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Change of readers
By Jed Hartman
18 January 2010, 10:48 PM
Ever since late 2008, the SH fiction department has had three Editorial Assistants whose job was to read a bunch of the incoming stories and decide whether to pass them along to us fiction editors.
They've collectively made the lives of us editors much easier; I haven't done stats, but they reduced our reading load by somewhere around 40%-50%, which was the main factor in our not completely burning out. (Their assistance was also why we didn't have to close to subs for a couple months mid-year in 2009, like we did in 2008.) Many thanks to all three of them!
After over a year of stalwart work, two of the three have decided to move on. We're sorry to see you go, Karen B and Michael D!
The third, Lane B, is staying on, under the new title of First Reader, which we decided is a more accurate indication of the job's duties. (Still not entirely accurate, but closer.) But the job is way too much work for one person.
We've now found two new First Readers to join Lane; welcome, Erin K and Brianna P!
We may be adding one or two more First Readers in coming weeks; we'll see.
(A different version of this entry originally appeared in Jed's personal blog.)