CornerScribe

Archive for June, 2007

Many publishers, magazines, and e-zines refuse to accept simultaneous submissions. This can cause inconvenience, and sometimes outright hardship, for authors who want to submit their work to them.

What are simultaneous submissions?

Simultaneous submissions occur when you send your work out to more than one potential publisher at the same time. The obvious benefit to you is that you get your work in the hands of more people, thereby increasing your chance of being published. So what’s the problem, right?

Why do so many refuse to accept them?

Let’s say you’re running an e-zine. You have an issue coming up in a week or so, and you’re choosing from your submissions and putting the online magazine together. You’ve notified the authors that you’ve chosen as submitters, but just before the deadline, an author contacts you to remove a submission. It’s been sold to another e-zine.

So, you’re left with only a few days before publication, and you have to pick a story to replace the one you just lost. It’s understandable that publishers want to avoid this situation. So, they ask that you submit your work to them exclusively, wait for a decision, and only then move on to submit to the next publisher.

How long does it take to get a decision?

It depends on the magazine, obviously, but it’s not unusual to see turn-around times of weeks, or even 2-3 months. Yes, that means that the great story you just wrote might get submitted to a half dozen, or fewer, publishers this year. That doesn’t make your chances of getting published great, does it?

Does pay rate have any affect?

I don’t have any official statistics, but anecdotally, I can say that no, it doesn’t. The e-zine that doesn’t pay anything is just as likely to demand no simultaneous submissions as the print magazine that pays good rates.

How do they know if I submit elsewhere?

They don’t, unless you have to pull a submission from them. You might send your story out to several places, ignoring the simultaneous submission rule. What happens when someone accepts the story? You’ll need to pull it from the others’ consideration.

It may be tempting, but your reputation as a writer can follow you. That editor will remember, and the next time you submit a story, it’s likely to get tossed out up front. Is it worth burning the bridge?

What I suggest.

First off, the obvious path is to seek out publishers who accept simultaneous submissions. Many do, so give them first crack at your work.

Consider submitting to a publisher who refuses simultaneous submissions if the pay is high enough or the prestige of publishing there is good enough. In these cases, it’s worth the time spent waiting. Of course, it’s up to you to decide what’s high enough and good enough.

Also consider it if you’re unpublished. You’re better off getting some publishing credits, even if you have to wait for them.

If a magazine is unknown and pays little or nothing, then I’d avoid submitting to them unless they accept simultaneous submissions. In that case, the publisher probably needs your work more than you need to be published, so they should be more flexible.

I’ve mentioned before that I carry a Moleskine notebook to jot down ideas. That’s not as convenient at the computer, or if you want to make some detailed notes that will turn in to your article.

For that, I use Google Docs. If you spend a lot of the time at the computer and would like a quick, easy way to track ideas, then consider Google Docs as a solution.

If I come up with an article idea, I open a new document and jot down the idea on the first line. If I don’t change it, this will be the working title of the document. Then, any time I have an idea or think of something to include in the article, I simply make a note it the document and get back to whatever I was doing. If you leave Google Docs open in a browser all the time, you can record your ideas in under a minute. Talk about minimal interruptions!

Following this method, you can work on an article in bits and pieces, keep track of your ideas, and produce better articles, more quickly.

I got my final package from my secret pal, and it’s another goody!

I think I’m camera challenged. I know these pics aren’t great, but you should have seen the first ones I took.

It’s a little blurry, but the colors came out well. She sent four skeins of this, and it’s a beautiful mix of autumn reds and oranges. I can’t wait to make something out of it!

The roving is wonderfully soft, and very pretty. I can’t wait to spin well enough to not be scared to spin it . The one in the foreground is a very pretty mix of brown and beige. Behind is, I think, uncarded fleece. I love the curliness! I think I may keep that one just as it is.

And these are a very nice tan and beige; I think the same colors as are mixed in the first roving. Very nice! I can’t wait to get started on them. I haven’t had the time to practice spinning like I would have wanted lately, but these are sure to motivate me to keep at it. These are way too nice for practice spinning though.

Christina did a fantastic job. This was my first SP exchange, and she really made it a blast. Every package was like a mini-Christmas. She makes some pretty things, so check out her blog!!

By the way, the well-used afghan is one I crocheted for my husband a couple years ago. I don’t know how many times it’s been washed, and it shows, doesn’t it?!

Once upon a time, I taught first year college English. I also taught what my students not-so-fondly called “bonehead English,” which was a grammar and remedial writing class. I still chuckle over one particularly funny exchange with a student. Maybe it’s also a pretty good indication I wasn’t cut out to teach.

I had marked up her paper pretty badly, but it read like she wrote it in the car, while driving, running late for class. When she approached me after class, flapping the notebook paper at her side, I knew she was already ticked off.

“You marked something that wasn’t wrong.” She dropped the offending paper on the table between us and pointed to one of many marks. “See?”

I didn’t see. To tell the truth, I couldn’t figure out which of the marks she meant. “Where?”

“Here.” She pointed again, this time to the phrase, “I was thinking to myself.” I had marked out “to myself” and had written the word “redundant” in the margin.

I explained that it was, in fact, redundant to say that you think to yourself. You can’t think to anyone else, so it really isn’t necessary to specify you’re thinking to yourself.

She pointed out again how wrong I was, that she had really been thinking to herself in the situation in question.

I didn’t doubt that. Despite all the red marks, she seemed pretty thoughtful in general. I bet she did it several times a day.

I explained again why there’s no need to add “to myself.” I explained that if she could think to others too, then it might be necessary to be specific, but since any time she thinks, it must, by necessity, be “to herself,” there’s no need to say so.

We repeated this conversation until we were both out of patience. I finally asked. “Are you telepathic?”

That shut her up. She looked at me like I sprouted a third eye on my second head (thanks for the expression, Will!). “HUH?”

“Are you telepathic? If so, then yes, you should have written it as you did. If not, then you’re wrong. Okay?”

I think she left just to go look up “telepathic.”

I’ve changed the category “Grammar” to “Writing Helper.”

I think it more accurately describes the post contents. You can find all the Grammar posts under the new category.

By now, you’ve done a pretty good job of developing some characters. Maybe you’ve answered some questions or gotten some ideas for the story itself.

Now, it’s time to start putting all this together.

Who it the protaganist?

You may already know (or think you know) who your protaganist is, but don’t let that blind you to other possibilities. In my current novel, I thought I knew who the protaganist would be. Cheryl is smart, resourceful, and completely wrong as the lead character. I was surprised to learn that Fred not only turned out to be a decent guy, he stepped up and took charge of the novel too. If that happens, don’t resist it.

Getting along, or not

How do the characters get along? Who likes whom? Who can’t stand to be in a room together? These personality conflicts may play into the novel’s story line, or they may just provide fodder for sub-plots. Either way, letting your characters relate to each other naturally can make the novel much richer for your readers.

Remember, your novel needs conflict to keep readers turning pages. Will one of your characters be the antagonist, or will it be something outside of them? How do they relate to the person or force they’re up against?

As your characters struggle, you’ll be able to show how they react under stress. Doesn’t that often show what people are really made of.

Avoid repeating yourself

Watch out for things that can make your novel awkward. I started off with characters named Jen and Jan. Big mistake. How will readers tell them apart? If your heroine is named Paris, you’re going to be inviting your readers to make associations (with someone currently wearing an orange jumpsuit). Do you want that?

Don’t make your characters too much alike in other respects either, unless you’re aware you’re doing it, and you’re sure it’s right for the book. Think about their economic status, professions, religion, etc. In all likelihood, there should be some big differences between them. Those differences, and the conflicts they cause, can help build realistic characters and situations.

Avoid cliches like the plague

Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. I like a crappy joke as much as the next person.

But to be serious, avoid cliched characters, unless you really mean to do it. See if you recognize this person.

• She’s extremely attractive. Large eyes, long hair. She’s very petite, probably around 5 feet and under 100 pounds.
• Although she’s quite sensual, she’s practically chaste. Maybe not a virgin, but chaste.
• She’s tough. Amazingly, unbelievably tough. Despite her size, she can kick butt. She can kick many, many butts, in high heels and a tight dress. Don’t mess with her.
• She has a talent that no one else has. Maybe it’s supernatural, maybe not, but she’s special.

If this sounds anything like your heroine, rethink her a bit. It’s been done. A lot.

Worksheets

I’ll try to get some worksheets together in PDF format later this week. They’ll recap what I’ve done in the series, and give you something to write on and keep for each character.

This is an interesting article on Digg. I have to wonder what effect genetic engineering will have on our species in the future. And what about modern medicine? Think about it. Many people survive today and produce children when they would have had no chance to even one hundred years ago. How will those changes to the gene pool affect humanity’s evolution.

I’m not against genetic engineering, or medicine, for that matter. I do think that considering how we’ve evolved so far, and how we’re able to affect our future evolution, is an intesting topic.

Which brings to mind a book I really enjoyed. Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. I’m a fan of her work in general, particularly The Handmaid’s Tale. If you’re interested in speculative fiction that’s not fantasy, sci-fi or horror, then this may be for you. Both books are set in a fictional future. In Oryx and Crake’s case, the world is faced with the products of many genetic experiments, including super-bacteria and a bizarre new race of humans, engineered to avoid the pitfalls that have plagued humanity so far.

In the Handmaid’s Tale, we see a product of reduced fertility rates and ultra-fundamentalist Christianity, in which fertile women are made handmaids to produce children for the powerful. If you were ever scared of Jerry Falwell, this book will really give you the chills.

read more | digg story

Click on one of your blog posts to visit its page and look at the URL. Does it include the post title, or is it something else? Why do you care what your URLs look like?

In short, if your URL’s include the post title, that helps search engines find your posts.

What if your URLs are screwy?

If you’re like me, you didn’t realize that your URL structure mattered when you started blogging. You’ve posted, maybe a lot, and all of those posts have URLs that are doing nothing for your search engine ranking.

How can you fix it? If you’re using Wordpress, it’s a simple matter of a few clicks. In your Admin panel, choose Options and then permalinks. There, you can choose what your URL structure will look like.

What about links?

My incoming links weren’t affected when I made the switch. Wordpress “knows” how to map the old URL, which used the post number, to the new one. You’ll want to test that, of course!

This is a simple tweak you can do on your blog to help readers find your content.

Here is a good example of a good link exchange.

Brian Lee is giving away a copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad over at Genius Types, and he’s asking for people to link to his site, using the link above.

What does he get out of it? 

He gets lots of bloggers linking to his page, which raises that blog’s authority. When you search for Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you’ll be more likely to find Brian’s blog.

What do bloggers get out of it? 

The bloggers who link to him (like me) will get a link on his blog. That drives traffic and can help increase your own authority ranking.

I’ve been reading his blog, Genius Types, for about a week or so now, and he does have some good blogging tips. If you’re interested in participating, head on over and get the instructions.

It’s time to name your character. You’ve spent a lot of time developing the character and making them as real to you, and your reader, as possible.

How much does the name matter?

Consider the following men’s names.

• Raoul
• Dirk
• Freddy
• Sam
• Alice

What does each name bring to mind? Maybe Alice is defensive about his name, or he could see it as a good story to break the ice. Dirk sounds like he belongs in a romance, or maybe an adventure novel. Freddy sounds positively normal, doesn’t he?

My point is, each name will bring with it certain impressions and assumptions in your readers. You can go with that, like making Sam a typical business man, or you can go against the grain. Maybe Alice is a mobster and Dirk is a coward!

Where to find names 

For ideas, check out one of the many name sites on the internet.

• Behind the name is a good, all-purpose name site that includes both first and last names.
• Medieval names galleria lists medieval names from several regions.
• The SSA lists the most popular names, by year.
• Here is a list of unique baby names if you still need inspiration.

Don’t forget other sources, such as the phone book, for ideas.