your submission to one of our anthologies. Congratulations! We’re proud of you!
But now, staring at your computer screen, you’re starting to wonder…
What happens to my submission?
After a quick journey through the interwebs, your submission unceremoniously arrives in the inbox of D.L., our anthology editor. At this moment, it has officially entered the slush pool.
It won’t be here long.
D.L. does not like keeping things in the slush pool. So as often as he can, he logs into his email and does one of three things to every submission waiting in the slush pool:
Rejects it
Sends a "revise and resubmit" (R&R) invitation
Long lists it
He does this quickly, sometimes just moments after a submission arrives in his inbox. In most cases, you’ll have a decision within three days. If it’s been a week and you haven’t heard from him, you should probably send him a (polite) email to ask why you haven’t heard from him.
70-75% of submissions fail to make it past this stage.
Did we mention D.L. survives on a diet of writers' tears and crushed hopes? It’s the only reason we can afford him.
What he’s looking for at this point are stories he could publish: Complete stories with a strong hook and good sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation.
Fortunately, your story meets these criteria, and has made:
THE LONG LIST
From the long list, there are two possible outcomes for your story:
Rejection
The Short List
Roughly half of the long list will go into one category, half into the other.
At this point, we know your story is publishable. Now D.L. is looking for stories he wants to publish, stories that grab him in some way and don’t let go (no, not like that).
This is where the science of anthology creation meets the art: there isn’t really a set of criteria D.L. could write to explain why stories make the short list. It has to do with personal preference, what he thinks the audience will enjoy, and what he thinks will work with the other stories in the anthology.
Usually, D.L. starts narrowing down the long list in the final week of the call. Also in the final week, he gets a lot more picky about the stories he takes. By the time the submission deadline rolls around, he’s only long listing stories he expects to put on the short list.
Your story is one of the select few that make up:
THE SHORT LIST
This is where things get really difficult. The call is closed, and D.L. has narrowed it down to a handful of stories. Now it’s like pulling teeth, finding the ten stories that belong in the anthology, plus a handful of alternates in case someone backs out at the last minute or a story was accepted elsewhere and the author forgot to tell us.
He’s not just looking for great stories, he’s looking for stories that work together to turn the anthology into a book, a piece of written media that will entertain and horrify readers.
Once he’s made his decision, each submission goes to one of three possible destinations:
Rejection
Limbo
Acceptance
If your story is accepted, you get an acceptance email that should be replied to promptly so D.L. can begin putting the contract together.
Rejection is straightforward enough.
But what about limbo?
It’s more than an Olympic sport in Futurama.
It’s a waiting game.
As information and contracts come in, the Limbo list is slowly reduced, until finally, the last spot in the anthology is filled, and the last rejection is sent out.
At this point, D.L. retreats to his hiding place to start editing, and since your story made the cut, you should respond to his emails in a timely manner.
And while you wait, you should start writing your story for the next call.
You’ve fired off your submission to one of our anthologies. Congratulations! We’re proud of you!
But now, staring at your computer screen, you’re starting to wonder…
What happens to my submission?
After a quick journey through the interwebs, your submission unceremoniously arrives in the inbox of D.L., our anthology editor. At this moment, it has officially entered the slush pool.
It won’t be here long.
D.L. does not like keeping things in the slush pool. So as often as he can, he logs into his email and does one of three things to every submission waiting in the slush pool:
Rejects it
Sends a "revise and resubmit" (R&R) invitation
Long lists it
He does this quickly, sometimes just moments after a submission arrives in his inbox. In most cases, you’ll have a decision within three days. If it’s been a week and you haven’t heard from him, you should probably send him a (polite) email to ask why you haven’t heard from him.
70-75% of submissions fail to make it past this stage.
Did we mention D.L. survives on a diet of writers' tears and crushed hopes? It’s the only reason we can afford him.
What he’s looking for at this point are stories he could publish: Complete stories with a strong hook and good sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation.
Fortunately, your story meets these criteria, and has made:
THE LONG LIST
From the long list, there are two possible outcomes for your story:
Rejection
The Short List
Roughly half of the long list will go into one category, half into the other.
At this point, we know your story is publishable. Now D.L. is looking for stories he wants to publish, stories that grab him in some way and don’t let go (no, not like that).
This is where the science of anthology creation meets the art: there isn’t really a set of criteria D.L. could write to explain why stories make the short list. It has to do with personal preference, what he thinks the audience will enjoy, and what he thinks will work with the other stories in the anthology.
Usually, D.L. starts narrowing down the long list in the final week of the call. Also in the final week, he gets a lot more picky about the stories he takes. By the time the submission deadline rolls around, he’s only long listing stories he expects to put on the short list.
Your story is one of the select few that make up:
THE SHORT LIST
This is where things get really difficult. The call is closed, and D.L. has narrowed it down to a handful of stories. Now it’s like pulling teeth, finding the ten stories that belong in the anthology, plus a handful of alternates in case someone backs out at the last minute or a story was accepted elsewhere and the author forgot to tell us.
He’s not just looking for great stories, he’s looking for stories that work together to turn the anthology into a book, a piece of written media that will entertain and horrify readers.
Once he’s made his decision, each submission goes to one of three possible destinations:
Rejection
Limbo
Acceptance
If your story is accepted, you get an acceptance email that should be replied to promptly so D.L. can begin putting the contract together.
Rejection is straightforward enough.
But what about limbo?
It’s more than an Olympic sport in Futurama.
It’s a waiting game.
As information and contracts come in, the Limbo list is slowly reduced, until finally, the last spot in the anthology is filled, and the last rejection is sent out.
At this point, D.L. retreats to his hiding place to start editing, and since your story made the cut, you should respond to his emails in a timely manner.
And while you wait, you should start writing your story for the next call.