Would you rather work for a small publisher of scholarly books or a literary journal? The job at for the publisher mostly would be copyediting along with some general duties of an editorial assistant. The lit. journal mostly would be reading submissions. Both of these would be part time with a lot of flexibility. I'm not really sure. Just sort of thinking about my options. My writing would still be my main focus, but I'm finding it a little lonely to do nothing but write in a room by myself all the time.
Literary journals is more your thing, right? Might make some contacts, get some ideas of what's out there... seems like it would be more directly related to your own goals. But maybe you'd rather have a break from those goals. Do something else with your brain? I wouldn't want either job, myself--not my thing at all. But for you...?
I'd agree with @BayView. If you can't decide between the two on the merits of the jobs, pick the one that would seem to offer the best opportunity to make contacts who may be able to help you get the job you want.
Reading submissions can become drudgery if that's all you do for the publisher. I've read slush pile submissions for a magazine. If it weren't for the occasional editing and other tasks, I wouldn't have continued for the several years I did. See, the slush pile never ends, which I guess is job security And yes, you will find gems...but you will find a lot of sloppy mud too. Still, there are worse jobs I've held.
Thanks for your thoughts on this, guys. I think I'm going to hold off a little. I'm not really looking to move up any sort of career ladder other than with my creative writing. The idea behind taking either of these positions is to feel more a part of something. If I can't be this great, successful writer, I still want to be a pert of great writing. And in these kind of things I have experience and some contacts. But for some reason I just don't feel excited about my possible opportunities at the moment. I have worked these jobs before, but when I think about doing it again, I feel exhausted, and I haven't even updated my resume.
@TWErvin2 Notwithstanding I've likely been a slice of slush in such piles; can I ask that if you make your judgement call early—do you then 'skim read' with the hope for improvement in the offering? Or dismiss it in the interests of time saving and quickly move on in your gem hunt?
I read slush for a number of years. You can usually tell pretty quickly if it's a definite no. And many stories that do not show much potential very early on don't get read to the end.I think you can usually tell by the end of the second page if a piece is just not going to work for that publication. But I always went into it looking for a good story. My goal was never to rush through and reject things. I was looking for the good stuff, and sometimes I found it. I did have a tendency to read on in many cases. If I made it to the end and wasn't going to pass the story up, I would usually write a personal rejection.
I've done some slush reading for an SF magazine. I (almost) always read it all; it's a short story for chrissake! The only exception (and I gave it a good go!) was one submission where the SPaG was so obviously of a non-English speaker, and the story was told at the level of a five-year old. And I will give general feedback of why I advised rejection.
Hey, I wasn't being lazy when it comes to not reading a whole story. The journals I have read submissions for got a real lot and many of them lacked the quality of writing we would publish. I don't know how many submissions you had to read or what sort of instructions you were given, but this is how things worked where I was.
Reason I asked is I sent in a submission once that was front loaded with cheesy writing in order to evoke the gag reflex towards a character's monologue. The bit that had the hook on which to bite, I told myself upon rejection, went unread. I was too proud to go and ask why it wasn't considered—much preferring my own spin (more fool them for non-perseverance) on the situation at that sensitive time.
Sorry, I hadn't read your post when I responded (you posted just 3 minutes before me) to @TWErvin2 's post.
They read enough to make a decision on your writing. I wouldn't say those editors or readers were being foolish. I'm guessing they were looking for something else and not cheesy writing.
Generally we (editors) worked to finish the story, even if it was evident early on that it wasn't going to work. We were one of the few that offered comments/suggestions related to why the story didn't work for us. Normally it was a two strikes, and if a tie, a third reader would give the thumbs up or down for final consideration for publication. The thing is, if a story isn't working early on...what will the readers of the magazine do? Skip it once they start and are disappointed. Most don't continue on hoping for a story to improve. I will say that many writers appreciated comments on their work, but we often got some nasty blow back from writers as well. Most magazines stop when they make their decision (no), and that would've been easier and faster, but we were a magazine that only offered 1/2 penny per word, and wanted to offer something additional to those willing to submit their work to us.
I will say you're dead right there. From this side; firing some writing off to a prospective publisher that turns out instead to be into a void, leaves one with the mixed feelings of uncertainty/disheartenment. Far better to know why or what caused the rejection for the sake of progression. Still from this side; writers should have a bit of dignity and not protest one jot if they're rejected. Unbecoming. Thanks for the insight BTW.
