by Jackie Goutor
Speculative fiction is a new term to me, even though I’m a lifelong fan of the genre. One of my writing buddies used it a few years ago, but publishers often rebrand genres—Twilight’s vampires drained the life out of urban fantasy, for example, and now I only hear about contemporary fantasy. I assumed that the name change was simply a way to create space for different kinds of science and science writers. Turns out I missed a good old-fashioned writers’ brawl featuring Canada’s own Margaret Atwood. Things have since calmed down a bit and speculative fiction is generally defined as literary science fiction.
It’s exactly this kind of forward motion that makes the speculative fiction genre so fascinating and dynamic. Editors Toronto’s November speaker, Lloyd Penny, is not only the current editor-in-chief of Amazing Stories (AS) magazine, he’s also a wonderful and engaging historian of the evolving genre. In his presentation “The Art of Editing Speculative Fiction,” Lloyd gave us a sense not only of the day-to-day challenges of editing an online genre magazine, but also of the importance of preserving its long history.
Lloyd Penny’s Career
For Lloyd, the editor-in-chief position is a dream come true, and he told us he is delighted to “marry what I love with what I do.” He began by walking us through his enviable career, and his delighted surprise at his own success was both lovely and encouraging to this newbie editor. Lloyd then told us, well, the amazing history of Amazing Stories.
Amazing Stories magazine and the editor-in-chief position are iconic in the science fiction community. The prestigious Hugo Award is named after the first editor-in-chief, Hugo Gernsback. The first issue of AS came out on March 19, 1926. The print magazine has published off and on since its launch, and thankfully, the advent of the internet brought new life to AS. Lloyd hopes to one day bring the magazine back to print.
After Steve Davidson acquired AS in 2012, planning to relaunch the property as a website, he appointed Ira Nayman as editor-in-chief. Lloyd reached out to congratulate his friend, a fellow Canadian, and offered to help. Ira immediately put Lloyd to work, and Lloyd ended up copy editing and proofreading every issue after the 2018 launch of the AS website. When Steve and Ira finally decided to move on, Lloyd, based on his excellent work, was invited to take over as editor-in-chief.
Submitting to Amazing Stories
As for Amazing Stories magazine’s editing process, submissions are queued for review, and if accepted, stories are queued again for edits and proofs. This turns out to be a light-handed process since AS requires submissions to be publishable “as is.” Lloyd oversees a team of between 10 and 12 volunteers who read submissions. Some read 10 stories a day, some only two per month, and as much as possible, Lloyd tries to work around their schedules. Lloyd’s main instructions to his readers are “be really picky” and “find better.” Given how the genre community can be a tight-knit one, AS maintains a strict policy of anonymity—no names appear on the manuscripts—so that stories can stand on their own merits and not on the author’s name.
Advice for Science Fiction Writers and Editors
Lloyd recommended the Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction as an important tool for editors. I asked Lloyd to recommend books for writers and editors of science fiction, and he suggested Ben Bova’s series (still available, including as eBooks).
Bova’s books are a good suggestion because they emphasize the importance of context. Science fiction, speculative fiction, and fantasy share a common ground with genres like historical fiction: the devil is in the details. You cannot write a space opera without explaining your propulsion system any more than you can write a Victorian romance without mentioning corsets. So, editors need to spend time ensuring the science makes sense, just as editors must ensure that Sherlock rides in carriages bumping over cobblestones. Advice to editors nervous about their lack of science background is to follow Lloyd’s example, and network. Many scientists are science fiction fans, so conventions offer an excellent opportunity to learn from a physicist. Lloyd recommended RavenCon (AS will be hosting to celebrate its centennial), NASFIC (North American SF Convention), and WorldCon. Remember, too, that science fiction does not just mean astrophysics; for example, the primary science in Story of Your Life, the short story that inspired the film Arrival, is linguistics.
More importantly, conventions also offer great networking opportunities for editorial work. Lloyd encouraged editors interested in speculative fiction work to do anything and everything that pads out their resume, including volunteering their time. Every experience is good experience!
Lloyd closed by suggesting a few resources, and I’ve expanded the list a bit. Speculative fiction magazines and their submission pages are another excellent resource for writers and editors. I highly recommend perusing the links below to get a sense of speculative fiction’s broad range, and of what editors like Lloyd are looking for. Overall, though, Lloyd’s key advice is to read as widely and as much as possible in the genre. Never a bad day when someone suggests you read more!
Authors:
Submission Guidelines:
- Amazing Stories
- Tor.com
- Clarkesworld: Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine
- Fantasy & Science Fiction
- On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic
Jackie Goutor is a long-time library worker and a freelance editor. She is celebrating the first anniversary of her small biz launch.
This article was copy edited by Vaani Sai, a writer and editor who is passionate about neuroscience and the psychology of language.
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