Necrotic Issue #8

#8 is our second print issue. I thought that one thing this blog would be good for was soliciting feedback about the magazine. Please feel free to discuss what you like and don’t care for about the latest Necrotic Tissue. If you dislike a story, please be respectful and constructive with your criticism.

Overall formatting had few changes, except for the transition from stark white paper to cream. We think it's easier on the eyes. The cover art is from Patrick McWhorter, a regular contributing artist. It's also the story art for the Editor's Pick, Smoke by Robert Millard. We think it's a fantastic piece that captures the essence of the story.

There will always be disagreement as to which is the best story of the bunch. Only 100-Word Bites don't qualify, otherwise all other length stories are in the running. It occurred to me that since I pay professional rates for what I consider the best story of the issue, that there would be speculation that my favorite story is one with a lowest word count :). I could try to assure you that's not the case, but you will either believe me or not. Smoke is not a short piece, but it isn’t pushing our limit either. In January, the winner is a shorter story than Smoke. While it’s too early to tell, I think this trend will be broken for April's issue.

David Dunwoody's story, Ellie Elemental kicks off the issue and it doesn’t let up. I think every issue has been strong. Certainly, reading any one of them is worth the time. Having said that, as we have become better known, we have also had more stories to draw from. We received 100 stories during our first submission month two years ago, and our most recent window we received over 400. The hardest part about getting so many is having to reject so many publishable stories. I think the eighteen or so we took for issue #1 gave us a strong start. Now, we are still getting about 18% stories that are without a doubt good enough to get in, but we are only able to take about 6%. That's leaving a lot on the table, but the only other choice is to accept stories years in advance and then temp closing while we catch up. We prefer to stay open more often and have our writers wait less than five months to see their story in print.

There is also the usual non fiction peices. I need help with these most of all. While I have no desirte to take on reviews of books and movies and many other online and print markets do, I want tomake sure the non fiction is worthwhile.

Please reply to this post with any feedback, positive or constructive.

Thanks

Scott…