Once a writer sends a story off to a magazine, the waiting begins. Douglas Cohen kindly agreed to talk about his process as slush reader, as well as share some hints.
Douglas Cohen is the assistant editor of Realms of Fantasy magazine as well as the magazine's web editor. His first publication, a dark fantasy novelette called "Feelings of the Flesh," will appear in a forthcoming issue of Interzone.
Q: For those of us that submit to Realms of Fantasy, it's (like most magazines) a mysterious process. What happens to a manuscript when it arrives in Rumson, New Jersey?
DC: The easiest answer is the one I once posted on my blog:
Once I finish with a batch, assuming enough manuscripts have accumulated on Shawna's end, we meet in NYC and do a slush transfer. The PO Box address is down by her, and I come from Long Island, NY, so we meet each other halfway, and make the exchange every 4-6 weeks. After a couple of minutes of chatting I drive back home.
Then the fun begins. First, I order everything by date on the mailing envelope. If I notice the name of an automatic pass, I put it aside. After the dated ones come those with no postmark on the outside. After those, the ones with smudged postmarks. I leave everything inside the mailing envelope until I read it, because it keeps loose pages from being lost. After everything has been ordered, I count them up. The total # gives me an idea how many submissions I should average per day to keep us on a monthly schedule. After this, I email Shawna with a progress report. Then I inform all automatic passes via email that their submissions have been safely received, along with a guesstimate as to when they'll be passed along to Shawna. After this, I post a quick update in various forums I belong to. I suppose I'll start doing this on my LJ too. The next day, the massacre begins. During the process, if I come across another automatic pass that I previously missed or didn't know about, I set it aside and immediately send a courtesy email to the author. When all the slush has been finished, I read and critique the automatic passes. This strikes me as rather fair, because the automatics already know they're being passed along, and they know around when. Slushees, OTOH, are the ones on pins and needles, so I try to take care of them first. And as previously mentioned, if I come across something I decide to pass along to Shawna, I send an email notice to the author the same day. I also send Shawna periodic progress reports, so that she has an idea of how far along I am into the current batch. When the last automatic pass has been read and critiqued, I send a final progress report. From there, assuming there is enough slush, Shawna and I try to set up a date for our next slush transfer. When I pass the automatics and slush along to Shawna, I also include what I call a "Slush Summary." This usually runs about a page, and passes along a summary of what I consider the important details concerning the batch I've finished up.
Q: You've talked a lot about some of the stuff you've pulled out of the slush pile and seen published. Are there stories or authors who gave you particular joy during this process?
DC: I'm proud of every single author I've pulled from the slush that has been published. Every single one. If the authors are the parents of those stories, then I consider myself the godparent. I always take an avid interest in the careers of these authors, because I want to see them succeed on many levels. Their success reflects well on me (so I guess I'm selfish in this respect).
But if I had to point to three stories, in no particular order they would be:
1) "A Fish Story" by Sarah Totton, because we worked together on a revision before we passed it along to Shawna.
2) "Of Metal Men and Scarlet Thread and Dancing With the Sunrise" by Ken Scholes, because this story is garnering a lot of notice/praise since being published.
3) "Indigo With Distance" by E. Catherine Tobler, because although it is an excellent story, it isn't the type of tale I generally read when it comes to fantasy. So recognizing its brilliance was more of a challenge for me, which makes me all the more proud of having found it.
Q: What sort of stuff do you see too much of - and what would you rather be seeing?
DC: Too much of? The usual, I guess. Elves . . .half-elves . . .dwarves . . .dungeons . . .stories that start in taverns . . .that start with the protagonist waking up (often from a dream) . . .poorly conceived stories about dragons (see "Cold Drake" by Renee Bennett in a recent issue of Realms as an example of a slush survivor story that handles the wyrm well) . . .cover letters from authors without credits telling me they're ready to share their brilliance with the world (rolls eyes).
What would I like to see more of? More great stories! They're few and far between, I'm afraid. That said, the writers actually send us a wide array of fantasy stories each month, as wide as the genre has to offer. I don't see much science-fantasy though. This is a fascinating niche in the fantasy genre that is sorely underexplored. Same thing goes for sword & sorcery. I've pulled one that will be published soon, but the worthwhile S&S tales are so rare. And as much as I love some of Robert E. Howard's stories, it's rather unfortunate that 90% of all S&S tales not only walk in his shadow, but are consumed by it.
But the most important thing is to write a great fantasy story, regardless of the sub-genre. Do that and the rest will take care of itself.
Q: How many submissions does Realms get a month? How many of those are established versus unpublished writers?
DC: We probably get around 200 submissions each month. I'm afraid I don't know what you're definition of "established" is, so that part of the question is difficult to answer. Very few full-time pros submit to us each month, because most of them focus the bulk of their energies on novels. That said, lots of brilliant upcoming writers who have published in major magazines submit to us all the time. But the vast, VAST majority of our submissions are from writers without credits, or credits with very small presses. Probably around 75% fall into this category (a rough guesstimate). But watch out for that other 25%. There is some brilliant stuff in there!
Q: You've talked about David Gemmel's DRENAI SAGA as one of the books that you loved when you first started reading fantasy. What other authors have struck that same chord with you?
DC: Ah, so you've been reading my blog. Another lurker. Gemmell's recent passing was a real shame. Not all of his novels resonate so deeply with me, but for me, few novels can rival his first book, LEGEND. George Martin's books can though. His epic fantasy series blows me away. The man is so brilliant he can't possibly be human. FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON by Daniel Keyes (yes, I'm sneaking in some sf) is a beautiful jewel of a story. I'm a big fan of the pulpsters, and so I really enjoy some of the shorter works of Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith. AZTEC by Gary Jennings is amazing, and so is THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving. I'll also throw in Orson Scott Card, Dan Simmons, and Frank Herbert's DUNE books into the mix, because it would be criminal to do otherwise. I could go on. Really.
Q: What are the best and worst things about your job?
DC: Best? Discovering publishable stories. I love finding golden needles in the haystack. The worst? Failing to find a slush survivor that gets published in any given batch. It makes me feel as though I've failed at my job. The truth is that there won't always be a worthy slush survivor in each batch, but that doesn't change the way I feel.
Q: You're also Realms of Fantasy's web editor - what's involved in that?
DC: Pretty straightforward stuff, really. Interviewing authors . . .the occasional book review . . .the occasional news clip about the industry . . .answering questions on the Realms of Fantasy forum. The fun stuff is what we've been discussing. The web editing is cool, but it just doesn't compare to finding those stories.
Q: Do you ever get frustrated and try to slip a little sci-fi into the pile?
DC: LOL! Can't say that I do. Authors rarely send us science fiction, and there's a good reason for that. We're called Realms of Fantasy, not Planets of Science Fiction (Now that is a crappy title if ever I've heard one). And while I do like science fiction, in the old heart of hearts I'm a fantasy boy. That's what I love to look for. That's what Shawna wants for the magazine. That said, we do publish science-fantasy, which is basically a meeting of fantasy & sf, but the underpinnings of the story must favor the fantastical as opposed to the nuts & bolts of sf.
Q: What comes after being slushmaster - do you have a clear vision of the next step? Any side projects you're working on?
DC: Well, there's still a lot I'd like to accomplish as the slushmaster, so I should be with Realms for a while yet. That said, I grew up reading novels, not short fiction, so I wouldn't mind a crack at editing some fantasy & sf novels with one of the major houses (and other stuff . . .if I must :)). I'm certain I would excel at that (you have to be certain in this business!). But my first love will always be writing this stuff, and becoming a full-time speculative writer will always remain the ultimate goal. As to side projects, yes, there is one going on at the moment, and I and my colleagues are working hard to make it happen. But I'm not ready to talk about it just yet. Rest assured that when I am, I shall scream about it from the e-rooftops.
Q: Your first publication was a fan letter published in the Marvel Conan comic. Can you explain? Why Conan? Are there other comics you follow?
A: How in the world did you know that??? You must email me an explanation. As to what happened, well, when I was in second grade I wanted to be a paleontologist. My brother collected comics. One day I was in a comic store with him, and out of boredom I started looking through the various boxes. When I came across some Godzillas, I decided to buy them. He was dinosaur enough for me. I also came across something called Ka-zar the Savage. There were dinosaurs on the cover, so I bought that too. However, when I read the issue at home, there was nary an extinct lizard to be found. I would have been furious, except that I really enjoyed the issue. So I started buying all the Ka-zar comics I could get my hands on (and there were dinosaurs in many of the other issues).
Then I took it a step further and started hunting down those hard-to-find issues at the comic conventions. Then in fifth grade I was at one of these cons, and I asked one of the dealers if he had any Ka-zar comics. "Ka-zar the Barbarian?" he said. "Sorry, don't have any." I walked away thinking, "There is no Ka-zar the Barbarian." But there was a Conan the Barbarian. I figured they must have been similar, which would explain the guy's mistake, so a few weeks later I bought an issue.
Aside of the herculean physiques and long hair, the two characters were pretty damn different. But it didn't matter. Something happened when I read issue 216 of Conan the Barbarian. I was introduced to fantasy. Suddenly I had to have and read everything related to Conan & Robert E. Howard, his creator. Comics, graphic novels, the original short stories, the myriad pastiche novels. It didn't matter. I wanted to read all of it. I had to. And of course so rabid a fan would end up writing letters to Marvel Comics. All told, they published five of them. This is really cool, because George Martin is my favorite fantasy writer, and his first publications was a fan letter to The Fantastic Four. So I'm following in some damn fine footsteps.
Anyway, from here it became a natural progression into reading fantasy of all sorts. Comics kind of faded out of the picture . . .until recently. One of my best friend is opening a comic store soon, so every once in a while he gives me stuff to flip through. "Read this," he'll tell me. "It's good." He's right. Comics have grown up. The storylines these days are targeted more toward adults than kids. They're fun stuff. I tend to enjoy the superhero stuff, mostly the stuff that has established mythologies, like Superman & Batman. Particularly Batman. In the DC universe, superheroes are really the equivalent of demigods. Batman is no exception, but he doesn't have any super powers, and he's still as dangerous as almost any other hero or villain in the DC Universe. That's powerful and resonant stuff when you take the time to think about it. A human holding it down with the gods. Props to Bruce. Unfortunately I can only read so much of this stuff these days, but I am glad I've rediscovered comics, even to a limited degree.
Q: Are there any questions you've been hoping I wouldn't ask? Or that I would?
DC: What? You mean I haven't babbled enough already? I'll keep it brief (for once). Feel free to check out my blog: slushmaster.livejournal.com. And thanks for having me.
