Submission Contest

The lovely Mercedes Yardley, who I blogged about last week, has challenged me to a submission competition. The first to ten submissions will get bragging rights on their blog.

I better get working!

Multiplication and Submissions

At the start of the year I had a goal to submit one short story a week. While I didn't keep rigidly to this, it worked out OK because some weeks I would submit several stories, which made up for the weeks when I didn't submit any. However, in September and October I hit a wall, my writing suffered and I didn't submit anything at all. While I wasn't sending stories out, I was still receiving Duotrope*'s weekly email. As well as notifying me about upcoming deadlines, recently deceased publications and changes in the market, it also listed the names of the people who had reported acceptances for the week. I always read through the names to see if I recognised any of them. One name kept on popping up week after week. Mercedes Yardley. Who was this woman? Her unusual name made her stand out, as well as the fact that it reminded me of both Mercedes Lackey (well known author) and Yeardley Smith (voice of Lisa Simpson). Eventually I decided to Google her and found her blog here, on wordpress. Kudos to Ms Yardley for her publications. It seems she has a goal of having 40 submissions out at any one time, and it is certainly paying off for her. This kind of goal was exactly what I needed to boost me back into sending my writing out once again. I think 40 is an unrealistic goal for me at the moment, so I decided on a submission total of 25 pieces for November, three of which have to be to major publications. At the moment I have 11 stories out in total - 8 new ones for this month and 3 pending from earlier in the year. I don't know if I will make my goal of 25 before the end of the month, but I am very pleased with my progress already. I love the Internet for little things like this. I love the inspiration, information and support it provides to the creative community.

*For all you aspiring writers out there, you should check out Duotrope's Digest. It has a huge list of markets for both short stories and novels in all genres and pay scales. It is free to use and if you join up they have a very handy submission tracker which helps you keep on top of all the pieces you have sent out and is invaluable when your laptop crashes and you lose all the submission information on your hard drive!

Scraping across the finish line - or not

I'm still smarting from missing Dr Doom's deadline for the Alienskin Magazine Demon Toys flash fiction competition. After four months of having it in my calendar I sat down on July 31st - EST clocks open on my desktop - and started to write my story. Half way through I realised that the deadline was midnight EST July 30th, not 31st. For my regular readers, you might remember my post a few months ago about not leaving things to the last minute anymore. Well, I guess things haven't changed as I left three story entries to the last minute - two I managed to submit on time, the third I missed by a day (Demon Toys). I've started August off on a good note, however, and submitted a story well ahead of its August 15th deadline. May this forward thinking continue.

Rejection

Being rejected is an inevitable part of being a writer. Here are some tips I have come by to help cope with rejection and to cut down the chances of being 'passed' on.

1. Don't take it personally. Ok, ok, I know everyone says this, but they are right. Getting a rejection letter doesn't mean you are a bad person, or that you can't write and your book/story is rubbish.

2. Line up another market and send it out again. Once the rejection email or letter has come in, line up another market that your story would suit and send it out as quickly as possible. Don't even think about it. Remember, this is a business so act professionally and keep sending your stuff out.

3. Give yourself a time to feel sorry for yourself. You're only human, so of course rejection is going to affect you. You've tried not to let it get you down and you've sent out your story again, but you are still feeling a little low. That's perfectly normal. Give yourself a period of time to be self indulgent - anything from an hour to a day but nothing longer, and have a good wallow for being rejected. Then, when your time is up, put your professional hat back on, forget about your rejection and focus on sending out and writing your work.

4. Listen to any comments and act accordingly. It may not be personal, but there is a reason why your story got rejected. It could be because they already had filled their magazine for that month, or the editor read three stories in a similar theme that day or they simply have an objection to zombies, however it could also be because your story wasn't as good as it could be. If the editor takes the time to give you some feedback, listen to it. It is a positive, not a negative. You don't have to agree with the editor says, but do take it seriously and consider it in regard to your story. Are there changes you could make to improve your story in light of these comments? They didn't have to say anything about your work so the fact that they did means you should listen and learn from that experience.


How to avoid rejection

1. Pick your market carefully. There is no point sending a horror story to a romance magazine or vice versa. You may have written a fantastic story but when it comes to finding a market for it no one seems to be interested because it doesn't fit what any of the magazines are looking for. Sometimes it is easier to pick out your market first and write your story accordingly. You will have a higher chance of getting accepted if you tailor your work to a publication. Reading magazines is a good way to find out what your market is like and what sort of stories they accept. It also supports them and keeps them publishing fiction. Sites like Duotrope and Ralan help as well as they have very informative pages on markets and what type of stories they publish. Duotrope also provide you with the statistics of a markets acceptance rate, so you have an idea of how you might fare. The more research you do on what a market is looking for and what stories are new and original, the more likely you are to be accepted.

2. Follow guidelines. I know every article on writing harps on about this, but it is something so simple and yet seems to be ignored by so many writers. It is so important that your submission follows the market guidelines and looks professional. If it doesn't, no matter how good your work is, it will be rejected. Just because a lot of markets now accept electronic submissions doesn't mean you can relax on your formatting. Make sure you tailor your submission to each magazine's requirements. Some want double spaced attachments, others want single spaced pasted into the body of the email. All have their own way of doing it and won't appreciate a deviation from that rule. Give your story the best chance of being read and make sure it follows the guidelines to the letter.

3. Polish your story. Ok, so you have an idea for a story. You have picked out a market and done your research and written your first draft. Now go through it. Is the story written in the best way possible? Are you giving all the important information and non of the unimportant stuff? Does it start at the write time, not too late or too early? Is there lots of repetition in it? Imelda may be small and pretty but you only have to tell us once, not in every paragraph. When you have checked for these errors in writing, read it a few times for spelling and grammatical errors. Read it out loud as well to hear how it sounds. If you find you can't stand to read your story more than a couple of times, it might be an indication that you need to do more work on it.

4. Be proud of your story. Try to make your work the best possible for that story before you submit it. It is all very well to send something out as soon as the rejection comes in, but that only works as long as you know your story is as good as you can make it. The same with getting feedback. It is wonderful when an editor goes to the time to comment on your work, but the only comments you want are 'I loved it!' and that they want to publish it. Put the work in to make sure you can stand by your story and the choices you made while writing it. Then, if it does get rejected, you can happily send it out to another publication knowing that you have done nothing wrong and the market that rejected you was just full up at the time.

5. Act professionally. Format your story correctly, follow guidelines, include your name and address in your cover letter, write a concise and polite letter with your submission. If you are rejected, let it go and move on to the next. Never contact the editor and try to change their mind. If they ask for a rewrite or say they were interested in a part of your story that wasn't fully explored, do work on your story and resubmit as quickly as possible, don't procrastinate. If you haven't heard back from a market in a long time, query them but remember to keep it professional. Thank them for their correspondence with you. If you always behave professionally and respectfully you are more likely to get acceptances, even if you start off with rejections. There is no better way to get blacklisted than to be rude and aggressive.

Finally, DON'T KEEP A REJECTION FILE. I have learned this the hard way. There is nothing more depressing than to read a pile of rejection letters. Keep focused on the positives. Keep a file of your acceptance letters, make a note of your rejections and then chuck the letters.

Also, I know I focused more on the short story market, but the same advice goes for novels and articles.

Good luck and happy writing!

BUSY DAYS

So far April has been very busy for me. I was back teaching this week, went into Easons to do research for a non-fiction title yesterday and submitted FOUR short stories to competitions and publications this week. I wrote and submitted a flash fiction and micro fiction to Alienskin (after the success of Valinora Troy I thought I would try my hand at it) as well as entering the Molly Keane Competition and sending a robot story to Permuted Press for the robot's beyond anthology competition. I am also waiting eagerly to see if I made the short list for either the Grace Dieu Writer's Circle Competition or the first round of the Aeon Award. I'm told that the results will be posted any day now, but you know what they say about a watched webpage never reloading. Oh yeah, I also did some research into more story markets and subscribed to a couple of cool looking magazines as well this week. On a writing note, I really want to write a gooey, juicy, scary horror. I haven't written one in a while and I feel the urge has come upon me to write something truly horrific. Perhaps that will be my goal for next week. I also have to think up something new to try out for April. Any suggestions?

Review of March 2008

March started well for me with news that I had won the Dundalk branch of Curves 30 day challenge. Apart from a not too dodgy prize of a €55 token for Boots chemist, I lost 10lbs and 18 inches, which is the real prize. Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse after that high point and I suffered about three weeks of ill health which meant little to no writing, cancelled teaching days (hence loss of money) and exercising falling off the radar. I got two weeks holiday at Easter but was still picking myself up so I didn't get all the writing done that I had planned. My goal for March was to read 9 books. I completed five, which is up from last month but only half as many as January. Word wise, I wrote fractionally more than February with 11,400 compared to last month's 11,100. My aim was to enter 2 short story competitions this month and I exceeded it by two. I entered short stories into the Fish One Page Prize 2008, Tom Howard/John H Reid Short Story Contest, Aeon Award 2008 and the Invisible Ink Story Competition. I had also planned to enter a story to the Permuted Press Giant Creatures Anthology but failed to finish my story 'The Shark that ate Dublin' in time. Likewise, my entry to the Bristol Prize Short Story Competition 2008 was a non runner as I missed the post (imagine running a competition in this day and age without online entry as an option?). I had plans to submit my flash fiction 'Does Love Dogs' to AlienSkin but failed to edit it in time to submit it before March ended. There is always next month. Exercise was practically non existent this month, with no attendances to curves and only a few salsa slims and days where I played wii (highest fitness age 41, lowest 24). I did complete my achievement goal for the month in trying new things, which was climbing the Greater Sugar Loaf in Wicklow. I just scraped in at the last minute but I managed to get there in the end and it was a challenging but rewarding day. With my four submissions this month I have beaten my January curse - which is, I submit in January and then don't submit anything else all year until the January of the following year. I hope this trend keeps up. I promised to keep you updated on my stories from past months, so this is how my January entries are doing. My entry to Glimmer Train's Family Matters Competition, 'The Shadow Room' failed to be short listed and I am guessing that 'The Memory of Fat', my entry to the Maria Edgeworth Competition didn't get to the finish line either as the festival took place on Saturday and I was not invited to attend. I am still waiting to hear back on how my brave little stories are doing.

My hopes for April? To keep up submitting to competitions and publications. To increase my word count. To read more books. To think up and complete another new achievement. To have a successful Belly Dance workshop on the 19th and to have fun in Donegal with my sis's and dogs at the end of the month.

Review of Week 24th - 29th March

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO Hoofpot and

Valpot



HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK TO



Woozer, who reached the grand old age of 15! Way to go Woozer, I thought you wouldn't make it but you proved me wrong. You can't knock the rockie spirit.

and

Mal... er, I mean Nathan Fillion. Hope you had a good one Nathan.

WRITING

Writing was ok this week. I wrote about 3000 words, 3 short stories and submitted to one competitions.

GOALS

Tomorrow I am climbing the Sugar Loaf (a big hill in Dublin) with Valpot and Pinky. It is my goal for March (remember the fun new things I was going to do every month? January it was Badminton and February it was Bowling?) so I hope the weather stays fine and we have a good time.

Review of January 2008

The first month of the New Year slowly drags to a close and I look back over the last 30 days or so and see what they have brought me. Ok, so far my initial impressions of the year are good. As I posted earlier in the month, my aim was to submit short stories to two competitions - namely The 22nd Annual American Kennel Club Fiction Writing Contest and The Maria Edgeworth Short Story Competition. Not only did I send off two humdingers to these guys, but I threw in a third for good luck and submitted to the Glimmertrain Family Matters Competition. Keep a look out for the results on how I did in these contests later in the year.

On the non competition front, I also submitted two other stories. One, which I wrote last year, I submitted to old favourite Alienskin e-magazine, while the other went to new terroitry in Fantasy e-magazine. I hope to hear how they fare sometime in February/March.

I didn't quite make 4 hours of writing everyday, or the vaulted word count that I had hoped to reach, but I did write in excess of 14,000 words, which isn't bad.

I also started posting on Helium this month, even though I found the sight months ago, joined up and did nothing about it. I haven't earned any stars yet, but my four articles have got me the grand total of 11 cent, which I consider my first money from fiction!

In terms of reading, I had a goal for reading 9 books this month, which I exceeded by 2.

In non writing related information, I went back to teaching speech and drama this month, which so far has proven to be a success.

My plan to do something new each month started the year with Badminton, and I just managed to squeeze in a game with Hoofpot last night. As it was my first time playing, my focus was on hitting the shuttlecock, but I didn't disgrace myself and had loads of fun. Thanks Hoofpot for the great game and for going so easy on me.

Exercise wise the month has been good for me too, with lots of visits to curves, loads of walks on the beach with Janna and I started Salsa Slims class this week, which is fun, you learn salsa and you trim up all at the same time!

I notice some comments on the blog showing interest in reading the short stories I wrote in January. Because they are all out at different publications and contests, I naturally can't publish them on line, however perhaps a hardcopy viewing could be arranged for those who know where I live.

I hope all my readers had a fantastic January and are looking forward to what the next month holds.

Reading the Competitors

It is great being a writer, because when you are reading magazines and books you can call it work! I picked up the last issue of Albedo One today (Ireland's speculative fiction magazine) and read it over breakfast. There were some fine stories in it, and all of them were written to a high standard, even if they weren't to my taste. However, I noticed an interesting thing about the different authors in the magazine. They were ALL male and most of them worked in computer programming. It got me pondering on the whole division of the sexes in writing. Are there more men writing than women, and are there more men writing in genre literature (especially sci-fi and fantasy) and if so, what percentage of them are involved with computers (as in their day job)? It's time I got some stories published and evened up the balance of the sexes I think (of course, I know there are loads of good female fantasy and sci-fi writers out there, it just was strange having a male only edition of Albedo One).

On the Helium front, Gifts from the Sea has descended a staggering 24 places since yesterday and my essay on Why I Write has gone down a mere 5.

I submitted another story today. It is a sort of magical fairytale fantasy story and I am particularly proud of it. It is off to a market that is new for me, so please God I will have good news.

Review of week: 21st - 27th January 2008

I had a strange week this week, first taking off Monday and Tuesday to recover from the Feis and then succumbing to a cold on Wednesday which has since grown more and more incapacitating. Despite this, and the resulting reduction in work hours, I did manage to achieve several things.
I submitted 'The Shadow Room' to the Glimmertrain Family Matters short story competition.
I wrote 'The Memory of Fat', a short story intended for the Maria Edgeworth competition.
I completed my nine book total goal for the month.
On Helium my stories have been going up and down. This week they mostly went up, with Boats increasing a whole 29 places, while Gifts from the Sea dropped 29 places.
This week seemed to go a lot faster for me than the previous weeks, so it just goes to show that when you pack more into the day it really does make time go by more slowly.
Next week is the last week in January. I plan to do something new every month this year, and my new thing for January is to play Badminton, so I am playing on Wednesday (just sneaking it in there). I am also back to teaching next week, am starting Salsa Slims exercise class on Tuesday and entering the 30 day challenge in Curves, which starts on Monday, not to mention all the writing I have planned to do!

Review of week - the 7th to the 13th Jan 08

So far the year has turned out ok. I didn't get my 4 hours of writing in every day, but I wrote almost every day. I wrote 2 short stories (about 6000 words in total), submitted 2 short stories (one to the AKC competition and the other to Alienskin) and did some research into markets, competitions and other aspects of writing. I also scrapped loads of attempted first drafts and stared out my window looking for inspiration several times. I read two books (so far), went to a movie, did lots of walking and teaching, not to mention looking after an abandoned dog. My fitness age for today (on the wii) is 32 and my brain age is 26.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Valpot introduced me to this amazing competition last night. Amazon.com, in association with Penguin USA, are offering 5000 novelists the chance to be discovered. Through a six month process, their novels will be read and reviewed and narrowed down from 5000 to 1000 to 100 and then to the final 10, at which time ordinary customers will have the chance to read all 10 entries and vote for their favourite. The three authors with the highest votes will be flown to New York and wined and dined at an award ceremony where the grand prize winner will be announced. Up for grabs is a publishing deal with Penguin USA, a $25,000 advance, promotion through amazon.com and a HP media suite. The runners up get some cool prizes as well, and of course all this publicity on amazon.com is going to help your career prospects no end.

Reading the details on amazon.com, I got the feeling that this is an opportunity too good to be missed, but thanks to my procrastination (a subject for another post) I don't have The Mark of the Wolf in a suitable condition for submission. Entries are open until the 5th November or until 5000 entries have been received. Valpot persuaded me to sign up last night, so I now have seven days to submit my novel or lose my registration number. Can I wrestle 120,000 words into shape within that time? With several gallons of diet coke and no other commitments, I might. Who needs to sleep anyway?

Of course, Valpot has already entered, which leaves an ethical question - should we compete against each other? What happens if we both get down to the final ten? I would be thrilled if I did, and even more so if Valpot managed to hit the top spot, whether I got knocked out at the first round or not. However, this is all moot as it is highly unlikely that I will have anything to submit in the first place.

Does The Mark of the Wolf really have to be 120,000 words long? Maybe it would be just as good at 50,000.

Printer Problems

I was sending out query letters to agents for The Mark of the Wolf and, this just shows you how long it has been since I last got a submission package ready, I ran across a problem with my printer. Well, my print cartridge to be more precise. I printed out my letter head and it is a brown/sepia tone and it came out red. The display on the computer told me I was out of black ink, but the colour cartridge was over half full. I changed the black cartridge and printed another test page. Again it came out red. I played around with the image and changed the lettering to black and, even with this, it came out with a faint red line around the words. I printed out a test page and it was also red. The conclusion I came to was that I have run out of the other colours in my colour cartridge leaving only red ink. I didn't know this was possible (I don't remember printing predominately blue and yellow pictures) but I am very disappointed that the printer is telling me I have so much of my colour cartridge left when it is only red ink! I would have changed it if I had a spare cartridge. It will be a waste of all that red ink, but I don't print red that often (obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have so much left!)