Industry Insights: Emma Stead, Editor in Chief at ELA Literary Magazine - Advice for Publishing Hopefuls and Aspiring Writers

Raisa Akthar, Willow Horner, Meg Dyakova and Jasmine Larché

This week, we continue our conversation with Emma Stead, Editor in Chief at ELA Literary Magazine. In the first part of her interview, Emma discussed how ELA Literary Magazine was born, her freelance work prior to creating the magazine and what a day in the life of the Editor in Chief looks like for her. In this second part of our discussion, Emma talks us through balancing the creative and professional aspects of this industry, and shares valuable and inspirational advice, reinforcing just how important it is to have the strength to make your own way and stand out.

You are both an editor and an accomplished writer. Many of our readers aspire to this. How do you balance the creative and professional aspects of a career like yours?

Sometimes I am exclusively in editor mode. I master style guides and study the dictionary. I obsess about comma placement and sentence structures until the perfectionist side of me purrs like a cat stretching out in the sunlight. At other times, I’m writing horror stories or drafting blog posts for ELA’s website and letting the words flow through me. Years of practice allow me to switch between the two, but it’s not easy, and you can’t do both at once. 

I actually schedule and time block both the creative and professional aspects of my workload. I set deadlines for the various tasks I have to complete, and I stick to them. It’s really as simple as that. If I find myself procrastinating, I gently direct myself back where I need to be. I use things like the Pomodoro technique for particularly tricky tasks, and I reward myself with tea and biscuits for getting things done. 

The editorial work actually makes me a better writer. Reading hundreds of submissions shows you what’s been done to death and what still feels fresh. You develop instincts about pacing, structure and character development that inform your own storytelling.

The caveat is that when you’re in “creative mode,” you have to turn off the “editor mode,” or it will spoil your flow. You cannot write effectively when you’re worried you just created a comma splice or debating whether it’s the right time for a compound adjective. It’s a different mindset. 

Working on creative fiction is my peaceful place. After spending days helping business leaders articulate their expertise, I need to write about morally compromised vampires or twisted mythology. It keeps me sane.

Do you have any advice for our readers who might want to look for a role in a literary magazine? What skills and experience would stand out to you in an applicant to ELA?

Make your own way! Do you know how many graduates are applying to trad (traditional) publishing roles every day? Thousands. Create your own path. Stand out and be different. 

The most important thing you can do when applying for a role in a magazine like ELA is to have an opinion, even if it’s different from mine. Don’t just follow trends and tropes. Tell me what you think makes a story work. Tell me why a particular narrative structure failed or succeeded. Show me you can think critically about storytelling, not just consume it passively.

Go deeper than “I love reading” and “am passionate about literature.” Tell me WHY. Tell me what story dragged emotions out of you that you didn’t even know you had, and what was it about that story that did it? Was it the pacing? The character work? The way the author subverted your expectations? Specificity matters. It shows me you’re paying attention.

As for skills? Skills are things you can actually learn once you’re doing the job. I just need to know you can learn them. Show me you’re curious, coachable and willing to develop. Take free online courses in developmental editing. Join writing critique groups. Start a blog analysing short fiction. Beta read for writer friends and practice giving constructive feedback that’s honest but not cruel.

Having said that, my advice to publishing hopefuls is to build your technical skills wherever you can, even if it’s not your dream work yet. Especially if it’s not your dream work yet. There are so many avenues into freelance writing and editing, and you might find your door in through the most unlikely of places. 

Experience-wise, I’m not looking for a resume filled with prestigious internships, though those certainly don’t hurt. I’m looking for evidence that you understand what makes literary magazines tick. Have you submitted to magazines yourself? Do you follow the ones you admire and actually read their content? Can you articulate what makes their editorial vision cohesive?

At ELA, we’re weird-positive. And that’s our philosophy, not just a cute tagline. But the thing about subverting tropes is that you kind of need a solid understanding of tropes and the publishing market in order to do it effectively.

Now, if someone were applying for a more traditional magazine or publisher, my advice might be slightly different. You wouldn’t need to go the extra mile subverting tropes, for instance. You’d just need to understand the market. 

The most important thing across the board is that you are genuinely curious about storytelling. The best writers and editors are those who never stop asking “what if?” and “why?”. That’s the quality we look for in every contributor, collaborator and, as we’re exploring the possibility of bringing on interns in the future, every person who joins the ELA team.