Tag Archives: Publishing

Give that Publisher What They Want Dernit! #3 Formatting part 1

Posted on January 5, 2013 | 19 comments

I am uber stoker to be able to dig into the wild and crazy brain of someone who is out there doing this crazy publishing stuff professionally. When you read this, you’re gonna want to slap yourself silly, because this is hearing it right from someone who does this for a living. For the next few weeks, we will be delving into the slush pile with professional editor and author Danielle Ackley-McPhail

Here we go…

The Writer’s Toolbox: Give ’Em What They Want! Why Formatting Is Important By Danielle Ackley-McPhail

—————————————————————–

So far, we’ve discussed that nothing will help your manuscript if the editor in question is not even willing to read it.

We’ve discussed remembering your contact information, and some basics… How to identify yourself, and your manuscript.

Now let’s discuss the basics of formatting

Formatting #1

Some things are just industry standard and if you are serious about becoming an author you have an obligation to learn what those are. If you are submitting somewhere that for one reason or another does not have submission guidelines always assume they want the following formatting:

Font – Courier or Times New Roman, 12 point. These fonts are easy to read and clear and 12 point is generally a comfortable size for most people.

Spacing (Print) – paragraphs should be first-line indented and double spaced, with no line break in between paragraphs. Some programs have an automatic indent feature. These can cause problems in the typesetting process so, personally, I feel it is better to use a tab for your first line indent. Not sure if any publishers or editors (besides myself) express a preference on that. In either case, whichever you chose use it consistently.

It also used to be the convention to double space after a period. This hails from the days when manuscripts had to be manually typeset. It is no longer necessary in the age of computers and digital typesetting, though many still do so, simply because it was how they were originally taught.

Spacing (Online) – paragraphs should be flush left (no indent) and single spaced, with a line break between paragraphs.

Section Breaks – when a scene changes it is very important the transition is clearly marked. Some authors simply use a line space in between the scenes, others use either a number sign (#), or three asterisks (***) so that it is clear the break is intentional.

The End – Generally a good idea to close your manuscript with these words just so it is clear to the person reviewing it that nothing is missing.

Next week we’ll discuss some more advanced formatting requirements.

Be there or be square, or, ummm… rejected?

Award-winning author Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for over seventeen years. Currently, she is a project editor and promotions manager for Dark Quest Books.

Her published works include four urban fantasy novels, Yesterday’s Dreams, Tomorrow’s Memories, Today’s Promise, and The Halfling’s Court: A Bad-Ass Faerie Tale. She is also the author of a single-author collection of science fiction stories called A Legacy of Stars, the non-fiction writers guide, The Literary Handyman and is the senior editor of the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, Dragon’s Lure, and In An Iron Cage. Her work is included in numerous other anthologies and collections, including Rum and Runestones, Dark Furies, Breach the Hull, So It Begins, By Other Means, No Man’s Land, Space Pirates, Space Horrors, Barbarians at the Jumpgate, and Mermaid 13.

She is a member of the New Jersey Authors Network and Broad Universe, a writer’s organization focusing on promoting the works of women authors in the speculative genres.

Danielle lives somewhere in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail, mother-in-law Teresa, and three extremely spoiled cats. She can be found on LiveJournal (damcphail, badassfaeries, darkquestbooks, lit_handyman), Facebook (Danielle Ackley-McPhail), and Twitter (DAckley-McPhail). To learn more about her work, visit http://www.sidhenadaire.com, http://www.literaryhandyman.com, or www.badassfaeries.com.

Website and/or blog www.sidhenadaire.com, http://lit_handyman.livejournal.com, http://damcphail.livejournal.com

Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/DMcPhail

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/danielle.ackleymcphail

Amazon author page http://www.amazon.com/Danielle-Ackley-McPhail/e/B002GZVZPQ/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1331314265&sr=8-1

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/989939.Danielle_Ackley_McPhail

http://www.badassfaeries.com/

http://www.sidhenadaire.com/

Why Was My Mnauscript Rejected? (literaryagentsandpublishers.wordpress.com)
Guest Post: How to Avoid the Rejection Blues by Heather Topham Wood + Giveaway (thesolitarybookworm.com)
Rejection: Greatest Hits (pikeknight.wordpress.com)
How I got my agent and what it means (victoria-writes.com)
Don’t Shrink from Synopses! (writersinthestorm.wordpress.com)
Editor Interview with Mari Farthing (luciesmoker.wordpress.com)
Partnership Publishing: the author’s and publisher’s stand-point (literaryagentsandpublishers.wordpress.com)

Formatting a manuscript-one way to do it (kimharrison.wordpress.com)
Editor Interview with Mari Farthing (luciesmoker.wordpress.com)
The Constant Search in Publishing (terrywhalin.blogspot.com)
Don’t Shrink from Synopses! (writersinthestorm.wordpress.com)
Why Was My Mnauscript Rejected? (literaryagentsandpublishers.wordpress.com)
Guest Post: How to Avoid the Rejection Blues by Heather Topham Wood + Giveaway (thesolitarybookworm.com)

Manuscript Formatting – The Basics (hugs-and-chocolate.com)
Friday Editor’s Tip: Lose the formatting! (beetlesinthebush.wordpress.com)
Last Minute Formatting Tips Using Scrivener And Kindle Previewer (michaeljholley.com)
Lessons Learned in Writing My First Novel (sebastiancoleauthor.com)

19 Comments

Posted in Author Advice

Tagged Arts, author, Leading, Manuscript, Publishing, Roman, Times Roman

So, am I a grumpy bear, or a morning person? What are you?

Posted on December 15, 2012 | 13 comments

If you are craving some insanity from me today, hop on over to Rebecca Heart’s blog for a great interview with little old me. Some fresh questions… thank goodness. (Like wether or not you’d like to be around me in the morning) 🙂

But don’t forget to scroll down below first… to be whisked back to the time of castles and dragons with Fantasy Author, Jenny Keller Ford.

Yay! Go Dragon Girl!!!!!

Hi fellow antho-buddy! Thanks for having me as a guest today. I’m über excited to be here to talk about the Make Believe anthology, and more particularly, my short story, THE AMULET OF ORMISEZ.

Oh yeah! Totally into it! You know me… give me a hot guy in armor and I’m all a-gush. I’m wondering what the heck in that picture inspired a classic Fantasy with knights and castles?

I wish I could say I had something or someone that inspired me to write The Amulet of Ormisez. In all honesty, I was lost for weeks. I just stared and stared at that photograph (which is now the cover), not knowing what I was going to write about. Then one day, I opened a vein and ‘bled’.

Ewe. Okay, I’m grossed out…

Ha! Sorry. When I first saw the photo, my first impression was “red against white” – contamination/blood against purity/snow. There was a castle in the background. I immediately thought how perfect this was, especially for the fantasy writer in me. What fantasy elements could I bring into play? At first I thought dragons, but the thought was replaced almost instantly with selkies, and the thought stuck.

After several weeks/months of no inspiration, a thought came to me. With only a few weeks to spare to meet the publisher’s deadline for submission, I sat at my computer and started writing. I don’t know where the idea came from, but I got this vision of a man, riding horseback over frozen terrain, his cloak flapping behind him. Before I knew it, there was a story emerging. I let the characters take me where they wanted to take me.

That’s totally cool. It’s like going on a ride, right? Do you always write like that?

I’m not a planner. I finished the story in a couple of days, edited it and threw it out to beta readers. They all came back and said the first half was great…the second half needed lots of work. I agreed, and so I went back to work. It was literally hours before deadline when I made the final edits, closed my eyes and hit the “submit” button. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was that J. Taylor loved my story and wanted to publish it.

Their belief in me encouraged me to write more short stories and continue on with a YA fantasy trilogy I’ve been writing. I hope to see a lot more of my stories, including my first novel, published in 2013.

Yay! I hear you may have a dragon hidden under your sleeve. 🙂

I’m not telling [wink]

Awesomesauce! Cannot wait! But for now, feel the Fantasy love with J.Keller Ford’s THE AMULET OF ORMISEZ in the Make Believe Anthology. Oh Yeah!

Why all the hullabaloo? Well, it’s to promote my two new releases “Make Believe” and “For the Love of Christmas”

That’s why!

And don’t forget to click on “Enter to Win” for a chance to win your choice of the two titles! Yay!

Oh, I almost forgot… A few random commentors along the tour path will win their choice of anthologies, too. So be sure to hop on over and say “Hi”

ChristmasFiligree

Hop on over and send me some love!

Don’t forget to hop on over to see me today?

Click on over to see my interview with Rebecca Hart

Visit my Anthology buddies! They are celebrating too!

Muse-Sings December 2012 Special Feature & Giveaway (juliecatherinevigna.wordpress.com)
Author Love: J. Keller Ford (jabelfield.wordpress.com)
Make Believe Blog Tour: An Interview with Contributing Author, Jennifer M. Eaton (rebeccahartwriting.wordpress.com)
Exciting Announcement! (jennykellerford.wordpress.com)
Benefits of Writing Short Stories (teacherlingo.com)

13 Comments

Posted in Author Interview

Tagged Amulet of Ormisez, Christmas, Dragon, Fantasy, Fantasy Author, Make Believe, Publishing, Short story

Road to Publication #23: – Never Ending Edits

Posted on November 12, 2012 | 22 comments

Well, I submitted the Arcs, and like I thought, a few of the things I asked for were turned down. Basic mistakes like punctuation and spelling were all a no-brainers and fixed (I hope).

Wait — OMIGOSH! I just looked at my countdown button and there are only 21 days left until I am officially published! Holy freaking cow!

**Ahem** Sorry… Shaking off the freak out. Back to business…

Okay… those final edits… Here’s what happened.

The Chapter Headers, which I wanted in Edwardian Font, were changed to an awkward Arial Bold that just made me cringe… So if you read it on kindle, imagine that being beautiful scrolling letters that make you feel like you are outside. Funny thing is, The PDF version looks fine, so it might be different depending on the E-reader.

I also was turned down on the Ellipses. I knew they would say no, because I am reading another one of J.Taylor Publishing’s novels now, and I found exactly the same problem in that novel.

In a closing ellipsis, JTP’s standard format is a space before and after… no-matter where it falls on the page. This means that if you have the sentence, “I tried to do it but …” the “…” could very well drop to the next line, and appear all by itself. To me, that completely ruins the mood of what you might be trying to do, but that is the publisher’s choice. They want all their novels in the same format. I need to understand and live with that.

One section of the book had part of the scene removed in editing, and I had to “bridge the gap” because it was obvious there was something missing. It was easy… just added a scenery sentence, but in doing so I accidentally repeated the word “eased” in two back to back sentences. They asked me what I wanted to do and I changed one “eased” to “settled”. Good catch JTP. Thanks!

Finally: A single word came in to play again. The editor had changed one word in a scene that I really liked. I tried to get my original word back, but they declined. The word that they choose just didn’t work for me, but after asking around for suggestions, I found another word that we could both agree upon and BAMO! Yay! We are finally done.

So, I guess they weren’t completely unending. They just felt that way for a little while.

The Arcs are now complete, and the next time I will see Last Winter Red it will be published as part of the Make Believe Anthology.

Ahhhh. Published. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Styles take the frustration out of formatting [Shelley Fishel] (ecademy.com)
On Writing (gointothestory.blcklst.com)
New Digital-First Publisher Now Accepting Mini Novel Submissions From New And Emerging Authors (prweb.com)

22 Comments

Posted in Road to Publication

Tagged Arial, editing, Edwardian era, edwardian font, Games, Publishing, Style guide, video games, Word Games

Road to Publication #21: Completing your first interview

Posted on October 29, 2012 | 11 comments

Okay, to be honest, I am writing this up after completing many interviews. The questions just keep flooding in. Such wackiness, I swear!

If you were on a train in Alabama, and the lights went out and the sky turned green, what would you do?

Seriously? You really want me to answer that question?

Okay, I made that up, but some of the questions are like this. A lot of the questions are very much the same though, and it’s hard to keep them sounding “Fresh”

While I was filling out a set of questions last night, my son (The Monomanical Middle Grade Reviewer) Leaned over my shoulder and told me I was boring.

I read it over, and decided he was right. I thought about some of the interviews that I’ve done here, and laughed at myself. Boring interviews are the reason that the Little Blue Lady from Mars was created… to add a little spice and fun into it.

He pointed out the last question, and told me I didn’t even really answer it. I looked it over. Yep, he was right. I danced around it.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll answer it.”

With a big smile on my face, I answered the question… I answered it with him in mind… Using all the magical powers of a science fiction author.

Within a few keystrokes, my son was chuckling. I was too… and I found that this time, I really DID answer the question. And it was funny. More “me”.

“You are just too cool, Mom,” the MMGR said.

You know what? I AM COOL Dernit!

Why hadn’t I done all of my interviews like that? It made me want to go back and re-do all of the interviews I’d already done. Unfortunately, I’d sent them all out already.

Lessons Learned.

For you guys… when you do your interviews, don’t get all “tight” and “boring”. Remember your “voice”… remember who you are. You only have about 250-500 words to get someone who has never heard of you to like you.

Use those words wisely. Have fun and be yourself.

What do you like/hate about guest posts and author interviews?

11 Comments

Posted in Author Advice, Road to Publication

Tagged anthology, author, author interview, editing, Interview, Manuscript, marketing, Publishing, Short Stories, Short story, shortstory, Writing and Editing, your first interview

Road to Publication #19: Completing the ARCs

Posted on October 8, 2012 | 15 comments

Whew! Anyone want to take a breath with me? Breathe in, Breathe out. Breathe in, Breathe out. Ahhhh feels good, doesn’t it?

So, yes, the arcs are done. What did I find?

There were a few odd editing errors. I mean… really odd editing errors. For instance, a sentence ended a paragraph in the original version. All of the rest of that paragraph was deleted, but that particular sentence remained, but was added to a different paragraph where it made no sense. Yeah, weird… I know.

What I also came across were places where a string of speech was removed for one reason or another, leaving what was left behind “hollow”… meaning someone answered a question that was never asked, or things like that. Yes, weird again.

I also found a sentence where a word was missing, but it was in the original text. Isn’t that odd? I guess I took for granted that the file would be cut and pasted. Apparently not.

What I marked mostly was something that I DON’T think they will fix, even though I asked for it. The reason is that I just saw the same thing in a published novel from this publisher.

It’s silly, and very anal I will admit… but on my Kindle, if a sentence falls off with a “…” at the end… if placed correctly, the “…” will be treated as its own word and end up all by itself on a line. I asked that ending “…” ellipses be attached to the final word in each case where they appear.

Like I said… I can ask, right? I hope they do it, because I think it will look better.

The hard part of this whole project was transferring all my notes from my Kindle onto an Excel spreadsheet so they could review it in the format that they requested. I suppose it would have been easier if I edited on my computer in PDF format, then I could have just created the spreadsheet at the same time.

Yes, in retrospect it would have been easier, but if I come across this again, I will probably do it the same way. The reason is that I enjoyed the experience of reading it on the Kindle, as my readers will see it. It just looked “different.”

(And it’s cool having the cover with my name on it appearing in my Kindle Carousel 🙂 )

Ah… vanity… definitely my favorite sin.

Oh! Impromptu movie game! Anyone know who said that line, and what movie it came from?

Self-Editing For Self-Published Fiction (advancedfictionwriting.com)
My Book Is Ready for Publishing (muponisi.wordpress.com)
effective editing: it’s not terminal or is it? (roxieh.wordpress.com)
So what does an editor do, exactly? (heydeadguy.typepad.com)
Life Happens, and the Novel Continues (vitaro.wordpress.com)
Copy editing jargon explained: the standfirst (alisonharmer.wordpress.com)
Self-Publishing ‘Properly’, Or: Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is (dan-harris.net)
Self-Editing (niaforrester.com)
Can e-book sellers survive the tablet war? (stuff.co.nz)
Step, step, step … the novel progresses (lindacassidylewis.com)

15 Comments

Posted in Road to Publication

Tagged Amazon Kindle, betting published, Business Services, Communications, connect the dots, Copy editing, deadlines, E-book, editing, editor, Google, Kindle, Paragraph, Publishing, Sentence (linguistics), too much to do, working with an editor, working with deadlines, Writing and Editing

Road to Publication #18: Reviewing the ARCs, OH NO!

Posted on October 1, 2012 | 36 comments

Holy Crud. This is not happening. I just found out why you DON’T want to have two works being published at exactly the same time… and even worse… by two different publishers.

I was stunned this morning when the first round edits for Connect the Dots came through. I thought I would have another week. I have two weeks to finish the ARC edit (the very last edit) of Last Winter Red AND finish the first round edit for Connect the Dots.

Okay. Breathe. It’s all good. This is a great problem to have. People are going to spit at you for having this problem. Take a deep breath. Chocolate helps. Good. Relax.

Okay. No problem. I can do this.

So… back to Last Winter Red. I started reading it on Kindle last night. I made a lot of highlights on the ARC with the handy Kindle Notes feature.

The reason for some of my notes is because my writing style has changed a lot in the last few months since I worked on Last Winter Red, and things don’t seem right to me anymore.

I did find a missing quotation mark at the end of a sentence. Easy fix (I hope).

What is odd, is every once in a while I stopped and said “Is that what he said?” or “Did I write that?” or “Wait. That makes absolutely no sense.”

I’m wondering if I even wrote some of these things, or if they were edited to the point of losing “something”. I want to go through the whole thing, make notes, and then go back to my original copy and see if I need to smack myself upside the head for past mistakes.

Maybe I do. At this point, I’m not sure what happened.

Either way, I think some more changes are in order.

What makes me cringe over this is that I could have made these changes months ago. I am tucking this away as a “lesson’s learned” though.

I did have a bad feeling about not reviewing the full version before it went to copy editing. You know that deep clawing pit-in-your-stomach feeling when you think you lost control of something?

To make sure this doesn’t happen again, I MADE SURE before I signed the contract with Still Moments Publishing for “Connect the Dots” that I WOULD have a chance to review a final before it went to final editing. Not only that, I will get to see a FULL VERSION as it stands through each round of the editing process.

For a control freak like me, this is a huge relief… because I know I will not be down to the wire and fixing errors I would have seen earlier.

This is not J.Taylor Publishing’s fault either. It is the way they work. All publishers are different, and as an author, I need to be ready for this.

What I need to do now is finish reading and marking. Then I want to go back again reading carefully for spelling/punctuation errors, and then I need to document and changes necessary on a spreadsheet.

I need to do this within one week, so I can devote the next week to Connect the Dots.

Once again, sleep may become optional.

My Book Is Ready for Publishing (muponisi.wordpress.com)
Self-Editing (niaforrester.com)
Self-Editing For Self-Published Fiction (advancedfictionwriting.com)
So what does an editor do, exactly? (heydeadguy.typepad.com)
effective editing: it’s not terminal or is it? (roxieh.wordpress.com)

36 Comments

Posted in Road to Publication

Tagged ARC, Arts, Business, Communications, connect the dots, Copy editing, copyediting, critique, editing, Fiction, getting published, Kindle, publish, Publishing, Review, self publishing, Short Stories, Short story, Writers Resources, writing, Writing and Editing, Writing help

Work in Progress Challenge Part Three. Yep… Still being honest

Posted on September 29, 2012 | 9 comments

If you are wondering about the title, I don’t want to get into it again. Check out the previous posts part one and part two

And without further ado… on with the riveting questions…

1. Is your WIP Published or Represented?

This is a really weird question. A WIP is, by definition, is IN PROGRESS. So, obviously it is not published. Represented? Kind of an odd question as well.

I guess I can tell you that no, I do not have an agent hanging over my head asking me to finish fast so they (we) can get our paycheck. This is the first of a possible series, so I do not have a publisher in line waiting for it, although I do have one that has expressed interest.

2. How long did it take you to write?

Oh! Actually an easy question to answer! I started this novel with a vow to myself to finish it by a certain time. I took two weeks and did nothing but plot it out. I decided what was going to happen before it happened. This greatly speeded up my writing time because I didn’t have to fix, rewrite, or add scenes to fix plot holes. From the actual start of writing the first page, to finishing the first draft…. I started on May 9^th, 2012 and finished on July 27, 2012. I don’t write on weekends (with the exception of a writer’s retreat.)

So, that’s 58 writing days… during which I also completed line-edits for my publisher on “Last Winter Red”, and I took the idea for “Connect the Dots” (a 9,000 word short story) from idea, outline, completion, beta and submission to the publisher – before I got back to (and was able to complete) Fire in the woods.

All that to say… looking back at my writing log, it looks like I actually worked on Fire in the Woods exclusively between 35 and 40 days. (That’s first draft, though. I’m still editing… and I think I want to add a few more action scenes and make it longer. — I feel a few more explosions coming on 🙂 )

3. What other WIP’s in your genre would you compare it to?

Here’s another really wacky question. Comparing to other people’s WIPs? Even if I could do this, I would be comparing to beta-manuscripts I have read, and none of you would have read those, so comparing would be futile. This question really does not make sense to me.

I suppose I could try to compare it to published work. Ummmm. Geeze. I don’t think I could to that either. Imagine “When Harry Met Sally” meets “Die Hard”. Sweet Romance intermingled with lots of explosions. ***sigh*** Yup. Just good old-fashioned fun.

4. Which authors inspired you to write this WIP?

Honestly, none that I could directly relate to this work. I suppose everything you read can sub-consciously mold you in a certain direction. Lately, I have been taking notes on good and bad things I have seen, but actual inspiration? I can only give that credit to the Big Guy upstairs.

5. Tell us anything else that might pique our interest about this WIP.

I just love this story, so everybody else will, too. So there! Tee Hee. 🙂

Seriously, I think there is a little bit for everyone in Fire in the Woods. Jess is a kid struggling with a bad relationship with her dad. It’s a story about a father struggling to raise a teenage daughter on his own, while protecting the planet at the same time. It’s about a boy trying to overcome past demons while proving his own self-worth to himself and others.

And best of all there are lots and lots of explosions! What’s not fun about that?

6. Finally: Tag three other Authors and ask them to complete the above interview.

I’m going to jump out of the box and shoot this over to the three most recent novelists that I’ve read. I’d love to hear a little about what they are working on now.

Olivia Devereaux – Of that little western “Mended Hearts” Fame

Claire Gillian – Of that annoyingly good mystery with the great voice “The P.U.R.E.”

Rebecca Hart – Author of “Call of the Sea” Ahoy Me hearties!

And just because I’m a rebel… I’m gonna also give it to J.M.McDowell ’cause she’s an archaeologist and I just find that incredibly COOL!

How’s that for mixing it up? A Western, an Office Mystery, and a Pirate book, and an archaeologist/Author. How well-rounded is that?

WIP is Slowly Eating its Way Out of Me (chortleatmygirth.com)
An Overwhelmed Writer (aserendipitoushappenstance.wordpress.com)
Work in Progress Challenge (juliecatherinevigna.wordpress.com)
WIP Wednesday #8 (I think) (twistedsticher.wordpress.com)
WIP: The Next Big Thing, Blog Hop (alifeamongthepages.wordpress.com)
Under Pressure (daphneshadows.wordpress.com)

9 Comments

Posted in General Writing Tips

Tagged Arts, author, Fiction, Online Writing, Publishing, Short story, WIP, Writers Resources, writing

Jon Gibbs’s Ten things I wish I knew before I was published #10: Interaction is the name of the game

Posted on September 14, 2012 | 13 comments

How you interact with others will have a HUGE impact on your careers

Join your first writing group ASAP and join as many as you can
Find other authors who might help you
Go to Writers conferences – You can meet people who can help you. They might tell you where a conference is and you may meet someone there (agent publisher)
Remember, you will get a lot of useless information
But also remember, you will get some great information as well.

Note: The above are Jon Gibb’s main speaking points, with my rambling opinions attached.

Jon Gibbs is the author of one of my son’s favorite books: FUR-FACE, which was nominated for a Crystal Kite Award.

Jon is an Englishman transplanted to New Jersey, USA, where he is an ‘author in residence’ at Lakehurst Elementary School. Jon is the founding member of The New Jersey Author’s Network and FindAWritingGroup.com.

Jon blogs at jongibbs.livejournal.com

Website: www.acatofninetales.com

13 Comments

Posted in General Writing Tips, Ten things I wish I knew

Tagged Arts, author, Book Review, critique, editing, Elementary school, Fiction, Jon Gibb, Manuscript, New Jersey, novel, Online Writing, point of view, publish, Publishing, self publishing, shortstory

The Big Announcement! Writing to a Deadline AGAIN #4 The Big Announcement!

Posted on September 1, 2012 | 47 comments

I am so excited to announce that I’ve just signed a contract with Still Moments Publishing to have my story Connect the Dots included in their 2012 Christmas Anthology.

This is totally unbelievable. In January, I posted a big boisterous banner proclaiming that I WOULD BE PUBLISHED by the end of 2012. It was quite a lofty goal for me, and now I will have two stories coming out this year.

I’m giddy with glee.

Hey, Canada. Look South. See that big bright light down in the USA? That’s me smiling!

Oh, guys. This is just so dern cool. You have no idea.

Click here to see my query blurb and promo page for Connect the Dots. Yeah, No explosions. I was a good girl for Christmas.

47 Comments

Posted in Road to Publication, Writing to a Deadline

Tagged anthology, author, Canada, Characters, Christmas, christmas anthology, connect the dots, critique, editing, english language, Fiction, getting published, Holiday, Literature, Manuscript, novel, Protagonist, publish, Publishing, Short Stories, Short story, shortstory, United States, Writer Resources, Writers Resources, Writing and Editing

Jon Gibbs’s Ten things I wish I knew before I was published #8: Write what you know

Posted on August 31, 2012 | 20 comments

Write what you know / write what they know.

Look around to see who has just published a book in your genre that is doing well NOW. This will show you what the market is currently handling. If a story is in a magazine, it is good. They had to go through the same submission process you have. Look at what they did. How does it differ from yours? How is it the same?

I’ve been trying to take this advice. I look at novels published by a publishing house I am interested in, and many times I shake my head. It’s hard.

Since I submitted to an anthology recently, I decided to read one (I’ve never read an anthology before). I was surprised. The stories were more like excerpts than stand-alone stories, and two of them ended in a way that actually made me mad. (No ending)

Was I going to write my short like that? No way!

Also, people have noted lack of emotion in my characters. So I look for emotion in recently published work, and Dang it I can’t find any! I mean, I get an idea of how they feel, and I think I am doing the same thing. Ugh. I just don’t know sometimes.

It’s really hard to read something and translate it into your own work… But when I do read something I like, I highlight it for reference later. I do try to learn from anything good that I read. But I learn even more from the bad stuff I read 🙂

Note: The above are Jon Gibb’s main speaking points, with my rambling opinions attached.

Jon Gibbs is the author of one of my son’s favorite books: FUR-FACE, which was nominated for a Crystal Kite Award.

Jon blogs at jongibbs.livejournal.com

Website: www.acatofninetales.com

20 Comments

Posted in Author Advice, Biggest Mistakes New Writers Make, General Writing Tips, Ten things I wish I knew

Tagged Jon Gibb, New Jersey, Publishing, United States, Website

Tag Archives: Publishing

Give that Publisher What They Want Dernit! #3 Formatting part 1

The Writer’s Toolbox: Give ’Em What They Want! Why Formatting Is Important By Danielle Ackley-McPhail

Formatting #1

Related articles

Related articles

So, am I a grumpy bear, or a morning person? What are you?

Road to Publication #23: – Never Ending Edits

Well, I submitted the Arcs, and like I thought, a few of the things I asked for were turned down. Basic mistakes like punctuation and spelling were all a no-brainers and fixed (I hope).

Okay… those final edits… Here’s what happened.

Road to Publication #21: Completing your first interview

Okay, to be honest, I am writing this up after completing many interviews. The questions just keep flooding in. Such wackiness, I swear!

Lessons Learned.

Road to Publication #19: Completing the ARCs

Whew! Anyone want to take a breath with me? Breathe in, Breathe out. Breathe in, Breathe out. Ahhhh feels good, doesn’t it?

Oh! Impromptu movie game! Anyone know who said that line, and what movie it came from?

Road to Publication #18: Reviewing the ARCs, OH NO!

Holy Crud. This is not happening. I just found out why you DON’T want to have two works being published at exactly the same time… and even worse… by two different publishers.

Work in Progress Challenge Part Three. Yep… Still being honest

If you are wondering about the title, I don’t want to get into it again. Check out the previous posts part one and part two

Jon Gibbs’s Ten things I wish I knew before I was published #10: Interaction is the name of the game

How you interact with others will have a HUGE impact on your careers

The Big Announcement! Writing to a Deadline AGAIN #4 The Big Announcement!

I am so excited to announce that I’ve just signed a contract with Still Moments Publishing to have my story Connect the Dots included in their 2012 Christmas Anthology.

Jon Gibbs’s Ten things I wish I knew before I was published #8: Write what you know

Write what you know / write what they know.

Follow Blog via Email

Which little dot are YOU?