The latest issue of Semaphore is up now on our website - or, it should be. I have trouble sometimes viewing updated content from my computer, so if anyone could confirm that the Current page has updated with the new issue, that would be great!

In the meantime, here are the submission stats for this last issue:

December 2009

SUBMISSIONS:
From Men:	26
From Women:	15
Total:	31
PUBLISHED:
By Men:	1
By Women:	3
Total:	4

That table charts stories only; we received poetry from two female and three male poets this last quarter, and published a piece each by two of the men. Furthermore, one of the women whose short story is publushed in this issue was an invited Guest Author - Sherwood Smith - so her story has not been included in the summary, as it was not selected from the pool of submissions.

Two stories from this pool of submissions have also been chosen for our March issue, which changes things again and will mess with that issue's stats, too. Here's an adjusted table to allow for that:

August-October Submissions

SUBS:
From Men:	26
From Women:	15
Total:	31
ACCEPTED:
By Men:	2
By Women:	4
Total:	6

My bias is still showing, it seems.

(also, apologies for the borked code on the last entry. Ugh)

<a href="http://s154.photobucket.com/albums/s278/opheliastornoway_bucket/?action=view&current=semaphore2009covercopy.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s278/opheliastornoway_bucket/semaphore2009covercopy.jpg" border="0" alt="semaphore anthology 2009"></a>

We are now taking pre-orders for this year's Anthology, which is tentatively scheduled for an early December release. If you order a copy or copies before November 20, we'll pay for your postage. The books themselves are $NZ20.00 each, which I'm afraid you'll have to provide yourself.

More information on the website and in my head, so either hop over there or ask some questions here!

Still waiting on word about funding. However, I do have a back-up plan if all that falls through (I hope), so I really shouldn't be getting too jittery.

Unfortunately, with the grant delays, we've fallen a bit behind schedule. I've got the book 80-90% formatted, and will get it rushed away as soon as I can once everything's sorted, but we may be looking at a late December release date at the earliest. All things depending, of course.

The book will cost $NZ22.99 regardless, and I'm still tossing up whether to open advance orders now or wait a bit longer. The book is definitely coming, but I don't want to have people's money and only be able to give vague dates in return.

Also, exams. Woo.

Yesterday morning I sent in an application to my university's student association for funding to help print this year's anthology. I asked for enough to order a print run of 100 books, and although it is likely that I will not receive that amount, I hope that they will give me enough to get a fair lump of books. OUSA has been highly instrumental in enabling me to develop and maintain Semaphore, and I am very thankful for all the help they have given me over the last two years.

Now - Latin, sleeping, and putting September's issue together, in any order ...

STATS

Would you look at this. I mean, really. It's not even September yet, and here I am, posting the stats for that issues submissions. How on top of things am I?

Alternatively, I may simply be procrastinating from doing Monday's Latin translations. You decide.

Stories only, again.

September 2009

SUBMISSIONS
From Men:	31
From Women:	24
Total:	55
PUBLISHED:
By Men:	2
By Women:	3
Total:	5

This issue's two poems make for a perfect 1:1 gender ratio. Woo. And, goodness, so many submissions this quarter. I had to make alterations to my general mode of doing stuff. Previously, I have simply stockpiled all submissions until the reading month (month before publication) and responded to everyone then; this time around, I've changed to working through them in lots as they come in and responding to authors as soon as I can once their stories have been sifted through. I expect that I'll stick with this new modus operandi, as it's made the last few days (slightly) less hectic than they would otherwise have been.

ANTHOLOGY

I'm going to apply for funding for the Anthology this coming week; if I receive the amount I want, I'll be able to get more books done and have them made by a firm I haven't tried before but which has been recommended to me; if not, fewer copies, and back to good ol' UniPrint.

The stories and poetry in September's issue are eligible for inclusion in the Anthology, so once it's online, make sure to get in and vote for your favourites!

In the name of transparency (read: it's either this or Latin revision), here I am, blithering about what I've been up to so far for this year's anthology.

I've started looking up artists to do the cover, which I'm planning to be similar in theme and style to last year's - may as well have some consistency. I'm thinking octopus, at the moment. For actually getting the thing printed, I'm actually mulling over two options - UniPrint, the old faithful, or an Indian firm that someone at KiwiWriters mentioned. The Indian outfit will probably end up cheaper per copy, but postage may hike it up somewhat. I may have to do maths at some stage*.

Content! I may snip the number of pieces included from last year's grand total, and simultaneously raise royalty rates for it, because I like paying authors for their awesomeness, and I'm well aware that all of Semaphore's payments are severely token.

In light of this, I'm also rallying for a grant from OUSA. Just gotta fill out some forms, and I may be able to raise the regular issue rates, too. Fingers crossed!

-

*It occurs to me that I complain rather a lot about having to do maths, here, and that this could seem somewhat ... Barbieish. Math is hard! Let's go shopping! In all truth, I do not mind working things out, and actually derive pleasure from figuring out accounts and numbers properly, I'm just laaaazy, and the only calculator I own is the one on my cellphone. Which is often all the way on the other side of the room from where I'm working (yes, I know the computer has one, too. I don't like it). In short: whinge, whinge, whinge ...

I'm terribly lazy (see: how long it has taken me to put these up), and while I've seen discussions on submission/acceptance rates for stories, I've yet to see such a thing for poetry stats. So, you may notice a slight lack of poetry-inclusive tables.

March 2009

SUBMISSIONS
From Men:	22
From Women:	9
Total:	31
PUBLISHED
Male authors:	3
Female authors:	3
Total:	6

June 2009

SUBMISSIONS
From men:	20
From women:	13
Total:	33
PUBLISHED
Male authors:	0
Female authors:	5
Total:	5

Now, I'm no statistician, but I'm detecting - shall we say? - a slight bias, here. And I think that it's something I should own up to. In these last two issues, I have been accepting and publishing, comparatively, more women's stories than men's for the number of women/men who submit to Semaphore. I'm not sure why; I don't consciously set out to publish women's writing in particular, but I seem to have been drawn to more stories by women than by men, statistically speaking (and literally speaking, for June, although one of that issue's poems was by a guy). Does being a woman myself intrinsically draw me to women's writing, either by theme, subject or treatments thereof? I certainly can't remember any woman sending me a story that has made me feel as sick to my stomach as some sent by male authors; then again, neither have I noticed any general gender-specific categories of stories.

I'm not sure what conclusions to draw from this, but I'd welcome discussion.

... is now online, as of late last night. Enjoy!

(March and June stats will be up ... soon. Promise!)

May really just isn't my month: three major essays due, an issue to put together by the end of it, and a sudden rush of submissions to get filed and sent away. Also, hail.

Oh, well. Back to the grindstone, I suppose ...

2008 was when I first wheedled two of my friends to be co-editors with me; they haven't yet escaped as of my writing this post, so it seems to be working. In any case - submissions and acceptance stats for Semaphore, itty bitty magazine run by three women, part two - go!

Poetry Inclusive:

 

March 2008

SUBMISSIONS:
From Men:	17
From Women:	6
Total:	23
PUBLISHED:
Things by Men:	6
Things by Women:	4
Things Total:	10

June 2008

SUBMISSIONS:
From Men:	17
From Women:	6
Total:	23
PUBLISHED:
Things by Men:	2
Things by Women:	5
Things Total:	7

September 2008

SUBMISSIONS:
From Men:	14
From Women:	10
Total:	24
PUBLISHED:
Things by Men:	3
Things by Women:	5
Things Total:	8

December 2008

SUBMISSIONS:
From Men:	33
From Women:	5
Total:	38
PUBLISHED:
Things by Men:	5
Things by Women:	0
Things Total:	5

 And, stories only:

 

March 2008

SUBMISSIONS:
From Men:	12
From Women:	6
Total:	18
PUBLISHED:
Stories by Men:	2
Stories by Women:	4
Total:	6

June 2008

SUBMISSIONS:
From Men:	14
From Women:	4
Total:	18
PUBLISHED:
Stories by Men:	2
Stories by Women:	4
Total:	6

September 2008

SUBMISSIONS:
From Men:	7
From Women:	8
Total:	15
PUBLISHED:
Stories by Men:	4
Stories by Women:	5
Total:	9

December 2008

SUBMISSIONS:
From Men:	18
From Women:	5
Total:	23
PUBLISHED:
Stories by Men:	5
Stories by Women:	0
Total:	5

December 2007

SUBMISSIONS:
From Men:	Unknown
From Women:	Unknown
Total:	27
PUBLISHED:
Things by Men:	8
Things by Women:	4
Things Total:	12

It would also work better if I had kept proper records right from the beginning. Nevertheless! Gender-specific breakdown of the first issue of Semaphore, including submissions and acceptances. Feel free to use maths to determine the number of rejections.

I'd probably be able to tease this out better if I still had access to the specific number of submissions I received from men and women, but, oh well. As it is, things look pretty grim - I published work by twice as many male-authored pieces as I did female-authored.

Here's another table, one which does not include poetry in the numbers:

2007, poetry-free

PUBLISHED:
Things by Men:	4
Things by Women:	3

Well, that's better! Bloody poets.

--

I'm going to run a series of posts with the numbers of Semaphore's submissions and acceptances by gender for each of our issues so far (and future ones), as well as our first anthology. I'm doing this because I generally think that transparency is a good thing, and also because I know there are people who are interested in this sort of thing - including myself. Caveats: I haven't taken a Stats class since 5th form, and Semaphore is such a small publication - witness the massive numbers of subs up there - so please don't take our results as indicative of, well, anything but us.

Anyone remember way-back when I said I was going to table up the stats for submissions over the past year? No? Good, because now i'm giving you a chance to forget again. I have a niggling interest in this sort of thing, so I am - promises, promises - going to figure out how many submissions we received from men for each issue since our first, and how many from women, and the ratio at which we accepted works by each sex. Then I will publish it, for transparency, and because I know I appreciate it when other publishers do the same. And there's got to be someone who's interested, right? Right?

Anyway, if that happens, it will happen within the next fortnight.

Meanwhile - or, more likely, afterwards - I am planning to start hunting around for grants. I do feel bad that we give our authors and poets so little, but at the moment, even with the book sales, we just can't afford to pay them any more. I know that Creative New Zealand offers grants to lit. projects, but I also know that wheedling money out of them will require the sort of grace and panache that takes a lot of time, and polishing, and not the sort of half-frantic pseudo-professionalism that is my standby. If anyone knows of any other bodies that offer grants to creative/literary projects, please let me know!

Well, the technical problem has been solved, and replaced with a more minor irritant - the "a" key on my keyboard is playing up.

In other news, Semaphore's following appears to be growing by the month, although March's increase in visitor numbers is doubtless mostly due to the fact that we had a new issue out. Nevertheless, it is always nice to see the traffic graph climb rather than fall.

Submissions for our June issue are open, and will remain thus - well, until May, obviously! Busy as we all are with our other commitments, we do want to see your work, so remember to send your polished pieces our way.

As some of you may have noticed, there's been some ... trouble with updating the website for the new issue. I've sent a note to who I hope are the relevant people, and with any luck it will all be fixed up soon.

In the meantime, I am able to email the March issue to anyone who wants it.

Time to start sending out rejection and acceptance letters. It's always something of a painful process, and this month even more so, because due to numbers restraints I've had to whittle some stories I liked off the final list. Still, must get cracking!

There are still 17 copies of this gorgeous, limited-edition book available, and it will still only cost you $NZ22.99 - for you overseas types, the recent drop of the New Zealand Dollar is a bit of a bonus at the moment! That said, international postage can be a pain in the proverbial, so combining orders with a friend or two might be a good idea. If you're within NZ, though, postage will be a negligible $2.50.

You won't regret buying this book. Aside from the pretty, it contains some fantastic fiction - after dozens of edits and rereads even I still love them, and that's saying something! As for Big Names, Sherwood's probably our biggest, and I would recommend her Inda series to all and sundry, but I honestly can't imagine that people like Kate Smith, Euan Harvey and Stuart Sharp aren't going places. Definitely three to watch!

If you're interested in getting a copy, either leave a comment here or drop me a note at semaphoremagazine @ gmail . com. And if you yourself are feeling poor in the pennies department, there's always the local library - most places let you suggest books for purchase, and that way you could have the anthology at hand without having to pay a thing yourself. Cunning, or what?

Total submissions for our March issue currently stand at 38 - a new record for us, beating our September-November '07 submissions period by four. As the subject heading says - Oof.

If there are enough lovable pieces in the harvest, we might even be looking at holding some aside for the June issue. That would be a first, and a formidable one at that - I only hope my filiing system will be able to cope.

Given that my filing system consists of a 1B8 exercise book that enjoys getting itself lost, you would be right to be doubtful.

The lovely rippatton is working up some sort of Plan whereby the NZSFW (New Zealand Science Fiction Fantasy Authors) will be brought back to life and act as a network and support structure for New Zealand speculative fiction authors. I think this is a pretty marvelous idea, have already quite recklessly promised away some of my time to it, and hope you will do the same.

If you are interested, go have a chat with Ripley over at her blog.

Well, as it's only polite, I suppose I should start off by welcoming you all to Semaphore Magazine's attempt at a blog. There may be very little here yet to welcome you to, but all the same - Hi! Good to see you.

This blog will be used to let people know about any big news items to do with Semaphore (so, basically I will copy-paste things from the newsletter*), to post reviews of books and other zines, links to Neat Stuff, and, when my other responsibilities are looming, to let me hide from them and bore you all with whatever comes to mind. I'm also hoping to get some author interviews going, but that depends on my success at catching the blighter first.

Cheers,

Marie Hodgkinson
 
*If you want to receive the newsletter, email me at semaphoremagazine@gmail.com and tell me so.