Wanted: Slush Readers

Scape is currently recruiting for slush readers.

Like all roles at Scape, this is a voluntary position.  It is expected to evolve over time as the zine develops and will therefore require some degree of flexibility from the incumbent.  However, it’s also a great opportunity to get involved with the editorial process of a young publication.

To undertake this role, you will need to have:

• Knowledge and appreciation of both speculative fiction (fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal/horror) and YA fiction
• The ability to summarise and critique short stories accurately and concisely
• Time to read and assess 5-10 stories of 1-8K per week (ideally for a minimum of 6 months)

Expressions of interest, including a brief CV, should be directed to: ‘editor at scapezine dot com’ by Friday September 24th.

Launch

Plans for the launch are coming together nicely.  We’ve accepted several amazing stories to date and have almost filled the first two issues.  We’ve still got a place or two for exceptional stories in these early issues, so if you’re thinking of submitting a story, get in quick! We’re especially on the lookout for stories that can make us laugh.

We’re also ecstatic to be working with a a very talented artist who will be illustrating the stories for the first issue.  More details on that soon.

Plus, the design for the new site is coming together.  We’re going for distinctive but reader-friendly.  It will also pay a subtle homage to our Australian roots.

Can’t wait until January?  Why not check out the work of these authors who have original fiction slated to appear in some of Scape‘s first issues:

Patty Jansen

Patty calls Australia home and is a slush reader for Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.  She writes Beyond Infinity, a great blog featuring hints and tips on SF writing, as well as general information and opinion on the industry.  Patty is also a Writers of the Future finalist in 2010, so you know she’s destined for great things.  You can find a list of Patty’s published stories here.

Stephen Gaskell

Stephen is based in the UK and is a graduate of Oxford University and the Clarion East speculative fiction workshop.  He’s also another Writers of the Future finalist and has been published in Nature, Interzone and other places.  Check out a full list here.

Crystal Hilbert

Crystal hails from the United States.  This year she’s had fiction appear in Niteblade, Menda City Review, Outer Reaches and her story ‘Hourglass’ placed second in the first quarter of the Tales of the Zombie War competition. You can follow her on Twitter here.

Submissions Update – April/May 2010

For those of you who like to know the numbers behind things, I thought I’d post on the Scape stats for the first month of submissions.  The month started strongly with up to 10 submissions a day.  As expected, it’s now settled into a more manageable 2-3 stories per day.

As you will see from the stats below, not every submission has been given a final answer yet. If you’re in this boat, it’s because you’re story has been read and subsequently allocated to a preliminary short-list for the time being.  We will still get back to you with a final answer within 60 days.  We apologise for the delay, but it’s just the way we have to do things while Scape gets off the ground.  However, all received submissions have at least been sent an acknowledgment e-mail, so if you’ve sent us a story but haven’t heard a peep, please check your junk mail and then ping us.

For the record, here’s the submissions breakdown to date:

• Total stories received: 103
• Rejections: 90
• Acceptances: 3
• Pending response: 10

As you can see, our acceptance ratio is hovering around the 2.9% mark, which we think is quite healthy.

More information on average response times and types of responses can be found at Duotrope, and we’d greatly appreciate if writers could report their own experience there, or to Ralan or Submitting to the Blackhole – it helps us with our profile, especially at this early stage of the game.

Last, but certainly not least, I’d like to say a huge ‘thanks!’ to all those writers who have given us the opportunity to consider their work for Scape.  We value your interest and support and look forward to reading more of your work in the future.

Scape Acceptance

It’s an exciting day at Scape – we’ve made our first acceptance!

I thought this would therefore be a good time to provide some feedback on the submissions process to date.  There are lots of sites out there that list the essentials of submitting to zines – what authors should and shouldn’t do when sending their work out into the ether.

For good measure, here’s a Scape Top 5:

1. DO follow the submissions guidelines.  All of them.  Pretty please.

Standard manuscript format – yes please.  Multiple or simultaneous submissions – no thanks.  Word doc or rtf attachments, not stories in the text of an e-mail.  Please provide your full contact details and a 100 word or less author bio.  Pretty basic stuff, really.  But when an author submits a story in a manner that is consistent with ALL the submissions guidelines, they stand out from the pack.  In a good way.

2. DON’T argue over rejections.

We realise that feedback is invaluable when you’re subbing a story around the marketplace so I’m trying to send out personalized responses when we decline a story. However, the rate of submissions prevents us from always doing this.  That being said, please don’t argue over the points made in personalized responses.  Story preferences are extremely subjective and yes, another editor may think your story is the perfect fit for their magazine. But arguing with any editor’s decision only makes you seem unprofessional.

3. DO think about Scape’s YA focus.

I have acknowledged on several occasions that it’s a challenge to know prior to submitting whether your story is suited to any zine, let alone one that is yet to be launched.  However, please have a think about whether your story is at least in the realm of YA or not before sending it.  There’s quite a bit of flexibility in this, but it isn’t infinitely elastic.  For instance, our first accepted story contains both adult and child characters and dark themes.  But, importantly, its protagonist is brave, resourceful and in his mid-teens (though we’re not sure exactly how old he is).  On the other hand, stories solely about middle-aged adult relationships seen through the eyes of middle-aged adults, or tales with an all 10-year-old cast of characters, are less likely to fit our remit.

4. DON’T send us a short-story synopsis.

Please, please, please don’t include a synopsis.  Unlike the submissions process for novels, I, or a volunteer reader, will read each short story in full.  Please don’t spoil the experience by telling us what it’s about – we want your characters, not your submission e-mail, to take us on a journey (and it’s the stories that do this that get short-listed for acceptance).  At best, a synopsis deprives us of that enjoyment.  At worst, it puts your story under greater scrutiny because we’re reading it with the expectation that it’s going to live up to the ‘hard sell’ presented in the submissions e-mail.

5. DO consider adding your submission experience to Duotrope etc.

This obviously has no bearing on whether or not your story is accepted.  However, whether or not you were successful on this occasion, we’d really appreciate you accurately reporting the submissions data to any market database you may use, such as Duotrope or to the ‘Submitting to the Black Hole’ site.  We’re making a particular effort to get back to authors as soon as we can.  I’m one of those poor souls sending out my own work on a regular basis and I know how frustrating it can be to have to wait for over half a year to get a rejection.  We’re therefore hoping to build a reputation as a well-run publication at the swifter end of the response-time spectrum.

We now have web banners!

Check out the Support Scape page on the website for our lovely new web banners – they give you a sneak peek of the new site design that will be launched with the first issue in January.

And while you’re there, we hope you’ll consider using one of the images to link to us from your own web presence – they can be re-sized fairly easily.

Cheers.

Ed.

Submissions Update

We continue to be pleased with the response to the initial call for submissions.  For those interested, we’d like to see more of the following:

-       Light/funny/uplifting

The submissions we’ve received to date are predominantly serious or dark.  We’re aiming to publish a variety of moods and themes so we’re on the lookout for more pieces of a lighter persuasion.

-       Sci fi

To date, we’ve had less stories that could be classified as purely sci-fi than stories under the fantasy and horror umbrellas.  We’d love to see some well-written science fiction that dazzles us with concepts but is driven by engaging characters.

-       Short/Flash

We’re more than happy to publish flash and micro fiction as long as each piece tells a complete story.

For the writers who have already submitted – thank-you.  We’re currently responding in around five days or less to most stories.  If your submission was made more than 10 days ago but you haven’t heard from us after the initial acknowledgement e-mail, it’s most likely because your story has been long-listed for consideration in either of the first two issues of Scape (January and March 2011).  All authors will receive a final response within 60 days of acknowledgement of submission.

Scape Submissions Guidelines

Since we first opened to submissions last week, the response has been fantastic.  We’re currently receiving around 10 story submissions a day – not counting poetry submissions or art and non-fiction queries.  Whilst this means we’re rejecting quite a lot of pieces from the get go, it also means that from the very first issue of Scape, our contributors can rest assured that we’ll be presenting a quality line-up: all the accepted works will be in good company.

Considering the acceptance/rejection ratio, I just wanted to take this opportunity to reiterate our guidelines.  I realize it’s quite a minefield submitting to a new publication as there’s no precedent for the sort of material that is relevant.  With Scape, this is perhaps even more challenging given our YA focus – there’s often a fine line between children’s literature at one end, YA in between, and adult fiction at the other end of the spectrum.  I am therefore loath to put an age bracket on Scape, as this may in some ways prove too restrictive.  That being said, we’re unlikely to take stories where the protagonist is under 12-years-old unless there is a compelling reason why teens would still find the story intriguing (younger readers tend to read ‘up’ in age more enthusiastically than older readers read ‘down’).

Right then, here’s a reiteration of the general submissions guidelines, which can also be found here: http://www.scapezine.com/index.php?p=1_5_Submissions.

We’re looking forward to reading your work and discovering the perfect new stories for the launch edition of Scape.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

Simply put, Scape is a speculative fiction e-zine with a young adult (YA) focus.

‘Scape’ for us means a lot of things.  DreamScape, spaceScape, cityScape, mindScape, eScape…

All Scape fiction and poetry must contain a speculative component.  Urban fantasy, magical realism, hard sci-fi, cyberpunk, alternate history, supernatural, myth and legend, post-apocalyptic, dark, light and all shades in between.  If you can imagine it, we’ll consider it.  That being said, to catch our attention you’re going to need to do something new and fresh if your story features well-worn ideas such as vampires or time travel.

Scape’s YA focus doesn’t mean we want ‘dumbed down’ or ‘censored’ stories.  Quite the opposite.  YA for us is broadly defined. It means fiction that is relevant, meaningful and of particular interest to young people. We’re not putting a specific age bracket on ‘young people’ and we aim for our publication to appeal to the ‘young’ and ‘young at heart’ alike.  Obviously, we won’t publish stories containing gratuitous violence and/or sexual content.  Equally, we are not a children’s literature outlet. We recognise that many themes relevant to young adults will acknowledge sexuality or aggression.  We won’t discount stories with these themes as long as they are well written and the sensitive issues are dealt with intelligently.

We’re rather partial to two things:

1. Stories that make us think. Not stories that slap us in the face with a preachy message, but stories with subtext.  Tales that we want to read twice or more to really figure out.  Characters and situations that prompt us to question ourselves. Stories with something to say.
2. Unusual settings: new worlds, fresh takes on the future, geographic and cultural contexts that aren’t often featured in fantasy and sci fi (eg. Asia, Africa, Australia)

So, prepare to give us edgy settings, 3D characters and plots that push the envelope.

THE SPECIFICS

• We consider the following (word limits are strict):
  • Short stories up to 8,000 words (no minimum word count)
  • Poetry: Up to 100 lines
  • Non fiction: Reviews, articles and other relevant non-fiction.  Please query first.
  • Art: Please query first
  • If you wish to submit a book for us to review, please query first, with ‘REVIEW REQUEST’ in the subject line.  Please include author and publisher details in your query.  If we are happy to proceed, we will provide you with a mailing address to where a review copy of the work can be posted.

• All submissions must be your original work.  We do not accept fan-fiction or any works that are derivative in nature.

• We pay 1 cent U.S. per word (up to a maximum of $25) for short stories only.  Payment for short stories is on publication and will be made via PayPal only.  Poetry, non-fiction and artwork is exposure only (we will feature your work and provide a bio and link to any online presence you may have, but there will be no financial payment).    We hope to increase our rates in the future.  Why? See the Support Scape page for more info.

• For short stories we claim first-printing world exclusive electronic rights for 90 days from publication.  After the 90 days, you are free to sell your work elsewhere.  We hope you will allow us to continue to display your work on the website, but this is not a requirement. You have the right to request your work to be removed from our site after 90 days.

• For poetry, non-fiction and art, we ask for non-exclusive electronic rights for at least 90 days.  This means you are able to sell your work elsewhere at any time, as long as the buyer knows it is non-exclusive. After the 90 days, your work will be displayed online in our archives unless you request it to be removed.

• Our maximum response time is 60 days, though it is usually less.  Please query if you haven’t heard from us after 60 days from making your submission. We do our best but e-mails can sometimes go astray.

• We will copyedit your work for presentation on Scape, though we will seek approval for any changes from you, the author, prior to publication.

• Sorry, no multiple submissions. That is, please send only one story or poem at once – make it your best.

• We will consider serialized stories but each instalment will be assessed on its own merits and must be no more than 8,000 words.  Please query before submitting serialised stories.

• Sorry, no simultaneous submissions.  If you have already submitted your work elsewhere, please wait until you hear back from them before submitting to us.

• All text submissions should be made in standard manuscript format, but we don’t mind if you use Times or Arial as a font.  If you don’t know what SMF is, check out this example.

• E-mail your submissions here (submissions [at] scapezine.com) as an .rtf , .doc or .docx attachment.  Art should be sent as a .gif or .jpg.  We do not accept snail mail submissions.

• We regret that we cannot provide individual feedback/comments on all submissions.  If we do not accept your work, it just means that it wasn’t appropriate for us at that particular time.  Please feel free to make other submissions in the future.

• Any submissions not adhering to the above guidelines will be deleted without response.

Now open for submissions!

Scape e-zine of YA speculative fiction is now open for submissions.

Please read our guidelines carefully before sending us stories or poems.

We look forward to reading your work!

Scape Ed

Welcome to the Scape Zine blog

Scape is a soon-to-be launched e-zine of YA speculative fiction.

Each issue will feature new short fiction, articles, interviews and reviews.

The Scape website is currently under construction.  Check for updates here.

See you soon!

Team Scape