One of the more difficult decisions that a publisher must make is to
set the tone of a new magazine. As we enter our second issue and the end
of our Very Short Story contest, we found that many of our entries had
a different feel than what we received for our prior contest.
This caused an interesting debate in our editorial office. Do we publish
stories that we feel are compelling despite they are on the edges of
our requirements or do we attempt to focus the magazine in a more
narrow way
and publish stories that fit a more defined set of criteria?
As publisher and editor-in-chief, the decision fell to me to make the "executive" decision
that would chart future of this magazine.
As I was considering this, I thought of a excellent story drafted by
one of our contributing authors who had a very difficult time finding
a publisher
for it. The reoccurring response was that "While we enjoyed our story,
we do not feel it meets our editorial direction".
I then considered how many well-crafted stories remained unpublished
simply due to a lack of vision or courage on the part of a publisher
or editor.
The creative process sometimes draws out dark stories and these must
be told as well.
So we decided that when a compelling story is submitting to our magazine,
we will review it on its merits instead of a rigid adherence to any
guidelines provided.
We hope you enjoy this issue and find each of these stories as interesting
as we did.
|
