Our submissions window for Issue 2 is open until March 30th or until we fill the issue. We would like to get Issue 2 out by the end of April/beginning of May, but we will keep you updated if this changes.

ONE BIG NOTE: It seems many of the submissions pouring in are totally inappropriate for Polluto. We didn't have this problem for Issue 1, because we had a more select set of contributors who knew about us because we were in their 'niche'. This time round, we're listed on Ralan.com (or will be) and Duotrope's Digest, and we seem to be getting submissions from anyone who wants to get published.

Publishers and editors can recognise this immediately. For instance, saying you're a big fan of Polluto when you clearly like Steps and floral-print stationary. Okay, Steps are okay on a drunken night out in a gay bar, and even the hardest cyberpunk can own floral-print stationary, but you get the idea. We don't want stories that could be better placed elsewhere. You're only wasting our time and your own. We do read every submission (in fact, each submission is read by four people), and it delays our response times if we're reading romance or high fantasy when we should be reading bizarro or surrealism. Your submission should be edgy. It should engage with genre tropes with a wry smile and be intelligent, political or downright weird. We don't want Harry Potter knock-offs.

So . . . it's probably unnecessary to say this, but it seems we need to: BUY A COPY OF THE MAGAZINE BEFORE SUBMITTING! Supporting us supports you, anyway. It provides you with another market to showcase your fiction and build your credentials. If everyone submits and no one buys (because they assume they'll get free copies when they're published), we'll make no money and you'll lose both a good read and a good market. And, more importantly, you'll piss us off by filling our inboxes with inappropriate material.

Moving on . . .

I'm really excited about the next issue. Already the layout is much improved on the first, and we've fixed niggling problems like spelling and typographical errors (we have three proofreaders besides myself now, thanks to our latest intern, John Diviney!). There's much more bang for your buck in this one, so we hope you enjoy it.

The hardback version of the magazine is available for preorder at £16, but will be priced at £20 RRP when it comes out, so it's best to grab yours now. If you'd like a signed dedication, please email editor@polluto.com with the name of the dedication and your address (so we dedicate the right copy). We'll sort the rest. There will only ever be 100 of these printed, so once they sell out, that's it. We expect these to be flogged for much more on eBay and at conventions in a few years' time.

Issue 2 will be double the size of the first issue, almost. The first section will be a fiction and prose collection entitled 'Apocalypses & Garden Furniture' (i.e., the subtitle of the issue). The second part will be 'Sundries': our non-fiction and off-topic pieces (although, all pieces will be thematically appropriate for Polluto, of course). We hope to continue this format for future issues, with a themed collection of creative work and a general Pluto + pollution-themed section of non-fiction and tangential pieces. Yes, this means if you have work that doesn't exactly fit the theme, but fits our mission statement, you can still submit it. It's a harder sell, because most of the 'Sundries' stuff is commissioned, but you may find your work being accepted. As long as it fits our style.

Anyway, rant over.