Issue 10 Retrospective

Issue 10 launched one week ago and is perfect for your breezy summer reading—if you enjoy consuming words on stormy nights alone atop sand dunes, dejected about the increasing light pollution pushing the stars from view.

Our team is proud to have made it to double digits. We first opened January 2, 2022, and we look forward to being with you until Issue 100 in 2055 and beyond.

This landmark issue is the first to implement many changes we’ve been working on:

1)      5,000 fiction word limit

2)      100% original work

3)      De-siloed content

4)      Variable number of works

5)      New launch date

Judging by the 40% submission volume increase for Issue 10, it’s clear our previous limit of 3,000 words was holding back many authors. We expected that this limit would be the sweet spot for authors creating short fiction, and we seem to largely be correct.

De-siloing, for those who don’t know, is where instead of sequestering content into sections of Fiction and Poetry, we arrange the issue based on how the works flow into one another. This is done to create a better, more seamless reading experience and encourage everyone to engage with both types of literature. It allows our editors to sculpt a cohesive piece of art with fewer unexpected dips and turns that introduce stop points for readers.

Through the above changes, we’re glad to be moving in the direction that opens up our publication to a wider authorial audience and provides more opportunities and interesting content.

Patreon and Ingram

After Issue 9, we replaced the early-interview Partnership Tier perk with our new “Submission Insights” feature. Each month, it offers a direct earpiece to our editorial team offering in-depth views into what we are seeing in the slush pile, what we are tired of receiving, overly-specific topics we’d love to have submitted, and ongoing industry trends. If you’ve ever wondered what editors think after they read the stories in their queue or how to increase your chances of acceptance, this is the perfect benefit for you.

Production of Issue 10 went smoothly, the best of any production so far. It was going so well that we knew something would come to knock us down.

Five days before launch, an unauthorized party entered our publisher’s account and uploaded four fake eBooks. They had connected each of them to our Issue 10 ePub (somehow) and were selling them under our name. We discovered the issue when Ingram cancelled the worldwide distribution for our Issue 10 print book due to one of the fake eBooks being stolen or AI-generated. What followed is an exercise in patience and madness:

- Customer support removes the fake ebooks

- Customer support deletes our actual ebook files

- Appeals department puts back our deleted ebook

- Appeals department puts back the fake ebooks

- Appeals department ignores re-enabling distribution

So now we are stuck talking to both departments waiting for a resolution. Currently they have both told us to sit tight while they investigate, as the problem on their end is deeper than they expected.

We apologize that Issue 10 is now available in third-party retailers right now, and we’re doing everything we can. You can still buy a print version from our publisher sell link (click here). Purchasing a copy from this location gives the journal double the royalty compared to anywhere else, so if it's feasible for you, we do suggest going this route.

Marketing

We brought on two marketing editors right around the release of Issue 9, throwing them into the deep end of launch-time mayhem. Six months later and our marketing team has struggled getting their footing quite right.

A great deal of time and effort has gone into getting our new team members trained and operating semi-independently. But as marketing requires having an intimate knowledge of every journal system and timeline, it takes at least a year to become fully versed. The end goal is to have the marketing folks able to do more creative marketing and do new, interesting things. This role is the most burnout-inducing job in the journal, sometimes the most important, and often the most overlooked. At the core of it, the marketing team simply wants to keep building meaningful connections with our audience, and it’s great that we’re making more space to try new things to achieve that.

Overall

We sent out more R&R’s (revise and resubmit) than ever before while reading for Issue 10, illustrating our intentions of working with authors when we truly believe in and advocate for their piece. We will always be a publication that fosters a relationship with our authors and fights for their art.

After implementing many journal and team changes throughout 2024 and the start of 2025, we enjoyed the time to refine ourselves and our work. The team is meshing well and we're almost done training the new folks. For all that we accomplished last year, we encourage you to read our detailed 2024 retrospective posted in January.

For now, we begin reading for Issue 11 coming out October 1. Stay tuned for plenty of Issue 10 marketing goodies that are coming online soon, and expect to see us at East Coast literary conferences throughout the year.