Ask the Editor: Contest Q&A
With questions submitted by Members and answered by our editor-in-Chief
Reading rounds, and what you’re looking for:
Do you know from the first sentence that a story is working, or do you make your judgment only when finished?
Sometimes I can tell by the very first sentence if a story is not working. Usually it takes a paragraph or two. Others (and these are the stories that pass to the next round) require more reading. More on process below.
How important is the opening?
A trained eye can tell the skill of the writer very quickly just by a few paragraphs – sometimes a few sentences, as I just mentioned – and I’ve employed this process quite effectively without letting the gems get sunk by inexperienced first-round readers (which is becoming more and more of a problem nowadays).
And this is where I’ll say: make sure your opening is as strong as possible. Penning killer openings is the single biggest struggle I see with submissions. Most writers haven’t developed the skills necessary to do it properly, which is why our process is so effective.
I’ll add this as well: I typically see about 1% of openings as what I’d label “Stellar”. When second-round sorting begins, these 1%’ers go directly to me. IMO, if you write an opening that good, you deserve the editor-in-chief’s attention. Not surprisingly, these stories see a much higher percentage go through to finalist, published finalist, and top three.
So yeah, openings matter, but only because they’re a quick window into the writer penning them.
What does the rest of the submission and reading process look like?
1st round is the gleaning of stories that are clearly not “ready to read” material. Most submissions fall into this category.
2nd round: All stories that made it through the first round get sorted by genre and sent out blind (and remain blind until the end, btw) to our volunteer readers, who then send (typically) the top 10-20% back to me.
3rd round: I personally read all these stories, place the ones that made Highly Honorable Mention and Semifinalist, and send the finalists back to our readers for the final round of judging.
4th and final round: Stories get ranked. Ranks get tallied. Stories get placed. Boom goes the dynamite.
What's the "ineffable something" you're looking for as you read?
In the first round, I’m looking for cues that a writer doesn’t know what they’re doing. These are mostly a lack of mechanical aptitudes, but can also be a lack of understanding of how a story works and how to engage a reader, so I can quickly send it to the reject pile and move on to the next submission.
When it becomes apparent that a writer knows precisely what they’re doing – I wouldn’t describe it as an ‘ineffable thing’, rather a culmination of competencies – that’s when I get excited, and my hope, as I read on, is that they can properly land the plane.
How significant is a Membership advantage?
Anyone can win this contest – history has proven this time and again – but the rates that we’re seeing Paying Members make it further into the rounds (more stats below), and eventually place or get picked up as published finalist, are significantly higher than your typical free subscriber. How much is it the added Membership perks, versus the propensity for writers serious about winning this contest becoming Members? I can’t say. But the numbers are telling us a story: Membership is worth the price of admission.
Is there any advantage in submitting earlier or later in the contest submission window?
Subliminally – there just might be! The last week, we are inundated with submissions, especially as we near the final day. Once, we saw 500 submissions on deadline day alone! Since reading is done throughout the submission window, that’s a lot of stories to sift through at the end. It’s quite possible that our editor eyes become weighed down by such volume. Now, I think a stunner of an opening is going to pass on to the next round regardless of when a story is submitted, but on-the-fence story openings might just have a better chance if submitted earlier.
Genres, tone, and what makes a story great:
What stands a better chance – funny or serious stories?
Both have done well, but if all things are equal, I’d put my wager on the serious stories. These hit harder, resonate longer, and pull with greater emotion. Our friend and regular contributor Wulf Moon wrote a great article about this called
The Price of Victory. Funny stories still do well, but for me personally – and what we’ve seen published – serious stories have a slight advantage.
Do some genres have a better chance of winning than others?
We’ve seen all manner of genres make it to the podium. Yes, there are some genres that we see more often in the top (and published altogether), but this is more of a numbers game, not a preference by us. For example, general and speculative fiction are the highest volume of genres submitted, so it stands to reason that we’re going to see a higher rate of top-tier stories, simply because of the volume.
We do love to publish genres we see less of, but contest placement or acceptance never comes because “we need more ______.” The story has to be top-notch. That’s the metric.
There are caveats, and they come in the form of what we call “too much” content. One I’ll mention here is that we often see with horror (though “too much” is certainly not limited to horror), as horror can be a harder sell due to its propensity for being extreme, and therefore a harder win. If you’re submitting horror, think: build suspense and dark settings – yes. Blood, guts, and obnoxious gore simply for shock value – no.
What genre has most frequently won the top prize?
In order from inception, the winners have been (and it gets a little tricky, because so many stories we publish are hybrids, or fall in between the cracks, or could be classified multiple ways):
1. Fiction/Bizzaro/Speculative
2. Memoir
3. Fiction/Literary/Military
4. Literary Thriller
5. Speculative Fiction
What separates a good story from a great one?
We see many “good” stories. They’re like a car that moves you from point A to point B, but something is misfiring along the way: maybe the AC isn’t working, the shocks are worn out, or there’s a rattle in the engine. There are so many elements to a story that you have to get right. Great stories have all of them: they hook you from the beginning, they keep your attention throughout, and bring it home with a satisfactory ending; it’s the culmination of all that and every little element in between, of all the cogs working in symphony that makes a tale “great,” makes it a story that a large swath of readers pick up and can’t put down until it’s finished, and lingers long in the mind.
Word count and contest stats:
What is the length of the shortest story to place in the top three?
Our 2026 contest’s second-place winner – The First Cell – was about 1,600 words (after edits). We’ve had numerous stories around the 2k mark as finalists and top three (partially because we’ve had lower word counts in the past), and a number of finalists at or under 1k.
What is the length of the longest story to place in the top three?
This can be a bit misleading, again, because of the shorter word counts in the past. In 2026, the third-place story – Driving Test – was about 5,500 (trimmed down to under 5k after edits), while the previous year’s third place – Rainbow Baby – went the opposite direction (started at just under 5k, and bumped up to about 5,700 because the ending needed expanding).
So how significant is word count, really?
Stories on both ends of the word count spectrum have performed well in our annual contest. At the end of the day, a story is best served with whatever it takes to tell the story properly. Let that be your aim. But understand that there are advantages and disadvantages to both. The benefit of a longer story is that we have more to sink our teeth into, to connect with the characters and get comfortable in the setting. It’s like that scene in Seinfeld where Jerry is riding first class, and as he’s sipping on a cocktail, the stewardess asks, “More of anything?” And Jerry smiles. “More of everything!”
The downside, however – and we see this all the time – is that when you have more of everything, that includes additional opportunities to fail or for the reader to lose interest, and the entire story can be more difficult to pull off. A story can succeed in many ways, but one big failure will keep it off the podium. Then again, if two stories are locked in a dead heat, we’ll give the edge to the longer story. Yes, this has happened.
At the end of the day, though, give the story the length it needs, not some arbitrary number in the sky.
I would love to know the full numbers breakdown: how many submissions from Members vs. non-Members; how many made 1st cut, 2nd cut, etc; submissions by genre; winners by genre & word count (tells us what you tend to favor), that kind of thing.
Some of these – like total number of submissions – we post in the issue where we announce contest winners (typically in our June issue – Members can go back and read at their leisure). But here’s some stats we haven’t posted:
Submissions by genre: We don’t keep exact stats on this – and it depends on how you break them down – but largest to smallest we see:
General fiction
(speculative) sci fi, magic realism, fantasy, horror
Romance, Memoir, mystery/crime/thriller, Western, historical fiction
Everything else
Previous 5 winning stories:
2 light-hearted, 3 serious
2,000 words, 4,000 words, 4,300 words, 3,800 words, 3,800 words
Other placing story genres:
2nd place: Memoir, fiction, sci fi, speculative
3d place: Romance, Fantasy, speculative/memoir, fiction
Paying Members vs free subscribers:
Members typically make up 10-15% of total submissions
Members typically make up 25-30% of Highly Honorable Mention through Finalist
(Most impressively) Members have made up about 45% of the top 3 placing stories
