By Zoe Grace Marquedant
Don’t You Want Me, Baby asks: what is rejection? How do you phrase it? How do you take it? What makes it past the sensors? Is there a long German word for refreshing your email on decision day? Each installment, we’ll hear from different sides of the literary magazine submission process. From writers, editors, readers, volunteers. Maybe we’ll learn the secret ingredients, the rituals, the rules that need to be broken. Maybe we’ll all just agree to retitle our PDFs and try again.
Name: Gabrielle Marceau & Sennah Yee
Job/Title: Editor-in-Chief (Gabrielle) & Managing Editor (Sennah)
Location: Toronto, Canada
Publication(s): In The Mood Magazine, Are You Still Watching? newsletter, Film Recommendation Generator
Without using the word “yes,” describe what it feels like to read something you want without question to publish.
G: Honestly, I just want to text Sennah! It’s like having a really good piece of gossip.
S: I know I can’t say “yes,” but… YES. What Gabrielle said!
Describe the slush pile process. Where are you? What time is it? How have you prepared?
S: I’m usually at my desk on a weekend morning, reading submissions on my external monitor, then putting my publication decisions/notes on our shared Notion document that’s open on my laptop screen. Very mission control vibes with two screens going lol.
G: That sounds cozy, actually. I usually go through everything the evening before we meet to slate the issue. I’m at my desk, maybe with a glass of wine and a cat!
How does In the Mood deliver the good news?
S: We send an email, usually with some exclamation marks and emojis! 🥰
How far do you read before you settle on a “no”? What is that moment like?
G: We don’t have a set length before we stop, but I try to read the first page. A good number of submissions are out of the running before we open the doc because they aren’t on theme, or it’s a film we’ve covered before.
In sending a rejection, is there anything you feel you cannot say?
G: I mean, writing a rejection letter is all about navigating what you feel you can’t say or should say. It’s why the language is often frustratingly opaque for the writer on the other end. We try to strike a balance between expressing our genuine appreciation for their submission without being condescending or cloying.
How do you break ties when you cannot decide on a submission?
S: We often defer to who feels most strongly about their decision. And if we still can’t decide, we let it simmer and return to it the next day. Usually then we align with fresh eyes! But if we’re still not sure, often we’ll send an encouraging rejection.
What challenges do you face managing submissions? (eg, simultaneous submissions)
S: We receive submissions over email, and input every submission manually into a Notion spreadsheet — it works, but it can definitely be a little tedious!
G: We would love to use Submittable, but it’s surprisingly expensive.
What do you include beyond necessary info, like page limit and pay, in your Submission Guide? Has that changed over time? If so, why?
S: About 4 years into running the mag, we added a “What we publish” section with examples we love from past issues, and things to avoid. We also added a “What then?” section explaining what happens after you submit. We wanted to help writers get a sense of what we like to publish and what to expect from our process!
G: And still, so many people don’t read it!
What are the more common mistakes you see in submissions? Are any of these forgivable?
G: We get a good amount of submissions that aren’t about film, TV, or pop culture at all! That’s an easy no. A mistake we hate to see is a pitch for a film we’ve already covered. We don’t like saying no to a good pitch for that.
Who is the reader/audience you have in mind when picking submissions?
S: A film lover who’s curious and playful. Honestly… someone like us! Haha.
G: I was about to say us! I think with a volunteer-run, labour of love like this, you have to pick pieces based on your enthusiasm.
Is there a best time to read In the Mood?
G: To me, it’s an evening publication, on your way home when you’re trying to decide what to watch that night, or after you’ve watched a movie and want to talk to someone about it.
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How does being a writer/creator affect your work as an editor?
S: For better or worse, I think it’s made me more sensitive as an editor! Sharing writing can be so vulnerable, and having it edited even more so.
G: I think all writers have these little writer tricks that we pull out to try and bamboozle the reader (like ending a long, thoughtful paragraph with a really punchy, short sentence). And it’s our job to notice and eradicate them. So when I see a little trick like that in a piece, it’s usually a sign that the writer needs to go deeper, to pull on the string a bit more.
Has your experience editing changed how you view the submission process?
G: There was a point where we decided to pass on pieces that have a lot of promise but need a lot of editing. It’s hard because a writer may have a great idea or great style, but we just don’t have the capacity. We’ve gotten more selective over the years: our issues used to have like 30 pieces in them.
If you work outside the publication, does that life inform your work with In the Mood?
S: Definitely! All the copywriting, social media planning, and project management I do for my marketing job has come in handy for the magazine.
G: I don’t know if my job has informed my editing, but In the Mood has hugely informed my work outside the mag. I’ve learned so much about collaboration and working with others, lessons I apply to my life all the time.
Is there anything you have learned from reading submissions that you’ve applied to your own creative process?
G: Every issue, we get a few submissions that are quite similar (often the same film or a similar idea) or pitches for a piece that we know some version of it already exists out there. That writer may be talented and smart, but it’s not an exciting idea. So, I think it’s a lesson not to play it safe.
S: I think I’ve learned how to be more clear and concise—in my ideas, my creative writing, and even my emails when I submit my writing!
Whether it’s misspelling the name of an editor or forgetting to attach your piece, what’s one time you feel you fumbled a submission?
G: As editors, we have a loose, but still perhaps over-the-top, policy of making sure we both look over all our outgoing emails. So, we do catch a lot of these mistakes before they’re made. But I don’t have that luxury as a writer: I once realized after sending out a big batch of queries on Submittable that every cover letter said: “To the team at The Virginia Quarterly Review”.
S: When I queried an agent for the first time, I didn’t know the difference between a proposal and a manuscript, and sent a very confusing email with a “proposal” summary, with an excerpt of my manuscript attached, which I mentioned was already completed… I’m confusing myself even recounting this…
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What do you do when you’re supposed to be writing?
G: I’ve recently gotten into collage art, and it’s been a very fruitful way to avoid writing and add more clutter to my apartment!
S: Lie in bed and scroll scroll scroll on my phone!
(How) do you prepare to write?
G: I am a big believer in free-writing, so if I have time, I usually start with 20 minutes or so. But generally, I have a pretty pragmatic approach to writing: no talismans, no treats, I just have to get to it.
S: A deadline from someone else is the only thing that will truly push me to write!
What tools do you use?
S: I only write on my laptop, or sometimes rough drafts of a poem on my phone in the notes app (cliche, I know)!
G: I don’t write longhand either. I truly cannot read my handwriting.
Do you have perfect spelling/grammar?
G: I wish! I have a good grasp of grammar, but it does not come naturally.
S: Spelling, yes! For grammar, I always ask Gabrielle haha.
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After the interview, we like to ask each interviewee to pose a question for future interviewees based on the conversation they’ve just had.
What’s the earliest manuscript/extended piece you remember working on? That project you would scribble away at during class instead of taking notes?
S: My older sister and I would write long, intricate stories together in a Microsoft Word document on our family’s desktop computer. A lot of them featured *NSYNC and Britney Spears on adventures — basically fanfiction before we knew what we were doing…
G: I think the first book-length project I attempted was a fantasy book (probably after reading The Golden Compass), but I only got as far as drawing the map for the first page.
And finally:
What question would you then pose to future interviewees based on these questions, your answers, everything that’s been said and unsaid:
Q: How do you handle receiving submissions from friends or peers?
Stay tuned for the next installment of Don’t You Want Me, Baby, to get the answer!
Zoe Grace Marquedant (she/her/hers) is a queer writer. She earned her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence and her M.F.A. from Columbia University. Her work has been featured in Olney Magazine, the Cool Rock Repository, Schuylkill Valley Journal, and the School of Commons.
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