How to Make an Editor's Day

What I Learned From Scheduling 100 Stories in One Week

Hi, all! It’s Katie, here with a guest post today. Many of you will recognize my name from your email inbox, as I recently undertook the task of scheduling the backlog of stories here at Micromance.

After scheduling over one hundred stories in six days, I started noticing some patterns in the submissions I was handling that I wouldn’t necessarily have considered as an author until I saw things from the editorial side. While I was happy to do as much work as was needed, I realized there are some ways authors who submit their work to literary magazines could be making their editors’ lives much easier without too much extra effort. So here are a few of my insights into things authors can do to make editing and scheduling pieces just a little bit easier.

Unique File Names

Until I attempted to work my way through one hundred Microsoft Word documents in a single week, I never appreciated how much it can slow things down when every document has the same name, or close to it. The easiest ones to manage had some identifying information in the file name, usually the title of the story and the author’s last name. That way, even if I had the document downloaded and separated from the email it came with, I could tell at a glance which piece was in that document. The same rule of thumb applies to author bios and author photos. Labeling those with the author’s name instead of generic keywords really helped me make sure I was putting the right bio with the right story and the right face with the right name.

Email Subject Lines

As I was clearing the backlog, some of the stories to be scheduled were my own. In working on those, I quickly realized that the subject lines I’ve been using in my submission emails are not helpful at all. “February submissions for Micromance” sounds like the perfect subject line from my end. I can easily find it in my inbox, and it states clearly and directly what I’m sending. But in the Micromance inbox, that tells me absolutely nothing. The only messages that come to this email are submissions for Micromance. It makes life so much easier when the subject line includes information that wouldn’t be obvious, such as the title of the piece being submitted, or in the case of multiple pieces, the author’s name. When submissions re-open, I will be using this format from now on: Quickie Submission: “Title” by Katie Fitzgerald. I’m sure most publications would be thrilled if we all did that!

Word Count

Another important thing to pay attention to is word count, not just for our poems and stories, but also for author bios. I do love a good challenge, and cutting some longer bios down to 100 words was certainly challenging, but when I edit a bio, I don’t always know what the author wants me to prioritize. If you want to be sure that the information you most want shared makes it into the bio accompanying your piece, the best thing to do is edit it down before you send it in. Most publications will let you know in their guidelines what their word count requirements are.

Double-check the Guidelines

And finally, when in doubt, go to the guidelines! The guidelines are the place to find out all the preferences an editor might have in terms of formatting, theme, frequency of submissions, simultaneous submissions, reprints, and anything else you might be wondering about. Often there is a little bit of leeway with these, but it’s also good to remember that, if every author ignores even just one guideline, the cumulative result can be a lot of extra work and a wrench in an otherwise smooth process. I find it helpful to open the guidelines as I’m preparing a submission and to go down the list and make sure I’ve followed everything before I hit send. As one author sending one piece to one magazine, fudging it a little bit on a guideline or two might not seem like a big deal, but when you’re handling a high volume of emails, every little thing matters!

Scheduling so many stories in just under a week was quite the adventure! I feel like it gave me a unique perspective on the editorial process, and I hope sharing those insights with you is helpful in your own writing journey. I look forward to continuing to help schedule your work, and I appreciate your patience and kindness towards me as I cleared our backlog.

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