Getting Published - Your Questions Answered

[shevdon]

I have a couple of questions:
1.) Any advice on self editing? I want to put the best product in front of whoever reads it, but with the exception of the critiques of the other member of my two man book club, I am left to self edit.

Another way to learn to edit and critique your own work is to critique someone else's. This gives you the distance from the work to be objective and allows you to see work in development, rather than published work which has already been through the editing process.

There are several online critique groups. My personal recommendation would be Critters which is well run, produces good critique, is focused on being positive and diplomatic, and is free. They also have a mechanism for getting feedback for longer work, such as novel length pieces, called a Request for Dedicated Readers (RFDR) which most sites can't deal with.

It is a truth that it is easier to see someone else's mistakes than your own, but you will find yourself pointing something out to someone and then thinking, "Hang on, I do that." It's a great way to learn and it doesn't require a physical meeting or venue, which can sometimes be difficult to organise and can fit around shift patterns or other commitments. You do have to set a reasonable amount of time every week to do it, though. An hour or two should be fine for most weeks.

Another way to edit is to work through the paragraphs backwards. This prevents you being caught up in the narrative flow and forces you to consider each paragraph as a stand-alone fragment of story. It can help you to tighten your style and pick up things you would otherwise miss, but it won't help with the character or story logic issues that KatG was mentioning.

2.) How much harder is it going to be to get published for someone whose writing is geared more to fantasy noir than mainstream?

Dark and Urban Fantasy are very popular right now, but you do need to bring something new and fresh to differentiate your work. That can be in your writing, your style, a twist of character or plot or by writing an original character or setting. Preferably all of the above.

[KatG]

KatG, are you an editor or agent? From your well-written posts, I seem to come to that conclusion.

Used to be. Not no more. I get a lot more sleep now.

[Tim Stretton]

KatG's points are excellent advice for developing your voice, imagination and stamina. The hardest part, for me and it sounds like for bwthomason, is that final stage of being objective about your own work: you've created a marvellous kingdom of your imagination, but how much of it does your prose convey to the reader? It's very difficult to assess this for yourself. I've never used a critique group of the sort that shevdon suggests, but if you have the right readers it's obviously a great help. The thing to avoid is cheerleaders--people who will praise your work without meaningful criticism. A serious and competent critique group should overcome that problem, but in the end developing your own self-critical faculty is essential.

[Neyska]

1.) Any advice on self editing? I want to put the best product in front of whoever reads it, but with the exception of the critiques of the other member of my two man book club, I am left to self edit.

I've had the good fortune of knowing a few professional editors and also of being published so that I got to work with the editors for those magazines as well. I have learned a ton about editing my own work from these experiences. If you can find someone with the knowledge who is willing to give you a few cutthroat edits of your work, you can not only learn a lot about editing in general, but also about the kinds of mistakes you tend to make in your own writing. You also learn a lot about humility.

[tmso]

Hello Everyone,

My writing is still in its beginning stages but I just read on another website that I probably shouldn't post anything on my blog that I think I might want to submit to a magazine or ezine (that's what they're called, right?). Is that still the case if I end up changing the story through edits and re-writes? Meaning, if I just put a rough draft on my blog (to elicit comments) and not the final, is that ok? I doubt anything I submit would get accepted but, well, you never know. I might get lucky.

[Erebus-writes]

Congratulations Tim! Been looking for good advice relating to publishing and nice to see some useful comments

[Sterling13]

Hello Everyone,

My writing is still in its beginning stages but I just read on another website that I probably shouldn't post anything on my blog that I think I might want to submit to a magazine or ezine (that's what they're called, right?). Is that still the case if I end up changing the story through edits and re-writes? Meaning, if I just put a rough draft on my blog (to elicit comments) and not the final, is that ok? I doubt anything I submit would get accepted but, well, you never know. I might get lucky.

Does someone know the official answer to this? One of my stories posted on this site has made it to the final stage of the submission process... I assume I should take it down from here, just in case it is accepted, correct?

Or should I have taken the story down before ever even submitting?

What about a story that has drastically changed from the original? For example, something that has been extended to 7,000-8,000 words from the original 1,000 word concept?

[Holbrook]

Does someone know the official answer to this? One of my stories posted on this site has made it to the final stage of the submission process... I assume I should take it down from here, just in case it is accepted, correct?

Or should I have taken the story down before ever even submitting?

What about a story that has drastically changed from the original? For example, something that has been extended to 7,000-8,000 words from the original 1,000 word concept?

You should have taken it down before submitting, least I would have done so.

I would suggest you take it down if it is in the stories section or delete the posts if it is in a thread.

If is an extended from the original, then I doubt you have anything to worry about.

If it is the same then *shrugs shoulders* too late now to do anything about it, just remove it and keep your fingers crossed.

[kater]

Does someone know the official answer to this? One of my stories posted on this site has made it to the final stage of the submission process... I assume I should take it down from here, just in case it is accepted, correct?

Or should I have taken the story down before ever even submitting?

What about a story that has drastically changed from the original? For example, something that has been extended to 7,000-8,000 words from the original 1,000 word concept?

Yes, Yes and shouldn't matter The rights are entirely yours as far as sffworld is concerned but depending who you submit your work to it may still be viewed as a negative. So recommendation is to remove it, as Hol said, prior to submitting the piece anywhere. It's not worth getting caught up in any confusion or hassle that would result from it. Fingers crossed for your submission

[kater]

Hello Everyone,

My writing is still in its beginning stages but I just read on another website that I probably shouldn't post anything on my blog that I think I might want to submit to a magazine or ezine (that's what they're called, right?). Is that still the case if I end up changing the story through edits and re-writes? Meaning, if I just put a rough draft on my blog (to elicit comments) and not the final, is that ok? I doubt anything I submit would get accepted but, well, you never know. I might get lucky.

Depends how big the changes and edits are, I'd definitely edge on the side of caution even with your own blog and just post snippets of stories. Like the lottery if you submit something, you have a chance, just not a big one

[Sterling13]

Yes, Yes and shouldn't matter The rights are entirely yours as far as sffworld is concerned but depending who you submit your work to it may still be viewed as a negative. So recommendation is to remove it, as Hol said, prior to submitting the piece anywhere. It's not worth getting caught up in any confusion or hassle that would result from it. Fingers crossed for your submission

Darn, I was hoping to be able to leave them up, at least until they (hopefully) entered the "we might possibly be interested in your story" stage of the submission process.

I'm currently employing a spread offense with my short stories - fire 'em all off, see where they stick (no simultaneous submissions, of course). So I'm afraid I'm going to leave my collection of submissions on this site (which has helped my writing more than anything ever I've done) rather bare. That stinks.

Fingers crossed on my end as well....

[Sterling13]

Fingers crossed on my end as well....

Er... fingers crossed "over here" as well... not "fingers crossed on my end"... that'd be an uncomfortable way to sit...

[tmso]

Like the lottery if you submit something, you have a chance, just not a big one

Thank you for answering my question Kater.

Er... fingers crossed "over here" as well... not "fingers crossed on my end"... that'd be an uncomfortable way to sit...

Funny, didn't read it that way the first time, but now that you pointed it out...

[Jraiter123]

My name is Josh and I have finally completed my book Journey of Lost Souls, the first in a four part series and I was wondering what it takes to get a book out into the world and how to go about marketing a new author like myself?

[tmso]

Wow - big question Josh. You may want to do a search on the forum for advice that's already been posted.

I think this might help too:
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009...published.html

Good luck!