What percentage of SF readers are also potential SF writers? I don't have the answer, but studies have shown that if you are an SF reader, you are much more likely to have a go at writing than if you were a reader of detective fiction — or a reader of any other genre for that matter. There's obviously some relationship between SF and would-be writers.

Firstly, some good news for all the writers out there. Thanks to an Australia Council grant, we will be almost tripling our payment rates for issues 10, 11 & 12. Secondly, to all our readers: our new publishing schedule for 1993 consists of this Dec/Jan issue, issue 11 in June, and 12 in December. And while I'm addressing potential contributors, let me suggest a few "Don'ts" which may save time all round:

1) Don't send us a story which is too short or too long. Our guidelines are clear on our word limits. A story less than 1,500 words has no chance of being published. We now take stories up to 6,000 words, and we probably wouldn't baulk at 6,200, but please don't send us your novelette or novella.

2) Don't give a synopsis or "explanation" of your story in your cover letter. If you feel your story needs to be explained, then I would suggest there is something wrong with it in the first place. A story must stand on its own. Synopses for short stories are also counter-productive. Most stories simply sound awkward and uninteresting in synopsis form. Also, knowing what a story is about before you read it takes away much of the tension and conflict.

3) Don't tell us that you know your story needs further work, or that it's only a first draft, or that you know that you have a major spelling and grammar problem, or that this is the first story you've ever written and you're not happy with it, or that all the other editors who have rejected it have been incredibly stupid because they've missed something.

4) Don't insult the publisher or the authors of previously published stories in your cover letter. A recent potential contributor managed to break rules 3) and 4) in one hit when he wrote, "I realise that the story I'm submitting is amateurish, but I believe it is on par with other first-time stories that you've published." How to win friends and influence people!

The other side of the coin, of course, is the growing list of writers who we have published. I've lost count of how many first-time authors have appeared in Aurealis. Read the bios at the end of each issue — you may be surprised. We must be close to some sort of record for a professional short story publication. One of our explicit aims is to encourage new writers. We ask for re-writes when we feel the story warrants it, and authors are given every opportunity to come up with an story we consider acceptable.

And what's more, every story which has appeared in Aurealis — whether written by a first-time author or not — has been included totally on its own merit as we see it. So where have all these new authors been hiding all this time? How many people have been scribbling away all these years without any idea where to send their works, or how many have had vague inklings that they would like to write some SF but have never been motivated because they didn't know what to do with it? Aurealis does not commission stories — and I suspect there would be very few professional magazines which could say that. We rely totally on unsolicited manuscripts. To that extent, at least, we have always been a writer's magazine.

Chimaera Publications' other magazine, The Australian SF Writers' News, has generated a great deal of positive feedback through the past year. We want to thank the many writers and potential writers of SF, fantasy and horror who have written to us to thank us for including the ASFWN free with their 1992 subscriber copies of Aurealis. Editor Steven Paulsen has done something which needed to be done for a long time. Through his efforts he's produced publication which some of us would crawl across a nuclear waste dump for. Which large Australian publisher is looking for fantasy novels? Which Australian magazine is currently paying up to $1050 per story? Which publisher is putting together the first mass market anthology of Australian horror? Who are the Australian authors who are selling to the big-paying markets overseas? If you had copies of the first four issues of ASFWN, you wouldn't be wondering.

Since the ASFWN will now no longer be free, we're obviously keen to see what percentage of our readers are writers as well. And if some of what you've just read sounds to you suspiciously like a "plug" thinly disguised as an editorial, you're probably right.

Dirk Strasser