6 posts tagged “submissions”

Well I didn't properly participate in Nathan Bransford's "Agent For A Day" but these are the ones I would request:

#10
#20
#33
#36
#48

*rereads rules*

Actually I guess I have a week to reply to everyone. Most would be getting a standard rejection or "I don't represent [genre]" so it might not be as difficult as I thought.

BTW: I didn't cut any from my list to have a max of five. This was it.

ETA: Rejections & requests sent.

Thought it was time for an update on queries. Dream Agent #2 passed. Oh well. I have to stop calling people "Dream Agents." I did some more research last night and found another agency that feels like a perfect fit. I made a list of "try" agents, ones I'll possibly send something to after I check out their sites & authors. I sent two new queries last night as well. This means I have three out, one with 100 requested pages and two plain old queries.

DA#2 said in part, "However, I'm afraid that your story just doesn't resonate with me. I'm going to pass. However, I'm sure there are other agents out there for whom this would be a better fit." Then in her blog she wrote this, "However, while I often share agent Nathan Bransford's dismay at the state of dreadful query letters I've been receiving, I do want to thank those of you who not only put real thought into writing your queries and pitches, but actually made a genuine effort to research my submission guidelines and personalize your query letters a little, too. Maybe you think I don't notice. I do. Even if you received a rejection from me, I did notice all the effort that went into your query. And ultimately that effort is what will help you finally land the right agent for your project."

Well, I did that. So I'll assume that I'm among that group.

I also have a couple of subs out right now. I sent "Curve" to an online journal (it's also out at a print journal with a long turnaround rep) and excerpts from RFM and Nine are out to a themed issues of different journals. I have a flash piece out too but it's a place so big that they usually don't send accept/rejects; they just publish and you can assume it's a reject if you're not there. Meh. But hey, free to enter w/ a prize so why not?

Well I submitted a story. I wrote it on Saturday after I found the listing at Duotrope. It's a WD story contest so there'll probably be a bazillion submissions. It was free, flash and had a good theme to use. I did a couple of rewrites, including one after I posted a second draft at TC. I know if I futz over it too much, I might miss the deadline (the 10th). Who knows what'll come up in the meantime? So I put it in. I don't know if I'll do something else with it if it's not picked. I might. I mean, it's here, I might as well send it off to some flash journals. Oh and the best part is I never had to title it ;)

I haven't put my changes to the "Cole" story in the computer yet. This flash story, I never edited it in hard copy. I edit flash electronically b/c I'm always kissing the word limit, cutting & adding and I want to know where I stand w/ that. I also make a lot of little edits w/ flash.

It's been a long time since I submitted anything. Especially something other than erotica. So this is fun to get back into. I like the idea of working with a theme. I know from our contests that a lot of writers try to shoehorn in the theme. I think from that standpoint, I have a good chance w/ this piece and with any other themed writing piece I might want to try.

Next I'm going to work on the "Cole" edits and I have some AB stuff to do.

A writing friend of mine is an editor at an online journal. She announced their annual Halloween contest and, of course, I'm a sucker for Halloween. I asked on the TC boards if it had to be Halloween-specific and it doesn't. It does have a theme: "post-Apocalypse."

Years ago I had a post-Apocalyptic dream that was so real and so long, I thought I was living it. When I woke up, I wrote a lot of it down. So I used that scenario for my version of the Apocalypse and went from there. It's also horror and the word limit is 2500. Hard to achieve horror in 2500 words but I think I made it a bit scary.

I won't say the name of the story in case my friend, who's a judge, reads here. Thats also why I'm not saying anything specific about it.

Hawk read it and his reaction to "did you like it?" was "Um yeah." Whatever. He also said there were some typos. Fine. He's been a real help as a reader lately.

Anyway, I have a little time to clean it up. A couple people might look at it and then I'll submit it. I haven't sent anything to a contest in ages so this is a step back toward writing for publication again. Yay me!

I haven't decided if I'm trying NaNo or not. I know I could do it, as I proved by finishing RFM as I did. I have zero ideas for any stories (I was lucky that the Apex contest had a specific theme & genre to focus me). Maybe I'll try an erotic novel, like last year. I didn't do too badly in NaNo 2006. I just got bored & overwhelmed by life & stuff.

I had a form rejection while we were on vacation but the agent I sent sample chapters to hasn't contacted me and the Dream Agency still has my complete ms. The form rejection -- meh. I haven't sent any new queries b/c I want yes/no answers on the few I already did first.

We got maybe the queen of all submission the other day. Our submission guidelines are clear. I can't even begin to say how many times we have revised the guidelines for the sole purpose of making them confusion-free. One submission per writer per period. That submission may be a flash piece, a fiction piece, a CNF piece or up to three poems.

One writer has sent us a fiction piece (which I didn't glance at), a "flash" submission (which I'll get to in a moment), and four poems. I didn't look at the poems themselves but I looked at the obnoxious and poorly written cover letter. The credits she points to are at forums, except for the "national news magazine" she doesn't name. The "flash" piece is not flash length, is very badly written (complete w/ a misused "it's") and is loosely porn-ish. Something about nipples popping like a jelly doughnut. I didn't read that closely. So it's not even subject matter we can or would publish.

How hard is it to follow guidelines? I mean, if writers only knew how following the submission guidelines already puts them ahead of 10-25% of the people they're competing against, maybe more people would bit the bullet and submit for publication.

- Chapterize your short story
- Use a lot of exclamation points
- Tell us that "The downfall of the magazines and publishing companies who have previously rejected my work is that they didn't realize that no one can describe the high school experience quite like a seventeen-year-old high school junior can."
- Write a love poem all about love, love and love without showing it to us. Throw in moonlight and cats as well
- Whether writing a poem or a short story, use a checklist as your form
- Give three characters full names in the first paragraph (ex: Don Smith, Hazel James)
- Describe them a la a police blotter (flashed her blue eyes and flipped her chestnut hair, he was five foot ten and a half with rugged good looks)
- submit more than three poems (this is especially maddening when you give me four fantabulous poems and I want them all)
- do good work but tell a mediocre story
- have a great story but don't tell it very well
- cut your story off w/o warning when you near the word limit
- send us song lyrics and call it poetry (unless you are Bruce Springsteen or Sting; in that case, include nude photos for the editorial staff's enjoyment)

Other good ways to make the editors e-mail each other about you:

- submit artwork to a lit journal that doesn't accept it
- submit to a contest that hasn't opened yet (w/ "SUMMER" in the contest title no less!)
- point me to your self-written Wikipedia page