Display Interview

Conducted by Dan Wickett on 1/19/2005
The following is an e-panel interview of founders, editors and managing editors of 8 Literary Journals of varying age and size.  As a great deal of fiction writers, poets, and creative non-fiction writers get their initial exposure to the public from these types of journals, I thought I'd see if some wouldn't be willing to open up to their thoughts on various processes in the publishing world.

Those that are joining us here are:

Michelle Herman - Co-Editor, The Journal
http://english.osu.edu/journals/the_journal/singlepages/aboutus.html
Dave and Josh Koch and Josh Melrod - Co-Editors, Land Grant College Review
www.land-grantcollegereview.com
Kyle Minor - Editor, The Frostproof Review
www.frostproofreview.com
Hannah Tinti - Editor, One Story
www.one-story.com
Kim Dana Kupperman and Peter Stitt - Managing Editor and Editor, The Gettysburg Review
http://www.gettysburg.edu/academics/gettysburg_review/news.html
Mike Steinberg - Founding Editor, Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction
http://msupress.msu.edu/fourthgenre/
Rod (R.T.) Smith - Editor, Shenandoah
www.shenandoah.wlu.edu/
Felicia Sullivan - Editor, Small Spiral Notebook
www.smallspiralnotebook.com



Dan:

Thanks for taking some time out of what must be a busy schedule to get the word out about Literary Journals!

Michelle:

You're welcome. Ask fast. I have about ten free minutes. :)

Kyle:

Thank you, Dan, for the opportunity.

Hannah:

Thanks for having us.

Mike:

Thank you, Dan. You're doing us all a big favor.

R.T.:

You're welcome, Dan.  The truth is, the more information about SHENANDOAH we can get out to people, the less time I have to spend explaining our perspectives and practices.

Felicia:

Thank you, Dan, for inviting Small Spiral Notebook to take part!



Dan:

I know some of you took over positions and others founded their own journals.  What exactly led to your taking on the position you currently hold with your Literary Journal?

Michelle:

Kathy Fagan tricked me into it. 

Actually, what happened was this: The Journal had been around for about fifteen years at Ohio State--it originated with Bill Allen, a writer who was on the faculty until the late eighties, I think (we overlapped as colleagues only briefly) by the time I was hired.  At that point, David Citino was overseeing its editing. It was run in the main by graduate students, with David acting mostly as a faculty advisor. In 1989, the poet Kathy Fagan was hired by OSU (a year after they hired me) and she was asked to take over The Journal.  And she said she would, if I helped her with it. It was kind of like "hey, kids, let's put on a show!"  And even though I had had NO interest in editing a literary magazine, somehow she persuaded me that it would be fun, a great idea, if the two of us did this together. And we've been doing it together ever since.

Dave and Josh:

We founded the magazine three years ago when we were in the MFA program at Washington University in St. Louis.

Kyle:

I founded Frostproof Review in 2002 and appointed myself editor.

Hannah:

I'm the editor at One Story. Maribeth Batcha, our publisher, approached me about starting a literary magazine that publishes only one story at a time, and I thought it was a fantastic idea. She had the business experience, and I had the editorial experience, so together we 
founded the magazine in 2001 and put out our first issue in 2002.

Peter:

Back in 1984 Gettysburg College decided to start a literary magazine, quite a radical decision then or at any time.  I applied and was eventually selected as the founding editor.  The reason I took the position is that most of my requirements were met: the college was as serious as I was and willing to invest the necessary money to publish a journal that would have the possibility of competing at a pretty high level.  The president of the college at that time, Charles Glassick, was a brilliant administrator with a creative vision, and he was wonderful to work with.  Thanks to his strong backing, the journal is what it is today.

Mike:

I founded Fourth Genre on the advice of the then managing editor for the Journal's Division at the Michigan State University Press. She took a creative nonfiction graduate class that I taught called "American Lives." When the class ended, she approached me with the idea of editing a journal of creative nonfiction for the MSU Press. At the time, there was only one literary journal devoted solely to this genre. Today, there are three.

R.T.:

I was a professor at Auburn and co-editor of SOUTHERN HUMANITIES REVIEW 
back in 1995 when Washington and Lee advertised that the editorship position was open.  I applied and, luckily for me, was selected.

Felicia:

Small Spiral Notebook evolved because I recognized friends and peers who were wonderful and prolific writers and for some reason were not being published in the more high-profile literary journals where the ratio of submissions received versus submissions accepted was frightening. The Paris Review, for example, receives 15,000 submissions per year and with only four issues and a few stories per issue, odds of placing a story are rather slim.  The online market offered a great deal of writers to publish their work at a minimal cost.

The journal was created for the purpose of fostering emerging writers by publishing their work or reviewing their debut books. 



Dan:

I don't know if you can hear collective laughter over the internet, but is it safe to say you do this out of love, and it wasn't some get rich quick scheme?

Michelle:

It started out of love for Kathy (I was just so glad to have a new colleague and friend! My first year at Ohio State had been damn lonely) and it turned into a labor of pedagogical love, which is really what editing The J. is about for me. More on that later, I suspect (I'm not scrolling ahead to see what questions you're going to ask--I'd rather come to them fresh, as if this were a real "live" interview).

Dave and Josh:

Ha! We could ask you the same question.

Kyle:

I paid for the first year by teaching adjunct classes in American literature to adult students. My wife paid for the second year by teaching adjunct classes in African-American and British literature to adult students. We have become big, big fans of non-traditional college students.

Hannah:

Absolutely we do it out of love. Running One Story is a full-time job that Maribeth and I both squeeze into our other, paying jobs.  Everyone on our staff is a volunteer, and no one gets paid, except for the writers.

Peter:

Yes, very amusing.  There is no real money in literary publishing, and there is plenty of potential pain, so love is the only possible motivation.  And the love that goes round comes round; a magazine forms a community of writers and readers, and it is an affectionate community, thank god.

Mike:

Funny, the things we do for love. Sometimes, I think we all got our training doing  community theater in a previous life.

R.T.:

I won't deny that I love participating in the literary world as an editor, but it's also my job, though lately I have been teaching more and working with students in other ways.  I don't expect anyone becomes affluent from the editor's pay, but riches might be another matter.  Not quickly, but I am steadily enriched by this labor.

Felicia:

This venture is completely a labor of love funded primarily by my corporate job at a major media company in New York.  I don't expect to yield profits from journal sales - that isn't really my intention. I remember this question coming up at the Small Press Fair conference, a woman asking after our balance sheets and how we manage "cash flow" and coming from a financial background, I couldn't help but giggle - yes, there are books to manage, but I always find myself more in the red than above water and that's fine with me. As long as I'm putting the work that myself and my editors love out there, at the end of the day, that's what really matters.  Not net profits.



Dan:

In order to run a Literary Journal, do you believe you need to have knowledge of literature, or of business, or some mixture of the two?  Would it be helpful if more truly business astute people were involved in the running of such journals?

Michelle:

I don't see how that would help. It certainly doesn't seem to have helped the world of book publishing.  I think what it takes to edit a literary magazine is an endless capacity and willingness to read new writing, an open mind and heart, a lot of patience, a genuine passion to discover new artists, and a good dose of masochism.

Dave and Josh:

The fact that we didn't have any business training when we started forced us to learn by trial and error, and that's been pretty painful sometimes. As it turns out, editing fiction is a much smaller part of what we do than either of us would have guessed.

Kyle:

We've (perhaps blindly) assumed that if we chose good stories, good essays, and good poems, then we would slowly build an audience of readers. And that is what is happening, slowly. Last month a reader who was moved by a story in our first issue sent a check for a hundred dollars. The money was nice, but the idea that we had somehow connected that writer to that ideal reader meant more to me.

Hannah:

Luckily we have a business person. Maribeth has more than 13 years experience in magazine circulation and subscription and that has helped us enormously, especially as far as getting press and expanding our subscriber base.

Kim:
As a managing editor of a journal sponsored by a private college (not only a rarity, but a true blessing), I think it's very important to be familiar with how budgets work, and also know the mechanics and politics of grant writing.  However, because we are fiscally supported by the college, perhaps the more important business knowledge is related to customer service (i.e., subscription fulfillment, tackling queries to those whose credit card was declined, maintaining an active and up-to-date web site, etc.). 
 I don't think you can work in publishing without a knowledge of literature and language. That has to come first. We do extensive copy editing and proofreading at the Review, and a familiarity with mechanics, usage, grammar, are all essential. Understanding elements of craft-voice, stance, point of view-is equally important to the copy editing process. Where the business-astute side comes in for me in this particular part of the production process is when I talk with authors about copy edits we've made to their manuscripts. These conversations require tact, listening, sometimes negotiation, and a willingness to trust, all skills one might associate with good business practices (not to mention being a kind and compassionate human being). 
Mike:

I think the editor (or editors in our case) usually are usually considered to be the literary experts. And traditionally, managing editors oversee the business end. In recent years though, both roles are beginning to intersect. I know that as an editor, I often find myself, by necessity, doing promotion, marketing, and publicity. And my friend, Kim Kupperman, the managing editor at the Gettysburg Review, is an accomplished writer, voracious reader, and perceptive manuscript reader, as well as a savvy day-to-day-business person.

R.T.:

I think a combination is essential.  I was really naive about that when I came to Lexington, but I've had to learn about marketing, design and distribution.  Much of an editor's job involves both business and diplomacy, and though a knowledge of and love of literature are essential, anyone who just plain hates the business side of keeping a publication afloat would be better off teaching or driving on the NASCAR circuit.  
Someone said about writing that it would be a great job if it weren't for the paperwork.  It's tempting to say the same about editing.

Felicia:

I would say that it's helpful to have a background in accounting, however, I don't see this as a deal-breaker.  Especially if your literary journal/publishing venture is not in the process of applying for non-profit status. If you're dealing with non-profit, it is critical (I believe) to have a lawyer (at least for the initial filing) and someone on board to manage your books in order to position your journal accurately as a non-profit venture.  A publisher at the Small Press fair commented that she was rejected the first time she filed because she didn't "bump up" the educational focus of her business, she focused more on the profits, or lack there of.  

I don't have any plans to file as a non-profit and the bookkeeping is merely for my own tax-filing purposes. Although I have a degree in Finance & Marketing, a lot of what I learned from running a literary journal has been through experience - sniffing out what other journals do, talking with editors, meeting with writers and it really comes down to the publisher's vision. Do I want to be small? Do I want to have mass-market distribution? I think the model changes with the intention. If that makes any sense.



Dan:

Where does the funding for your journal come from?  A university?  Patrons?  Subscribers?  Fundraisers?

Michelle:

We operate on a shoestring. The university provides us office space, gives Kathy and me a tiny grudging amount of time off (we share one course release a year--which means one year she gets released from one course, the next year I do), pays for two twenty-hour-a-week graduate student "associates" (who do the day-to-day work of running the magazine: production, subscriptions, grant-writing, ads, dealing with the distributor, etc.), pays much of our postage, and supports, through federal financial aid, undergraduate work-study students (when we can find them--that is, when we can find undergrads who are interested in this kind of work, responsible, smart, literary, AND impoverished enough to qualify for work-study). We have been very successful obtaining grants over the years, in particular in securing funding from the Ohio Arts Council. And we have a subscription base (small but powerful!). Plus, the OSU/The Journal Poetry Prize (soon to be renamed The Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize of The Journal and OSU Press) contributes sizably to our coffers: a portion of the entry fee for the prize, for a book of poems, goes to The J.

Dave and Josh:

We make our money through subscriptions, private donations and grants. The best way to help a magazine you care about is to subscribe. The amount of money we get from our distributors when we sell a copy in bookstores is criminal.

Kyle:

We have less than one hundred subscribers, but that subscription money really helps, as does bookstore promotions. Last year, for example, we sold a large quantity of journals after doing one reading at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington, Kentucky, one of the best independent outfits around. 
 
But Frostproof Review loses money, and it probably will until we find a patron, and until then (or for as long as I am able) I will subsidize it myself, because I love the journal, and I love introducing readers to the kind of work we publish.

Hannah:

We're an independent journal, and have no university affiliation.  Maribeth put up the initial funds to get us started, and since then I've put in money as well. Our subscribers pay for most of the magazine.   At this point, we're just about breaking even. One Story is basically paying for itself. But not enough to pay us for our time or pay the rest of our staff a salary.

Kim:
The college, grants (Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; NEA), and subscribers provide our fiscal support. We are, as I mentioned above, blessed to have most of our funding come from Gettysburg College.
Mike:

Originally, we received a three year start up grant from the university. After that ran out (four years ago),we've been completely dependent on subscribers, outside grants, fund raisers, and patrons.

R.T.:

Right now we're funded by the university through the Dean's office, just like a little department.  We derive other income from subscriptions and a little from advertising.  So far, due to Washington and Lee's generous commitment to literature, we have not needed to seek outside funding, but as times and the financial climate alter, I can't be certain 
that a quest for private patrons isn't in our future.

Felicia:

Primarily, my paycheck, however, I do coordinate fundraisers & am privileged to have friends that have provided some funding for the print issues. 



Dan:

How do you decide how many issues to publish of each issue?  Does the greater percentage get sent off to subscribers?

Michelle:

We try to do the math (and often fail at the math), so that we have enough issues for subscribers, contributors, and Ingram (our distributor), for bookstores. Then, if we're going to the AWP conference, we print a bunch more, to take with us. Sometimes we hit it about right; other times we run out of copies and are furious at ourselves for not printing more (there are some issues we have NO copies of for the office, and others where we have just one or two); and then there are times we print way too many. Kathy and I both have closetsful of back issues to remind us of those mistakes.

Dave and Josh:

We publish 2000 copies per issue, plus the printer's overrun. A big percentage of those wind up in bookstores. A little less than a third go to subscribers, and we keep a bunch for online sales, review copies, and posterity.

Kyle:

We print 500 copies of each issue. We try to sell around 300-350 of the copies, and the rest are used to promote our writers. We submit to all the anthologies (Best American, O. Henry, Pushcart, etc.) and we also send promotional copies to influential writers and editors who might find something they like in our pages. At least one of our writers from the first issue, by the way, is fielding offers from two well-regarded publishing houses as an indirect result of this kind of promotion. We introduced someone to his work, they introduced someone else, and so on. That is deeply satisfying.

Hannah:

Since we're a subscriber only publication, about 95% of our print run goes to subscribers. We know how many subscribers we have for any given issue and use that to come up with the number for the print run. It's pretty simple.

Kim:
I'll answer the second question first: yes.
 First I look at the number of subscribers for the most current issue. If we are engaged in a marketing effort (i.e., direct mail), I will look at the number of pieces in the mailing and calculate that there will be roughly a 1% return (the industry standard). So let's say we have 2300 subscribers and we've just sent out a direct mailing of 36,000 pieces. That would add up to a total of 2660. I also look at whether or not we're near the Christmas holidays, since folks give gift subscriptions. If we are, I'll add 500, which comes to 3160. If we aren't, I'll probably order an additional 250-350 so we can fulfill current and back issue requests. Then there are our distributors, who receive 160 issues. So the grand total (during Christmas season) would come to 3320.
Mike:

The managing editor of the MSU Press Journals makes that decision. Usually, it's based on how many subscribers we have at the moment, and how many contributors' copies, editorial board copies, and publicity copies we need to give away. Plus, whatever we have to save for the archives.

R.T.:

By far the greatest number of copies goes to our subscribers, of whom there are far too few.  Early in the production schedule of each issue we look at our most up-to-date subscription figures, see how many copies have been ordered by contributors and teachers who use SHENANDOAH as a text, then guess whether or not we think the particular issue will be a good seller at conferences.  It's always a process of informed 
extrapolation.

Felicia:

Small Spiral Notebook publishes annually. Of course, I would love for this to be more frequent, but it's not financially feasible at this time. Additionally, there is such great work involved in just assembling the issue (from work's acceptance to publication) that producing more than one issue a year would probably detract from my own writing and work. However, this isn't set in stone and perhaps in the future, we may go to bi-annual.



Dan:

How do you get bookstores to carry your journal?  Do you target independent stores, or big chains, or just regional stores?

Michelle:

All of our bookstore sales go through our distributor. They make these determinations,

Dave and Josh:

We have a few distributors, but in an effort to get the magazine sold off the shelves we've developed relationships with a bunch of independent bookstores across the country.

Kyle:

We work with independent booksellers in the areas where our writers live and propose a reading and signing. Then we beg the stores to not just carry the copies, but to put them on display in the front of the store. We offer terrible terms. We send a sample copy, and that's what clinches it. I can't believe this works.

Hannah:

One Story is not carried in bookstores. It is a subscription-only magazine. The reason for this is that the magazine is very small, and we felt it would get lost on the shelves. But we hope to publish an anthology in the future, which would get carried in bookstores.

Kim:
We take several issues to one local bookstore, and several to the college bookstore. Our distributors (Ingram and Ubiquity) handle all other bookstores.
Mike:

So far as I know, you have to get a distributor to take you on.

R.T.:

It's easy to get bookstores to carry a journal, but we don't sell many that way.  Because most bookstores prefer to just send unsold covers back, it's not a profitable endeavor.  We're in a small town an hour from any substantial bookstore, and that's a real handicap.  My managing editor says we usually lose money when we send books to a bookstore, but 
we do it some anyway, as we want to be seen and keep hoping that things will change.

Felicia:

For the first issue, I called up a lot of independent stores and was grateful for their overwhelming support.  For the second issue, I do have distribution through Bernard DeBoer to place Small Spiral Notebook in a great deal more of stores. Recently, I have turned down large-scale distribution simply because I don't have the large print-run, issue rate and funding to support sending off 500 issues to only have jackets returned.



Dan:

Do you consider your journal to be a regional journal or not?

Michelle:

By and large, no. But we do occasionally pause to focus on the region, to acknowledge how rich the literary landscape actually is in Ohio. Our "all-Ohio issue," about a year--oh, maybe it was two years!--ago, was very successful.

Dave and Josh:

Not.

Kyle:

We started in central Florida, where Frostproof was a regional reference, a place name, and then we moved to Columbus, Ohio, where Frostproof has become a metaphor, a piece of wishful thinking in the midst of the wintry cold. Our subscriber base stretches from Florida to the Northeast to Texas to California, and we intend to play ball with the big boys, at least in terms of the quality of the work we publish. So, I say we're a national journal, albeit a small one.

Hannah:

No. We publish authors from around the country and around the world.

Kim:

The Gettysburg Review is not regional.

Mike:

No.  We're a national journal.

R.T.:

NO, I wouldn't say so.  We receive more submissions from Virginia than any other state, but proximity lures a lot of manuscripts, and when I'm assessing submissions, location isn't an issue.

Felicia:

No. We print the best work we receive regardless from where the writer hails. 



Dan:

With so much technology available these days, do you believe a staff member needs to live in the area the journal is published from?  Or is it possible to be productive and live elsewhere, maybe visiting once or twice per issue?

Michelle:

I think some aspects of it could be done long-distance, sure. It would make me a little nervous, I admit. At this point I try to keep my work on The J. focused on final editorial decisions (which is to say, manuscripts go through a LOT of readers before something gets to me, unless a piece is something I've solicited myself, or by a former contributor, so I read only a few dozen manuscripts a year, rather than the hundreds or thousands the staff reads) and actual editing of each piece of prose (Kathy and I take turns, switching every two issues, deciding on the cover art and "ordering" the material in the magazine. This all appears to be stuff that could be done at a distance, but I also like to look over the prose several times before it goes to press, and proofread one set of galleys myself too (the more eyes on pages, the better). Kathy does the same thing in poetry. I also meet with the graduate student who's handling fiction, and Kathy and I both meet with the full staff (of paid student workers and volunteers) to go over administrative matters and make sure everyone is...well, on the same page. And on track, to mix metaphors. I tend to spend a lot of time talking to both the volunteers and the paid folks about WHY I say no or yes to a given ms, and I also do editing sessions with the grad student editor when I can. So it's hard to imagine how this would work at a distance. Still, for some magazines, and some less obsessively controlling editors, I can see how it might work.

Dave and Josh:

We're based in NY, but one of our editors lives in St. Louis. So we talk to him on the phone every day.

Kyle:

If by staff member you mean editor, all you need is a post office box and an email account, and you could do your job from anywhere. 

Hannah:

It helps to be living in the same place, but most of our business is conducted via email. Some of our readers live in other states, and it works out fine, since our submissions are all online.

Kim:
Personally, I believe one needs to be close to home. It's possible to be productive and live elsewhere, but there's something too virtual about that for my taste. We also proof galleys the old fashioned way-oral proofing, so we need to be in the office together to complete such tasks. And we need a central location to which all queries come, and a way to be able to look at manuscripts, author files, inventory.
Peter:

Part-time readers could perhaps work from a distance, but the hand-on staff must be on site.  Far too many weird things needing quick solutions come up way too often, and I am afraid that quality would suffer if we were not working together in the same building.
Mike:

Ideally, the core staff (editor(s) and managing editor) should be in the area. But manuscript readers can live anywhere.

R.T.:

Our staff is very small.  I'm the only full-time employee, and my managing editor is half-time.  My wife, Sarah Kennedy, is our book review editor, and she donates her time.  The rest of the work is usually done by interns and work-study students.  Right now Cliff Garstang, who lives in Staunton, is helping me read the fiction, and he's just over half an 
hour away.  Chris Matthews and Lesley Wheeler, both teachers at W & L, occasionally screen some of the poetry for me.  The problem I can forsee with long-distance help is that we receive over 10,000 manuscripts a year, and those are physical mss.  We can't afford the time or cost to be sending them about to assistants.  This is the nature of SHENANDOAH, and I can imagine that some journals will have very different answers.

Felicia:

It's helpful that the editors live in New York (where Small Spiral Notebook is based), however, not essential with the advent of the Internet (and instant messaging) and phone calls. For the second issue, my poetry editors both live in New York, however, at the end of the year our schedules were so hectic that we spoke mostly via conference call and email. Also, the remainder of our staff is split between New York and other parts of the country and we function quite well with reviewing submissions.



Dan:

Does the journal solicit stories/essays?  If so, have you ever had to kick back a story or an essay for editorial reasons?  If so, how difficult is that to do?

Michelle:

We solicit work all the time. If I ask someone for a story and the story doesn't work, I will usually work WITH the writer to get it where it does. I am very careful not to solicit work from someone whose writing I don't love. In general, it seems to me that if you ask for something, you should be prepared to take it. That said, I will sometimes say in a more general way, hey, you ought to send us some stuff, which i don't see as the same thing as a direct and specific solicitation. I may be splitting hairs here! But even then, I won't ask a writer for a story unless I hope very much to publish it.

Dave and Josh:

We do solicit authors -- about half of the stories we published in our last issue came to us that way.  Sometimes the stories we're sent aren't right for the magazine, and we have to turn them away.  It's really hard sometimes, of course, but that's just part of editing the journal.  

Kyle:

We do solicit stories, and they're the toughest to reject. But usually you know what you're getting, and it's good. Our new issue features a Christopher Coake novella, a tour de force that would never have crossed my desk without soliciting. I first read Coake's work, by the way, in the pages of the Gettysburg Review, a journal whose contents frequently are more accomplished and enjoyable than those of our best commercial magazines.
 
And recommendations from trusted friends are just as important, as with this issue's lengthy excerpt from Mark Svenvold's Empire Burlesque cycle of poems, possibly the most technically accomplished poetry I've ever seen, suggested (and, boy, am I grateful) by Kathy Fagan at The Journal.

Hannah:

We solicited a few stories when we were first getting started, but since then we haven't, precisely for that reason. We don't want to be forced to publish something that isn't up to par, simply because the person is well established and has a recognizable name.

Peter:

With something like 6,000 submissions per year, I see no reason to solicit work, except, occasionally, reviews.  I am very much opposed to any kind of closed-door policy, so we work hard not to have a regular stable of writers or favored persons of any kind.

Mike:

To avoid just that scenario, we don't solicit manuscripts.  It's hard enough to turn down unsolicited essays and memoirs by colleagues and friends. Soliciting a manuscript creates an expectation in the writer that we'll most likely publish the piece--when the truth is that we don't know what we'll publish until it goes through the full review process--which consists of scrutiny from at least four readers, sometimes more

R.T.:

I don't have as much time to solicit work as I used to, and I regret that.  I have returned stories and poems I solicited, but I never promise acceptance in advance, and most professionals understand that it's unlikely that any editor will fall in love with everything they write.  If the first one doesn't work out, I ask to see more.  After two or three times, however, it can get to be a touchy situation.  One just hopes that a committed professionalism will run through the whole conversation.

Felicia:

For the print issue (and now for the online edition), I solicit short stories and the Poetry editors solicit poems. I have had to deal with passing pieces sent by friends or more well-known authors, however, I preface my offer with saying that I am incredibly picky and my decision is completely a subjective one. So far, I haven't had any difficulties and overall the work I receive is wonderful - making elections that much easier.



Dan:

Does the journal actively search the slush pile to look for new writers?  Does the journal consider it a priority to discover newcomers to the world of being published?  What sort of percentage of stories, essays and/or poems published come from previously unpublished writers?

Michelle:

I'm going to take these one at a time. The answer to this first question is YES, absolutely.

Does the journal consider it a priority to discover newcomers to the world of being published?

I consider it one of the two main reasons The J. exists. (The other is to introduce my students to the world of publishing, from the other side.)  When we publish work by well-known writers, from my point of view the main reason to do this is to draw attention to the work of the newcomers. Of course, I am also always eager to publish the kinds of stories that would be harder sells to bigger magazines--even to bigger literary magazines. (An example: in the coming year I am going to publish a terrific story by Marly Swick that I think would have a harder time finding a home than most of her stories have. We haven't tested this theory--she sent it to me without sending it around first--but it's a story that is deeply centered in the insular world of writers and ex-writers and writing workshop experience. I love the story very much, but I suspect a lot of editors would be uneasy about it. Other examples: we've published the early poetry of Cynthia Ozick (juvenilia, absolutely), excerpts of novels in progress that aren't especially "self-contained" (the absolute rule at other magazines, but I just don't care if it's writing I love enough) by lots of very well-known writers, and short essays by Lore Segal that are just so quirky I'm not sure WHO else would have taken them.

What sort of percentage of stories and/or poems published come from previously unpublished writers?

In prose: 75% at least. In some issues, nearly 100%. In poetry, I'd guess that it's more like 33%. Or 25%.

Dave and Josh:

Ever since we started accepting stories online through our website, we've received around fifty submissions a week.  We make it a big point to read all our submissions carefully, and we take the process of going through the slush pile seriously.  We haven't published any previously unpublished writers yet, and, while we'd love to, our main priority's finding stories we really love.

Kyle:

Newcomers we've published from the slush include Kevin Wilson, Benjamin Percy, and Liz Mandrell, all of whom are likely to become known as major short story writers in the next five years. Since we first accepted Kevin Wilson's short story "Tunneling to the Center of the Earth", his work has appeared in One Story, Carolina Quarterly, and Ploughshares, and has been accepted for the forthcoming edition of Best New Stories from the South. Since we first accepted Benjamin Percy's "The Indian Way", he has won the Idaho Review Prize for Fiction and had work appear in too many journals to mention here. Frostproof Review was not the cause of these things, but we were fortunate enough to watch the extraordinary rise of these writers, and to play our own small part. Good work rises to the top.

Hannah:

Most of our stories come from the slush pile. In 2004, out of 18 stories published, 11 were from the slush pile. We usually publish a few new authors each year. In 2004, we ran "Conceived", which was David Lawrence Morse's first published story. We also published "Holiday" by Kenelm Averill, which was his first publication in the United States, and "The Snake Charmer" by Ramachandra Behera, which was the first time he'd
been published outside of India.

Peter:

We are most proud of publishing writers who have never before appeared in a nationally-circulated journal.  But we do not actively search through the slush pile for anything but good writing.  If that special piece comes from an unpublished writer, then our pleasure is increased manifold.

Mike:

We don't have a slush pile. Everything that comes in gets read first by co-editor David Cooper and myself. Those pieces that make the first cut get passed on to the next set of readers, who then send us their recommendations.

Our priority is to look for and publish writers who are not household names. I'm guessing that about  20%, maybe more in some issues, are written by people who have not yet been published in a national literary journal.

R.T.:

Very little work in SHENANDOAH is from writers who have never published before, but we don't keep count.  A substantial portion comes from writers who are somewhat new and have never had a book.  What we do keep up with is how many of our contributors are new TO OUR PAGES.  We put an asterisk by their names in the table of contents, and those writers contribute up about 40% of the pieces in each issue.

Felicia:

Yes. Over the past four years I would say 50% of the writers published in Small Spiral Notebook have placed their first story/poem with our publication.



Dan:

Does it help an author at all to have an agent when it comes to publishing in your journal?

Michelle:

No.

Dave and Josh:

Agented stories attract our notice, but ultimately it doesn't make a tremendous amount of difference.

Kyle:

No.

Hannah:

Sometimes agented stories will end up being read faster, but that's pretty much where the advantage ends. We go by quality of the writing only.

Peter:

Of course not.  The only reason some editors give greater weight to agented submissions is because they are themselves unable to judge good writing.  We are proud of our ability to make up our own minds.

Mike:

Agent submissions don't help or hurt a writer. We're not much interested in acting as a showcase for a writer's next book. We care only about the quality of the writing.

R.T.:

Not at all.  I prefer working with the writers.  Because I am also a writer, I feel a natural connection, but when the middle man comes in, we have more cooks than the soup needs.  I could name a few agents I have really enjoyed working with, but I think that, for SHENANDOAH's purposes, individual short stories are best represented by their writers.

Felicia:

No, we focus on the quality of the work, regardless if an author is rep'd.



Dan:

How does your journal pay those who are published?  In copies?  In cash?  By page?  Or simply with the privilege of being published?

Michelle:

In copies and cash, a standard fee for each poem, story, or essay. In flush years, more; in thin years, less. But we always pay something.

Dave and Josh:

We try to offer a small honorarium when available, but generally we pay in copies. Hopefully, with more grant money in the future, we'll be able to pay more writers.

Kyle:

We don't pay, but we offer copies, and even more importantly, we try to do at least one activity each month to help promote the work of our writers.

Hannah:

We pay $100 and 15 contributor's copies.

Kim:

We pay $30/printed page for prose and $2.50/line for poetry. Contributors also receive two copies of the issue in which their work appears and a yearlong subscription.
Mike:

When we were funded, we paid small honorariums. I think that writer should be paid for their work. But now that we're self-sustaining, we have to pay in copies. We've applied for an NEA in hopes of using part of the grant to start paying writers again.

R.T.:

Right now it's $2.50 per line of poetry and $25 per page of prose.  That fluctuates a little from issue to issue.  We also offer a year's subscription free and a chance to buy additional copies at a substantial discount.  And of course everything we publish is eligible for our annual prizes of $1000 per genre.

Felicia:

We pay in copies.



Dan:

Does your journal accept electronic submissions?

Michelle:

No.

Dave and Josh:

And how! We started our Online Submission Center about a year ago. It allows writers to upload their stories to our website and makes tracking them easier for everybody, us and them. We don't accept email submissions though.

Kyle:

Yes, and they may be sent to editor@frostproofreview.com. We'd love to receive more submissions from EWN subscribers.

Hannah:

We only accept electronic submissions. The whole process is run through our website, www.one-story.com

Peter:

Not as a rule.

Mike:

No. It significantly increases the amount of work for us. In our current system, interns log everything into a data base, number and separate the manuscripts, SASE's, and cover letters, and then send those manuscripts we're interested in out to readers. Just time and energy it would take to print and collate the manuscripts--some 1200 a year--plus the amount and cost of printer cartridges would create time and money problems for our small staff.

R.T.:

No.  We're really not set up to either read them on line or print them out.

Felicia:

Yes! We have a quarterly online issue. Do check the Submissions Guidelines http://www.smallspiralnotebook.com/newsubmission.shtml for details.



Dan:

How about simultaneous submissions?  Do you feel it's fair for an author to have a story out there for up to six months with a journal without submitting it to others at the same time?

Michelle:

I'm fine with simultaneous submissions. But I always want to be told in the cover letter.

Dave and Josh:

Because we know how it feels to send out stories, we're perfectly happy to accept simultaneous submissions, as long as the writer notifies us if it's been accepted elsewhere. Pretty standard stuff, really.

Kyle:

I understand the position of the venerable journals that do not allow simultaneous submissions, and my feeling is that writers should respect it. That said, as a writer who is regularly submitting my own stories and essays to other journals, I'm a big fan of allowing simultaneous submissions, especially for emerging writers whose work will certainly land first in the slush pile, because the odds of even very good work pleasing both the initial reader and the editor are fairly daunting. The writer likes to know that more eyes are on his or her hard-earned work.

Hannah:

One Story gladly accepts simultaneous submissions. I think it's only fair to the writers. We receive about 100 submissions each week, and sometimes we get really behind on our reading. My feeling is first come, first serve. If I miss a story because I didn't read it in time, then I'll know next time that writer sends to us to read it faster.

Peter:

The only absolute requirement is that, when a multipli-submitted piece is accepted, the author immediately withdraws the piece from the other places it was submitted.

Mike:

We're fine with simultaneous submissions, though I wish people would be a little more selective about who and where they send them to. Maybe they should pick a few journals that they'd most like to see their work appear in. Sending manuscripts to several different places at once creates bigger log jams, which adds up to longer delays in editor-writer communications. I've also found that some people send two or three manuscripts in one mailing before they know if we're even interested in their writing. This, too, creates a lot more work for screeners and readers.

R.T.:

Since we try to report in six to eight weeks and very seldom keep work over three months, I don't think we're the kind of offenders you have in mind.  I don't mind simultaneous submission, but we need to know up front, and a phone call or e-mail indicating that the work is accepted elsewhere is really helpful.  I do want to say one other thing about this.  If a writer is really blanketing the field with the same story, I'd 
rather it not come to us; one or two other places seems fair and reasonable, but beyond that indicates an impatience that is seldom the mark of a really considerate writer.

Felicia:

Yes, we have no problem with simultaneous submissions as long as the author alerts us as soon as the piece has been accepted elsewhere.  Many of the staff readers/editors are writers themselves and understand the need for submitting work simultaneously in a market where response times from many publications are sometimes considerable.



Dan:

How important do you consider your internet presence?  Does your website allow for the reading of select stories or poems from the current issue?  How about past issues?

Michelle:

I consider it important, but we are always running behind. The problem for us is that neither Kathy nor I have the time to work on the website, and our grad students are always inundated with other J. work.  The site gets updated when we have a volunteer who can handle it for us. When we ARE up to date, we do post current work on the site.  (Now THIS is a job a staff member could do at a distance! If only we could afford to pay someone to do it!)

Dave and Josh:

The website is essential. We're in the process of having ours updated. You can read stories on the site, but not the same ones from the print version. The online content is separate.

Kyle:

Our internet presence is fairly skimpy, but we have plans for an overhaul, and soon.

Hannah:

Our website is mainly used for submissions and subscriptions. We also post a brief excerpt of the current issue and a Q&A session with each writer about their story. This has actually been one of our subscribers' favorite parts of One Story, because it allows them to find out more about the author and the process of writing.

Kim:
The internet allows us to receive subscription and back issue requests, which is a very efficient tool for sales. When I was a student and couldn't afford to purchase or subscribe to all the journals I wanted to read, when submitting material I found it very helpful to be able to read stories posted on a journal's web site. We also use our web site to promote our authors' accomplishments (prizes, awards, etc.).
Yes, our web site allows for the reading of select stories, essays, and poems from the current issue. And some from past issues as well.
Mike:

We're always refining and updating our web site--putting up whole or partial examples of published work.

R.T.:

Our site offers selections from back issues, but we hope to make it a little more active this year.  

Felicia:

Our internet presence is critical and although we have a print annual, we proudly consider ourselves an online publication. All issues are easily accessible online at www.smallspiralnotebook.com



Dan:

What is the purpose of Literary Journals having annual editor's awards?  Simply for recognition for the authors, or is there something else?

Michelle:

I think they generate excitement, they do the winners a good bit of good--it's always useful, and a personal confidence-booster, to win a literary prize--and they increase overall submissions (and the quality of submissions).

Dave and Josh:

We don't know. We don't give editor awards.

Kyle:

We don't have an editor's award, but I think that every award, every honorarium, every recognition for the writer who produces outstanding work should be applauded.

Hannah:

We don't have editor's awards.

Peter:

When we had such awards, it was for the benefit of the authors.  I do not know what may motivate other editors.

Mike:

Certainly to give emerging writers exposure and recognition. Winning the Missouri Review Editor's Prize a while back, for example, gave my writing career its start. By the "something else," I assume you mean the entry fee. Charging an entry fee serves a lot of different purposes. It allows us to give reasonable cash awards to the winning writers. It also gives us some additional money to pay the judges with. And it gives us a chance to send back issues to all who enter, which is a good way to keep the journal's name out there and at the same time possibly attract some new subscribers.

R.T.:

We want to recognize the writers, of course, and to serve as an incentive to submit to SHENANDOAH.  I'd pay every contributor $1000 I could, but that's just beyond our means.

Felicia:

Small Spiral Notebook doesn't currently conduct contests.



Dan:

If you could get one simple message out to potential readers of your journal, what would it be?

Michelle:

Read us to read what you won't find anywhere else.

Dave and Josh:

Try it.  You'll like it.

Kyle:

Well, buy a copy, of course, or better yet, subscribe, and do it for a selfish reason: it will bring you pleasure! 
 
And, for that matter, subscribe to other journals. Some of my favorites include (but are by no means limited to) Georgia Review, Shenandoah, Gettysburg Review, One Story, At Length (which publishes one novella and one long poem in each issue), Quarterly West, Carolina Quarterly, Seneca Review (known for its lyric essays), Missouri Review, Southern Review, New Orleans Review, StoryQuarterly, and Florida Review.

Hannah:

Every three weeks you receive one story in the mail, pure and simple.  One Story is small and light and fits in your pocket for easy subway/bus/waiting at the doctor's office/on line at the supermarket reading. 18 issues a year for $21. www.one-story.com

Kim:
Subscribe. If you can't afford it, ask your local or college library to subscribe. If they can't afford it, get together with a group of friends and share the cost.
Peter:
This would be addressed to writers: If you do not subscribe to and read the magazines to which you submit your work, then who does?  All literary magazines lose money; if you care about good writing, then you must support them with your money and your time.
Mike:

In order to familiarize oneself with the journal's philosophy, content, and approach to creative nonfiction, please read the submissions guidelines and at least one issue before sending us (or any journal) a manuscript. We get a lot of poems, short stories, personal reminiscences, and magazine pieces, as well as submissions that are either way over our word limit and/or sent to us during off-reading periods. My concern is that not enough would-be-writers know how to present themselves as serious and knowledgeable professionals.

R.T.:

That's a hard one.  I guess I'd like to encourage readers to pick up SHENANDOAH and see that we don't have a regular stable of writers, we don't aim to fill our pages with writers who are already dazzlingly successful and we don't lean toward any "school" of writing, unless "neoclarificationism" is a school.  I think it's easy to be obscure and very 
difficult to be both clear and new.

Felicia:

Have faith in online literary journals - it's a potent and evolving market with many wonderful publications producing auspicious voices in fiction and poetry. I still believe the online venue is the very best way to get a writer's story read by folks world-wide.



Dan:

Thanks again for your participation in this - I hope it brings some more readers your way!

Michelle:

From your mouth to God's ear.

Kyle:

Thanks again, Dan, for this forum, and for making the arrival of each EWN newsletter a cause for celebration.

Hannah:

Thanks, Dan!

Mike:

My pleasure. Thanks for the open forum that you've provided.

R.T.:

Thank you for including SHENANDOAH in your survey.  I look forward to seeing what all the others had to say; there's always something to be learned from seeing how others conduct their business.

Felicia:

Thank you, Dan!