diabolicalplots.com
SF/F/H magazine, Ignyte Award winning Submission Grinder tool for writers, Long List Anthology. https://ko-fi.com/diabolicalplots
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Ah, *nods sagely*, they were an improv troupe.
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Looks great!
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These are amazing!
Could you find an acting troupe of ferrets to make smol!Merc's vision a reality??
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à propos of nothing : "proud samus" alt version
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Alt French Fries
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Especially when they demand that their Grinder listing be taken down because they feel slighted by lack of deference and like, sure dude no problem, I sure will miss your bloviation when you're no longer in my inbox, fella! LOL
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It is... not unhilarious to see Big Fish Small Pond editors interact with someone who does not kowtow to them... as they tend to have no idea how to comport themselves to an audience that does not defer to their every whim.
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In adminning the Submission Grinder, most editors I deal with are excellent cool people donating their time to try to facilitate art and that is a beautiful thing.
But I certainly deal with a share of Big Fish Small Pond editors who are, LOL, not such a beautiful thing.
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Anyway, rambling as I am wont to do, my point is that editors are no more special or important than writers, and I absolutely include myself in this statement.
Editors who feel otherwise may have succumbed to Big Fish Small Pond syndrome, where their little niche of power has gone to their heads.
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Some writers whose work we've published have specifically noted that they either wrote that weird stuff just for us, or had pulled it out of the trunk where they had given up on it so they had something to send, my hope is that more of that weird stuff exists because we have encouraged it to do so!
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Have I/we succeeded at that? I like to think I have on some level I/we have, though of course it is limited by resource constraints - if I were independently wealthy and didn't have to work to pay the mortgage and buy more stories.
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I don't see myself as a gatekeeper, but as a facilitator, trying to provide a platform, that hopefully those readers who are looking for the weird little slice of the fiction pie that I like to present, and find wonderful gems from writers who write that kind of thing.
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Every submission window more than a thousand writers trust me with a piece of their work, which is incredible and humbling! And my role is to try to find ones that impact me (or the other editors) and present them to our readers. Without writers sending stories my role is nothing!
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I, as both a writer and an editor, have not written much in recent years because I have become less convinced that I have anything worthwhile to say in my writing and minute-for-minute I feel like I have more impact on the world by editing than by writing.
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A new writer coming in may be so eager to be published that they think of the editor as doing them a great favor by considering their work, when really an editor and writer should both be seeking a mutually beneficial arrangement.
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(Of course we do NOT publicly point these out because it is the author's choice if they wish to declare this kind of thing publicly, they can say that or not say that as they wish, it is not our business to share such things!)
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We get more than 1000 submissions for every window, and we can usually only accept about 24 of them. There are always ones we would like to publish but just can't work in, and so it is truly a DELIGHT to see those appear elsewhere afterward!
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A few times, authors have reached out after such a case to thank me for the insights and that they sold it somewhere else very cool after using the input - maybe even a place that is cooler than DP itself (IMO, as the author hopefully does not say it that way LOL). And that is truly WONDERFUL.
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Those detailed notes do take some work, for sure! But I would not try to charge for the unasked-for labor, I would only donate that labor because I believe the story is close to doing what the author is trying to do and maybe my opinion will help them reach that.
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If the editor doesn't want to make suggestions without compensation, that's their prerogative, but then they would be better off just sending a normal rejection.
I have sent detailed notes when not issuing a rewrite request, author can take or leave my thoughts because it is their story!
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If an editor legit likes some things about the work but thinks it needs some changes to be great, an editor could choose to give some guidance the author can take or leave. This could be in the form of a rewrite request (with no guarantee of acceptance). But again NOT soliciting money for it.
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The higher the $X the more egregious this is.
I have just received a report where the amount is $250 which, again, the author did not ask for paid editing services, it is not appropriate to solicit them in this context.
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If you send a submission for publication to the editor and you get a response that's like "we don't want to publish this but you can pay us $X for us to help you revise it and then maybe maybe we will want to publish it after that", this is a major red flag.
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Great way to start the day!
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How about you? I hope a portion of the day that is just for you!
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A little of both I think! A bit of weeding this morning before the heat of the day, some minor errands on my way to pick up kid from summer camp this afternoon, but a stretch in the middle that is pretty undefined. Wrap up a couple editorial tasks, maybe just do some reading or gaming!
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Fair to middling, I have a rare day to myself today due to the holiday so I'm aiming to have some quiet time that I am always short on!
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Golf clap! (so as not to startle you more awake than you want to be yet)
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Yeah agreed, last year AT&T was going around asking to install fiber and asking me to tell them which of my neighbors I would like to send them to for referrals and I was like give me your card and I can pass that on but Im not giving you any names or anything unasked
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I really really really sincerely wish the story wasn't so timely!
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Hoppy borfday! :D
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But maybe this is the perfect time to go out in a blaze of glory. They're kindof asking for it LOL this is like those troll posts where they post a picture of Captain Picard and put a star wars quote under it and claim the quote is from Battlestar Galactica or something
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I'd watch for that when you go home as a sign of the lingering haunting
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It looks like it is growing s chocolate donut!
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I saw some lovely baby ducks while I was working on a park bench today. That's the best I got.
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A horror author is a horror who auths! LOL
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I built it myself! (the face in my avatar LOL)
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Okay but look at that gorgeous profile silhouette, Anubis over there!
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Can I say that I appreciate that even in your Wookiee state you spell it correctly. 😂