New Class! What Editors Want

I’ll be teaching a Reach Your Apex workshop called “Sellable Short Stories: What Editors Want (and What to Avoid)” on Friday, November 14, 2025. This course is for both emerging writers and established authors who want to know: out of hundreds of stories in the slush pile, what makes an editor say “yes” to just a few?

Learn what elements you can control (and which you can’t) to maximize your chances of publication. Ideal for writers of horror, sci-fi and fantasy genres, this workshop offers insights on how to rise above the slush pile and grab an editor’s attention while staying true to your story. You’ll learn what red flags can garner instant rejections from editors, practical techniques for honing your tales, and efficient strategies for submitting to markets. 

I’ll cover:

A behind-the-scenes, detailed look at the selection process from slush pile to publication from an editor’s point of viewCommon and not-so-common pitfalls in openings and endings, and how to fix themHow to use—and subvert—familiar genre tropes to make your work stand outEfficient techniques for self-editingA deep dive into trending markets and industry best practices 

You’ll walk away with practical tools to elevate your short fiction, as well as a roadmap for getting your work into magazines, anthologies, podcasts and more. 

Sign up here to level up your writing!

DATE: November 14, 2025 – Friday

TIME: 2PM ET | 1PM CT | 12PM MT | 11AM PT | 18:00 UTC

Use code WEWKCG at checkout for $10 off. Hope you can join us!

DATE: Friday, November 11, 2025 TIME: 2PM ET | 11AM PT

About Your Instructor

KC Grifant is an award-winning Southern Californian author who writes speculative stories in the horror, fantasy, sci-fi and weird west genres. She authored the award-winning supernatural western Monster Gunslinger series and Shrouded Horror: Tales of the Uncanny.

She is editor of Women of the Weird West, and co-editor of Dread Coast: SoCal Horror Tales and Of Terrors and Tombstones, as well as creator of Weird West Fiction, a website that showcases diverse weird west authors.

In addition, she is a published short story writer, with dozens of tales appearing in podcasts, magazines and Stoker-nominated anthologies, including: PseudoPod, Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, Unnerving Magazine, Cosmic Horror Monthly, Dark Matter Magazine, Sley House Presents, the British SF Association’s Fission Magazine, Tales to Terrify, the Lovecraft eZine; Musings of the Muse; Dancing in the Shadows—A Tribute to Anne Rice; the Stoker-nominated Chromophobia; the Stoker-nominated Fright Mare: Women Write Horror, and many others.