Fiction Ed’s Blog: Date-Of-Publication Emails


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Welcome to this week’s Fiction Ed’s blog.

This week, we’re looking at the way we let our contributors know when their work will appear in the magazine.

Prior To Publication

We pay on acceptance, so when a story, poem, or piece of artwork is accepted for publication, we immediately arrange payment and pass that on to our Admin and Finance Teams for processing.

Prior to publication, our Production Team work on our stories and serials, cutting the text to fit available space and subbing to make sure it’s all in correct “People’s Friend” style.

Once Work Is Scheduled

At the moment, an email is sent out just prior to publication, letting contributors know that their work will appear in a particular issue.

This was previously arranged by our Admin Team: lately your assigned Editor will be the person who’ll have been in touch.

As well as Date Of Publication emails, or DOPs, a Sneak Peek of the short stories, serial instalments, series and soap that run in each issue appears every week on our website, on a Tuesday morning.

There’s also a Preview of all the Fiction in each Special – twenty stories plus a Long Read every other issue – once every third Tuesday.

Please Check The Website

From today, we’ll be ceasing to send DOP emails, and instead, are asking contributors to simply check the website to find out which stories and artworks will be appearing in each issue.

So from now, if you’re a contributor who has had a story, poem or piece of artwork accepted, please simply check the website on a Tuesday morning, to find out if your work will be appearing that week.

As we’re now a smaller team, we hope this will free up time for reading more stories, and expediting our responses.

Win, win!

Lucy Crichton

Fiction Editor Lucy is always on the look-out for the very best short stories, poems and pocket novels. As well as sourcing enjoyable content, she enjoys working with our established contributors, encouraging new talent, and celebrating 155 years of 'Friend' fiction!