Every slush reader on the planet has a list of “woes”. I admit, after almost two years of wading through Apex Digest slush, I’ve been slow to create mine. Here, though, are my top six in no particular order.

• “It was as if” – No, it wasn’t. Either something is or it isn’t
• Cover letter trying to be humorous and failing badly – Personally, I don’t feel humor has any place in a professional cover or query letter
• “Suddenly” – My eyes and ears bleed
• Poorly addressed cover letters – ie, those submissions which come to a specific editor – When you submit directly to a specific editor, your submission is forwarded to the actual submissions pool
• No cover letter – I get these quite often, the rogue submission with no cover letter whatsoever, and I’m always left going, “HHmmm.”