Leading Edge

I got a copy of Leading Edge in the mail today. It's one of the magazines I'm thinking about submitting to. Leading Edge is a semi-annual magazine published by Brigham Young University, which probably explains why they're not interested in work that "belittle[s] traditional family values or religion." That's not a problem; there's none of that in my stories.

I gave it a read today, and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the writing. They take their jobs seriously there, and I think I have a story or two that fit the overall tone and style of their magazine. They also state that they send two or three critiques back with each submission, which is something I look forward to even if they don't accept my work. The only critiques I've gotten so far are of the "I liked it" variety from friends and family. While that's nice to hear, I'd like to get an opinion from an unbiased professional, as well.

I'm going to send them a copy of "Long and Short" as my first submission. They accept works up to 15,000 words, but prefer stories that are under 10,000 words. "Long and Short" is a bit over 10,000. I'll give it the once over before I send it to them, see if I think there's any room to shorten it a bit. But if it seems fine the way it is, I'll leave it that way.

It'll be a couple months before I get a response, but that's nothing new to me. The contest I sent my stories to before took about that long, as well. And if I'm going to let something like that stop me, I might as well not be writing.

I own a copy of Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript by Chuck Sambuchino, which I skimmed before, but plan on reading more carefully now. I'd feel a bit silly if my story got rejected before it was even read because of some dumb mistake I've made.


I've got another magazine or two I'm waiting for, and once I see the tone of those, I'll look for a story to send them as well. It feels good to be moving forward in this, and I hope that even if I get rejected by everyone I send my stories out to, I hope to at least have learned something from the experience. Wish me luck.

-E. Maxfield Moen