I would, however, like to build up an informal mailing list of eSCENE readers, so that I can send out short messages when something has changed or been added to the site.

1. Request Nominations: We honor the hard work that ezine editors put into their publications, and therefore believe that they represent the best front line of selecting the year's best stories. eSCENE queries a large number of ezine editors, asking them to nominate the top 25 percent of pieces that appeared in their journals during the year.
   
   
2. Request Permission: Once the nominations have been received, and before a single word is read, we contact the story authors and request permission to review their works for possible inclusion in eSCENE. In the case of most ezines, the rights to a story revert back to the author upon first publication (usually defined as the point at which the material becomes publicly available on a Web site, or sent out via email). We also want to avoid any complications arising from publishing a story that the author may have submitted elsewhere.
   
   
3. Reading Blind - Round One: When an author grants his or her permission, the author's name and originating ezine title are stripped from the manuscript, which is then read onscreen or in printed form by Jeff Carlson (series editor) and Shannon Christenot (assistant editor). The stories are rated on a three-point system (3=accept, 2=consider, 1=deny). After the stories are read, the scores are tabulated, and the top 15 to 20 stories are chosen to proceed to Round Two. At this stage, most of the selections are obvious, though there's always some amount of arguing and championing of stories.
   
   
4. Guest Editing - Round Two: The first-round stories are sent to the year's guest editor, who reads the collection and marks stories on the same three-point system. This usually narrows the field to between 10 and 12 stories, at which point all three editors jointly decide which stories will appear in that year's edition. It's usually at this point that we discover which authors and ezines will be represented.
   
   
5. Final Editing and Production: The authors are notified of whether or not their work will appear in eSCENE. The chosen stories are edited where necessary; if significant changes are required for a piece, the author is consulted and brought into the process of editing his or her story. The guest editor writes the year's Introduction. Production begins, and eSCENE is assembled. After a last round of copyediting, the year's best online fiction is published on the Web.