Wendy Grosskopf:
WENDY'S WORLD
Getting Published Involves Serious Bootlicking
Some for-profit editors look down on editors of nonprofit university publications, thinking these guys have not yet graduated into the “real” world.
Wrong. I assure you that we get to play many of the same games that the for-profit ink-slingers do.
Take the issue of which submissions to publish, for example. True, university publications ask for “no names on manuscripts,” suggesting a fair and unbiased selection process. That doesn’t mean it is. Looking up contributor names is an easy few clicks on the keyboard. So, like in the ‘real’ world, if you want to get published, kiss the editor’s ass like your life depends on it.
At least I don’t look at contributors’ names until after the first read, so all submitters have that initial chance of being accepted or rejected based solely on whether I think their submission is good or is shit.
But when it comes down to final selections, when all the pieces remaining are strong enough to not embarrass me, final choices tend to be made as follows: 1) I know and like the submitter: the works’ in. 2) I don’t know the submitter: coin toss. 3) I know and don’t like the submitter: rejection pile.
In addition to the obvious perk of the attention and boot-licking that comes with the title of editor, there is something especially enticing about working on a not-for-profit university publication. We don’t need to worry about funding; the kitty silently fills in the background while we in the spotlight spend with that carefree abandon resulting from easy access to free money. It’s like playing Monopoly on somebody else’s board game. Except it’s real cash. And you don’t have to push a stupid little thimble across a square of cardboard covered in silly doodles.
— Wendy Grosskopf —
Wendy Grosskopf is a writer and literary critic as well as a graduate student at California State University Northridge, where she edits Northridge Review. |
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