Saturday 21 March 2015

Lummox 4 Open to Submissions

Lummox 4 will be open to submissions starting April 1, and no this is not for fools, though all things considered, RD Armstrong, like most of us, editors and publishers, must have been engulfed in the same mad swirl as some of us have experienced.

Anyway, those of you who would like to take part in this fantastic experience I was part personally myself the last three years -- so honored, sincerely -- please read these simple guidelines as even some supposedly great authors tend to forget that even the so-called best can be rejected for not following some rules.

I join RD in his call for submissions and totally agree with him: we, editors, receive a considerable amount of outstanding work from authors all around the world, but we have to make a choice. Besides, we don't usually don't charge reading-fees, though these tend to become more and more frequent in the small-press world on the other side of the Atlantic. No grants, no allowances, no dime from the state to the smallest of us, out of the main stream scene.

Yet, we do our best to promote YOUR writing and YOUR concepts, thoughts, passions, ideas, which we usually share (or we wouldn't publish your work). It is heartbreaking sometimes not to be able to pay you for your work. It is even more excruciating in my point of view, not to be able to send you free copies of the journal or book your work appears in.

What authors have to remember is when they submit work to small-press, that this work is accepted, it is often to a one-two person 'business' they are entrusting their work. This means this one-two person 'business' works on the funds of its owners. Most of the time, not much, or a salary that is already too little to be able to live decently.

When authors submit, they should also remember that free copies means less sales, and though we're not businesspersons (that's why the word business was weakened by inverted commas in this post), we need your support. That means you buying a few of our publications so that we can continue publishing your awesome work in our no-less awesome magazines, journals and books.

That said. Ready your brains and sharpen your pen, and get to write and submit your best to Lummox to be issued next August.

Good luck.

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