Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner Talk Big Plans for Apex Magazine and the State of SFF Publishing

Jason Sizemore: Maurice and I have long-discussed having him do a guest-edit of an issue but we were like two ships passing in the night. At MidAmericon 2, he mentioned that he’s in a bit of a lull before his schedule explodes in 2017. The zine is currently closed for submissions, so we would have a blank slate when we reopen for him. Also, Maurice likes to tackles issues of diversity, inclusion, and religion in his editing work, issues germane to the conversation genre fiction is having with its readers right now. We both felt that the time was right for his voice in the magazine.
After a conversation with Darcy Little Badger last spring, I came to understand that genre readers need to be exposed to more native and indigenous authors. That’s where Dr. Amy H. Sturgis, my long-time friend, popped into the picture. She’s a scholar of Native American history and identifies as a person with Native American heritage, and is someone who I felt would do an outstanding job with a special issue of native/indigenous authors for Apex Magazine.
[caption id="attachment_14076" align="alignright" width="150"] Lesley Conner[/caption]
Lesley Conner: As for how they will shape their issues, this is their thing! Maurice and Amy will have complete control over all the content included: original fiction, poetry, articles, reprints. Maurice has decided that he would like to hold an open submission period, which we will do through Apex Magazine’s online submission system. Stories may be submitted between December 1st and December 15th for Maurice to consider for the April issue. He will also be reaching out to specific authors he would like to see stories from. Dr. Sturgis will exclusively be soliciting stories from authors she would like to include in her issue. I’m extremely excited to see what both of these guest editors bring to Apex Magazine, and to see how their issues fit with those put together by Jason and I.
You’ve got new fiction by some renowned writers lined up if you meet your subscription goals. Can you give me some background on the stories you hope to unlock?
Jason Sizemore: Our readers know Ursula Vernon through her strange Americana mythology stories such as “Jackalope Wives” and “The Tomato Thief.” We have bone-chilling short from her that is different from what I’m used to reading from Ursula. Her stories typically dip their toes into the darkness, but “The Dark Birds” recalls the best of Grimm’s fairy tales.
We feel fortunate to have a new piece from Nisi Shawl. She’s just so talented and lovely and all-around Good Person. Her story is a great bit of magic realism that feels uncomfortably real.
John Hornor Jacobs writes in many genres, but I think he does horror best. Our readers will be delighted with his dark fantasy and horror flavored novelette we have to offer.
I don’t want to give away too much about E. Catherine Tobler‘s story other than it is a new Jackson’s Unreal Circus piece, is 7,400 words, and titled “The Three-tongued Mummy.”
One of your goals is to bump the rate you pay writers up to eight cents per word, which is a significant jump above the minimum amount for a professional market. What’s the impetus for making that move, and what effect do you think that will have both on Apex and on the short story market in general?
Lesley Conner: Raising our rates for original fiction has been something that Jason and I have talked about and wanted to do for a long while now. It’s important to pay authors well! They are creating amazing stories. They deserve it!
2016 has been a great year for Apex Magazine. When it came time to plan our yearly subscription drive we realized that now is the time to make that jump toward paying our authors more. Hopefully we can reach our drive funding goal and make it a reality.
On a day to day basis, I don’t think that raising our rates will change Apex all that much. We will still be a market that primarily fills our issues from open submissions periods. We will still be searching for the gems among the slush. What it will hopefully do is entice more big name authors to submit new stories to us for a first look. It will help keep Apex competitive in a highly competitive market, which is a good thing for Apex, authors, and the SFF market as a whole.
If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice on the publishing industry, what would you say?
Jason Sizemore: Hire Lesley Conner as your first act as editor-in-chief.
Lesley Conner: Haha! That’s some spot on advice there, Jason!
I’d tell myself to go for it. Be confident. That I can do this. When Jason and I were first talking about the possibility of me doing some work for Apex, he asked me what skills I had. I’m pretty sure I told him nothing. Which I believed wholeheartedly. Bad, bad Lesley! Lucky for me, he mentioned needing someone to run the Apex Book Company social media feeds and I immediately responded that I could totally Twitter! Not exactly a shining example of how to get into the publishing business, but Jason must have seen something worthwhile because he gave me a shot and I slowly came to realize I knew a lot more than I gave myself credit for.
What does the genre fiction publishing industry look like to you right now? Is it healthy? How do you think it’s going to change in the next two or three years?
Jason Sizemore: I’m currently bullish on the genre industry. Apex Book Company has done fairly well the last three years. Interest in world SF is on the increase. Readers are seeking to expand their reading choices. Despite all the internal strife as the genre community works to keep its house in order, the state of genre fiction remains strong.
Heh, I feel like I’m giving a presidential state of the union address.
I’m pretty fascinated by Kentucky Kaiju. But this is a pretty unusual book for Apex. Can you tell me how it was pitched to you and what made you take a chance on something a little outside the norm?
Jason Sizemore: Back in 2013, I sent an email to Justin Stewart and Tressa Bowling, a pair of artists from Kentucky. I loved their art style, so I asked if they had anything they could pitch. Cut to late 2015. Out of the blue, Justin emails an idea about a guidebook to the kaiju of Kentucky. He sent me a sample drawing. I was sold. I found out later that Justin got the idea out of an art book for Big Hero 6.

One of your upcoming releases is Upside Down, edited by Monica Valentinelli and Jaym Gates. The theme is taking common tropes and twisting or inverting them in some way. Can you tell us some of the tropes that the writers in that anthology are playing with?
Jason Sizemore: I believe they address 25 tropes in all. A couple of my favorites are Maurice Broaddus’s take on “Magical Negro” and Alyssa Wong’s inverting of “Yellow Peril.”
Lesley Conner: There’s a very funny story by Kat Richardson taking on the “Chainmail Bikini” trope. Adam-Troy Castro’s take on “The Girl in the Refrigerator” is incredibly touching. And Ferrett Steinmetz’s story is fabulous! It’s love and spiders and just fabulous!
That’s what I loved about reading Upside Down for the first time. The stories really cover a wide range of themes and genres and, yes, tropes. It made for a very entertaining read!
Do you have any advice for writers who are hoping to get a story in Apex Magazine or pitch a novel idea to you?
Lesley Conner: General tips for submitting to any publication: read the guidelines, make sure the market is open to submissions, remember that editors are people, READ THE GUIDELINES, check out a few issues of the publication you’re trying to sell to so you have a feel for what they publish.
Also, don’t ignore the cover letter. It doesn’t have to be anything spectacular or elaborate, but putting “N/A” in the cover letter spot in our submissions system does you no favors.
More specifically if you’re wanting to be published in Apex Magazine, I think the number one thing to remember is we very rarely publish stories that neatly fit into any one genre. Yes, we publish science fiction, fantasy, and horror, but rarely do we publish a story that is just sci-fi or just fantasy or just horror. We’re looking for stories that blend those genres, that twist them, borrow some from sci-fi, some from horror, and add a big heaping dollop of weird. We want stories that are beautiful and dark and pack an emotional punch.
As for pitching a book, that’s harder. In all the time I have been with Apex (more than five years), we’ve been open to unsolicited book submissions only once. And we bought enough books in that period that we’re pretty well booked through 2017. Kind of a grim situation if you’re dying to have us publish your novel. Your best bet would probably be to schmooze Jason Sizemore at a con and see if you can trick him into giving you a book deal. Doubtful, but it might work.
Jason Sizemore: No schmoozing. That won’t work.
The best ways to sell a book to Apex are:
1. Get my attention via the zine – I have a habit of buying books from our most popular contributors.
2. Catch one of our rare pitch sessions.
3. Catch one of our rare open submission periods.
4. Convince Lesley to tell me to buy your book. She has the power!
Check out Apex Magazine, available digitally for your Nook or Nook app.