First, to dispel any mystery about the editing process, this is how Ali and I have worked it.

A pile of submissions for New Writing 13 is sent to us by the British Council; there are usually around 40 or 50, poetry and prose. Over the next month, we both read each of these. When I’ve read five or six pieces, I send Ali an e-mail with the writers’ names in the subject line. What I thought of their work goes in the body of the e-mail. Ali sends the same to me. This means that we can see which pieces the other editor has read, and then compare our impressions. If either of us hasn’t yet read that writer, we don’t look at the body of the e-mail until we’ve had an unprejudiced look at their work.

We decided early on that we’d use a fairly blunt system of assessment: Yes, No and Maybe. After this, if we feel more needs to be said, we might put in a note about what we particularly liked or were disappointed by in a story.

So far, we haven’t had any serious disagreements. Certainly not to the extent that I thought something a Yes and Ali had it down as a No. We haven’t discussed in great detail what we’re looking for. That was pretty obvious. We’re looking for brilliant writing, whether by published or unpublished writers. The fact that we might have differing ideas of what brilliance is should serve to broaden and strengthen the finished book. I think, though, we have pretty similar ideas of what brilliance isn’t.

Having spoken to quite a few editors, I know that some of them have particular bugbears that will stop them going beyond the first page of any manuscript. One editor told me they were unlikely to read on if the first paragraph was a description of the weather – particularly if the weather was bad. Green ink is a famous warning sign. But as the submissions we’ve read have all been photocopies, this couldn’t prejudice us one way or the other. Quite a few of them were typewritten, and I have to confess to feeling a tiny bit better disposed towards these than the word-processed.

I am a fairly dogged reader. I feel it’s my failure if a bookmark gets stuck halfway through a novel. But I’ve become aware of a few mini-bugbears of my own. A quick list would include:

• titles which give away exactly what is going to happen in the story
• character names that make me disbelieve in those characters
• moments I’d call ‘TV moments’, when characters behave like actors not like people
• clichés and literary language for the sake of being literary.

That said, I’ve been genuinely surprised at the high standard, overall, of the submissions. Most of the pieces have definitely had something, even if it wasn’t quite sparky enough.

The next stage of the editing will involve trying to make a book of all the different stories, poems and essays (not many of those) we’ll have received. In the end, we hope, we’ll have something brilliant.

Toby Litt’s novels include Corpsing, Deadkidsongs and Exhibitionism. He was selected as one of Granta’s 'Best of Young British Novelists' in 2003.

New Writing 13 will be published by Picador on 17 March 2005.

We are currently in the process of confirming publication details for New Writing 14 and as soon as a deadline has been confirmed and we are able to accept submissions details will appear here.