written by David Steffen
On May 30th, at the Locus Award ceremony in Berkeley, California, The Submission Grinder was the recipient of the Locus Special Award for Supporting the Speculative Writing Community.
At the award, I gave a speech. This is a transcript of that speech! If you’d prefer to watch the speech live, you can do that too!
Thank you Locus Magazine and everyone involved in the Locus Awards for this honor. The Submission Grinder started with one goal: to give me something that I could personally use to log my own short story submissions so that I could retire my Excel spreadsheet which had expanded into non-Euclidean dimensions.
No, wait, sorry, strike that. We started with two goals: the spreadsheet thing, and also we wanted to remove financial barriers to becoming a writer. Anyone should be able to write, and have a chance to become published, no matter their income level. And being able to find publications to send your stories to is a big part of that. Of course, running a site is not free, but we have stayed afloat for thirteen years and counting through the generosity of people who were able to chip in. We have volunteers who help check old listings and enter data. We also have an active user base that helps keep listings up to date with corrections. On top of that, we have never really done any advertising, so the only reason anybody has heard of the site is because writers talk to each other and are enthusiastic about it, and that means everything. Thank you, thank you, thank you for those efforts by all those people. It all adds up to something that I hope helps a lot of people, and I think that’s a beautiful thing.
Three goals. We started The Submission Grinder with three goals: the spreadsheet thing, the financial thing, and we wanted to put more kindness into the world, a little something to help people out. In a world with so much cruelty in it, an act of kindness is an act of rebellion. Kindness can come in many forms. Helping someone with money or food when they need it. Helping less experienced writers review their new contracts for concerning clauses. Using the name and pronouns that people ask you to use. Protecting people’s rights to use the bathroom in peace. Checking in on someone you know is having a tough time. Sending a card or a drawing to a friend. Joining a 3D printing whistle network. An act of kindness does not always have to be big or flashy to be meaningful. Some of the kindnesses that have moved me the most deeply have been just someone offering to listen. Kindness begets kindness. Thank you to everyone who finds ways to put a little more kindness into the world. In the words of Ted “Theodore” Logan and Bill S. Preston Esquire, “Be excellent to each other.” Thank you.