Issue 11 Retrospective

Each Radon issue unfolds into a unique entity, like a family of half-siblings sharing slightly different DNA. The staff creating the journal changes from issue to issue, and the final creation is raised and put out into the world through differing environments and challenges.

Issue 11 launched on October 1 and is our first to pub in October since we shifted our launch dates. To that end, we embraced sci-fi body horror to a greater degree than we have before. Issues 12 and 13 will likely steer away from the subgenre, and we’ll come back to it in Issue 14. We are also continuing to hone the journal changes introduced earlier this year and explore what we want the final product to look like. This includes length, reading time, and ensuring enough engaging content to last our readers.

The largest change we enacted during Issue 11 is changing our editorial decision-making. We shifted from a consensus-style acceptance method to a supermajority voting system. When we launched with only three editors, it made sense to be in agreement before accepting a piece. With an editorial team approaching double digits, it became untenable. No story arrives at a semi-pro journal perfect and ready to publish, and there will always be at least one voice that wants to go a different direction. Our journal prides itself on working more closely with authors post-publication than other venues. We needed to remind ourselves that the majority of our submissions are not from professional writers (technically), but immensely talented authors on the cusp of broader career breakthroughs. It is our job in this space to identify stories with an amazing voice, style, or something important to say. And as an editing journal, we will help them craft the story into its unique vision.

We hope this change will have more stories accepted overall and a slightly larger amount of content in Issue 12. Issue 10 having only a 0.76% acceptance rate was a wake-up call. Issue 11 improved to 1%, and hopefully Issue 12 will have a perfect 1.3%.

At the tail-end of Issue 11, we said goodbye to our Managing Editor H. Marin, Senior Editor Cress, Marketing Editor Renee, and first readers Dylan and James. Some of the partings we hope are temporary, spurred simply by life and health and school getting in the way of having enough hours in the day.

We have added two new quality slush readers to keep up with your submissions: Haley and Rachael. They have played a pivotal role in helping us stay afloat in the submission queue while the editorial team was focused on production. And our Editor, Lucas, will be moving into the Managing Editor role, and our Editor, Maya, will be moving into marketing. We’re excited to showcase Maya’s big ideas as time goes on. You may have already seen her handiwork on Instagram or our glossy Best of the Net nominee GIF announcement.

Issue 11 is also the final issue that will feature the artwork of Ninja Jo. We have loved having her as our Artist-in-Residence (AiR) over the last three issues, and she will be missed. By the end of the year, we will announce 2026’s AiR and look forward to providing you with more industry-defining covers.

Two weeks before the issue, one of the accepted stories was pulled by the author due to differing editorial visions. Another story was brought on to fill the space through an expedited acceptance and editing process. This last-minute change is not ideal but stands as the latest reminder that nothing in this short fiction industry is a sure thing, and the inherently collaborative nature of publishing will present fresh challenges.

For the first time, we published concrete poems. Also known as pattern poems, these shapely poems presented an interesting challenge to our production team. Mark Wyatt’s “Terrorist” poem became in our print edition a two-page spanning piece of art reminiscent of a magazine’s centerfold. We created a special webpage for it on our site and the ePub programming proved tricky. We’re proud of the print edition and will likely make small improvements to the ePub coding in the coming weeks.

The image below is the poem. Though there is a bit of space in the middle in this computer image, when viewed in your hands, and the spine is consuming the extra blank space, it's quite an effect.

During the reading period for Issue 11, we walked into our first conferences. Those of you who spoke to Maya and snagged one of our popular bookmarks, she loved speaking with you. We look forward to seeing more of you at Philcon in November. Half a dozen of us will be armed with plenty more books and merch, and happy to talk about all things from sci-fi to anti-fascist writing and all the industry thoughts.

In the coming month or so will be our annual funding report. We'll detail an exact cost-breakdown of Radon over the last year and where we are in our fundraising. Our print-edition sales have grown in the UK, where you can find our issues at most anarchist bookfairs across England and Wales. The numbers will be punched soon, but may be enough to enact a small change we’ve been hoping for.

Stay tuned and keep reading,
Radon Journal