More Editorial Thoughts
I'm always pleased when Shawna takes one of my slush survivors. So yesterday I was pleased eight times over when Shawna took eight such stories. I noted all sorts of milestones and such in yesteday's post, but now that I have a little distance yesterday's excitement, I noticed a few other things:
1) The numbers: Every so often the topic of editorial sexism among the speculative magazines pops up in the blogosphere. Before yesterday's batch, my ratio of accepted tales was 8 guys to 11 gals. After yesterday's purchases, I'm now at 11 guys to 16 gals. I know this doesn't reflect my exact tastes, because Shawna makes the final calls on what we publish. But I still think these numbers demonstrate I'm quite open to submissions from the gals. If anything, it's to the point where the guys will start complaining. :)
2) I've had a previous slush survivor accepted with the protagonist being gay, but only with a female protagonist. Now I'm on both sides of the fence. (Was that a pun? It was unintentional, honest!)
3) I know one of my slush survivors features a Hispanic protagonist, but I'm a little chagrined to admit that I can't remember if this is the first one. It's gotten to the point where I've read so much stuff for ROF that I lose details about stories with alarming regularity, even for ones I like ...even for some of my slush survivors! So I'm uncertain if the protagonist for one of my previous slush survivors is Hispanic. D'oh!
4) I now have my first slush survivor with a black protagonist (although he's one of two protagonists in the tale).
5) I now have my first slush survivor with a Native American protagonist.
Good stuff!
1) The numbers: Every so often the topic of editorial sexism among the speculative magazines pops up in the blogosphere. Before yesterday's batch, my ratio of accepted tales was 8 guys to 11 gals. After yesterday's purchases, I'm now at 11 guys to 16 gals. I know this doesn't reflect my exact tastes, because Shawna makes the final calls on what we publish. But I still think these numbers demonstrate I'm quite open to submissions from the gals. If anything, it's to the point where the guys will start complaining. :)
2) I've had a previous slush survivor accepted with the protagonist being gay, but only with a female protagonist. Now I'm on both sides of the fence. (Was that a pun? It was unintentional, honest!)
3) I know one of my slush survivors features a Hispanic protagonist, but I'm a little chagrined to admit that I can't remember if this is the first one. It's gotten to the point where I've read so much stuff for ROF that I lose details about stories with alarming regularity, even for ones I like ...even for some of my slush survivors! So I'm uncertain if the protagonist for one of my previous slush survivors is Hispanic. D'oh!
4) I now have my first slush survivor with a black protagonist (although he's one of two protagonists in the tale).
5) I now have my first slush survivor with a Native American protagonist.
Good stuff!