Tag: writing advice

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theater worldcon writing advice

[Worldcon] Page and Stage (Writing SF/F Scripts)

Sunday (September 2) at 1500: Page and Stage: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy Scripts and Why You Should
Panelists listed in program: Laura E. Goodin, David Brin, Grant Carrington, James Patrick Kelly, Edward Willett

Disclaimer: These are my notes from the panel and my own, later thoughts. I often was unable to attend the entire panel, and also chronically missed panelist introductions. When possible I try to note who said something, but often was unable to. Also, unless something is in double quotes it should be considered a summary and not a direct quotation.

“Plays are easier to write than anything else because there’s so much white space!”

The charm of script writing is that it’s a collaborative art. Often actors will bring something to characters that you’d never imagined. It becomes something greater than what you created.

The “as you know Bob” is BAD. As in “As you know Bob, we’re in Chicago…” It’s a bad, bad way to sneak in information. In fiction it’s VERY bad. But you have to find a subtle way to do it in theater, because there is no narration. (James doesn’t like narration in theater because he feels it breaks the magic.)

David Brin: Novella length is the true “tribal length” keeping people entertained for three hours. Writing for a play or a radio show trains you for other skills, like writing a novel. This is a good way to practice.

Everything is grist for the writer’s mill.

You have to learn to leave out your vision to a certain extent. You don’t get to indicate sarcasm, etc. You don’t get to dictate the sets or costume. Your job is mostly dialog and the most bare bones of action and setting.

Stage direction should mostly be “joe enters. joe leaves.” May be okay to indicate sarcasm occasionally if it’s not clear from the dialog and important.

You have to trust the collaborators (the actors and directors) to get where you’re going. If you have to tell someone it’s sarcasm, it’s obviously not sarcastic enough! You are more in charge for audio plays for what sound is present. (e.g. footsteps, space station ambient sounds, etc.)

DB: Have two different type faces, one for minimal stage directions that have to be there, and another for little gentle suggestions you have. At his website there’s an advice for new writers section that’s mostly for narrative fiction, but some aspects may be useful for plays.

How do you get these plays produced?

Contest, such as the 24 hour play writing contest, are a great way to get a play produced! If you’re an actor or involved in community theater, talk to those people. They might be excited to do something with a local writer. There are always people around who want to put on plays. You might not get money, but you get experience.

Your chance of getting a screenplay produced is pretty much nil. Your chances of getting a play produced is much better if you get involved in community theater and start local. Actors will often help out by just reading scripts cold for fun and then helping you improve them by doing that.

Search for “Official Playwrights of Facebook” if you join the group there are 50-60 play submission opportunities that he digs up each month.

If you do the play with yourself and your group of friends now, you can put it online, David Brin points out.

Most people who see plays are older any more – the graying of the audience. Particularly in some community theaters this does not appeal to a younger audience. You can try pitching your plays to community theater by saying it’s fresh and new since young people are more interested in speculative plays. There is some prejudice about this still in some places.

People come into theater primed to have a world created for them. Suggestion is the way to go; it’s cheap.

On stage the special effects happen in the head of the audience.

(Moderation-wise, David Brin says this is one of the best panels of the con. I’m inclined to agree.)

The play dictates how long it has to be. You have to be within the limits the theater is willing to accept. You have to be willing to cut or add to make it the right length for the theater and the number of acts you’re doing.

Single person or two actor plays have been growing in popularity due to financial pressures. If you are writing a player, the fewer actors, the less set, easier costumes, etc, the more likely you are to get produced. 4-5 people is the real maximum number of actors you want for community theater, because it starts getting very hard to get that many actors together to rehearse. And you can have one actor play multiple roles.

More women act than men. Middle-aged male roles are actually the hardest to fill for community theater.

You need to have a good relationship with the director and then sometimes stand up for yourself if you disagree. And then you face having to find someone else. You do have to fight for your vision – the important parts.

There is a prejudice that spec plays have to be funny because they are seen as ridiculous. If the director doesn’t get it (or the producers don’t) then they tend to assume it should be funny or silly.

Plays generally do not make money in print. They need to be produced. Once you’ve had the play produced, you may make some money by printing it. It’s very difficult to have a non-produced play published.

Do not fear being your own producer. All it requires is you love your director and you love your actors and you want to make a safe space for them to work. If you do everything they need to make sure they can walk in and rehearse and perform, you are a producer. It’s a lot of work, but it’s not hard work. It’s not mysterious or rocket science. You just have to be diligent and love your actors and love your work.

Think about an audio play. You just need audacity and a place to post the podcast. Then you don’t need a theater or anything else. A theater play won’t probably look good on video. An audio play always “looks good” to everyone.

Producing plays at conventions is done often.

Write – produce – win! 

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This was definitely one of the best panels I attended all Worldcon. I left it feeling incredibly energized and excited about trying out some new projects.

Too bad they have to wait until I finish writing my damn thesis.

I’ve actually always been interested in audioplays, and I’ve written a few bits and bobs with the vague idea that “it would be cool if.” The point was well made that nowadays, producing an audiplay is incredibly easy, as distributing it. That’s definitely something I’ll keep in mind once my thesis stops eating my life!

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worldcon writing advice

[Worldcon] Escape from the Planet of the Slush Pile

Sunday (September 2) at 1030: Escape from the Planet of the Slush Pile
Panelists listed in program: Lynne M. Thomas, Gordon van Gelder, Ginjer Buchanan, Stanley Schmidt, Patrick Nielsen Hayden [note: Stanley Schmidt did not attend.]

Disclaimer: These are my notes from the panel and my own, later thoughts. I often was unable to attend the entire panel, and also chronically missed panelist introductions. When possible I try to note who said something, but often was unable to. Also, unless something is in double quotes it should be considered a summary and not a direct quotation.

Just so you know who these people are and why you should care about their opinions regarding the slushpile:
Lynne M. Thomas – Editor of Apex Magazine
Gordon van Gelder – Editor of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Ginjer Buchanan – Editor-in-chief for Ace and Roc books
Patrick Nielsen Hayden – Editor for Tor Books and Tor.com

A little bit about numbers – how many submissions do you see, what are chances like in the slush pile?

Ginjer Buchanan: The nature of the slush pile has changed in the last few years. It used to literally be piles of paper at the work station of a junior editor. Now it’s almost entirely electronic submissions. The number of submissions has not changed, but it’s definitely changed the topography. She doesn’t take on unsolicited material. But checking with people who do, the amount of submissions hasn’t changed. 50-100 manuscripts (novels) per month. The chances haven’t changed either; they still buy unagented and unsolicited material, probably 1 or 2 authors per year.

Lynne M Thomas: 500-600 stories per month. As editor in chief she sees 20-40 per month that are passed on by junior editors. Buys 1-2 per month. Reads about an additional 20 stories per month from authors she already knows. Tries to make sure there are stories from new authors every month, to go with established authors.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden: Tor books numbers are pretty similar to the ones Ginjer named. They want complete manuscripts, not query letters. About 100 subs a month, maybe 1-3 books from the slush pile per year. For Tor.com most fiction comes from longtime contacts and he doesn’t have information on the slush since someone else does that for him. They get several hundred per month. The website isn’t a money maker; it’s an advertising place. Numbers are misleading. The overwhelming amount of slush in the pile is from utterly crazy people typed in all caps. Hopes it’s better for smaller markets…

LMH: Oh no, it’s not. And we’re a horror market so we get a lot of “kill the bitch” stories.

PNH: The point is, anyone who is capable of getting out of bed, making it to Worldcon, putting on clothes, and finding the panel you want, you are WAY AHEAD of the vast majority of people in the slush pile.

GVG: Hasn’t checked statistics in years. Used to read everything himself, though not any more. Gets 500-800 subs per month, buys less than 1% of them. Agrees statistics lie. So much of that 99.9% is just execrable. e.g. there is a guy that sends him handwritten MS every month and he’s just nuts. It’s a business process of deciding what you’re going to publish or not. Has to train slush pile readers that you’re not going to publish most of this. You just can’t.

PNH: Publishers are in the business of looking for good stuff to publish. If we were only in it for the money we’d be in banking. But we’re also not in the business of administering the perfectly fair slush Olympics. They will break all their rules and jump hurdles to find cool stuff to publish.

GVG: There is not one editor ever who has stolen work off an author’s hard drive and published it. That’s why the submissions process still exists.

GB: Has a friend who contacts fanfic writers who are good to see if they write original stuff.

PNH: My wife is extremely interested in fan fiction for that reason. There is no ceiling on how good fanfic can be because it’s all unpublishable. You can find great writers.

GB: We don’t always just sit and wait for stuff to come to us. The junior staff reads magazines to see up and coming short fiction and contacts authors to see if they have novels.

LMT: Conversely I’ll contact people whose novels I like to see if they have any short fiction around they don’t mind getting a pittance for.

PNH: You can’t slush read for more than a few years because you burn out. Endless exposure to raw slush is corrosive. Will sometimes for their own amusement will give authors piles of raw slush to read – “slush drunk” laughing hysterically. At first the slush is hilarious. After that, it’s awful.

LMT: “You can’t unsee that.”

Guidelines & Pet peeves

PNH: Cover letters “I think you’ll find this is a cut above the normal crap Tor publishes.” Or the incredibly detailed outline. But worse is being addressed by the wrong name. The thing about cover letters is, the less the better. Basically just say here’s my story, it’s in this genre (don’t worry about sub genres), RELEVANT and interesting and marketable things about you connected to story. Don’t tell who has rejected it.

GB: Cover letters seem to have gotten less inappropriate since moving to e-mail. More just “here’s my attached novel it’s fantasy.” Could also be that the guidelines are more explicit about the cover letter.

PNH: Cover letters are a great way for authors to undercut themselves.

LMT: It’s like a job search thing. You have a pile of resumes and only one position. Anything you can do to kick someone out of the pile means less work for you. If you just follow the submission guidelines, you are ahead of 85% of the rest. The worst ever is getting an amazing story that’s just not appropriate to the market.

GB: You need an editor that’s passionate about the project. I see things that are good but just not for me.

PNH: Will sometimes acquire things and hand them off to someone else. Part of being an editor is also knowing what your organization will even want.

GVG: Doesn’t even read cover letters any more. Uses them to write notes on. It is important to note if the work has been published elsewhere, particularly on your website. Will sometimes read the cover letter after reading the story if he’s thinking of buying it. If you buy something after it’s been published on someone’s website, you are actually buying different rights.

Audience Q&A

Audience: In Fantasy how many cliches do you have to avoid to get to an original premise?

GB: There are 9 plots/12 plots… this is a writing class thing. There are only so many plots for all of fiction in a genre. Depends on the writing course you’re in. It’s not about the originality of the plot, it’s the originality of how you tell the story.

PNH: “Magic and Showmanship” (recommends) If you know 50 magic tricks but only have one narrative, then you only have one trick. But if you have only one trick but 50 narratives, you have 50 tricks.

LMT: We get fairytale retellings all the time. It’s about how they’re told.

PNH: Boy meets girl. Lots of blood.

GB: It’s about bringing your own voice and changes to the plot. The unnatural is just ringing a change on the natural. It’s very hard to come up with a totally original story.

Audience: I’m getting very good rejection letters from your people (to GVG) but it’s not quite right, do I tweak and resubmit?

GVG: Do not resubmit unless we ask to see them. We specifically ask if we want resubmissions.

LMT: We try not to be subtle. I try to tell people that I am not guaranteeing they will be published, but I tell them to make these changes and send it again. We say it specifically.

Let’s talk about rejection letters – the magic decoder ring for rejections!

LMT: Have 3 or 4 rejection letters I use: “Gosh no thanks” “Not this one but please send more” “I liked this please send more but here’s the list of what doesn’t work for me.” The more I say to you, the more I liked your story because I held on to it and thought about what to say to you.

GB: It’s very rare for someone to put in time and effort to making very specific suggestions for revisions. It’s not encouraged because a writer can take suggestions, use them, and sell the book elsewhere. Younger editors are encouraged to be very non-specific about changes and then a phone conversation might ensue if the author is amenable to doing changes.

PNH: It’s much better to send back the most uninformative rejection letter. Because it’s better to have a fast turnaround to give things back to the authors! It blows his mind that people complain when their stories are bounced too fast. There are editorial equivalents of writers block – editorial vapor lock. You can’t quite figure out what’s wrong with it and you want to tell them and you let it sit trying to figure out how to say it!

GVG: It happens with works/authors/agents you like because you don’t want to say no!

BG: DON’T ARGUE. I’ve had agents who argue!

LMT: Don’t argue and don’t be mean to submissions editors. They are doing this as volunteers often (when it’s s small market). If you argue or are mean, you’re on the list. We remember your name. And you don’t want us to remember your name like that.

PNH: Sometimes someone will take a relatively obscure work by a famous author and send it to people to get it rejected and it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a stunt. We’re not administering the slush olympics!

Audience: How important is short fiction? Is it important to get that going to move into novels?

PNH: Common wisdom was that the way to get going is to make your name in short fiction. There aren’t really enough good short fiction venues for everyone to do that. There are different paths.

GB: Some people just can’t write short fiction. Some people who write short fiction can’t write novels. You have to write what you like and are good at.

Audience: What’s dated and what isn’t?

GVG: I know it when I see it. When something’s been done a lot we know it.

PNH: There’s a certain old pacing of exposition, introduction of characters. When you read a lot of sf/f you can start getting a feel for what decade you’re in. There are style shifts.

GB: In SF something dated is using science long since known to be inaccurate.

LMT: As a less experienced person, things feel fresher because she’s only seen them hundreds of times instead of thousands.

Audience: Cover letter formatting…

GB: People obsess about cover letters and I don’t get it! It just has to say here is my novel, this is the genre and not even necessarily the word count. An accompanying summary is good because it’s nice to know that you, well, have even written the end. Cover letters are not magical.

PNH: Formulaic genre fiction publishers might have much stricter standards.

GB: Cover letters are short and sweet. You’re not being judged on your cover letter. You’re being judged on your prose fiction.

Audience: have you been seeing too much steampunk?

GB: Urban fantasy did explode and is starting to wane. But let me say you should write what you like and not worry about trends. Steampunk outside of Gail Carriger and Cherie Priest has not really been a viable long form fiction trend. But it’s very much a lifestyle, not just a fiction genre. There is a lot of short fiction, but not many wildly successful novels.

PNH: Trendspotting is a waste of time for people who are aspiring writers. Publishing moves too slowly. You move too slowly. Trends will have changed by the time you get to them! Writing what you like to read is the canny strategy for success.

GB: Turned out there were a lot of people who wanted to read a specific sort of urban fantasy, and now lots of them have it out of their system.

LMT: I tend to see surges in whatever theme anthology has just closed. I want a variety of things. When I get the wave of mermaid stories I might buy one, not ten. Sees more trends of submission patterns, and is getting more international submissions. The diversity trend is wonderful!

GVG: I want a variety of fiction. We never get enough SF and always get more fantasy than we need. It has been true since 1950.

PNH: This is also true for books. We get way more fantasy than sf. The taste for science fiction is always underserved.

GVG: You have to know the markets you’re submitting to. Read the markets before you send. Read a magazine, see what seems missing from it and write that kind of story.

Audience: Red flags. Prologs or no? First person or no?

GB: If a work calls out for a prolog, it should have one. If it calls out for first person it should be in first person.

PNH: Every choice has an advantage and a cost.

GB: Mistakes authors frequently make, talking about fantasy authors. The world build info dump in the first 500 pages. But there are stories that genuinely do need prologs. There are stories definitely better told in first person.

LMT: If you pull off a stunt and don’t land it, you’re toast. Evil Kenevil time.

Audience: Do you check and see if the author has a FB page?

None of them routinely do that kind of thing.

PNH: I don’t see anything wrong with looking, but it’s not the first thing I’m curious about.

LMT’s managing editor: If you boast a lot on the letter, we may check to see if you are lying.

Audience: Any truth if you start pro-level work in a slush pile you’re not looking for one-hit wonders.

None of them understand the question.

PNH: How do we know if you’re a one-hit wonder until you’ve had a hit to begin with?

Audience: You’re publishing stories but investing in authors. Do you start recognizing names?

PNH: Editors from different outfits do have cordial conversations about writers they see a lot as almost being there.

LMT: If I see a name in a lot of other markets, I will keep an eye out for them in my slush pile. Also if I sent you a really nice rejection letter I will tend to remember your name. I’m rooting for you guys to send me awesome stories! You have to keep working at it and it’s frustrating for me too.

Audience: Cover letters again – sub genres? What about your name if it’s kind of weird?

Everyone shakes their heads.

GB: If your credentials are pertinent to what you’re writing, that’s fine. We want to know if it’s sf/f.

LMT: Apex doesn’t care about sub genre. And all that matters is the story being the right one on the right day when I read it. Your name doesn’t matter.

Audience: Platform?

GB: That’s used a lot in the marketing of NONFICTION.

PNH: There are fiction authors that have a platform – Scalzi and his blog. The idea that we send out new authors to write blogs and join twitter is pernicious and horrible. Some people might enjoy that and should do it, but we’re not going to make you.

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I really don’t have much to add on my own about this panel. It was actually very entertaining, and full of good advice – which I hope I’ve managed to capture for you.

One thing I did notice is that cover letters as an unnecessary source of authorial angst got brought up several times. Makes me think I’m definitely on the right track with my own no-frills cover letter. If you want to see the example go here.

Categories
worldcon writing advice

[Worldcon] How to Avoid Getting Published

Friday (August 31) at 1800: How to Avoid Getting Published
Panelist listed in program: Jack McDevitt

Disclaimer: These are my notes from the panel and my own, later thoughts. I often was unable to attend the entire panel, and also chronically missed panelist introductions. When possible I try to note who said something, but often was unable to. Also, unless something is in double quotes it should be considered a summary and not a direct quotation. 

This is a bit different because it’s just Jack McDevitt guy talking and asking questions of the audience. He asks us questions and then explains things. This is all very basic stuff but I know it helps to have it reiterated. 

Don’t name all the characters with similar sounding names.

How many characters should there be? The absolute minimum number.

He says the easier way is to sell a short story first. Don’t be afraid to make changes, it’s not sacred because you wrote it. Send it off, forget about it until you get a response. Write another in a meantime. Keep going.

He was an English teacher for years. The students who thought they were pretty good were pretty good. “We all grow up having authority figures tell us what we do wrong… English teachers circle all the stuff you do wrong and never tell you what you do right.”

“Is it possible you don’t have a story to tell?” What drives the narrative? Can you say in 25 words why someone should care about this story? The weakest source of conflict is good guys versus bad guys. The engine that drives the story is conflict.

The protagonist should be human. Should be like us. We need to identify him. He needs to be flawed. NOT CLARK KENT.

In describing setting, you need to give the reader somewhere to put his feet. You don’t need to over describe – they will fill in a lot of the blanks on their own. But you need to give them a skeleton to hang those imagined details on.

Withholding critical information the main character knows and not telling the reader really pisses off the readers.  That’s why Watson is necessary – you can’t tell the story with Sherlock because he knows everything and there is no mystery.

You can’t drag a reader through 400 pages and have nothing happen. You can’t leave them hanging at the end, novel or short story.

Things need to be logical. It needs to make sense for people to know things.

If a major event occurs DO NOT HAVE IT HAPPEN OFF STAGE. We don’t want to just get a phone call. Especially if it’s coming out of left field. If you set it up so readers can extrapolate the event, it’s more okay.

If you’re not calling in your spouse/friends to excitedly tell them what you did and read to them, you are doing it wrong. Writing is hard work, but it’s also supposed to be FUN. You have to love it. Write the kind of stuff you like to read. If you’re not enjoying it while you’re writing it, you’re on the wrong track.

Treat your own material as material. Don’t get your ego involved. Don’t get personal when people critique. You need to listen. Your work is not sacred. When you get a correction, first ask yourself if it is correct, if the critic has a point. And then fix it. It’s better you get rid of it than someone else tell you that you should have.

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Jack McDevitt didn’t really bother with the cute premise of the panel – he just cut straight to basic advice on how to construct a story that people will want to read. (And will therefore hopefully get published!) I mostly decided to poke my head in to see if there was anything I was missing out on, and because it never hurts to have someone point out the basics again.

I actually had fun being the person shouting out answers when the rest of the audience was stumped. Jack at one point jokingly accused me of having “taken this course before.”

I’m really glad that he made the point that while writing is work, it’s also supposed to be fun. I think writers tend to be a little too in love with the bit of the art that’s suffering. Because hey, we’re human. We love to kvetch. But we should also be honest that we’re doing this because it’s fun. And he made a very good point that if we’re not (beneath all the whining) having fun, then what we’re is not going to be fun for anyone to read.

I’m sure my husband could tell you stories about the number of times he’s seen me cackling gleefully at my keyboard or spinning my chair in circles because I’m just so damn excited about something I wrote. That’s how it’s supposed to be. (And he gets extra bonus points for then being kind and asking me what I’m so excited about. Half the time he manages to keep the dread from his voice, even.)

The other important part of that is writing what you like, and what you like to read. This question came up several times in panels I attended, with a writer with aspirations to be published asking the panelists what’s popular or trending. Publishing is a bit of a dinosaur (particularly for longer works) – trying to catch the wave is ultimately a losing prospect, because by the time you’ve managed to write a novel and get it published, there’ll be something new burning up Amazon. But even more importantly, you need to be writing because you’re excited about it and because it’s what you would want to read, not because you think it’s what is popular and going to sell. You’ll likely lack the necessary passion if you do that.

Categories
writing writing advice

On rejection

Well, it sucks. Any questions?

To be more specific, I’m talking about the kind of rejection that is yours for the collecting if you do anything creative. My main experience is with writing, but I’ve gotten a solid impression from my friends who do other artistic things that if you want to create, and sell what you create, you have to be prepared to down a healthy bowl full of “no” salad every day.

I’m mostly thinking about this today because I sweated blood for six hours editing a story, which was subsequently rejected in less than twelve hours.

Ouch.

These are the times I go out for a margarita. Or in the case of tonight, thanks to a mysterious stomach bug that’s decided to make my life difficult, I stare glumly into my package of animal crackers.

The constant rejection never feels good. It’s not supposed to. You’re sending your story out there because (I should hope) you believe in it and think it deserves to be received by the cheering masses. Having an editor tell you no can sometimes feel very painful because it feels personal. That story’s a little bit of you.

It’s really not personal. I don’t think I could ever handle being an editor; they have the toughest job in the world. While I’m sure the slush pile is pretty hefty in stories that don’t meet standards, it sounds like they still get more good pieces than they could ever hope to publish. I’d drive myself to a nervous breakdown trying to make those decisions.

So it hurts. You have to just dust yourself off, eat your animal crackers, and keep going. And if you still believe in your story, you have to keep fighting for it.

Don’t let fear of rejection stop you from trying. You will eventually build up your rejection callouses, even if you still see those e-mails pile up and think Oof, I need that beer now. I’ve filled an entire bulldog clip with rejections and I’m well over halfway into my second. The sting never quite goes away, but you get stronger for it.

Rejections are like sweat. That’s what effort looks like, baby. It means I’m trying. I’m working hard. I’ve developed a weird, potentially unhealthy relationship with my rejection notices, where if I haven’t gotten one for a while I start feeling somehow less real, like I need the validation that I still exist as a writer. It keeps me playing story pingpong, sending them out as soon as they come back.

Because ultimately, even the biggest no sundae in the world still has a cherry on top.

Categories
writing writing advice

Submitting short stories (part 2/2)

Continuing on from yesterday, let’s talk more on with the nuts and bolts of submitting short stories to magazines/anthologies.

The Cover Letter
I feel like that heading should come with a dramatic flash of lightning and a crack of thunder. This is the number one thing that scared the hell out of me when I was starting out. It’s the first thing people see before they ever get to your story.

Trust me, it’s not worth the angst. This is a cover letter. It’s not a query letter, like you’d use to try to convince an agent that your novel is amazing and they should totally invest the time reading it. With cover letters, you want it simple, short, and to the point.

First, remember how yesterday I told you to read the submission guidelines? Start there. If there’s something in particular the editors want in the cover letter they will tell you. (eg: a short biography, etc.) Otherwise, this is all you need: the title of your story, its length, your relevant publication credits, and courtesy. I’m not going to claim I’m an expert at cover letters, but I’m guessing I’ve managed to do something right since I’ve sold some stories. Here’s an example of a cover letter from me:

Thank you for considering my story, “Most awesomely Mind-Blowing Story Ever.” It’s about XXXX words long. I’m an associate member of the SFWA and part of the Northern Colorado Writers Workshop. I’ve published:

“Entangled” in Specutopia issue #1 (July 2012)
“Comes the Huntsman” in Strange Horizons (July 2, 2012)
“The Jade Tiger” in Penumbra (March 2012)
“Transportation” in Anotherealm (September 2011)
“The Falling Star” in Aurora Wolf’s New Fairy Tales Anthology
“The Book of Autumn” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #49

Thank you and I hope that you enjoy reading my story!

Exciting, I know. But the point is, your story is supposed to be exciting and interesting. Your cover letter is supposed to convey the absolute minimum of necessary information so that you’re not wasting the time of someone who you’d much rather have reading your story.

Don’t tell the editor at length that you’re a new writer and have no publishing credits. If you don’t have any listed, it’s obvious enough and you shouldn’t belabor the point. It’s okay to be new, everyone was at one point. Don’t describe your story or even highlight the genre of it in the cover letter unless the submission guidelines tell you otherwise. Most editors/slushpile readers like to go in to a story without preconceptions. Help them out with that. Don’t apologize to the editor about the quality of the story, point out that you have no self-confidence, or defensively state that your friends totally liked the story.

I mention all of the above sins, mind you, because at some point I’ve committed them myself and had some kind editor (BLESS THEM) ask very sweetly if I would please knock it the heck off. I made the mistakes so you don’t have to!

Wait.
After the angst of the cover letter and the terrifying, stomach-churning moment where you send the e-mail or click the submit button, this is the worst part. You have to wait for what is often a long (3-6 months or more!) time and can really just look forward to a rejection e-mail, likely a form letter, at the end of it. It sucks.

Don’t query about your story unless you’ve waited long enough. Period. The submission guidelines (remember those?) will normally tell you at what point you ought to query to make sure your submission didn’t get lost. If not stated, you should wait at least 90 days.

So you know what you do, while you’re waiting? Write more stories. Edit them. Submit them.

I describe it as playing story ping-pong, where every time one is rejected I bounce it back out to another potential market. (Sometimes with a little additional polishing if someone has been kind enough to send a note along with the rejections.) Right now, I have thirteen stories out and waiting for rejection or the much, much more rare acceptance. And I’m writing more.

Because we’re writers. It’s what we do, right?

Upon rejection:
I have a lot more to say about getting rejected, stuff that deserves its own blog post, but really quick: DO NOT ARGUE WITH AN EDITOR. EVER. EVER. EVEREVEREVER. 

You might think your art is the best thing ever. No one is required to agree. And the last thing you want is to gain a reputation as someone who is combative, nasty, or just plain crazy. You want more chances to catch the attention of these editors, since maybe they’ll like another story of yours. You don’t want a permanent place on someone’s spam filter.

Also, if someone sends you a nice note along with a rejection – and it does happen! – take it as the enormous complement it is. Most editors are incredibly busy, and even a sentence or two, particularly if it’s advice about your story, is a real gift. That said? Don’t send them a note back. They’re busy. Their inboxes are full. Don’t clutter them up.

Finally, unless the submission guidelines (those things again!) say re-submissions are okay, they’re not. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve edited and re-grooved a story, you get one chance per market and you’re done. The only exception to this rule (other than the submission guidelines) is if the editor e-mails you specifically to ask you to re-sub the story once you’ve done some editing.

Questions? This obviously doesn’t cover everything.

Categories
writing writing advice

Submitting short stories (part 1/2)

A friend of mine asked me for advice when it comes to submitting short stories for publication. Which actually surprised me a little at first, but hey. I’ve finally gotten to the point where I’m dropping things off my cover letter publication list to keep it down to six items, so I guess I must be doing something right on occasion.

This is not meant to be exhaustive (please ask questions if there’s something I haven’t covered) and neither is this meant to be a guide about writing. Here, we’re starting with the assumption that you have a short story that you’ve polished to a golden shine, which you believe in enough to fight for it and put up with rejections.

Nuts and bolts all the way, baby.

So let’s imagine: you have your golden, shiny story. You want to knock the socks off of an editor with the emotional power of your art, and as a result be showered with dirty handfuls (hah!) of cash. Where do you start?

Pick a market.
I use Ralan.com and Duotrope for the most part to locate markets, though I have other ways now. These sites are good places to start, however. Duotrope is lovely because it’s searchable, and has parameters like payscale, genre, sub-genre (though this is of limited use at times), and story length. Ralan is for scifi/fantasy/horror in particular. I like it for its list of open anthologies.

So what is your story? Scifi? Fantasy? Horror? Dark fantasy? You need to have this figured out before you can even really start picking and choosing; sending a magazine a story in a genre they aren’t interested in will get you a guaranteed rejection. Once you’ve decided that you’re, say, scifi, you can do a search in Duotrope for markets that publish that genre, and additionally tell it what length and payscale you’re looking for. (I don’t normally bother with subgenre, myself.) Hopefully you already read some of the publications on the list that comes up, so you have an idea of what kind of stories they publish. Otherwise, when you think you might want to try a market, read at least a few of their stories first. This helps you get an idea of the general type of stories the editor likes, though that certainly doesn’t mean they want carbon copies of their current offerings.

The other thing you should think about is payscale. I advocate the principle of go big or go home. Start with the pro-paying markets and then work your way down to semi-pro, and token. (I don’t believe in giving work away for free.) If you aren’t confident that your story is worth $.05 per word, you’d better keep working on it until it is. It’s hard to get into even free markets. You need to have your best work, work you are willing to set in front of any editor without shame.

Read the submission guidelines.
Read the submission guidelines.

The submission guidelines? Read them.

No, really. Read the submission guidelines.

The guidelines will tell you everything you need to know about submitting to the market. If they want your manuscript formatted a particular way, do it. No matter how magically delicious your story is, if you don’t bother to format it properly, it’ll get tossed because you couldn’t be bothered to read the guidelines. (Hint: most places use a variation of William Shunn’s excellent format, so I recommend starting out having your manuscript formatted like this. The only major difference I’ve seen is that italics are normally okay to be left as italics instead of underlined.)

The guidelines also tell you what the editors want, story wise. They tell you what the word count limits are. They tell you how to send the MS (file attachment? plaint text in email? electronic submission form?).  The guidelines are the source of all manner of useful information. Read them. Love them. Read them again. Live by them.

Do not submit your story to more than one place at a time.
This technically fits under “read the submission guidelines” but I feel it’s important enough to need its own section. Unless a market specifically says “simultaneous submissions okay,” do not do it. Period. And if one market is okay with simultaneous submissions, the other markets you send your story to had better be as well.

I know it’s frustrating. A lot of markets can take 3-6 months to get back to you, or more. The waiting sucks. But too bad. You have to wait for one market to pass one your story before you send it to another. It’s the height of rudeness to withdraw stories once submitted because you’ve gotten them picked up elsewhere, and don’t think editors don’t talk to each other, or don’t have memories when someone annoys them. I’m not guaranteeing this would be a permanent black mark in your record, so to speak, but it’s just really not worth risking it. Be polite.

Okay, this is running kind of long, so I will continue on tomorrow.