Category Archives: Publishing

Look at you writing that cover letter like a champion!

Perhaps the most dreaded feedback for a writer or a skyscraper architect to receive is: “Can you make it shorter?” For some writers, this is one of the most painful parts of the editing process. For me, it’s… well, I actually haven’t gotten that note before. I write short, and I friggin’ like it that way.

Turns out I’m not alone. I’ve received some significant compliments from editors and publishers on my short, concise, and to-the-point cover letters. I found this curious, until I realized I have lots of experience with cover letters. At a former job, I was first point of contact for applicants and read literally thousands of cover letters. I’d taken note of what worked, what didn’t, and what could work if finessed. Below, I’ll give you that basic structure based on what you’re submitting to an editor or publisher.

The most important thing to mention is that if you can turn the basic into the unique without it being overblown, braggy, or down-right weird, then do it. Your cover letter is your chance to introduce yourself in a provocative, distinct way. Take advantage of the opportunity!

Dear EDITOR/PUBLISHER NAME,

(A)It’s my pleasure to submit SHORT STORY/MANUSCRIPT TITLE for your consideration for PUBLICATION NAME.

(B1) [If you are submitting a novel, directly go in to a little about yourself. In this section about yourself, be sure to mention:

If you have met the editor or publisher at an event, immediately remind them when and where you two met, and remind them that they asked to see your work
Published works (if you have many, choose your top three or just use the titles of the magazines, for example: My short stories have appeared in Intergalactic Medicine Show, Pseudopod, and Daily Science Fiction.)
Ongoing works such as blogging, reviews, or newspaper/magazine columns
Soon-to-be published works
Long-term works (ex. “I am currently writing a horror fantasy series set in 1920’s Brooklyn.”)
Any other writing-related credits (editor, copywriter, etc.)
One or two sentences about yourself including your day job, inspirations, aspirations, unique experience you hold that might be attractive to a publisher — this is an opportunity to hook an editor with your personality]

(B2) [If you are submitting a short story, I recommend first talking about the story:]

“SHORT STORY TITLE” is a X,XXX-word GENRE (ex. psychedelic fantasy) set in SETTING (ex. the heart of an acid trip). INCLUDE 2-3 MORE SENTENCES ABOUT YOUR STORY. THIS IS YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH. MAKE SURE YOU REALLY HOOK THE EDITOR WITH THIS DESCRIPTION — MAKE THEM SO CURIOUS THEY CAN’T HELP BUT READ YOUR STORY TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS.

(C1) [For submitting a novel, now is the time to go into 1-3 paragraphs about your story. This will be different than what is explained in B2, as you need to go into a longer pitch of your novel. In these paragraphs, take the editor on a small tour of what they can expect to read in your novel. Go over the main characters and basic plot, then mention the themes you delve into as well. After the long pitch, if you haven’t mentioned it already, state your target audience for your novel, approximate word count, and any other information you feel is important for the editor to know. For example, mention that you gave your novel to ten 5th grade boys (your target audience), and provide quotes of from the boys detailing how they loved the book.]

(C2) [For submitting a short story, now is the time you can talk about yourself. Keep it to a paragraph and just list your past, ongoing, and soon-to-be publications, and a fact or two about yourself (where you live, that you are a professional skydiver, that you have 49 grandchildren, etc.).]

(D) [Thank the editor for their time in this short section, and put it in your own words.] I appreciate your time, and thank you for taking a look at my story/novel “SHORT STORY TITLE”/NOVEL TITLE. I look forward to hearing from you.

(E) [Your personal information goes here such as:]

NAME
E-MAIL ADDRESS
PHONE NUMBER (optional)

As you may have noted, a cover letter for a novel will be a bit longer than a short story, but both should be limited to between four and six paragraphs. You don’t want the editor spending their precious time reading your cover letter. You want to leave them intrigued as to who you are and excited to read your story. So much so, they’ll jump right into reading your manuscript.

Additional (and helpful) resources:

Submission and Formatting Basics: http://www.writersdigest.com/tip-of-the-day/how-to-submit-short-stories-formatting-basics
Submissions 101: http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/literary-journal-submissions-101
Writing a Query Letter: http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-to-write-the-perfect-query-letter

The Late One – World Fantasy Convention

September 3, 2015

Gregory D. Little

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For most, convention season is winding down. While you can find cons at any time of year really, the bulk of the major cons take place during the summer months. But one major con is different, choosing to fight the power and place itself in late October or early November. And since I won’t be making it to any conventions this calendar year, that makes the 2014 World Fantasy Convention (which I did attend) the perfect one to write about.

I call WFC a major con, but that’s really misleading. While it’s a very venerable con with (it will be putting on its 40th convention this year in Saratoga Springs, NY) and it has a major genre award attached, WFC numbers in the hundreds rather than the thousands of attendees (to say nothing of tens or hundreds of thousands).

As opposed to broader media cons, it’s also almost entirely focused on books, and is almost entirely focused on business rather than fandom. WFC is a work con. It’s a place to go and network, to meet people serious about the business of writing and publishing. As such, if you’re someone like me, who doesn’t have a lot of time for con attendance, it offers a strong “bang for your buck” factor if your main goal is networking.

But I don’t want to make it sound boring, because it’s anything but. Sure, the focus may be on business, but this is still a place to meet up with friends in the industry and a gathering of some of the world’s biggest genre geeks. While it’s true that cosplayers are generally nowhere to be seen, there is still plenty to enjoy. Both times I’ve been (2014 and 2012 near Toronto) I had a great time. And frankly, as a pretty strong introvert, WFC’s smaller size is appealing to me (and I suspect I’m not the only introvert to whom that would be true).

As a Virginia native, when I learned that WFC 2014 would be in “Washington, D.C.” (and I say that in quotes because it was really in Crystal City, Virginia, just over the Potomac River from D.C.), I knew it would be criminal not to attend. Having a major con show up within driving distance really gives you no excuse to do otherwise.

As with many cons of this sort, while the panels provide a lot of quality programming, the real action happens in and around the hotel bar. You’ll find convention goers there at all times of day, their only concession to the rising sun switching to coffee instead of harder stuff. It’s always surreal to roam around the bar area, noticing various writers and publishing giants just sitting around, talking business or just shooting the breeze. I even got to discuss the 2014 NCAA College Football season with literary agent extraordinaire (and Michigan Wolverines fan) Joshua Bilmes after he noticed my Virginia Tech shirt.

As I alluded to above, WFC is also the keeper of the World Fantasy Awards, in the past won by such luminaries as George R.R. Martin, China Mieville, Susanna Clarke, Madeline L’Engle, Gene Wolfe and Ursula K. Le Guin. The award winners are selected by a committee from a pool of nominees supplied by conference goers. There is a banquet to announce the winners at the end of the convention, which any attendee (provided they paid the extra fee) may attend. I attended in 2012 but didn’t feel the need to do so again in 2014, preferring instead to get home a little earlier.

I came back from last year’s convention with a bunch of new friends, a submission request from an editor, some great loot (a print of the A Memory of Light cover art signed by Brandon Sanderson and MIchael Whelan and a early-release signed copy of the Jeff VanderMeer Area X Omnibus), massive sleep deprivation and a whole lot of fun memories. If I had to do it over again, my only change would be to determine that our hotel wouldn’t allow more than two beds due to fire code restrictions. It made for a difficult sleep situation for our third roommate. At some point, I am fated by karma to sleep on the floor of a hotel room in Martin’s name.

So if, like me, you have to carefully pick your conventions and maximize your limited opportunities to attend, give World Fantasy Convention a try.

About the Author: Gregory D. Little

Rocket scientist by day, fantasy and science fiction author by night, Gregory D. Little began his writing career in high school when he and his friend wrote Star Wars fanfic before it was cool, passing a notebook around between (sometimes during) classes. His first novel, Unwilling Souls, will be available later this year. His short fiction can be found in The Colored Lens and the upcoming Game of Horns: A Red Unicorn Anthology. He lives in Virginia with his wife and their yellow lab.

Getting the Most Out of Group

August 19, 2015

Nathan Barra

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Writers NEED people who are willing to provide them with honest and actionable criticism. Without them, our stories and skills will be bound by our own limited perspective and experiences. This is fundamentally why editors are critical to the publishing process. They have the skills, the knowledge, and the experience to dig into a work and uncover the flaws.

However, not everyone is ready to be picked up by a publisher or pay a freelance editor to comb through their work. So, what then? Writing groups.

As it turns out, most writers are willing to share their works with a peer group and trade for feedback. Over the years I’ve had many critique groups. Some were just circles of alpha and beta readers, friends and family I trusted to be honest with me. Others were formalized circles of peers in writing classes. Yet more were collectives of like minds who walked the same path for a while. Though fundamentally different, each taught me something important about my writing.

“But Nathan!” you may say, “I don’t live in a place with writers willing and able to meet with me on a regular basis.” That’s not necessary at all. In fact, my current writing group is rather small, just myself and two others. We also happen to occupy three different time zones. Through the power of the Internet, we are able to meet once a week and spend four to six hours working through our writing with one another.

No matter what format though, I’ve found that all writing groups tend to work best when they follow 10 basic guidelines.

1) Check Your Ego at the Door
One of the most significant steps on any writer’s journey towards becoming a professional is learning to set your ego aside when receiving feedback. It’s hard. After all, we spend months or years working on a single story. It is perfectly natural to become personally invested. HOWEVER, it is your story that is being critiqued, not you. Don’t take it personal.

2) Writing Group is Business Serious
I get it. We all have lives out of group. We’re all busy. However, that’s no excuse for missing a group deadline. If your group is flexible, you’ll be able to work around life commitments, but if you say you are going to get a chapter to the group on Tuesday, it better happen. Not only are you respecting everyone else’s time, but practicing keeping a deadline is important.

3) Giving Criticism Means Acknowledging the Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent
I’ve known plenty of writers/editors/agents who believe that the only way to improve someone’s writing is brutal honesty. I partially agree. Whenever I hand a manuscript over to a beta reader or a writing group, I ask them to tell me what I did poorly (so I can fix it), what I did well (so I don’t break that stuff while fixing the bad), and what didn’t engage them (so I can cut the fat or make them care). Focusing only on the bad will discourage just about anybody, so take the time for a few kind words when they are deserved. Cut to the heart of the issue and be honest, but brutal may not be as necessary as you may think.

4) Silence is Golden, but Duct Tape is Silver
You cannot talk and listen at the same time. Nor can you contemplate a witty retort and listen. Writing groups are neither a thesis defense, nor a debate. They are an opportunity to listen to the opinions of others. If you have trouble holding your tongue, I find that duct tape works wonders. I’m not being facetious. In fact, one of my writing groups held a role in reserve for certain members at each meeting. The exception to this rule is to ask for examples or clarification. In that particular group, we made signs that read “Please elaborate on what you just said,” or “Can you please provide an example of what you mean?” It worked wonders for our productivity.

5) Just Because You Listen Doesn’t Mean You Weren’t Right
In the end it’s your name that’ll be on the cover of the book. Writing groups are made of people, and people sometimes give bad advice. It’s important to consider your group’s feedback, but don’t accept it blindly. However, you do owe your writing group an open mind. Listen. Consider. Decide for yourself what to accept and reject.

6) Set a Structure, but Don’t Fear Change
Though artists tend to be free spirits, business people need order to thrive. An author needs to be both in order to be successful. Your writing time is your own, but writing group is about the business of making your books better. During the first meetings, establish rules and enforce them.

However, the whole point of a writing group is to get better. By necessity, your changing skill will alter what you need from the group. Take the time every so often to evaluate what y’all are doing as a group and make adjustments where necessary. The group is there to see to your collective needs. If it isn’t doing that, it needs to be changed.

7) Meet in Person Whenever You Can
I’ve tried forum based writing groups and they never worked. My theory is that there is more accountability involved in seeing someone’s face and talking to them. Furthermore, there’s a great deal of communication that passes between the words. That’s why my current writing group uses Google Talk or Skype for our meetings. It’s worked out really well for us so far!

8) Find a Group of Peers…
For a writing group to be effective, everyone must get something out of the time. If one member is significantly behind or ahead of the rest of the group, frustration and wasted hours will ensue. Better to find a group of people who have similar levels of skill, but much to teach each other. As an example, a non-fiction writer may not have a place in a SF&F writing group.

9) … But Avoid Group Think
Often, a group that is together a long time will all begin to write the same way. DANGER! The point of the group is to make each individual better, not to form the literary Borg.

This is often best avoided by having diversity in your group. Make sure you have both men and women in your group, as well as individuals from multiple racial or socio-economic classes. Do you aim at an audience of one or many? Why then, would you only have one kind of reader?

Secondly, find group members who write in similar, but different genres. An entirely sword and sorcery fantasy group won’t be as productive a group with one science fantasy writer, one classic fantasy writer and one writer with science fiction, literary fiction, and poetry leanings.

Based on your needs, be willing to mix the genre balance even more. Each genre has its own skills and lessons to teach. If you find that the group’s romance subplots are lacking, find a romance writer willing to join the group. Ultimately, I go to group to absorb the strengths of my group mates as well as share my own experience and skills.

10) Finally, Know When to Say Goodbye
There are two sides to this tip. On the one hand, sometimes a writing group member needs to be asked to leave for the good of the group. I had one group where one member was harsh to the point where others were afraid to submit to group lest they have their confidence and story torn apart. It would have been best for this individual to leave the group, but instead the group disbanded.

On the other hand, there will come a time where it might be best for you to leave a group. You know the time has come when the group stops being useful or is outright detrimental to your writing, when the group’s assignments feel like busy work, or the group has descended into unproductive bickering. Be polite in excusing yourself, but find another group. There’s nothing more to learn there.

About the Author:
Though Nathan Barra is an engineer by profession, training and temperament, he is a storyteller by nature and at heart. Fascinated with the byplay of magic and technology, Nathan is drawn to science fantasy in both his reading and writing. He has been known, however, to wander off into other genres for “funzies.” Visit him at his webpage or Facebook Author Page.

Post 1000: How on Earth Did We Get Here?

August 11, 2015

Evan Braun

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As near as I can recall, the Fictorian blog was birthed—at least in idea form—on March 20, 2010 in the lounge of the Westin Hotel in Pasadena. (See photo to pinpoint more or less the exact spot.) A group of writers had assembled for the first annual Superstars Writing Seminar to learn about the ins and outs of the publishing business. We were a big group of strangers with a whole lot of high-flying ideals.

I’d like to think those ideals haven’t gone anywhere, but that big group of strangers doesn’t exist anymore. Alas, we are currently a big group of friends and trusted colleagues.

Of course, none of us went home from that seminar ready to start blogging. It took just over a year to get organized. Our first blog post, “The Benefits of Holding Hands,” went live on March 30, 2011—and it goes like this, courtesy of Fictorian alumnus Nancy DiMauro:

Writers help you stay motivated and hold you accountable. It’s like having an exercise or diet buddy. After all, who can understand the ups and downs of writing better? Writers need to network, commiserate and, well, get honest feedback about what they write from others who are wrestling with the same questions…

I don’t know if Nancy set out to write a mission statement, but this one would certainly do the trick. Four and a half years later, and one thousand posts, it still holds true. The Fictorians is about writers holding other writers accountable, keeping them motivated during the many and varied troughs of the writing life, and helping them to network.

All of these years later, the names and faces have changed, but none of the original Fictorians are at the same place in their writing careers than when they started. Without question, this blog has helped us to grow and stay connected with our tribe.

So, one thousand posts. Four digits. A really big part of me can’t believe we’re here. I’ve read somewhere that the average blog lasts two years or less. If that’s true, we’re beating the odds—and that’s largely due to the fact that we’re doing it together. Holding hands, so to speak. It’s not easy to keep an online presence going day after grueling day. With the Fictorians, it’s pretty effortless. When everyone makes a small commitment (one post month, loosely), it’s not hard to fill up the calendar with great content.

Well, perhaps you’ve noticed that we’re really very extremely excited about our 1000th post. It’s a big deal, a big milestone, so we figured, why not throw a little party? That’s why we’ve been giving away books all month. Seven last week, seven this week (it’s actually thirteen, since one of the prizes this week is a seven-book bundle), and fourteen more as the month rolls on. These are books we’ve written, books that our friends and guest bloggers have written, and even books that our mentors have written. There’s a lot of good stuff. For more details, click here, or simply log in to the Rafflecopter interface to your right.

Our celebration isn’t all about the giveaways, though. For over a year, we’ve been working behind the scenes to bring you this upgraded site interface. It was ready just in time for this month, the most pivotal of months. We hope you’re enjoying it so far!

If you’re a writer and you’re looking for a tribe, consider us in your corner. Read and comment on our articles. Get in touch with us. And if you’re really serious about doubling down on your writing career (and we’re all hoping the answer is yes), then consider signing up for the Superstars Writing Seminar. That’s right; the Fictorians are still around, and so is Superstars, going strong into its sixth year. There’s no better place to fulfill the above mission statement.

Evan Braun is an author and editor who has been writing books for more than ten years. He is the author of The Watchers Chronicle, whose third volume, The Law of Radiance, has just been released. He specializes in both hard and soft science fiction and lives in the vicinity of Winnipeg, Manitoba.