Unleaded - Fuel for Writers » Post-Writing

Submission Matrix

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:51:05 +0000

No, not THAT kind of matrix – a submission matrix.

Okay, so you’ve now finished the ‘story of the century.’ You’ve shed blood, sweat and tears; sacrificed your free time, good eating habits, and small children and animals to complete this you-know-it’s-going-to-be-world-changing final draft. Now what?

I get to that point and then start to feel overwhelmed. Seriously! There are so many places to submit a short story these days – magazines, webzines, anthologies, specialized anthologies, U.S.-based and outside, pro-paying, semi-pro and more. How to figure it out? Without abandoning spouse and children again for computer and submission process.

My answer was to create a Submission Matrix (I really like saying that, makes me feel smart). Okay, back on topic. What I mean is to make a list of what is important to you – pay, prestige, just being “out there” in publication?

I start with pay. Why? Because, for me personally that is what I use to define authors from folk like me who are still at the writing phase of our careers. I’m looking for professional rates first and foremost – $0.05 a word. I include all magazines etc that meet that requirement. Then I look for those that pay $0.01-$0.04 per word, followed by those that offer at least some compensation. There aren’t as many as you’d think.

After pay, prestige is the second most important element. There are a few places that, while they don’t quite meet the professional pay rate are known in the industry as solid performers, or as having a quality product, or an eye for up-and-coming authors. There are several ways go discover these “prestige” markets. One way is simply word of mouth through authors, editors, agents, other writers…The way I do it is through awards. I look at the Hugos and Nebulas, Edgars and Bram Stokers (depending on the genre) and see where the winners have been published. Many are from “pro-zines” but not all. And if you’re willing to read back a few years, you’ll find that many of the same “prestige” magazines show up over and over. It is also a great way to spot up-and-coming magazines that even if they don’t pay $0.05 a word yet, may one day be able to do so.

Third, is responsiveness. Published authors always say to send your story out and keep sending it out; that’s the best way to eventually get it published and in front of the public. But I know how I am, in a word – lazy. I’ll submit a story and if it gets rejected, I tend to be slow about submitting again. Not becuase of hurt feelings, or because I think the work is subpar, but I’m just downright lazy. Nowadays, it doesn’t even have to be put in the mail as a number of publications accept email submission. So, I want to find places to submit that have a quick turnaround time. If I get a response relatively quickly, I’m more likely to resubmit my work to somewhere else. Of course, from a mathematical point of view, if I receive quicker responses, the sooner I can send stories out again, the more places see it, the more likely the odds that someone will accept it eventually. Well…unless it is complete and utter drek.

So I now have these three values that are important to me and a list of various places to send my writing. Now comes the building of the matrix. I award points for each of my categories. For example, pay. 3 points for $0.05 per word, 2 points for $0.01-$0.03 per word, 1 point for any fiscal compensation and 0 points for anything else. Prestige is based on appearances in awards (within the last 5 years) and if stories from the publication appeared in any “Year’s Best” (also from the last 5 years). Responsiveness, obviously has an inverse relationship with: 3 points for less than 2 months, 2 points for less than 3 months, and 1 point for less than 4 months. Obviously, I would have more detailed information on each of the publications elsewhere, but for the purposes of submission this is what I use for a quick and dirty hit list.

PUBLICATIONS PAY PRESTIGE RESPONSE TOTAL

Magazine A 3 2 0 5

Webzine A 2 2 1 5

Webzine B 1 3 3 7

Magazine B 2 2 2 6

Which means I would submit my work in order to: Webzine B, Magazine B, Magazine A and Webzine A. When the scores are equal my initial priority (pay) is the determining factor. Whew! It can take a bit to get used to using a system like this, but I have to admit, it has made my submission cycle simpler. Whether it has been more successful or not, I’m still waiting to see. Currently, I’m conidering adding an “Other” category specifically to represent things such as personalized rejections (to better reflect when I’m “close”). Your mileage may vary but at the very least, happy submitting!

Wednesday Writerly Words

DLThurston — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:06:20 +0000

Covers.

For years, decades, centuries people have been selling books, and all of those books have one thing in common: a cover. Perhaps you’ve looked inside a paperback and seen a notice that it is not to be sold without its front cover, because that was step one in remaindering the book. Book covers even entered into cliche, as we’ve all been told not to judge the book by them. It’s just part of the mental image. It’s a book. It has a cover.

Electronic books have changed that, and I don’t understand why.

Alright, I get it, you’re not an artist. Okay, you are, but your art is literary and not graphical. And graphic designers cost money unless you’re smart and marry one. But books need covers, even if they’re going to be sold entirely through online sites like Smashwords or the Kindle store. That means, quite simply, if you’re going to self publish, you need a cover.

So where can you get one?

Well, thanks to Smashwords selling my information to anyone who wants it, I know there are companies out there that will design one for you. Everyone is willing to take the money of the would-be self published author. It’s not a bad business model for someone with a few minutes of spare time and the interest in making a few dollars, but if you’re considering anything that costs money you need to first weigh it against how much money you’re going to make off the eBook. If you can’t cover the cover, then don’t pay for one.

You can crowd-source. Maybe you know a friend willing to do you a favor. That’s how I got my cover for Rust, by posting that I wanted/needed a cover and offering a copy of the book for it. And I’m very happy with the result, and have used it for all subsequent editions. That works great if you’ve got artistic friends who are willing to help, but don’t go trying to guilt people into it. If graphics is their job, don’t try to guilt them into donating their time and skills for you. But if they’re willing, great.

You can make your own. One of the criticisms that came forward when Wylie went to directly publishing eBooks through the Kindle store was the quality of the covers. They were just words. But you know what? That’s still one step up from the blank cover that Amazon gives you, and it’s enough to cross the cover requirement threshold from Apple. Open up paint, create the right size image, bucket fill the background so it isn’t just white, and put your title and name there. Boom, you’ve got a cover. If you feel a little more competent then get a copy of GIMP and go to town. Just be careful about bringing in images, make sure you either own them or the copyright holder has released them for what you want to do (if you’re looking at Creative Commons you want to avoid anything tagged “Non Commercial” and “No Derivatives” and make sure to include attribution somewhere in the first few pages).

And you know what? This applies to your novel, your novella, or the standalone short story you’re selling.

Books are naked without covers, and there are people out there who will skip right past a book with no cover on it in the electronic book shops. Don’t give them that excuse for not reading you!

DL Thurston can be found at http://DLThurston.com/blog Rust is available now for Kindle, ePub readers, and iBooks, coming soon to Sony Reader. And it has a cover.

Wednesday Writerly Words

DLThurston — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:40:24 +0000

Remember Gizmodo? They were one of the sites I linked to in my first writerly words a s a great resource for those looking to track with technology. Today they’ve got a post up looking at the various avenues that a writer has for self publication in the new eBook world.

Now, before getting too in depth, I’m going to come down firmly on the side of traditional publication channels, working through an agent and a publisher. Self publication still is what it always has been, a way to put stuff out there, but one that requires you to do all your own footwork in terms of advertising. However, if you have made the decision to self publish then don’t just stick to a print on demand service. It’s 2010. Get your book out there for the various eReaders (especially the iPad/Phone/Touch and the Kindle, which combine to absolutely dominate the market). And use a service. Just as you don’t want to be on the hook for your own distribution of physical copies, you don’t want to handle distribution of soft copies of your books either, especially when it comes to the collection of money if you have any interest in charging for them.

So the Gizmodo article has three pieces of advice, all of which I readily agree with:

Use a distribution service. I use smashwords, they suggest FastPencil.
Publish for every device you can
Advertise where you can

It’s still a new world in ePublication, and it may take off that self publication will do big things. And it’s a new enough market that someone willing to challenge the paradigm may have a lot more success than someone trying to do so through traditional channels. There are already markets existing within ePublication that don’t really exist in the hard copy word: individual short stories and novellas immediately come to mind. Sure the former might be picked up by an anthology, but the latter has become an increasingly difficult market to get into as publishers aren’t interested in standalone novellas, and anthologies won’t touch them.

So if you’re willing to experiment, do it. Just do it smartly.

DL Thurston can be found at http://DLThurston.com/blog Rust is available now for Kindle, ePub readers, and iBooks, coming soon to Sony Reader.

Formatting a Manuscript

DayAlMohamed — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:01:58 +0000

When it comes to the appearance of a manuscript, agents end up seeing a variety of formats, including some horror stories. So how should you format your manuscript? Nathan Bransford, a literary agent with the San Francisco office of Curtis Brown offers the following “author standard” template.

1. A title page with the title and your contact information
2. Double Space
3. 1″ margins
4. 1/2 inch indent for each new paragraph
5. Make sure pages are numbered and don’t start over every chapter
6. Page break after the end of a chapter
7. And no unusual fonts, choose either Times New Roman or Courier 12 point font

I’m sure there are a number of other details but Mr. Bransford suggestions are a great place to start.

Practicing Your Pitch

DayAlMohamed — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:47:57 +0000

In the writing world, and even more so in the screenwriting world you hear about being able to pitch your story. Basically, take your tale and encapsulate it in a one minute explanation. At first I thought the idea too easy and then when I was working on it, I thought it was stupid, but once I was done, realized exactly how useful it could be. Try and condense your story down into a single sentence of 25 words or less, a logline. And then try practicing it in front of a mirror, or some writer friends. It crystallizes what you are thinking and if you do this in the planning stage helps shape your book. It also doesn’t hurt that it gives you a concise well-thought-out answer the next time someone asks you – You write? So, what’s your novel about?

Audio File: Pitch Your Project – (An Unleaded, Fuel for Writers Podcast)