Shutterstock / kpatyhka©Regular readers of this blog will be aware of recent changes in terms of how we accept submissions, here at “The People’s Friend”.
If you’re an author who has yet to be published in the “Friend”, all submissions are now accepted only by email.
Please don’t submit by post; we’re continuing to follow government guidance and are still working from home, so we’re unable to reply.
How the new system is working
Details of our new system are available in our guidelines.
When your story is received, you receive an immediate, automatic response to let you know it’s safely with us. If you don’t receive this response, the story has not been received.
Why are some stories being rejected so quickly?
The backlog of stories which has been built up since the first lockdown in March, 2020, consists necessarily of postal submissions.
This means that we are starting from scratch with our emailed submissions.
Our Fiction team members each have an assigned days to pop into the folders and read through stories received.
This means that we are reading and responding to new submissions very quickly at the moment.
What about the stories that remain in the office?
If you’re waiting for a response to a story that was posted in during lockdown — good news!
I was able to visit the office last week, and we now have a plan in place for reading and responding to all pending submissions. You should hear from us over the next couple of months.
Changes to feedback
To help us to give the best and most timely service to our contributors, we are streamlining the feedback we give to authors when their story or poem is rejected.
There’ll be more on this in next week’s blog.
For more from Fiction Ed Lucy, read her blog here.
Lucy Crichton Better known as “Fiction Editor Lucy”, I am always on the look-out for the very best short stories, poems and pocket novels. As well as sourcing enjoyable content, I enjoy working with our established contributors, encouraging new talent, and celebrating 155 years of “Friend” fiction!
