Friday Five: lessons from a lit mag first reader

For the past six months or so, I have volunteered as a first reader for a literary magazine. In this role, I’ve been one of the first people to read some 150 flash and micro-fiction submissions to this magazine. They come from writers of all kinds. There are the newcomers seeking their first acceptance, the veterans with several publications and awards to their credit, the MFA graduates and PhDs, the college professors, the undergraduates, the college dropouts, the writers of science fiction, horror, humor, crime, romance, fantasy and just about every other genre, including literary, and writers from every continent except Antarctica. I’ve read pieces submitted for contests as well as regular submissions to the magazine.

The experience of reading all of these submissions has taught me a lot about writing and the submission process, and I hope these five lessons will help you, too.

1. We’re the gatekeepers–and that’s an important job

When you submit your work to a literary magazine, the first people to see it are readers like me. We are the ones who decide what moves on to the next level for a second read. Our job, in the words of the editor of the lit mag I’m reading, is to reject all but “the best of the best” pieces. Not only are we charged with winnowing the submissions, we also are helping the editor and other readers manage their workload. This magazine is highly selective, with only about 1% of submissions making it all the way to publication, so we have an important job to do.

That said…

2. There’s a lot of good writing out there

Yes, but is it good enough? And does it tell a story?

As a first reader I am astounded by the quality of the writing I encounter in these submissions. This can also be nerve-wracking as I must decide the fate of a fellow writer’s toils and travails. That makes it all the more important to be an analytical and dispassionate reader. Many of the submissions are excellent in the technical sense–and by that I mean, the sentences are beautiful, the prose flows nicely, and the narrative voice is strong and distinctive–but often these beauties fail to tell a compelling story. These are some of the toughest pieces to reject.

As someone who prides himself on crafting fine sentences but who also realizes I don’t always tell a story so well, I’m trying to learn from these submissions–and in my own writing, trying to make sure my pretty paragraphs don’t get in the way of telling a good story.

3. Quality varies

Among with the lovely submissions I get to read come some that, within the first few paragraphs, tell me they don’t have what it takes. Nevertheless, I read each story. The ones that turn me off are those that have more than a few typos or consistent problems with standard editorial style, that switch narrative points of view without any hint of purpose, that ignore submission requirements such as word count, or just flat out don’t tell any sort of story. The worst offenders, to me, are those that try to be too avant-garde or experimental. If I have to think too hard about where a story is going, then I’m not that interested. Of course, reading is subjective, as is my interpretation of whatever I read. That’s why it’s important for a literary magazine to rely on multiple readers for submissions.

4. Fit matters

There’s a reason why the submission guidelines of many lit mags encourage writers to become familiar with the work that magazine publishers before submitting. While some lit mags are open to all kinds of submissions, others will spell out or provide a sense of what they’re looking for in their guidelines. Still other magazines focus on genre–don’t send your New Yorker-style literary piece to Amazing Stories–or specific themes. Pay attention to the guidelines and previous submissions before sending. As a first reader, I pay attention to the ethos of the magazine I’m reading for, and some of the toughest pieces to reject are those that are terrific stories but not aligned with that ethos. I always hope they find a home elsewhere, in the right lit mag.

5. Being a first reader is a great way to give back

Even though I’m learning so much as a reader, I’m also helping out the literary community by reading for a literary magazine I highly respect, and that is gratifying. The commitment isn’t huge–I spend three or four hours a week reading eight to twelve submissions–and the payback, in terms of what I’m learning about what goes on behind the scenes at a lit mag and the feeling I get knowing I’m contributing in some small way, makes it all worthwhile.

For further reading:

• My Life as a Lit Mag First Reader, by Alli Rense
• Being a Lit Mag Reader as a Path to Publication and Better Writing, by Justine Payton
• 10 Things Volunteering for a Literary Magazine Taught Me, by Chital Mehta, published on Lit Mag News