April Issue Finalized

We have finished voting on our April issue and sent out all the acceptance and rejection letters. We went with ten stories this quarter, which is more than usual. It seemed fitting since we'll be cutting back on stories July onwards due to the raise in pay rates. Consider it one last hurrah!

This is the last you'll hear about the April issue until it debuts on April 30th. If you don't yet have a subscription, now is the time: http://www.wingedhalo.com/subscribe.html. All funds help support the magazine, and we need more funds than ever to fund our upcoming pay rate increase. We also accept donations in any amount. We have donation buttons at the bottom of every page of our website. You can also support us by purchasing merchandise from one of our stores: http://www.wingedhalo.com/shop.html

The staff will be taking a week off before we begin reviewing July's slush pile. As of now, we have 35 submissions in the slush pile, received on or after March 2nd. We will continue to accept submissions while we're on break. We will post another slush update after we've gone through the first batch of submissions, in a few weeks.

Until then...

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Brief Slush Update

We have gone through all submissions received between December 2nd and March 1st. If you sent us a submission during that time period and have not heard back from us yet, please query immediately.

Right now we have 4 accepted stories and 10 stories in our "held for voting" pile. Voting will commence shortly, so we should be able to notify authors this week.

As of now, we have 33 submissions in our inbox for the July issue. We will not start reviewing those until after we've finalized the April issue.

Thank you,
FMM Staff

Looking for a few more editors

Flash Me Magazine is currently looking for a few more editors:

We're looking for people who enjoy reading a wide variety of fiction and who have the time to devote to the magazine. All of our staff works on a volunteer basis and enthusiasm is more important than any experience. For more details, visit http://www.wingedhalo.com/positions.html

FMM Staff

Update: We've hired one editor today, but we're still looking for at least one more person to join our staff.

Multiple Submissions

We now limit each author to two submissions in our slush pile at any given time. Please wait until you have heard back on your first two submissions before sending any others. Please send each submission in a separate email with all of the above requested information in each email. We will reject any emails that have more than one submission in it, and we will reject any submissions that exceed our two-submission limit.

If one of your two stories are accepted for publication or held for voting, that means you may only have one story in our slush pile at a time for the remainder of that quarter. If we accept or hold two of your stories, you may not submit further stories for that quarter. We thank you for your understanding.

FMM Staff

Slush Update & Multiple Submissions

We have received 279 submissions and are still waiting for a few possible rewrites. Of those 279 submissions, we have accepted 2, held 7, sent 18 back for rewrites, and had 4 withdrawals. So far, we have rejected 231 submissions. We have the final 17 submissions before the editors (dated February 27th and after). We have NO submissions left in our inbox!

Considering how many multiple submission we received this quarter, we will be updating our submission guidelines, limiting the amount of submissions we'll allow in our slush from a single author. We are discussing our preferences now, and will post a formal announcement as soon a a decision has been made.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Detailed Slush Update & More

We are still accepting requested rewrites until March 15th, so the final totals for our April issue may change, but here are the stats so far:

We have received 277 submissions. Of those 277 submissions, we have accepted 1, held 6, sent 16 back for rewrites, and had 4 withdrawals. So far, we have rejected 209 submissions. We have 14 submissions before the editors (dated February 25th and 26th) and have 27 left in our inbox.

For the July issue, we have received 16 submissions to date, but we will not be reviewing any of them until we have finalized the April issue.

***

It's been a while since I blogged about some of our slush pile complaints. Overall, the submissions have been following our guidelines, which is a huge relief. I've been training a new administrative assistant, and the slush pile has been kind to her in terms of correct subject lines and necessary submission information.

My complaints this quarter have mainly been with attachments. I'd like to think that every prolific author has heard of standard manuscript formatting, so in this day and age when I open attachments that don't follow standard formatting, I have to conclude that the author is either new to submitting their work, or they just don't care. It's unprofessional, and it makes me shake my head every time.

Other notables this quarter are authors that submit more than three stories at a time. It doesn't particularly matter to us if you sent seven stories back-to-back, but I think these authors are doing themselves a disservice. Most authors have a distinct style, so the editors can tell that stories were written by the same author. If all seven stories have the same problems, the editors get weary of making the same comments, and the feedback they give isn't as in-depth as it might have been had they not grown bored with seeing everything in the author's trunk.

Do yourself a favor - don't submit a bunch of stories all on the same day. Space them out. That way, you're not getting a bunch of denial letters in your inbox at one time, either, since we generally send rejection letters in chunks.

And finally, we've sent back sixteen stories for rewrites this past quarter, which is unprecedented for us. It's our effort to give the authors a better chance of being published in the future. With the raise in our pay rates comes a decrease in the number of stories we'll publish each quarter, which means we can only hold on to the best stories for voting.

That also means stories that we may have sent back for rewrites before will be rejected outright. If a story doesn't have enough redeeming qualities, we won't ask to see it again, even if the editors gave several "maybe" votes. It's a judgement call - usually my judgement call. If I think a story can be easily fixed and the editors enjoyed the story, we may request a rewrite. Otherwise, we'll pass on it and hope our feedback helps the story get published elsewhere.

To give yourself the best chance at publication:

Only send us your best stories.
Proofread your stories before submission.
Use standard manuscript formatting.
Follow all submission guidelines.
Space out your submissions.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Brief Slush Pile Update

We've been posting frequent updates on the slush pile for our upcoming April issue because we're working through them so quickly. We will continue to do so until we are caught up, which we hope will be next week.

We are currently reviewing submissions received between February 21st and February 22nd. We have 12 submissions before the editorial staff, and 48 left in our inbox.

FMM Staff

Brief Slush Pile Update

We are currently reviewing submissions received between February 16th and February 20th. We have 14 submissions before the editorial staff, and 64 left in our inbox.

FMM Staff

Brief Slush Pile Update

We are currently reviewing submissions received between February 12th and February 15th. We have 10 submissions before the editorial staff, and 77 left in our inbox.

We have received 9 submissions so far for the July issue. We will not be reviewing those for a few weeks.

FMM Staff

April Issue's Slush Pile Update

We are still waiting for a few more rewrites, but here are the current statistics:

So far, we have received 277 submissions.

We have accepted 1 story, held 4 stories for voting, and have 11 submissions before the editorial staff.

So far we have rejected 150 submissions, sent 14 back for rewrites, and had 4 withdrawals. We have 93 submissions still in our inbox.

We are currently reviewing submissions received between February 6th and February 10th. We will work through the remaining slush as quickly as we can, but should be finished before March 19th. If you haven't heard from us by then, please query.

FMM Staff

April Issue's Slush Pile

The submission period for the upcoming April issue has ended, though we are still accepting rewrites we've requested until March 15th. So our final tally isn't necessary the final tally. Here is what we have so far:

We have received 273 submissions.

We have held 4 stories for voting and have 12 submissions before the editorial staff.

So far we have rejected 139 submissions, sent 12 back for rewrites, and had 4 withdrawals. We have 102 submissions still in our inbox.

We are currently reviewing submissions received between February 1st and February 7th. We will work through the remaining slush as quickly as we can, but should be finished before March 19th. If you haven't heard from us by then, please query.

FMM Staff

Increased Pay Rates

To celebrate our seventh year of publication, Flash Me Magazine is increasing its pay rates:

As of July 1, 2010, all published stories will receive twenty-five dollars ($25) US via PayPal, plus a year's subscription to Flash Me Magazine. Our Feature Story winner will receive an additional twenty-five dollars ($25), for a total of fifty dollars ($50) US via PayPal. That means Feature Stories are guaranteed professional rates of at least five cents ($0.05) per word!

These new pay rates will go into effect for stories published in our July 2010 issue and onward.

FMM Staff

Special Issue

Flash Me Magazine is pleased to announce our upcoming Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror issue. We'll be publishing this special combination issue on October 31, 2010.

All stories submitted for the S/F/H issue must contain some element of science fiction, fantasy, horror, or any combination of those genres and be 1,000 words or less. The S/F/H Issue submission period begins April 30, 2010 and ends August 31, 2010.

Special guidelines apply, and we will not be accepting simultaneous submissions for this issue. Please see the S/F/H submission guidelines for complete details at http://www.wingedhalo.com/sfh.html

FMM Staff