Regarding the Blogosphere

I love blogging. I’ve found a way to meet other writers without leaving the house (I like leaving the house, but Sebastian sometimes makes that a challenge) and to motivate myself to write more, and more widely, than I ever have before. It’s a Good Thing.

And, so various books-on-publishing would tell you, it’s Building A Platform, with which to one day publicise and maybe even sell my Great Work. Although those or other books-on-publishing will also tell you that blog /twitter / facebook followers do not convert very well to sales figures. Not very well at all.

A friend recently pointed out that the blogosphere is mainly made up of bloggers. You might think, well of course, but actually, that’s not what we want, is it? What if only chocolatiers bought chocolate? Or only train drivers rode trains? As writers, we want to reach READERS, and although some of them might be other writers, most (we hope) aren’t. #

I’m delighted to have so many followers – 512, so WordPress tells me – and I take nothing away from them in saying this. Thanks to anyone who reads this blog, regularly, occasionally or even just this once. I value you!

But followers don’t convert to sales – they don’t even convert to views. If I follow a blog, it’s because I want to see what that person has to say, on a regular basis, but I seem to be in the minority. Many people seem to hit follow in the hopes that “If I follow her, she’ll follow me” or something. They hit follow, but do they ever come back?

So, my fellow bloggers – as most of you are – how do we get the rest of the world to join us in the ‘sphere? Or do we have to burst out and find new (or perhaps old) ways to reach them?

 

Paranoia and the Acclaimed Novel

At the risk of dipping a toe into controversy…

Everyone seems to be up in arms at the moment about the government “spying” on their communications. I must admit I’ve not been following it that closely, but I’m not sure what the great revelation is – we known for years that keyword scanning and the like go on, that GCHQ or the like therefore have access to our communications and that therefore (at least in theory) they could abuse that power.

I also happen to have just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I’d never read it before, but apparently it was the one book chosen for the “Keep Toronto Reading” campaign. There are obvious reasons why – it’s set in a dystopian future where everyone fills their head with mindless TV and books are not just abandoned but banned. Less obvious reasons and a few conspiracy theories also abound but I’ll leave those to your imagination (or your search engine) to fill in.

It’s a while since I read 1984, but F 451 strikes me as a slightly lighter touch on the whole dystopian future thing. Nevertheless, it has some clear warnings to those who wish to find them there, and received critical acclaim with comments describing its world as bearing “many alarming resemblances to our own.”

So, whether or not we are sleepwalking into a police state in reality, it occurs to me that playing on people’s fears might be a good route to publishing success. At least, if one can’t provide Harry Potter-esque escapism to distract the masses and keep them “happy”!

Who Are You Writing For?

To those authors who read endless guides on getting published, this is a question about audience, market share, and pitching, but to everyone, it is also a question of heart. Whenever I open a book, I stop at the almost blank page at the beginning – the one that says something simple like “For Amy”, cryptic like “For H.K.”, or effusive, like “To Mum, for all the times she picked me up before I fell”.

It’s not the same as the Acknowledgements at the back, although I usually read those too. This isn’t the place for colleagues, research assistants, or a long list of family and friends. It’s a moment of intimacy, even though reading those words tells the vast majority of the readership nothing at all.

I always pause there, but I can’t tell you why. Maybe it reminds me that there’s an author behind the words; that there is a true story hidden behind the fiction. Maybe it just appeals to the romantic within me. Perhaps it’s simply that I am addicted to reading (I’ll read anything – toothpaste tubes, adverts, ingredients lists … even contract small print!) and can’t turn the page without taking it in.

If I ever get a book properly published, I don’t know who I will dedicate it to. There are so many possibilities – people who have changed my life, or shaped my craft; those who matter the most to me on a wholly personal level; various people I have loved and lost; even the people I have never met who have somehow influenced that particular novel (Melanie’s story, for example, could be dedicated to other child carers like her).

Is this something that published authors think long and hard about, or do they go by gut instinct? Is it perhaps just another place where the muse stamps her authority or where a publisher makes suggestions? I don’t know, but I hope one day to find out.

Do you have plans for a dedication? Do you stop and read them, or is that just me?

Ladies’ Night in Submissionville

Sorry, boys, but this week’s place-to-submit is Women Only. It’s the Lucy Cavendish College Fiction Prize, an award run by one of the women-only colleges at Cambridge University in the UK and open to entrants worldwide provided they are a previously unpublished female writer over the age of 21. Entries should consist of the first 30 pages of a novel, submitted with a <10 page synopsis of the rest of the book.

You can find full details here: http://www.lucy-cav.cam.ac.uk/whats-on/latest-news/post/128-lucy-cavendish-college-2013-fiction-prize

The entry fee is just £10 per entry (you can submit up to 3 entries).

Closing date isn’t till 27 March 2013, so you’ve got lots of time to polish those opening chapters.

The top 5 entires will be shortlisted (max one per entrant) and those five writers invited (with a guest each) to attend a prizegiving dinner where the winner will be announced. The prize is £1000, and all shortlisted entrants have the opportunity to meet and approach agents and publishers at the dinner. Publication isn’t part of the prize, but there certainly seems to be a history of success over the time the prize has been running.

As if that’s not enough, the event (although sadly not the judging of the competition!) is run by my best friend, so you will get to meet her if you’re shortlisted. Frankly, that’s a better prize than £1000, if you ask me.

 

Submissions – Ploughshares

One of the places I have submitted in the past, but now decided may not be the best for my work, is Ploughshares. It’s a serious literary magazine, with a strong pedigree in bringing newcomers to American literature and is guest-edited for each edition by some pretty big names. The magazine (really more like a paperback book) is published three times a year, and mailed out in hard copy to subscribers, who pay $30 per year for the privilege.

There are three ways to submit to Ploughshares.

Open Submissions

Fiction, poetry and certain types of non-fiction manuscripts are accepted unsolicited between 1 June and 15 January. Up to five poems can be submitted together, prose pieces should be submitted individually and be no more than 6,000 words long (5,000 is prefered).

There are no submissions fees for mail-in submissions, but a $3 charge is levied to submit online. Payment is $25 per page (Min $50, Max $250) together with two copies of the title published and a year’s subscription to the magazine.

Pshares Singles

The magazine has recently launched a new series, publishing one longer fiction piece (6,000-25,000 words) in electronic format once a month. The submission criteria are the same as above, and I believe so is the payment scheme.

Emerging Writers’ Contest

Finally, Ploughshares runs an annual contest for up-and-coming writers. This is defined as anyone who has yet to publish a book, including chapbooks and self-published works, in any genre. The contest is currently CLOSED and runs from February to April each year, with the winning entry published in their “Fall Edition”.

Entries should be no more than 5,000 words (or 3-5 poems) and the entry fee of $20 includes a year’s subscription to the magazine. Winners in each genre (fiction, non-fiction and poetry) are awarded $1,000 prize.

 

So, why won’t I be submitting any more?

Last year, I entered the Emerging Writers’ Contest. I didn’t win, or indeed receive any response to my entry, but this decision is not sour grapes on my part. It is proof of the lesson which is drilled into us time and again by books and articles and anything else giving advice on writing and publishing, and that is to know your market and choose wisely when submitting. My entry into the EWC gave me a year’s subscription to the magazine (for less than a year’s subscription would have cost, I hasten to add!). I’ve now read a couple of their publications in a lot more detail than the free excerpts online allowed me to do and I’ve come to the conclusion that it isn’t the place for my writing.

I write mainstream, some might even call it “literary”, fiction. I don’t write genre pieces, so Ploughshares ought to be a decent fit in that regard. However, what I don’t write is Literary Fiction in the sense that Ploughshares publishes it. Poems are usually incomprehensible to me, and even the short stories in their publications have a hint of poetry to them. I like a story to have a beginning, a middle and an end – a satisfying balance and a reason behind the words. I like likeable characters, or at least ones that I can be moved by, and I can’t handle even 6,000 words inside the head of a character who is clearly weird.

All of which is a poor attempt at describing the pieces I find in my latest copy of Ploughshares. The writing is good, by some definitions, but if a friend sent it to me and asked for critique, I’d rip it apart. I think most of my critiqueing friends would too.

So the truth is, I won’t be submitting to Ploughshares again unless my writing style changes. But if you think Literary suits the way you write (and for some people it really does), then it’s a fantastic place to try your work. The rates are decent, the lack of submission fees is a bonus and it’s definitely a publication with kudos behind the name. And if you’re not sure, enter next year’s EWC and try a year’s subscription for yourself. It might just be the springboard to great things.

Submitting your “Grey” Fiction

That’s right, it’s not purple prose or blue movies, the new colour on the writing scene is Grey. 50 Shades of it, to be precise.

I have written exactly one piece of smut, which I used to bolster the word count of my first nanowrimo novel. It was almost certainly all terrible, but since I haven’t properly edited that draft yet, it’s still there in all its filthy glory. However, although I don’t think I’m ready to start submitting anything quite so colourful for a while yet, some of you may be.

And if you are, Oleander Press in Cambridge, UK, is looking for your submissions. Here’s the text of submissions call a friend of mine sent me today:

“In response to the extraordinary success of the 50 Shades trilogy,
Oleander’s setting up a new imprint to publish romance and erotica short
stories. If you know of anyone, including yourself of course, who can write well
and might be interested, please ask them to contact us at info@oleanderpress.com
and I’ll talk them through the plan. Basic info is that, in the first instance,
they’ll be published straight-to-ebook and the romance stories should be 100-150
pages (30-45,000 words), and the erotica 10-20 pages (3-6000 words). For
examples see the relevant sections at Amazon.”

Oleander also accepts other types of submissions – you can find out more about them on their website

 

Submissions Options – Glimmer Train

Glimmer Train is one of the most famous and respected of online writing magazines I’ve found. They publish a range of fiction, promise to read everything that’s submitted, and pay for publication. They also run contests and publish a companion “Writers Ask” magazine, which includes interviews and reviews and some articles about writing and publication.

So far they haven’t had the taste and good sense to accept anything I’ve submitted, but I don’t hold that against them!

CONTESTS

Entry page: http://www.glimmertrain.com/writguid1.html

Glimmer Train runs a different contest each month, each with an entry fee and a prize or series of prizes:

• January: Very Short Fiction Award (Up to 3,000 words)
• February: Short Story Award for New Writers
• March: Fiction Open(2,000 to 20,000 wds)
• April: Family Matters
• May: Short Story Award for New Writers
• June: Fiction Open(2,000 to 20,000 wds)
• July: Very Short Fiction Award (Up to 3,000 words)
• August: Short Story Award for New Writers
• September: Fiction Open(2,000 to 20,000 wds)
• October: Family Matters
• November: Short Story Award for New Writers
• December: Fiction Open (2,000 to 20,000 wds)

STANDARD SUBMISSIONS

Entry page: http://glimmertrain.com/standard.html

In addition to the contests, there are four periods for Standard Submissions. These are a lot more open and have no reading fees. Payment is $700 for any story published, together with 10 copies of the issue.

• January.Results by April 30.
• April.Results by July 31.
• July.Results by October 31.
• October. Results by January 31

OTHER POINTS

A Glimmer Train publication looks great on your writing CV. They focus entirely on unsolicited submissions and most of their work comes direct from writers, rather than through agents.

Contest entries include a free subscription to the Writers Ask magazine, although my personal view of that publication is it’s not incredibly useful. I have learned a lot more from proper writing mags and certainly wouldn’t pay for this one in its own right. The entry fee can also get your story submitted into the relevant “standard submissions” period, so you get extra cover. To begin with, though, I would consider just a standard submission – the rewards aren’t as great, but entry is free and it’s a good way to get a feel for whether you can produce what they are after.

To check it out in more detail, you need to log into the Glimmer Train site with a username and password. It’s free and easy and they don’t produce a lot of spam emails – just a few reminders about contest deadlines etc, so if any of this interests you, sign up and see what you can find.

Updates and bragging and shout outs!

A Link-Back

First things first, for those who read last week’s post about Children’s Stories, I posted my attempt on Thursday, and I’d love to hear what you think about it. Please take a look and let me know.

Even if you saw Thursday’s post when it first popped up, I would strongly recommend you nip back and look at it again. My friend, Sam Agro, heard about the story and created some original artwork to bring Sally to life. He’s very modest, but this picture was knocked together in less than 10 minutes and I personally think it’s fantastic! You can get a link to Sam’s blog from the post, and see more of his artwork and illustrations too.

Publication – success and failure

In Canada, Reader’s Digest’s August edition has hit the shelves, complete with the “Quick Fix” article, which features two of my Friday Fiction stories. I’m so excited to see my name in print.

And I’ve had two more rejections – both of them personal and ending with encouragement to submit again. Little Fiction said: “Your story was close to making our shortlist, if that’s any consolation — our decision was more or less based on how it was fitting with the rest of the pieces making up the compilation.”

Narrative Magazine commented: “We found many strengths to recommend your work and, overall, much to admire. We
regret, however, that [your story] is not quite right for us.”

Although I’m aware that a rejection is ultimately not a success, emails like that go a long way to making me feel like I’m getting somewhere with my writing and hopefully someday will have more acceptances to brag about.

Booker’s Seven – Progress report

I’ve once again knuckled down to editing the great Booker’s Seven project. I’m working on Brothers at the moment, a story of adventure and discovery. It’s off to my wonderful writing group, Moosemeat on Thursday to see what they think. Wish me luck!

Pitch Perfect?

As I mentioned in Thursday’s post, I’ve recently been working on the pitch for Who is Eric, using the method of starting with a “comfortable” length of pitch, and gradually honing it down to a 25 word elevator pitch. Thanks to everyone who dropped by Madison’s post and voted for or against my pitch last week – your feedback is invaluable.

Today, as promised, I’m giving you a chance to see the whole process I used to get there. It’s a little like the reverse of the Planning strategy I described a couple of weeks ago, so whether you’re interested in planning or pitching, or just nosey to find out more about the draft novel I’m working on, have a look at the pitching process below.

As ever, I’d love to hear your comments or feedback. I might one day need to use any of these pitches with publishers or agents!

Who is Eric?

Some days, Eric Bannerman is his own father. Other days he is his five year old self, and occasionally he plays the part of a door-to-door salesman. This is what his life has become.

Eric’s mother, Lily, lives in a room that’s not in her house, wearing a cardigan which doesn’t belong to her, talking to people who are long dead or whom she hasn’t seen in years. This is what her life has become.

But as Eric loses his mother to Alzheimer’s disease, he discovers more about her than he has ever known; he realises he must weave together the strands of her history in order to understand his own. Especially when he learns about his namesake: the mysterious Eric of his parents’ past. Somewhere hidden within his mother’s failing brain is the truth about this man, and more importantly, about Eric himself.

“Who is Eric” is a mainstream fiction novel which sits on the shelf between Lionel Shriver’s “A Perfectly Good Family” and Stefan Merrill Block’s “The Story of Forgetting”. It examines the secrets that families are built upon, and the question of what makes us who we are.

 *** 

Some days, Eric Bannerman is his own father, others his five year old self. This is what his life has become.

Eric’s mother, Lily, wears cardigans which don’t belong to her and sees people who are long dead. This is what her life has become.

But as Eric loses his mother to Alzheimer’s disease, he discovers more about her than he has ever known. Somewhere hidden within his mother’s failing brain is the truth about his mysterious namesake from his parent’s past, and more importantly, about Eric himself.

 ***

As Eric Bannerman loses his mother to Alzheimer’s disease, he discovers more about her than he has ever known. Somewhere hidden within his mother’s failing brain is the truth about his mysterious namesake, and more importantly, about himself.

 ***

Alzheimer’s disease is destroying Eric’s mother but somewhere within her failing brain is the truth about his mysterious namesake, and more importantly, himself.

 

Pitch Perfect

Today my 25 word pitch for “Who is Eric?” appears on Madison Woods’ blog in her weekly event – Would you buy it? – to allow writers to test their pitches on readers and other writers. I’d be super grateful if you could nip over to her blog (http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/vote-for-it-would-you-buy-it-5/) and leave your votes and comments on her page, so that I can get the best possible picture of how I’m doing. It’s TOTALLY fine to say you don’t like the pitch, especially if you can give me any ideas on what would make it work better for you.

In the meantime, I thought I’d have a parallel post here about pitches in general. The pitch is used to sell a book to agents, publishers, retailers and even potentially readers. It is linked to, although not necessarily the same as, the blurb on the back of a paperback, which hooks the reader in and gives them both enough information and enough intrigue that they want to read the book.

The 25 word pitch is often called the Elevator Pitch, and that’s a term used in other businesses too. It’s a simple idea – you find yourself in the elevator with the perfect investor / publisher / agent / business contact and you have just one or two floors worth of time to sell your idea. Of course, you hope that having heard your elevator pitch, the guy is going to invite you into his office for a longer conversation, so you can save the details – the finances and all your complicated marketing strategies – for then. The elevator pitch is about getting his attention, and getting yourself that chance to pitch more fully.

It’s not easy. 25 words is not many, an elevator moves up a floor or two in a matter of seconds, but if you think about some of the greatest innovations of all time, it’s possible to see how it might work. With stories, it’s maybe harder. I have grappled with a few of my favourite novels and I don’t know how I would sum them up persuasively and uniquely in so few words.

One of the suggested ways is to start big, then gradually cut out more and more of the words until you find the 25 or so that really convey the essence of the story. On Monday, I’m going to post the longer versions of my pitch to show the process by which I achieved the 25 words Madison is offering, but for now I don’t want to sway you with more detail. Be sure to stop by next week and check out that post though. And in the meantime, please do pop over and see my pitch on Madison’s site.