So how long will this all take?

The question every submitting writer wants to ask the agents or editors who have their work.

At SUCKER LITERARY, we try to be very transparent about the submitting/responding process. So I will break down the steps for all of you who have submitted (and those of you who are just curious).

We are now entering our reading and critiquing period. This process is rolling. From the moment I received the first set of submissions on March 1 when we opened the doors of this reading period all the way through doors closing on May 1, I’ve been fielding submissions to our readers. So the responding process actually has been going on for some time. However, the getting of the actual YAY, NAY, or MAYBE to you all will take another several weeks to several months. This is because our staff of 25 readers must fill out feedback sheets, which include whether or not a piece should be accepted, rejected, or mentored. Then they send those back to me, and I read EVERY SINGLE one. How long does that take?

The Story Behind The Story: Kelly Samuels’ Do You Remember Fred?

KELLY SAMUELS, author of “Do You Remember Fred?”

http://www.KellySamuels.com

A few years back, I went to UCLA to investigate their Extension’s decorating program.  And now I’m a writer.  Somehow I ended up at the Writer’s Fair, sat in on a lecture and listened to an author talk about all the characters she has swimming around in her head.  I thought, Hallelujah, I don’t have a multiple personality disorder; I just have characters searching for a plot. (Some characters I’ve had with me since childhood!)

DECISIONS: Open Door Day 2012

FIRST, A THANK YOU

First, an enormous suckerlicious “thank you” to the best staff of readers an editor could ask for. Open Door Day readers included: Joey Lee (special consultant to Sucker), Miranda Cain (copy editor/reader), Molly Cavanaugh (copy editor/reader), Kathleen Ingraham (editorial assistant), Susan Zall (reader), Heather Talty (reader), and Shannon Alexander (reader). These folks are talented writers in their own right and exquisitely insightful critical readers. Without their responses to the stories, I would never have had the courage to listen to my inner voice that cried YAY or NAY to a piece. Validation from them was priceless. Thank you all a million times over.

Fear & Expectations

*This blog was recently published on our founder’s blog. Here it is in its entirety.

PART I

A High Bar

When I started Sucker a little over a year ago, I had zero expectations and a glowing vision of what I wanted to do: Publish the best in edgy, emerging YA literary fiction and provide all submitters with feedback that would not crush their hearts. Creating a supportive environment, even among those we had to reject, was tantamount to the desire to publish stellar YA fiction.

SUCKER, free (get it?)

from the editor

Why we are free.

Recently on Twitter we engaged in a brief discussion on how to get SUCKER more widely distributed, which also included getting it “live” in bookstores. In some private emails, the staff has offered some suggestions about how to make this happen.  All of the suggestions required funds. Yep, go ahead and try to think of a way to get us more widely distributed and I guarantee that when you get to the end of the thought, money will be involved.

How you can help and other cool stuff

HOW YOU CAN HELP OUT

We want to address the question many of you have asked–how can YOU help us? As you know, SUCKER is a volunteer based magazine (with a budget of ZERO), and we rely on the help of others to make us grow.

Why We Want To Mentor You

While reading the first set of submissions for Sucker this weekend, I found myself struggling. Most of the submissions had the potential to be amazing. And “potential” speaks loudly to my inner teacher…but not so much to my inner editor. The inner editor said, “Just put these in the “pass” pile.” (A pile that was growing far larger than the “maybe” pile, and I didn’t quite have a “yes” pile).  My inner teacher said, “Wait–can’t you just work with this writer, just throw out a few pointers?” And because my inner teacher was once able to command a study hall of 200-plus seventh graders with the narrowing of her eyes, my inner editor really never had a chance.