Monday, October 27, 2008

On Hiatus

Flash Me Magazine will be on hiatus until November 5th while we attend the World Fantasy Convention.

Submissions can still be submitted but it may take a bit longer to receive a receipt email while we're out of town.

Once we get back from Calgary, we'll hold our raffle and ship out prizes to the lucky winners. We'll also send out 2008 Compilation CDs to those contributors/donors who qualified for one. We will then add the compilation CD to our CafePress store for sale to the general public! And then we'll work double-time to get submissions caught up before the holidays.

Thanks for your patience as we slowly wade through the back-logged submissions!

FMM Staff

Monday, October 20, 2008

Update

137 submissions received thus far.

We have rejected 71 submissions thus far, held 1 for voting, and accepted 0, out of the first seventy-two 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 19th, 2008.

We have 54 submissions still waiting in our inbox for review.

FMM Staff

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

World Fantasy Convention

In case you haven't already heard, Flash Me Magazine will be attending the WFC in Calgary the lat weekend in October. We will have a table in the dealer room.

If you'll be at the convention, enter the dealer room, take a right and head towards the wall. Flash Me Magazine's table will be right there. We'll have tee-shirts, bags, a few teddy bears, the 2008 Compilation CDs, and we'll also be selling raffle tickets for goodie bags filled with everything listed above. We'll also be giving out FMM magnets with every purchase til we run out. We'll also take orders for subscriptions, single issues, and other merchandise.

Pre-registration has ended, but you can still purchase memberships at the door. Come join the fun and stop by to see us!

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Slush Pile Update

131 submissions received thus far.

We have rejected 59 submissions thus far, held 1 for voting, and accepted 0, out of the first sixty submissions we've reviewed so far.

We have 11 more submissions before the editorial board and we have not started reviewing any submissions received after September 10th, 2008.

We have 60 submissions still waiting in our inbox for review.

FMM Staff

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

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.

***

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