Sunday, March 09, 2008

Labyrinth Inhabitant Slush and Egosearch Report 2

With one story posted and two more acceptance emails sent, I'm closing in on the end of the submission period for issue 2. It's still a small zine, but the good news is that everything I've accepted has been well-written, mysterious, and appropriate to the labyrinth subgenre. The updated submission count is up to about 75, with 5 fiction acceptances and 2 poetry acceptances. I haven't seen much poetry lately, and I kind of miss it. The most common issue with rejected stories is still genre inappropriateness. A few extra pointers:
  • It's not enough if the characters just live in a mysterious artificial environment. The plot of the story also has to be about addressing that mystery, either by resolving the mystery or learning to live with it. (Or just dying. Dying is allowed.) I hate to say I'd never take a romance story, for instance, but the mysterious setting would have to be a very major theme, if not the focus of the story.
  • Also, if your character can easily come and go from the mysterious place that is the setting for your story, you may be in trouble. Part of the idea of a labyrinth story is that you're kind of stuck there, at least for the time being.
  • The plot of the show Lost would make a good Labyrinth Inhabitant story (If it hadn't already been written! No fanfic!). The plot of Battlestar Galactica, or an X-Files episode, would get a sympathetic rejection letter.

Just today I googled "Labyrinth Inhabitant Magazine" to see if it was listed on enough writers' market sites. I came across this encouraging note on the Novel and Short Story Writers' Market blog:

The editor sounds a little desperate on his blog, so if you have a story that fits his criteria, you should have a good shot at getting it up.
At least somebody noticed!

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