Oh, and did I mention the part about please don’t hurt me?
Recently I was at a forum for Bay Area literary magazines, over at SF State. It was mostly a pretty solemn affair, apart from Howard Junker’s trouble-making. At one point, all the other panelists were agreeing that you absolutely, TOTALLY must read a magazine before submitting to it. You should get to know the editor’s quirks and dearest desires, so you can cater to them. Otherwise, you’re just “carpet-bombing,” or strafing, or something. Then the ZYZZYVA editor jumped in and said that you really shouldn’t bother. After all, he said, all literary magazines are pretty much the same. The only reason there are so many literary magazines is because there are unpublished authors who want a venue for their work, not because there are readers demanding them.
I don’t think Junker was 100 percent serious, but in any case, I think he and the other panelists were missing the point. I used to submit to magazines without having read them (back in the late 90s), but since then I always read a mag before submitting. But this isn’t because I thought I could figure out what an editor was looking for, and send them the perfect piece. After all, I write fiction to try and do something that I’ve never seen done before. If I read a magazine and it had a piece that was just like something I’d recently written (in style or content) I would immediately tear my own piece up and never send it anywhere. And as the fiction editor for other, nothing horrifies me more than when writers try to cater to my tastes. I want to publish stuff I never would have come up with on my own.
So why do I read magazines before submitting to them? Because about a third of the time, I decide I hate the stuff a particular magazine is publishing. Not necessarily that it’s bad, just that I don’t like it. I read an issue of Tin House a few years ago, and I could see why some people liked it, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. My odds of getting published in Tin House are low enough to begin with, but this lowers them considerably. If I don’t like the stuff they’re publishing, what makes me think they’re going to like my writing? (At this point I have to reiterate that Tin House is a fine publication which many smart people rightly admire. The only reason I mention it by name was because otherwise people would jump to god-knows-what conclusions. Also, I’ve never met anyone who works for Tin House, and I’m sure they’re really nice people. See, I’m exposing my tummy. Please don’t hurt me.) Likewise, last night I was reading a small-press genre fiction mag, which had nice production values but the writing made me shriek with laughter. So, no subs from me.
Whether you believe, as Howard Junker does, that lit mags cater to writers, not readers, you’re definitely supporting a magazine by sending them stuff. OK, you’re not supporting them with money, except for the one sample issue you bought. But by adding to their slush pile, you’re saying that you think they’re good magazines and you dearly want to join their cattle pen of writers. Which, in some cases, may just not be true.
i stongly object to my views and image being presented in b&w and wish your readers would turn to view me and some of my closest friends (and managing editor) in living color: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4912/3885/1600/StaffPhoto0806.1.jpg
thank you,
howard junker
editor, zyzzyva
I know what you mean about tearing up your stuff if you find a whole magazine full of stuff just like it.
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