Hi Folks,
The latest batch of submissions has been received and organized. In total, there are 322 submissions, ranging from 12/30/09-3/8/10. The volume is more than I’m used to these days. I’ve been with the magazine almost five years now, and this is the third biggest batch I’ve ever had to deal with. The biggest batch was the first batch Shawna passed along to me when when I joined the magazine–that total blows this one out of the water. In fact, it took me so long to get through that first batch that the next batch also proved to be monstrously big (though thankfully smaller than the first). I went back and checked my records, and since those first two batches, there have only been two other batches to crack the 300 barrier. A lot of that has to do with the way we time our transfers, and also I’ve developed a system over the years to keep the slush at a manageable level on my end. This batch officially qualifies as unwieldy.
So I got to thinking why this particular batch has proven so big for the first time in years. And there are actually a number of reasons:
1) The New Year’s resolution: I see this every January. Holiday season is over and a bunch of writers have made a New Year’s resolution to write more, write this many stories, submit this many stories, sell this many stories, etc. How do I know? Because every January there is a surge in the amount of submissions I see. This year has proven no different.
2) The new website/free PDF: When we launched our new website, we also provided a free PDF of the current issue. These two things combined to help us do oodles of traffic, especially once BoingBoing & Scalzi linked to us. I think it’s safe to say that it made a number of people aware of us for the first time. However, we launched the website right in the thick of holiday season, so I suspect some of these people didn’t get around to submitting something to us until now.
3) Women in Fantasy: This themed issue was announced right around the time this batch begins. As I’m sure most of you are aware (and for reasons I’ll skip rehashing), this announcement generated a good deal of interest. In organizing the slush, I can tell this has translated to some additional submissions.
4) Romance Divas: So I mentioned the other day that Shawna and I did an interview with a site called Romance Divas. This site has a big following. This batch of slush runs through 3/8, and the interview was posted on 3/6. I don’t think it’s a coincidence then that there is a mini-spike in submissions between 3/6-3/8.
5) And finally, IRCs: Many of you may recall that a couple of years back, we did away with the need for international authors to provide IRCs. However, Sovereign never posted this guideline change on the old RoF website. This info is on the new website, though, and I can’t remember ever seeing so many international submissions before. So this seems to have made something of a difference.
Put all of these things together and it equals the third biggest batch I’ve ever dealt with. Normally I start slushing the day after I put up these announcements, but this time I’m going to get started tonight. I need to make a dent in this monster! Anyway, good luck to everyone this time around, and good to those from the last batch moving on to the next round.
{ 0 comments }
