Slush Update

110 submissions received thus far.

We have rejected 54 submissions thus far, held 2 for voting, and accepted 0, out of the first fifty-six submissions we've reviewed so far.

We have 12 more submissions before the editorial board and we have not started reviewing any submissions received after September 7th, 2008.

We have 42 submissions still waiting in our inbox for review.

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Things to think about when submitting to any market via email:

Is your email address professional?

goodietwoshoes49@yahoo.com, gimmieyourluv@gmail, foxybabie@hotmail.com, and other descriptive email address names aren't professional. In this digital age, most markets, agents, and publishing houses accept submissions via email. Will having an unprofessional email address get your stories rejected? No, but everyone should be careful how they are presenting themselves in the writing world. If you have an email account that isn't professional, why not open a new one specifically for your writing.

So your email address is professional enough... excellent! But what name shows up in an editor's inbox? Is your email account name professional?

Most of the submissions we've received this quarter have been professional - the author's first and last names, capitalized. A few of the names are lowercase. Not a real issue, but I have to wonder why. Is it that hard to capitalize your name? Aren't you a proper noun? About an eighth of the submissions have the author's email address listed instead of their name. That works, as well, but again, why not list your name? Wouldn't you rather be known as John Doe instead of john_doe49@hotmail.com?

It's the other names that boggle my mind, though. Just the first name? Hello, John... am I supposed to know you? Which John are you again? Oh, I have to open your email to find out? I'll let my administrative assistant handle you. First and last names thrown together like some kind of hybrid? johndoe? That screams of laziness to me. The worst offenders are animals. Fox, hound, fish, pup, kitty, etc. My dog doesn't know how to email, fortunately, but I'd hate to think she took over my email account and changed my name from Jennifer to dog. Even if your last name is Fox, it's not professional to send email from Fox. Or fox.

The point of this fun little rant? It's not difficult to change the name that appears in people's inboxes. So take a look at yours and think about how professional yours is before sending in a submission.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief