Submissions

Submissions, submissions, submissions.

They can cause a writer to sweat, become addicted to the refresh button, and prevent them from leaving their PC station. The process of submitting can be very emotional, as I've talked about on my site before. Today, I want to look at submissions in the objective term.

What is submission, how do you decide where to submit, and how do you know you're ready to submit.

Submissions:
Basically, a submission in writer's term is the process of sending an editor your story. It is made up of a cover letter and the story either in the body of the email or as an attachment. This is very different then the querying process (what you mail to an agent and some publishers)...which I'll cover some other time.

The cover letter is a quick, professional email stating the story you want to submit and who you are. My most successful cover letters followed Strange Horizon's format. Again, this is very different than a query letter that you'd send to an agent and some publishers.

Where to Submit:
Well, that literally depends on the kind of story you have. Know your genre, word count, and theme and then try some of these sites from Science Fiction Writers of America's (SFWA) list.

My personal favorite is Duotrope. They have a great system for seeking out and tracking submissions. Another site, Ralan.com, is great too, but for me personally I use it more for the other market-specific information and links it contains.

How do you know when you're ready:
Canned response to this is, "Well, that's up to you really. Have you thoroughly edited it (just spell checking doesn't work)? Have you checked your story mechanics for clarity, consistency, and logic? And most importantly, have you let it sit a while before re-doing the previous tips? Sometimes a break will allow you to further clean up and prepare your manuscript."

The real response to this..."Have you built up enough courage to hit send?" That's the only way you know you're ready. Even then, you will have the normal symptoms of a new story submitter, see my previous post titled Submission Process From the Writer's Viewpoint.

Good writing all! (And build up that courage to submit...you'll have to face it sometime or another if you want to be published.)

Tick, Tock, Goes the Clock

And I've been a busy mouse.

This week so far I added another 1000 words on my Sci-Fi epic. Plus, my Muse being hyped on creativity, I did a quick few hundred words on my fantasy novella.

Have I ever said how much I love my Muse? Except when we're not communicating...then she a pain in the a-...nevermind, you get the idea.

OHHHH, and my Nazi Writer also got some time in these last few days too. I actually submitted three of my completed short stories out to a few magazines and one anthology.

Good writing all!

Know Your Worth

Know your worth as an aspiring writer, my friends. Yesterday evening I received an email from a publisher...or so called publisher. Thank goodness for the resources and networks I've built up in preparation for my novel submissions.

In just two weeks they read through my whole manuscript (or so they say) and deemed it "worthy of publication". Imagine how grateful I felt. They'd attached an agreement, marketing plan, and publication schedule, along with a FAQs page.

I read through the contract and other attachments and let me tell you, it was the best fiction I've ever read. Here's some highlights:

• I purchase all copyrights, but give up all rights to my story for ten years
• A whopping $25 advance
• Mandatory 100 copies purchase that I have to make
• No advertisement, promotion, or marketing budget/plan or obligation by them (the marketing plan was what I should do with the 100 copies I have to purchased from them)
• A "No Sue" clause
• They have absolute control over changes and edits with no approval needed by me
• No out clause for me if they do not hold up their end of the bargain
• 3% royalty for hardback, 10% for paperback, 25% for ebooks, but they then take out the costs of production and manufacturing from that and I get what's left
• And no actual payment schedule for royalties I earn

I laughed reading through this and my hubby joined in. I then crafted a very clear response and reported them to two sites that are invaluable to all writers.

• Preditors and Editors
• Writer Beware

Before you start any submission, make sure to read up and know what you're getting into, because snakes like this company are everywhere in the business. Research, research, research. Knowledge in powerful and helps you maintain cool and calm in what will be a long and interesting journey into the world of publication and authorship.

She did get one thing right in her offer email...my story is worthy of publication. However, it's worthy to be published by a house who will treat it and me with worth.

Submission Process from the Writer's Viewpoint

You can be the type of writer who constantly changes and modifies the same story until, well, forever. In that case this post will have no benefit for you and you can skip it (I won't be offended, promise).

But for those of you who are in this to eventually get published and have progressed enough to realize manuscripts have to be completed, you realize it's going to happen.

Eventually your draft will be as complete as possible. Your beta readers will still be in disagreement over plot, character, and word choice...but they'll catch no more technical errors. You, yourself, have gone through and can only change a word choice here or there. The title page is complete, formatted, and has your correct email address (not the personal one that starts with hotmama12).

It's time.

Still excited, you put together the cover/query letter and paste it into your email. The excitement starts to turn to manic psychosis about here...You double, triple, million times check it for errors or weird sentences. You attach the manuscript, remove it and reattach to make sure you've got the right file. Remove it, change the name of the file to something you feel is more professional. Reattach. Remove and reattach to ensure you have the right file.

This can take anywhere from 1 to 5 hours.

Then with nervous, sweaty brow and your heart about to explode....you hit send.

At this point, you completely freak out. Going straight to your sent file, you reopen to check for errors, file mistake, anything. You sit for the next 1 to 3 days hitting the refresh button, waiting for the confirmation and acknowledgement response. Often throughout this phase you log out and then back in...just in case the refresh feature is broken.

Once you receive the acknowledgement the little crazy writer inside of you needs a mental jacket. You spend the next 90 days (yes, most responses take 90 days) obsessed with your email and your submission tracker.

Now, the little realistic writer inside of you tries to tell the crazy writer to calm down. But we all know what telling someone to calm down does. Eventually the realistic writer does manage to tie up and muffle the little crazy writer and gets to work on writing, editing, or outlining the next story...but it takes a while.

Usually by this time, within a few days, you get the response from the editor and it's time to start all over again either with the same story or another completed story. The good news is the more times you've done this, the faster and easier it is for the little realistic writer to take control and the more productive you'll be during the waiting torture phase. It really does just take practice and a built up resistance to the neurotic tendencies.

Good writing all!