Here’s a record that nobody wants to beat: Tim Croce’s first crossword submission, made as a high school senior, was accepted for publication recently after a staggering 11 years in the New York Times slush pile. (And no, it hasn’t been released yet.) As regular Fiend readers know, Croce’s had a few submissions reviewed a bit more promptly since then.
British crossword-maker Orlando, interviewed in The Guardian, has a few insights into the online market:
To me, the notable thing about online puzzles is their inherent conservatism. Just think what could be done online with crosswords incorporating hyperlinks, sound, pictures, video and so on. But solvers seem to prefer overwhelmingly a close simulation of what appears in their newspaper: plain text; black and white grids. There’s no demand for the bells and whistles.
Missed it last week: the youngest crossword-maker ever featured in The New York Times talks about his experiences with the Will Weng administration, and a notable letter of recommendation he earned with his efforts:
Finally, learn how crosswords can (sort of) make you richer.
For years I’ve toyed around with throwing multimedia into a crossword. The best I’ve done is including sheet music in a print copy. I think right now the issue is that the current online applets don’t offer anything as far as multimedia is concerned, and then you can’t offer your solver the ability to print the puzzle out (at least in the case of audio/moving video). As someone with an online puzzle page, I’d love to be able to offer something new & cutting edge… but there’s just no great way for me to format it cleanly.