I got home from the annual Anthology Workshop on the Oregon Coast yesterday, zombied around a bit and then fell into bed. Adrenaline builds up while I'm away from home at a special event, seeing old friends, meeting new people, learning things, finding out about cool new opportunities or services, and just generally having a great time. It happens at conventions, and it happens at workshops. The adrenaline shot is temporary, though, and when I get home I have to pay for it.
The workshop was great fun. We had three new editors this year -- WMG publisher Allyson Longueira, writer/publisher Leah Cutter, and writer/editor Dayle A. Dermatis. Having them up at the front of the room along with regulars Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Mark the Kobo Guy (Mark Leslie Lefebvre) was great fun, and added to the anticipation of each day. (And, I'll admit, to some of the nail biting.)
As usual, attendees were given guidelines to six different themed anthologies, one per week for six weeks. We wrote like crazy, submitting stories as we went, sometimes only a couple of hours before getting the next set of guidelines. Then once we were all done writing, we uploaded our stories to the workshop site, downloaded everyone else's stories, and started just as frantically reading. We had a little over 1.1 million words to read and about twenty-four days to read them in. Which is actually about the same as last year.
Each of the middle six days of the workshop, we went through the stories for one of the books. One story at a time, each editor at the front of the room commented on it, said whether they'd buy it or not if they'd been editing that book, why or why not, or of they'd have asked for some changes. The last person to comment was the editor actually buying for the book; if they said "I'm buying it," they meant it.
At the end of the day, some time during the third, evening session, the actual editor was left with two lists -- one of stories they were definitely buying, and another of stories they wanted to buy but might or might not. They went over the "Maybe" stories one at a time, and either finally bought or finally rejected each one, explaining why in each case, building their final table of contents in front of the class.
I sold stories to three of the anthologies, which is pretty awesome. I'll have stories in Feel the Love, which is about all different kinds of love, not just romance, Unlikely Heroines, and Spies.
There were a couple of other projects going on at the same time. As we've done for the last few years, we had a "stealth" anthology going on -- editors who really liked stories that were written for someone else, and which didn't get bought, had a chance to "save" a few stories each, to be published in an Editors Saves volume. We did that during the last session, on Sunday morning.
During one of the evening chats, I was talking to some other writers and for some reason brought up the dogs in Moscow who commute on the subway trains. It seemed like it'd make a great anthology theme -- not necessarily a whole book of stories about commuting dogs (although... [ponder]) but stories about animals making unexpected use of things or services created for humans. It so happens there's a group of writers who come to this workshop every year who do their own anthology projects regularly, so I found Dayle, who herds that particular group of cats, and suggested the commuting dogs as a theme-seed for the Uncollected Anthology. She thought it was interesting, and wrote it down. Then, on Saturday night, while we all hung out and decompressed, she came to tell me that the group had agreed to do an Animal themed volume, and wanted to invite me to be the guest author for it. Awesome! They already have a pretty long list of up-coming themes, so my story won't appear until 2018 at the earliest and probably 2019, but I'm looking forward to it.
But there's one other cool project in the works. Dean and Kris announced that they're bringing back Pulphouse Magazine. A lot of old-timers who were into SFF back in the day will recognize the name. For anyone who doesn't, Pulphouse was a weird, out-of-the-box magazine, mostly SFF but not always. It was strange and quirky. It started out as a hardcover magazine, then shifted over to the more usual paperback. Dean and Kris won a World Fantasy Award in 1989 for Pulphouse Magazine, and they got three Hugo nominations for it.
Pulphouse shut down about twenty years ago, but it's coming back in 2018. They're going to be reprinting some old stories from the original run of Pulphouse, to publish along with new stories. Dean bought one of mine for the magazine, and is considering another one.
If you had an on-going subscription to Pulphouse back at the time it shut down then contact Dean and let him know. They'll be honoring old subscriptions with subs to the electronic edition of the new magazine. I've never known a magazine to do this before; I think it shows an incredible amount of class.
Angie
Showing posts with label acceptance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label acceptance. Show all posts
Monday, March 6, 2017
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Anthology Sale
I just sent back a contract for a short story called "Ghosts of the Past," which will be published in the ninth Valdemar anthology, a collection of stories set in Mercedes Lackey's Kingdom of Valdemar. This is the first time I've been invited to submit to a closed anthology, and it was a different experience. I'll admit I was nervous at a few points. :)
John Helfers, an editor I've worked with on a couple of Fiction River volumes, knew I was a fan of Misty Lackey's work and invited me to submit a proposal for a story. I've never worked that way before -- usually I read the guidelines for a book, then write a story and sub it, and I'm frankly not very good at judging ahead of time how long a story's going to be. There are writers who can aim for a 5K short or a 15K novelette or an 80K word novel, and hit right on, within a couple hundred words for the shorter lengths and within about a thousand for the novel, but I'm not one of them. I guess that's one of the skills you develop with a lot more practice and experience than I have. But I needed to sub a story synopsis and commit to bringing it in under the limit. So rather than just writing down my idea, I started writing the story. Good thing I did, because I got a few thousand words into that first idea and realized I had at least a novella on my hands.
Okay, scratch that and start over. I came up with another idea, pulled up a fresh story file and started writing again. After about 3K words I got a sense of where the story was going and how long it'd take to get there. I was sure I could bring it in under the wordcount limit, so I wrote up a synopsis and sent it in. John and Misty both liked it, and I got a go-ahead to write.
The writing was fun, and this is one of the areas on the commercial side of writing where having fanfic experience can be a help. All the characters on the page were my own inventions, but I wanted to do justice to Misty's world, and to the tone -- in computer OS terms, the "look and feel" of it -- so that the story sounded like a Valdemar story, and felt like something Misty could've written. I sent it in, got some edits from John, and we eventually got it hammered out such that we're both happy with it. Misty liked it too, so I got a contract.
[I've had questions about this before, so just in case anyone's wondering, my experience has been that contracts are issued after edits. That way, you get paid for the actual number of words that are going to appear in print. And I've never gotten the feeling that an editor was trying to shave things down to save a few bucks. In fact, most of my edits have resulted in the story being a bit longer.]
I found I was a little more nervous about this one than I've been about other anthology submissions. I think it's because I was playing in someone else's sandbox, borrowing their toys (even if I brought some of my own) and I didn't want the sandbox's owner to think I was doing it wrong, or being disrespectful. It's like going over to someone's house for the first time and wanting to make a good impression. :) Getting the final okay on my story, from John and Misty both, was a great relief.
The book will be out in December, from DAW. I'll post a cover when I have one.
Angie
John Helfers, an editor I've worked with on a couple of Fiction River volumes, knew I was a fan of Misty Lackey's work and invited me to submit a proposal for a story. I've never worked that way before -- usually I read the guidelines for a book, then write a story and sub it, and I'm frankly not very good at judging ahead of time how long a story's going to be. There are writers who can aim for a 5K short or a 15K novelette or an 80K word novel, and hit right on, within a couple hundred words for the shorter lengths and within about a thousand for the novel, but I'm not one of them. I guess that's one of the skills you develop with a lot more practice and experience than I have. But I needed to sub a story synopsis and commit to bringing it in under the limit. So rather than just writing down my idea, I started writing the story. Good thing I did, because I got a few thousand words into that first idea and realized I had at least a novella on my hands.
Okay, scratch that and start over. I came up with another idea, pulled up a fresh story file and started writing again. After about 3K words I got a sense of where the story was going and how long it'd take to get there. I was sure I could bring it in under the wordcount limit, so I wrote up a synopsis and sent it in. John and Misty both liked it, and I got a go-ahead to write.
The writing was fun, and this is one of the areas on the commercial side of writing where having fanfic experience can be a help. All the characters on the page were my own inventions, but I wanted to do justice to Misty's world, and to the tone -- in computer OS terms, the "look and feel" of it -- so that the story sounded like a Valdemar story, and felt like something Misty could've written. I sent it in, got some edits from John, and we eventually got it hammered out such that we're both happy with it. Misty liked it too, so I got a contract.
[I've had questions about this before, so just in case anyone's wondering, my experience has been that contracts are issued after edits. That way, you get paid for the actual number of words that are going to appear in print. And I've never gotten the feeling that an editor was trying to shave things down to save a few bucks. In fact, most of my edits have resulted in the story being a bit longer.]
I found I was a little more nervous about this one than I've been about other anthology submissions. I think it's because I was playing in someone else's sandbox, borrowing their toys (even if I brought some of my own) and I didn't want the sandbox's owner to think I was doing it wrong, or being disrespectful. It's like going over to someone's house for the first time and wanting to make a good impression. :) Getting the final okay on my story, from John and Misty both, was a great relief.
The book will be out in December, from DAW. I'll post a cover when I have one.
Angie
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Workshop Stuff
I went kind of radio silent for a few weeks there -- sorry about that. I have things to post about, but I'm not going to dump it all at once. First is the Anthology Workshop I went to from late February through the first week in March. Great stuff as always. Anyone who has any interest in writing short fiction should try to get into one of these workshops some year. I think the 2016 Anthology Workshop still has space, or at least it's not marked as full yet. Click through and scroll down.
For anyone going "Huh?" right now, the Anthology Workshop is an intense week-and-a-bit on the Oregon coast with about forty writers and half a dozen editors. We get six anthology assignments ahead of time -- submission guidelines, like you'd see for any anthology -- starting right after the first of the year. Each assignment has a deadline a week away, and then we get the next one, boom-boom-boom, six stories due on six successive Sundays. You're not required to write for every book -- you can pick the ones you want -- but why wouldn't you? This is a great opportunity to submit work and then listen to a bunch of editors arguing over your stories. Oh, and possibly make some sales to Fiction River, as a nice bonus to eight days of learning.
Most of the workshop days are devoted to going over stories, one book's worth per day. They start at one end of the row of editors at the front of the room, and each editor says whether they'd have bought the story or not, and why or why not. The last editor is the one (or occasionally a pair, editing a book as a team) who's actually buying stories for the live anthology. There's a white board for each book, where BUY and MAYBE stories are listed, along with author and wordcount. Sometimes all the editors agree one way or the other, but usually not. The discussions back and forth between editors of differing opinions can be entertaining, and are always educational. That's really what it's all about -- seeing how and why different professional editors can and do disagree over a story, occasionally with snark or sarcasm involved. When we're done with all the stories, the editor(s) look at how many BUY stories they have, and if there isn't enough wordcount, they go through the MAYBE stories to finish building the TOC. Watching them do this is another great educational opportunity.
So each day, the editors go over one book's worth of stories. I always write for all the books, and so do a lot of the other attendees. Before this year, if a story was passed up, we were encouraged to sub it to some other pro market right away, but this time we were told not to. Good thing, too.
The six books we wrote for were, in scheduled publication order:
Hidden in Crime, edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, a historical crime volume
Visions of the Apocalypse, edited by John Helfers, a book of stories taking place during (not just before or after) the end of the world
Last Stand, edited by Dean Wesley Smith and Felicia Fredlund, stories about characters making a final stand, and no, it's not all they-died-in-the-end stories :)
Superpowers, edited by Rebecca Moesta, a YA anthology about teenagers learning to cope with some kind of super power
Haunted, edited by Kerrie Hughes, an anthology of haunting stories
Pulse Pounders: Adrenaline, edited by Kevin J. Anderson, a book of short thrillers
Click through and scroll down a bit to see the up-coming anthology covers. Last I heard, they're planning to find new art for the Last Stand book, but the others are pretty set except for names on the covers.
I initially sold a story to Haunted, which is cool; I've worked with Kerrie before and am looking forward to working with her again. I missed with John's Apocalypse book, which was disappointing; I've sold stories to him the last two years, but this time I didn't quite hit what he was looking for. Dean hated my story for Last Stand, but Felicia liked it a lot. I honestly wasn't expecting to make it in there, but after going over all the stories, they did some horse trading between themselves and Dean got one he wanted that Felicia hadn't really cared for, and Felicia got mine. :) Kris teetered a bit on mine, but it didn't quite make it, which was disappointing, but I've never sold her anything before, so I was almost expecting it. Then on the last workshop day, she announced that someone not in the workshop who'd been invited to submit to the book, and who'd wanted a 10K word space saved for them, couldn't submit something after all, leaving Kris with a 10K word hole. She bought two extra stories after all, one of them mine, woot!
Now this year, there was an extra person sitting up front with the editors. Mark Leslie Lefebvre, AKA Mark the Kobo guy, was a student in the workshop last year. He stepped in and offered some Kobo support when a couple of editors had more stories they Really Really Wanted to buy, but which they didn't have room/budget for. Two of last year's volumes have special Kobo editions with three more stories in them, which is awesome, so thanks to Mark for that. But this year, Mark was sitting up front. Huh?
Okay, there had to be a reason. Last year, there was some talk about how, if the special Kobo editions were a success and sold well, they might do special editions of all the books this year. But as days went by, they weren't buying extra stories, and there was no mention of a Kobo edition. Huh. But there was Mark up there, doing the Yes-Maybe-No thing with all the stories. My guess was that he was doing a stealth book, his own anthology, and I was right. :) They went through all the stories that Mark or one (or more) of the other editors had loved, but either didn't have room in their book, or it was a story for someone else's book that didn't get bought. We had a whiteboard for each book (Dean and company screwed each day's board up onto the wall somewhere in the room after that day's workshop was over) and then Mark had a couple more where he assembled his picks, plus all the unbought picks from the other editors. Hashmarks showed which stories had a lot of love from the editors, even if the one it was written for didn't buy it. That last round of TOC building was great, especially for the folks who got last minute surprise buys.
There's some great stuff in there, stories I'd have bought if I'd been one of the editors. The book's not on the Fiction River site, but they were calling it Editors' Cut at the workshop. Fiction River doesn't always stick to just one genre in each volume, but Mark's book will have more variety than usual. Should be great for anyone who just loves short fiction.
Like last year, we had sign-ups to eat lunch with the editors and Allyson (the publisher of WMG), and I went out with a few people. And there were great discussions in, around, and after workshop sessions. Some notes:
If you love a trope that nobody's writing anymore, other people will love it too, so write it to fill that hole. This is especially an opportunity for folks indie publishing -- don't let New York tell you Horror is dead, or Westerns, or romantic vampires, or kids finding weird objects while playing, or whatever you're into.
Past a certain level of craftsmanship, whether a story sells or not isn't really about quality, it's about taste. Don't let a rejection, or a bunch of rejections, discourage you. If you're pretty sure a story is well written, keep subbing it, or indie publish it.
If you're doing a punch story, a short story with a quick hit at the end, do a double-punch -- two hits in quick succession -- to make it even more powerful.
When you're writing for submission, readability is key. No 10pt fonts, no weird fonts, don't try to be "special." Try to be readable. If the editor notices your formatting, you blew it.
Define what "success" means to you before you plan a promo campaign. You have to know what you want so you can tell if your campaign was successful and worth the resources you put into it.
80% of people who download a free book won't read it.
You need at least 3-5 books in a series for perma-free on the first book to be of any benefit. (And there's some disagreement about whether perma-free is ever a good idea. Temporary free promotions might be better.)
Amazon categories -- use Fiction, General and Fiction, [Genre] as your two categories. Then your keywords will get you into other categories under those. There are a bazillion categories under Fiction, General that you can only get in through Fiction, General plus keywords
When you sub to a literary market, don't label the story by genre in your cover letter, and don't note genre credits. For literary markets, no previous credits are better than genre credits.
Never use the term "self-published" -- use small press, independently published, etc. The stigma is still there, so don't get it on you.
A good title will sell a story before you've even written it (in tradpub). It'll also sell a story to readers.
Stories about the everyday tragedies of human life need to rise above the everyday tragedies of human life. They're realistic, but a reader needs more of a reason to read about that particular one. Usually it's not something anyone outside the main character's family and friends would care about. [Writer]'s story worked because their character was heroic and had a humorous thread in their voice about what was going on with them. Also, you need to balance the tragic event with being an entertainer. The reader has to want to read that story -- they'll want to read it because it's entertaining. What about the story and the characters makes the reader want to hang with them, especially since most people aren't keen to spend time with their own family and friends who are horribly sick, or whatever, much less a stranger?
To transcend the horrible mundanity, maybe the character does something different, something heroic. Or the story could have an awesome voice.
If you're editing an anthology, or putting together a collection of your own short work, the gut-wrenchingly emotional story should be at the end, or maybe in the middle, but most definitely not right up in the beginning.
When building your TOC, figure about 1/3 of readers will read the book front to back, in order.
Don't start a story with the character's first and last name -- nametag opening. It has to be up front quick, but not the first two words.
Kris's technique for analyzing someone else's book/story -- Take a book you never want to read again, underline setting words with a different color for each sense. Then go through and color each word for how it supports the story, setting or character or plot. The idea is to load the technique into your head so it filters to your subconscious and five stories [of your own] later you'll start using it when you write. It's not deliberate; it comes out of the subconscious as you write.
Dean's technique -- Take a book and type the opening in your manuscript format to get the feel for what the writer was doing word-by-word. You'll start realizing what the writer is doing and how they do it.
Whenever you get comments about too many details, it's always the writer putting the setting details in (the writer's narrative voice) rather than filtering it all through the POV character's opinion. Everything should be filtered through the character, which makes the words build character as well as setting. If you feed setting in through the POV character, readers won't notice all the setting coming in; it reads very quickly.
If anyone notices your setting in the beginning, you fucked up.
Don't use a series name in the title of a story in an anthology because too many people will see that it's a series story and skip it.
Stories are circles, and the end has to reflect back on the beginning. If an ending isn't working, it's probably because there's a problem with the beginning, or because the ending doesn't reflect on the beginning.
On a crime story being resolved -- the reader needs to know who committed the crime and that the story is over. A mystery/crime story puts order onto chaos. If the story is noir, the reader needs to know that order will never be imposed on the chaos. If it's not a mystery per se, they might not catch the crook, but in any case the reader needs to have that info.
This isn't everything, but it's most of what I had in my Notes file on my laptop. This is an awesome workshop, and I'd be taking it even if I never sold anything. In fact, the first time I went, the anthologies weren't "live," and nobody sold anything; we were all there for the learning. This is a wonderful experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone with any interest in publishing short fiction.
Angie
For anyone going "Huh?" right now, the Anthology Workshop is an intense week-and-a-bit on the Oregon coast with about forty writers and half a dozen editors. We get six anthology assignments ahead of time -- submission guidelines, like you'd see for any anthology -- starting right after the first of the year. Each assignment has a deadline a week away, and then we get the next one, boom-boom-boom, six stories due on six successive Sundays. You're not required to write for every book -- you can pick the ones you want -- but why wouldn't you? This is a great opportunity to submit work and then listen to a bunch of editors arguing over your stories. Oh, and possibly make some sales to Fiction River, as a nice bonus to eight days of learning.
Most of the workshop days are devoted to going over stories, one book's worth per day. They start at one end of the row of editors at the front of the room, and each editor says whether they'd have bought the story or not, and why or why not. The last editor is the one (or occasionally a pair, editing a book as a team) who's actually buying stories for the live anthology. There's a white board for each book, where BUY and MAYBE stories are listed, along with author and wordcount. Sometimes all the editors agree one way or the other, but usually not. The discussions back and forth between editors of differing opinions can be entertaining, and are always educational. That's really what it's all about -- seeing how and why different professional editors can and do disagree over a story, occasionally with snark or sarcasm involved. When we're done with all the stories, the editor(s) look at how many BUY stories they have, and if there isn't enough wordcount, they go through the MAYBE stories to finish building the TOC. Watching them do this is another great educational opportunity.
So each day, the editors go over one book's worth of stories. I always write for all the books, and so do a lot of the other attendees. Before this year, if a story was passed up, we were encouraged to sub it to some other pro market right away, but this time we were told not to. Good thing, too.
The six books we wrote for were, in scheduled publication order:
Hidden in Crime, edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, a historical crime volume
Visions of the Apocalypse, edited by John Helfers, a book of stories taking place during (not just before or after) the end of the world
Last Stand, edited by Dean Wesley Smith and Felicia Fredlund, stories about characters making a final stand, and no, it's not all they-died-in-the-end stories :)
Superpowers, edited by Rebecca Moesta, a YA anthology about teenagers learning to cope with some kind of super power
Haunted, edited by Kerrie Hughes, an anthology of haunting stories
Pulse Pounders: Adrenaline, edited by Kevin J. Anderson, a book of short thrillers
Click through and scroll down a bit to see the up-coming anthology covers. Last I heard, they're planning to find new art for the Last Stand book, but the others are pretty set except for names on the covers.
I initially sold a story to Haunted, which is cool; I've worked with Kerrie before and am looking forward to working with her again. I missed with John's Apocalypse book, which was disappointing; I've sold stories to him the last two years, but this time I didn't quite hit what he was looking for. Dean hated my story for Last Stand, but Felicia liked it a lot. I honestly wasn't expecting to make it in there, but after going over all the stories, they did some horse trading between themselves and Dean got one he wanted that Felicia hadn't really cared for, and Felicia got mine. :) Kris teetered a bit on mine, but it didn't quite make it, which was disappointing, but I've never sold her anything before, so I was almost expecting it. Then on the last workshop day, she announced that someone not in the workshop who'd been invited to submit to the book, and who'd wanted a 10K word space saved for them, couldn't submit something after all, leaving Kris with a 10K word hole. She bought two extra stories after all, one of them mine, woot!
Now this year, there was an extra person sitting up front with the editors. Mark Leslie Lefebvre, AKA Mark the Kobo guy, was a student in the workshop last year. He stepped in and offered some Kobo support when a couple of editors had more stories they Really Really Wanted to buy, but which they didn't have room/budget for. Two of last year's volumes have special Kobo editions with three more stories in them, which is awesome, so thanks to Mark for that. But this year, Mark was sitting up front. Huh?
Okay, there had to be a reason. Last year, there was some talk about how, if the special Kobo editions were a success and sold well, they might do special editions of all the books this year. But as days went by, they weren't buying extra stories, and there was no mention of a Kobo edition. Huh. But there was Mark up there, doing the Yes-Maybe-No thing with all the stories. My guess was that he was doing a stealth book, his own anthology, and I was right. :) They went through all the stories that Mark or one (or more) of the other editors had loved, but either didn't have room in their book, or it was a story for someone else's book that didn't get bought. We had a whiteboard for each book (Dean and company screwed each day's board up onto the wall somewhere in the room after that day's workshop was over) and then Mark had a couple more where he assembled his picks, plus all the unbought picks from the other editors. Hashmarks showed which stories had a lot of love from the editors, even if the one it was written for didn't buy it. That last round of TOC building was great, especially for the folks who got last minute surprise buys.
There's some great stuff in there, stories I'd have bought if I'd been one of the editors. The book's not on the Fiction River site, but they were calling it Editors' Cut at the workshop. Fiction River doesn't always stick to just one genre in each volume, but Mark's book will have more variety than usual. Should be great for anyone who just loves short fiction.
Like last year, we had sign-ups to eat lunch with the editors and Allyson (the publisher of WMG), and I went out with a few people. And there were great discussions in, around, and after workshop sessions. Some notes:
If you love a trope that nobody's writing anymore, other people will love it too, so write it to fill that hole. This is especially an opportunity for folks indie publishing -- don't let New York tell you Horror is dead, or Westerns, or romantic vampires, or kids finding weird objects while playing, or whatever you're into.
Past a certain level of craftsmanship, whether a story sells or not isn't really about quality, it's about taste. Don't let a rejection, or a bunch of rejections, discourage you. If you're pretty sure a story is well written, keep subbing it, or indie publish it.
If you're doing a punch story, a short story with a quick hit at the end, do a double-punch -- two hits in quick succession -- to make it even more powerful.
When you're writing for submission, readability is key. No 10pt fonts, no weird fonts, don't try to be "special." Try to be readable. If the editor notices your formatting, you blew it.
Define what "success" means to you before you plan a promo campaign. You have to know what you want so you can tell if your campaign was successful and worth the resources you put into it.
80% of people who download a free book won't read it.
You need at least 3-5 books in a series for perma-free on the first book to be of any benefit. (And there's some disagreement about whether perma-free is ever a good idea. Temporary free promotions might be better.)
Amazon categories -- use Fiction, General and Fiction, [Genre] as your two categories. Then your keywords will get you into other categories under those. There are a bazillion categories under Fiction, General that you can only get in through Fiction, General plus keywords
When you sub to a literary market, don't label the story by genre in your cover letter, and don't note genre credits. For literary markets, no previous credits are better than genre credits.
Never use the term "self-published" -- use small press, independently published, etc. The stigma is still there, so don't get it on you.
A good title will sell a story before you've even written it (in tradpub). It'll also sell a story to readers.
Stories about the everyday tragedies of human life need to rise above the everyday tragedies of human life. They're realistic, but a reader needs more of a reason to read about that particular one. Usually it's not something anyone outside the main character's family and friends would care about. [Writer]'s story worked because their character was heroic and had a humorous thread in their voice about what was going on with them. Also, you need to balance the tragic event with being an entertainer. The reader has to want to read that story -- they'll want to read it because it's entertaining. What about the story and the characters makes the reader want to hang with them, especially since most people aren't keen to spend time with their own family and friends who are horribly sick, or whatever, much less a stranger?
To transcend the horrible mundanity, maybe the character does something different, something heroic. Or the story could have an awesome voice.
If you're editing an anthology, or putting together a collection of your own short work, the gut-wrenchingly emotional story should be at the end, or maybe in the middle, but most definitely not right up in the beginning.
When building your TOC, figure about 1/3 of readers will read the book front to back, in order.
Don't start a story with the character's first and last name -- nametag opening. It has to be up front quick, but not the first two words.
Kris's technique for analyzing someone else's book/story -- Take a book you never want to read again, underline setting words with a different color for each sense. Then go through and color each word for how it supports the story, setting or character or plot. The idea is to load the technique into your head so it filters to your subconscious and five stories [of your own] later you'll start using it when you write. It's not deliberate; it comes out of the subconscious as you write.
Dean's technique -- Take a book and type the opening in your manuscript format to get the feel for what the writer was doing word-by-word. You'll start realizing what the writer is doing and how they do it.
Whenever you get comments about too many details, it's always the writer putting the setting details in (the writer's narrative voice) rather than filtering it all through the POV character's opinion. Everything should be filtered through the character, which makes the words build character as well as setting. If you feed setting in through the POV character, readers won't notice all the setting coming in; it reads very quickly.
If anyone notices your setting in the beginning, you fucked up.
Don't use a series name in the title of a story in an anthology because too many people will see that it's a series story and skip it.
Stories are circles, and the end has to reflect back on the beginning. If an ending isn't working, it's probably because there's a problem with the beginning, or because the ending doesn't reflect on the beginning.
On a crime story being resolved -- the reader needs to know who committed the crime and that the story is over. A mystery/crime story puts order onto chaos. If the story is noir, the reader needs to know that order will never be imposed on the chaos. If it's not a mystery per se, they might not catch the crook, but in any case the reader needs to have that info.
This isn't everything, but it's most of what I had in my Notes file on my laptop. This is an awesome workshop, and I'd be taking it even if I never sold anything. In fact, the first time I went, the anthologies weren't "live," and nobody sold anything; we were all there for the learning. This is a wonderful experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone with any interest in publishing short fiction.
Angie
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Anthology Acceptance
I got a note from Corie Weaver, editor of The Young Explorer's Adventure Guide, saying they want the story I subbed to them. This is pretty awesome -- it's my first pro sale to someone I haven't met face-to-face, fourth all together.
The publisher, Dreaming Robot, is going to be running a crowdfunding campaign starting on 1 August to raise the money to pay their writers the pro rates they're offering. Normally this would be a red flag for me -- not a scammer-type red flag, but an "Is this worth the time and hassle for something that might not work out?" kind of red flag. But their web site says:
And the sample contract sent with the acceptance letter states:
So the editorial team plans to be cool about people withdrawing because of delays, and if they get hit by a bus and their sociopathic cousin takes over ownership of the project and its contracted works, the contract still protects us from unreasonable delay. I'm satisfied with the situation.
They're taking subs through 31 August, if you're into YA SF. It'd be cool to be in an antho with some of my blog buds. :)
Angie
PS -- I had to dig the original acceptance letter out of my spam folder. :/ Always-always check before you delete!
The publisher, Dreaming Robot, is going to be running a crowdfunding campaign starting on 1 August to raise the money to pay their writers the pro rates they're offering. Normally this would be a red flag for me -- not a scammer-type red flag, but an "Is this worth the time and hassle for something that might not work out?" kind of red flag. But their web site says:
If the crowd-funding fails, please note that we are still committed to this anthology, and will find other ways to fund the project. However, there may be delays. If authors feel the need to withdraw their submission due to delays, we understand.
And the sample contract sent with the acceptance letter states:
In the event that The Anthology has not been published within twelve (12) months of signing of this agreement, all rights revert to The Author, and The Author has the right to sell or arrange for publication of The Work in any manner.
So the editorial team plans to be cool about people withdrawing because of delays, and if they get hit by a bus and their sociopathic cousin takes over ownership of the project and its contracted works, the contract still protects us from unreasonable delay. I'm satisfied with the situation.
They're taking subs through 31 August, if you're into YA SF. It'd be cool to be in an antho with some of my blog buds. :)
Angie
PS -- I had to dig the original acceptance letter out of my spam folder. :/ Always-always check before you delete!
Monday, March 4, 2013
February Stuff
I've been on the Oregon coast for the last week and a half, doing two workshops back-to-back. It was a grueling experience, as the single workshop I did last year was. And it was awesome, and I'll definitely be doing it again. I got lots of writing done, and I SOLD A STORY!! Which got the all-caps treatment because it's my first professional sale, as in more than five cents per word, holy freaking yay!!! :D
I'm going to have a story in Fiction River's anthology How to Save the World, edited by John Helfers. (Scroll down a bit -- it's the second book.) Holy sheep, I'm gonna be in a book with David Gerrold!
I've been trying to break into mainstream SF/F for ages, so this is a huge deal for me. I'm still getting this really silly grin on my face whenever I think about it, so I beg pardon of anyone who sees me and thinks o_O about my state of mind. :)
I wrote almost 29K words in February, which is good -- I'm still well ahead of quota for making my 2013 goal. My wordcount meter says I'm at 27%, so I'm where I was hoping to be at about a week into April. That's great; I love having padding on my quota. I was hoping for more in February (January was over 35K) but there were several days when I was in the workshop and frantically reading rather than writing. I count those days well spent, though. I also killed my streak, but I was anticipating that, too. No prob; doing an Oregon workshop is one of the better reasons I can think of for having days with no actual writing.
The workshops I did were The Business and Craft of Short Fiction, and the Anthology Workshop. The Antho Workshop is a repeat for me; it's worth doing over and over, and many writers do. I took a ton of notes, especially at the first one, and learned a lot of stuff I didn't know before, which is the point. (Wow, a story that's in a continually extended option with Hollywood can make you a buttload of money, even if they never make the movie!) Great info; it's going to take a while to absorb it all.
Currently I'm sitting in a hotel room in Portland; I have a flight home at 2:30. I'll do some writing today, then fall into bed (ten hours last night, still not caught up) and my next Thing To Go To is a dentist's appointment on Thursday.
Oh, yeah, didn't blog about that before. :/ So on Wednesday two weeks ago, Jim and I were having dinner at this little cafe across the street. They have these really good ice cream sandwiches -- two chocolate chip cookies, made in-house, with in-house ice cream in the middle, then freeze the whole thing. So I was eating my ice cream sandwich when one of my crowns (upper incisor) snapped off at the gum line. :( Luckily I had a root canal before they put the crown on, so it didn't hurt; I was just damn startled, and then all ACK!! when I realized what'd happened. And that I was getting on a plane Saturday morning to go to the workshops. [headdesk]
I went to my dentist the next morning and they put in a very fragile, non-functional, temporary tooth-like object, cemented to the teeth to either side on the back. I was warned not to bite anything, and not even to brush. And when your dentist tells you not to brush, you know your fragile dental work is FRAGILE. I was very careful, but it was a bit wiggly within about 24 hours. I had some vague hope that it'd last at least until the second workshop, but no luck; it came out just a bit over three days after having been installed. So I've been going just over a week now with this huge gap in my front teeth, and talking a little funny.
I feel like I'm seven again. :P
Anyway, this is fixable, although it's going to be expensive. Civil Service has notoriously lousy dental insurance, and the Pacific Northwest has notoriously expensive dental care, for whatever reason. So the bill for an implant is going to be very large, and our insurance isn't picking up a dollar of it. This is our tentatively planned cruise for this year, going into my mouth.
I just hope my other crowns last longer. At least I know to stay away from the Market Cafe's ice cream sandwiches; that was the most expensive dessert I've ever eaten, by a couple of orders of magnitude.
Angie
I'm going to have a story in Fiction River's anthology How to Save the World, edited by John Helfers. (Scroll down a bit -- it's the second book.) Holy sheep, I'm gonna be in a book with David Gerrold!
I've been trying to break into mainstream SF/F for ages, so this is a huge deal for me. I'm still getting this really silly grin on my face whenever I think about it, so I beg pardon of anyone who sees me and thinks o_O about my state of mind. :)
I wrote almost 29K words in February, which is good -- I'm still well ahead of quota for making my 2013 goal. My wordcount meter says I'm at 27%, so I'm where I was hoping to be at about a week into April. That's great; I love having padding on my quota. I was hoping for more in February (January was over 35K) but there were several days when I was in the workshop and frantically reading rather than writing. I count those days well spent, though. I also killed my streak, but I was anticipating that, too. No prob; doing an Oregon workshop is one of the better reasons I can think of for having days with no actual writing.
The workshops I did were The Business and Craft of Short Fiction, and the Anthology Workshop. The Antho Workshop is a repeat for me; it's worth doing over and over, and many writers do. I took a ton of notes, especially at the first one, and learned a lot of stuff I didn't know before, which is the point. (Wow, a story that's in a continually extended option with Hollywood can make you a buttload of money, even if they never make the movie!) Great info; it's going to take a while to absorb it all.
Currently I'm sitting in a hotel room in Portland; I have a flight home at 2:30. I'll do some writing today, then fall into bed (ten hours last night, still not caught up) and my next Thing To Go To is a dentist's appointment on Thursday.
Oh, yeah, didn't blog about that before. :/ So on Wednesday two weeks ago, Jim and I were having dinner at this little cafe across the street. They have these really good ice cream sandwiches -- two chocolate chip cookies, made in-house, with in-house ice cream in the middle, then freeze the whole thing. So I was eating my ice cream sandwich when one of my crowns (upper incisor) snapped off at the gum line. :( Luckily I had a root canal before they put the crown on, so it didn't hurt; I was just damn startled, and then all ACK!! when I realized what'd happened. And that I was getting on a plane Saturday morning to go to the workshops. [headdesk]
I went to my dentist the next morning and they put in a very fragile, non-functional, temporary tooth-like object, cemented to the teeth to either side on the back. I was warned not to bite anything, and not even to brush. And when your dentist tells you not to brush, you know your fragile dental work is FRAGILE. I was very careful, but it was a bit wiggly within about 24 hours. I had some vague hope that it'd last at least until the second workshop, but no luck; it came out just a bit over three days after having been installed. So I've been going just over a week now with this huge gap in my front teeth, and talking a little funny.
I feel like I'm seven again. :P
Anyway, this is fixable, although it's going to be expensive. Civil Service has notoriously lousy dental insurance, and the Pacific Northwest has notoriously expensive dental care, for whatever reason. So the bill for an implant is going to be very large, and our insurance isn't picking up a dollar of it. This is our tentatively planned cruise for this year, going into my mouth.
I just hope my other crowns last longer. At least I know to stay away from the Market Cafe's ice cream sandwiches; that was the most expensive dessert I've ever eaten, by a couple of orders of magnitude.
Angie
Monday, April 23, 2012
New Contracts and a Sale
I just sent back the contract for Emerging Magic, the full length sequel to A Hidden Magic. At the same time, I signed a contract for a paperback edition of A Hidden Magic, which is awesome. :) I've been hoping for a paperback for a long time; I'm looking forward to signing a copy and handing it to my mom. I'm also interested to see whether there are any differences in the process, from my POV, for a paperback. I don't know whether Torquere does paper galleys, frex.; I never had a reason to ask before. I'll find out now.
Hidden Magic took almost exactly six months from acceptance to publication, and Emerging Magic is about 50% longer, so I imagine it'll take at least six months. At least it's in the pipeline, though. I haven't had anything new out in a while and I'm looking forward to getting back into it.
While I'm on the subject, Amazon has two of my books at 20% off:
A Hidden Magic is $5.59
A Spirit of Vengeance is $3.43
I have no idea how long these prices will last, but if you've been thinking of getting one or both, this is a good time.
Angie
Hidden Magic took almost exactly six months from acceptance to publication, and Emerging Magic is about 50% longer, so I imagine it'll take at least six months. At least it's in the pipeline, though. I haven't had anything new out in a while and I'm looking forward to getting back into it.
While I'm on the subject, Amazon has two of my books at 20% off:
A Hidden Magic is $5.59
A Spirit of Vengeance is $3.43
I have no idea how long these prices will last, but if you've been thinking of getting one or both, this is a good time.
Angie
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Misc. Links
New animals discovered in Borneo, an economist's analysis of digital content as a public good, a professor of digital media's thoughts about avatars for characters of color in computer games, and a really hilarious journal post.
New Animals Discovered in Borneo -- I think my favorite is the stick insect, like a walking stick only a bit over half a meter long, pictured walking up the side of a guy's head. Oh, and props to the guy, too, for having guts. :) The flame-colored snake is gorgeous, and the lungless frog makes me think about aliens for an SF story.
Why Content Is a Public Good -- this is a guest post by Milena Popova on Charlie Stross's blog. She talks about public and private goods, and rival and excludable goods, and the various combinations and how the market works (or doesn't) to distribute or control the distribution of the various types. I've never seen the subject (primarily e-books and music, but also applies to movies and such) discussed from this point of view before. She starts at the beginning and explains the vocabulary for people who don't have econ degrees. Definitely worth a read.
Chimerical Avatars and Other Identity Experiments from Prof. Fox Harrell -- Prof. Harrell talks about avatars in computer games and the lack of variety available in avatar types, particularly for players of color who'd like their avatar to represent them as they are, particularly if they want a decent range of options beyond skin color. This is a familiar issue in gaming, but it also applies to books.
How often can a reader of color find a character who's like them in mainstream genre fiction? Or a female reader in an adventure-oriented genre? Sure, we can appreciate and empathize with characters who aren't like us, but white readers don't have to do that very often, and never at all if they don't want to. A series of characters who are all basically alike can give readers who are different the impression that this author or series or genre isn't for them, and can give a writer who is different the impression that a genre doesn't welcome their viewpoint. It benefits all of us to encourage a variety of character types in the media we consume, which (for those of us who are creators) means including a variety of character types in the media we create.
I Has a Sweet Potato by Littera-Abactor on LJ -- I'm pretty sure I haven't linked this here before, but it's hilarious so even if I have, there's no harm done. :D
Dog: I am starving.
Me: Actually, no. You aren't starving. You get two very good meals a day. And treats. And Best Beloved fed you extra food while I was gone.
Dog: STARVING.
Me: I saw you get fed not four hours ago! You are not starving.
Dog: Pity me, a sad and tragic creature, for I can barely walk, I am so starving. WOE.
Me: I am now ignoring you.
Dog: STARVING.
Dog: Did you hear me? I am starving.
Dog: Are you seriously ignoring me? Fine.
[There is a pause, during which the dog exits the room in a pointed manner.]
[From the kitchen, there comes a noise like someone is eating a baseball bat.]
Me, yelling: What the hell are you doing?
Me: *makes haste for the kitchen and finds dog there*
Dog: *picks up entire raw sweet potato, which is what was causing the baseball bat noise, and flees for the bedroom*
Me: *chases dog, retrieves most of sweet potato, less the portion which has disappeared into dog's gullet*
Dog: See? STARVING.
Me: ...That can't be good for you. It's a RAW SWEET POTATO.
Dog: I had to do it. I haven't been fed. Ever.
Me: You realize you aren't normal. Normal dogs don't steal raw sweet potatoes.
Dog, sadly: I was badly brought up.
Me: Yes. Yes, you were.
Dog: By people who starved me.
Me: Oh, no. I am not doing this again.
Me: *exits the room, bearing sweet potato*
There's more. Definitely more. :D Click through and read the whole thing.
Oh, and I got an acceptance on a story called "Unfinished Business," which is a sequel to A Hidden Magic, yay! :D It's short and funny and is basically erotica, picking up on something a couple of supporting characters were doing about two-thirds of the way through the book. It's scheduled for release on 26 June, just a month after HM, which is great timing.
Angie
New Animals Discovered in Borneo -- I think my favorite is the stick insect, like a walking stick only a bit over half a meter long, pictured walking up the side of a guy's head. Oh, and props to the guy, too, for having guts. :) The flame-colored snake is gorgeous, and the lungless frog makes me think about aliens for an SF story.
Why Content Is a Public Good -- this is a guest post by Milena Popova on Charlie Stross's blog. She talks about public and private goods, and rival and excludable goods, and the various combinations and how the market works (or doesn't) to distribute or control the distribution of the various types. I've never seen the subject (primarily e-books and music, but also applies to movies and such) discussed from this point of view before. She starts at the beginning and explains the vocabulary for people who don't have econ degrees. Definitely worth a read.
Chimerical Avatars and Other Identity Experiments from Prof. Fox Harrell -- Prof. Harrell talks about avatars in computer games and the lack of variety available in avatar types, particularly for players of color who'd like their avatar to represent them as they are, particularly if they want a decent range of options beyond skin color. This is a familiar issue in gaming, but it also applies to books.
How often can a reader of color find a character who's like them in mainstream genre fiction? Or a female reader in an adventure-oriented genre? Sure, we can appreciate and empathize with characters who aren't like us, but white readers don't have to do that very often, and never at all if they don't want to. A series of characters who are all basically alike can give readers who are different the impression that this author or series or genre isn't for them, and can give a writer who is different the impression that a genre doesn't welcome their viewpoint. It benefits all of us to encourage a variety of character types in the media we consume, which (for those of us who are creators) means including a variety of character types in the media we create.
I Has a Sweet Potato by Littera-Abactor on LJ -- I'm pretty sure I haven't linked this here before, but it's hilarious so even if I have, there's no harm done. :D
Dog: I am starving.
Me: Actually, no. You aren't starving. You get two very good meals a day. And treats. And Best Beloved fed you extra food while I was gone.
Dog: STARVING.
Me: I saw you get fed not four hours ago! You are not starving.
Dog: Pity me, a sad and tragic creature, for I can barely walk, I am so starving. WOE.
Me: I am now ignoring you.
Dog: STARVING.
Dog: Did you hear me? I am starving.
Dog: Are you seriously ignoring me? Fine.
[There is a pause, during which the dog exits the room in a pointed manner.]
[From the kitchen, there comes a noise like someone is eating a baseball bat.]
Me, yelling: What the hell are you doing?
Me: *makes haste for the kitchen and finds dog there*
Dog: *picks up entire raw sweet potato, which is what was causing the baseball bat noise, and flees for the bedroom*
Me: *chases dog, retrieves most of sweet potato, less the portion which has disappeared into dog's gullet*
Dog: See? STARVING.
Me: ...That can't be good for you. It's a RAW SWEET POTATO.
Dog: I had to do it. I haven't been fed. Ever.
Me: You realize you aren't normal. Normal dogs don't steal raw sweet potatoes.
Dog, sadly: I was badly brought up.
Me: Yes. Yes, you were.
Dog: By people who starved me.
Me: Oh, no. I am not doing this again.
Me: *exits the room, bearing sweet potato*
There's more. Definitely more. :D Click through and read the whole thing.
Oh, and I got an acceptance on a story called "Unfinished Business," which is a sequel to A Hidden Magic, yay! :D It's short and funny and is basically erotica, picking up on something a couple of supporting characters were doing about two-thirds of the way through the book. It's scheduled for release on 26 June, just a month after HM, which is great timing.
Angie
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Accepted!
I just got an e-mail from Shawn, one of the owners of Torquere, saying she read A Hidden Magic and they want to publish it! :D
They said they weren't going to be in the office until Monday because of the holiday, but it looks like they're still working. Not exactly shocking with a small business; I thought it might happen quickly, but I didn't want to really hope, you know?
Anyway, this is awesome. [beam] If you want me, I'll just be wandering around six inches off the floor somewhere.... :D
Angie
They said they weren't going to be in the office until Monday because of the holiday, but it looks like they're still working. Not exactly shocking with a small business; I thought it might happen quickly, but I didn't want to really hope, you know?
Anyway, this is awesome. [beam] If you want me, I'll just be wandering around six inches off the floor somewhere.... :D
Angie
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Acceptances
I've had a couple of stories accepted recently, which is great since it's been a while. :) "Candy Courage" is a short story which will be part of Torquere's Halloween promotion; the last I heard, the stories were all coming out on the 31st. An old alchemist has lived in a suburban neighborhood for ages. Every year he makes candy to give out for Halloween, and every year he adds something special to the candy. This year he's making peanut brittle, and the something special he adds is courage.
I just got an acceptance for "In the Driver's Seat" tonight. It's another short story, and my first publication which is just a "plain" contemporary -- no magic or SF or paranormal elements. Brian has just been dumped by his latest friend-with-benefits and is looking around for someone new. Little Val, who as a high school kid used to work at the gym where Brian hangs out, is back in town and isn't a kid anymore. Val's grown up and has the air of someone who's already had Bedroom 101; Brian figures Val might be ready for some advanced lessons. No word yet on when this one's coming out, but I'll definitely post when I know. :D
Angie
I just got an acceptance for "In the Driver's Seat" tonight. It's another short story, and my first publication which is just a "plain" contemporary -- no magic or SF or paranormal elements. Brian has just been dumped by his latest friend-with-benefits and is looking around for someone new. Little Val, who as a high school kid used to work at the gym where Brian hangs out, is back in town and isn't a kid anymore. Val's grown up and has the air of someone who's already had Bedroom 101; Brian figures Val might be ready for some advanced lessons. No word yet on when this one's coming out, but I'll definitely post when I know. :D
Angie
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Doesn't (Necessarily) Hurt to Ask
So I've got this story. It's called "A Spirit of Vengeance" and it's a ghost story, and I think it's one of my best. I was thinking about making it my next submission to Torquere, but as I was browsing through their guidelines I saw a bit that says they don't take stories which "contain rape or other gratuitous violence."
That gave me pause because the way the character in "Spirit" became a ghost was by being raped and murdered in a hate crime while his lover was out of town. One might think that this would nix it so far as Torquere's concerned, but that "other" gave me some hope. If what they object to is gratuitous rape, then maybe I still have hope for this, because I don't consider the rape in "Spirit" to be at all gratuitous. And besides, it's all over and done with before the story begins -- it opens with the dead guy's lover leaving the funeral. And I really like this story; it's very deeply emotional and it's gotten some great comments from readers.
I suppose I could've just submitted it and let them decide, but I didn't want word to go around the office about how that Angie chick's too dumb to read guidelines, you know? :P So I sent a query to the editor who worked with me on my first story, described this one and explained why I didn't think the rape was gratuitous, and asked if it were something Torquere might be interested in. She wrote back and said it was, and that I should submit it. Yay!
Now, I wouldn't say it never hurts to ask, because despite what we're told in elementary school, there really are stupid questions. If I'd asked whether they'd like to see my het romance, or my children's adventure book, or my survey of southern California gardens, any of those would've been stupid questions because Torquere doesn't publish anything close to those areas. In this case, though, I had reason to believe that my story might not come under the stated ban, and I made it clear in my letter that I had read their guidelines and was just asking for some clarification. It was a reasonable question from someone who'd been paying attention rather than a shot in the dark from someone who hadn't bothered to do any market research.
And in this case I'm glad I asked.
Epilogue: I submitted the story Monday night, got a receipt acknowledgement yesterday, and a contract offer this morning. O_O I have to say I was completely blown away by how fast this happened. I was expecting it to take a couple of weeks at least to hear back but this was, like, instant. They are really on the ball over there and the more I work with Torquere the more I want to keep working with them.
Angie
That gave me pause because the way the character in "Spirit" became a ghost was by being raped and murdered in a hate crime while his lover was out of town. One might think that this would nix it so far as Torquere's concerned, but that "other" gave me some hope. If what they object to is gratuitous rape, then maybe I still have hope for this, because I don't consider the rape in "Spirit" to be at all gratuitous. And besides, it's all over and done with before the story begins -- it opens with the dead guy's lover leaving the funeral. And I really like this story; it's very deeply emotional and it's gotten some great comments from readers.
I suppose I could've just submitted it and let them decide, but I didn't want word to go around the office about how that Angie chick's too dumb to read guidelines, you know? :P So I sent a query to the editor who worked with me on my first story, described this one and explained why I didn't think the rape was gratuitous, and asked if it were something Torquere might be interested in. She wrote back and said it was, and that I should submit it. Yay!
Now, I wouldn't say it never hurts to ask, because despite what we're told in elementary school, there really are stupid questions. If I'd asked whether they'd like to see my het romance, or my children's adventure book, or my survey of southern California gardens, any of those would've been stupid questions because Torquere doesn't publish anything close to those areas. In this case, though, I had reason to believe that my story might not come under the stated ban, and I made it clear in my letter that I had read their guidelines and was just asking for some clarification. It was a reasonable question from someone who'd been paying attention rather than a shot in the dark from someone who hadn't bothered to do any market research.
And in this case I'm glad I asked.
Epilogue: I submitted the story Monday night, got a receipt acknowledgement yesterday, and a contract offer this morning. O_O I have to say I was completely blown away by how fast this happened. I was expecting it to take a couple of weeks at least to hear back but this was, like, instant. They are really on the ball over there and the more I work with Torquere the more I want to keep working with them.
Angie
Friday, August 31, 2007
Acceptance!
I got an e-mail from Torquere -- they want my story! I just about died of happy when I read it! :D
I wrote back to say the terms sounded fine and I'd be happy to see a contract. [understatment of the century]
This is so incredibly wonderful I can't even express how delighted I am. I've wanted to be a published writer since I was a teenager and having it finally happen has just blown me away. I called my mom and e-mailed my husband (who's out of town) and a couple of friends.
It's not quite a done deal yet -- I suppose rocks could still fall and kill me or something -- but close enough. And of course I now have all these questions bubbling up....
For example, I know that most writers on the print side of the neighborhood tend to stick with one publisher once they've sold something to them. If that publisher declines a later manuscript then the writer can shop it around, but for the most part writers tend to stay with one publisher unless there's some kind of a problem, or if they write something in a different genre which their current publisher doesn't carry. Is that true of electronic publishers? And does it make a difference that this is just a short story, even though it'll be marketed as a stand-alone? I'm working on stories for a couple of open anthologies with a different publisher -- would this be considered uncool now? Would it make a difference if it were a stand-alone story, like a novel, I'd planned to submit to a different publisher?
I know any formal option requirement will be in the contract, if there are any, so I can wait to see about that, but I'm thinking etiquette here rather than a contractual thing. Does anyone know? Or am I overthinking this...? [wry smile]
At any rate, whee! I'll be over here in the corner bouncing around hugging everyone. :)
Angie
I wrote back to say the terms sounded fine and I'd be happy to see a contract. [understatment of the century]
This is so incredibly wonderful I can't even express how delighted I am. I've wanted to be a published writer since I was a teenager and having it finally happen has just blown me away. I called my mom and e-mailed my husband (who's out of town) and a couple of friends.
It's not quite a done deal yet -- I suppose rocks could still fall and kill me or something -- but close enough. And of course I now have all these questions bubbling up....
For example, I know that most writers on the print side of the neighborhood tend to stick with one publisher once they've sold something to them. If that publisher declines a later manuscript then the writer can shop it around, but for the most part writers tend to stay with one publisher unless there's some kind of a problem, or if they write something in a different genre which their current publisher doesn't carry. Is that true of electronic publishers? And does it make a difference that this is just a short story, even though it'll be marketed as a stand-alone? I'm working on stories for a couple of open anthologies with a different publisher -- would this be considered uncool now? Would it make a difference if it were a stand-alone story, like a novel, I'd planned to submit to a different publisher?
I know any formal option requirement will be in the contract, if there are any, so I can wait to see about that, but I'm thinking etiquette here rather than a contractual thing. Does anyone know? Or am I overthinking this...? [wry smile]
At any rate, whee! I'll be over here in the corner bouncing around hugging everyone. :)
Angie
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