Submissions progress
As we enter October, it's probably about time to report on how our submissions reading is going. Our goal is to finish by the end of October. As of October 5th, 183 stories have been rejected (a couple with revision requests), 6 have been withdrawn by the authors, 30 have passed the first round and are in various stages of review, and 77 stories are still unread.
This is behind where we want to be, for a number of reasons. First, as we explained at the beginning of this submission period, we had to get the remaining 2019 stories edited on an accelerated schedule to stay ahead of the SFWA rate increase, which we did manage to do. Second, not many of our volunteer first readers could help out this time. Third, Donald's commute is shorter these days (most of the time), which is overall a good thing, but does mean that he doesn't read as many submissions during his commute as in previous submission periods. Finally, Kristin's been kept unusually busy with some writing-related volunteer work, for which midsummer through fall is the busiest time of year.
Fortunately, Kristin's volunteer commitments are coming to an end, and Donald's putting a renewed focus on getting Mysterion reading done. That doesn't guarantee we'll be finished by the end of October as planned, but it should put us back on track.
Meanwhile, if you want to get a sneak peak at upcoming stories, consider supporting Mysterion on Patreon. Our October story, "Smokeless", by Laura VanArendonk Baugh, is up now for $3+/month supporters, and the rest of this year's stories will be up on November 1st for $10+/month supporters, including two Christmas stories. All supporters, for as little as $1/month, will be able to read inside stories about us, participate in polls, and join us for the monthly Discord chat.
If you're in the Boston area, stop by the Boston Book Festival on October 19th, where we'll be joining our friends Scott and Rebecca Minor with the Realm Makers Bookstore. (We interviewed Rebecca here at Mysterion back in 2018.) The street fair associated with the book festival is free and open to the public, in Copley Square; though of course you'll be able to buy books from the exhibitors who are there! Donald and Kristin can only be there from 2-5 pm, but they'll have copies of the Mysterion anthology available all day, and at a discount from what you would pay on Amazon. The Realm Makers Bookstore carries fantasy and science fiction books by Christian authors, though there's a wide range of how "Christian" the books themselves are. Not everything they carry would fit comfortably on the shelves of a Christian bookstore (which, for some of our readers, is probably a big plus). Highly recommended if you're interested in what's going on in the broader world of Christian speculative fiction, both traditional publishing and indie!
We could make this update longer and more interesting, but that would take time away from reading your submissions, so we'll sign off for now. "Smokeless" will be up on our website here on October 28th; in the meantime, if you haven't already, be sure to check out "Whatsoever Ye Shall Ask", from Joanna Michal Hoyt.
As always, thanks for reading!
This is behind where we want to be, for a number of reasons. First, as we explained at the beginning of this submission period, we had to get the remaining 2019 stories edited on an accelerated schedule to stay ahead of the SFWA rate increase, which we did manage to do. Second, not many of our volunteer first readers could help out this time. Third, Donald's commute is shorter these days (most of the time), which is overall a good thing, but does mean that he doesn't read as many submissions during his commute as in previous submission periods. Finally, Kristin's been kept unusually busy with some writing-related volunteer work, for which midsummer through fall is the busiest time of year.
Fortunately, Kristin's volunteer commitments are coming to an end, and Donald's putting a renewed focus on getting Mysterion reading done. That doesn't guarantee we'll be finished by the end of October as planned, but it should put us back on track.
Meanwhile, if you want to get a sneak peak at upcoming stories, consider supporting Mysterion on Patreon. Our October story, "Smokeless", by Laura VanArendonk Baugh, is up now for $3+/month supporters, and the rest of this year's stories will be up on November 1st for $10+/month supporters, including two Christmas stories. All supporters, for as little as $1/month, will be able to read inside stories about us, participate in polls, and join us for the monthly Discord chat.
If you're in the Boston area, stop by the Boston Book Festival on October 19th, where we'll be joining our friends Scott and Rebecca Minor with the Realm Makers Bookstore. (We interviewed Rebecca here at Mysterion back in 2018.) The street fair associated with the book festival is free and open to the public, in Copley Square; though of course you'll be able to buy books from the exhibitors who are there! Donald and Kristin can only be there from 2-5 pm, but they'll have copies of the Mysterion anthology available all day, and at a discount from what you would pay on Amazon. The Realm Makers Bookstore carries fantasy and science fiction books by Christian authors, though there's a wide range of how "Christian" the books themselves are. Not everything they carry would fit comfortably on the shelves of a Christian bookstore (which, for some of our readers, is probably a big plus). Highly recommended if you're interested in what's going on in the broader world of Christian speculative fiction, both traditional publishing and indie!
We could make this update longer and more interesting, but that would take time away from reading your submissions, so we'll sign off for now. "Smokeless" will be up on our website here on October 28th; in the meantime, if you haven't already, be sure to check out "Whatsoever Ye Shall Ask", from Joanna Michal Hoyt.
As always, thanks for reading!
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