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Happy New Year! And some Writing Stuff
Jan. 1st, 2018 09:20 am It's the first day of the new year, the first of my new life. Yesterday, I didn't do the New Year's Eve thing, although some of my friends texted me at midnight. I was still up after watching Dr Who "The Time Warrior" and a couple of episodes of Frontline, otherwise I'd be reading in bed. My sister and I spend Sunday nights with Mum, so we didn't go out, even, in my case, to see a movie. I don't think the Astor was doing Rocky Horror this year anyway.
My sister asked me how the writing was going. I said I was working on my article, but still need to finish off the research. She pointed out that I now have the time and no excuse. So I was up 6.00 am this morning and made my way through the market guide to which I subscribe. It comes about twice a month, for a very reasonable price, and so far, I haven't been able to really check it out properly. The editor is a highly- respected and well-known writer. She puts a lot of effort into compiling the lists.
However! Today I checked the most recent issue, and what a disappointment! I checked through all the links. One was completely broken, and Googling it I found that the web site seemed to have disappeared. My memory of that particular publisher was that at one stage it had been a vanity press, but I thought, you never know.
The rest were mostly small press, which is fine, except that they were not like the wonderful small presses with which I have dealt. No advances on any of them and some were strictly Print On Demand, which meant that if they couldn't sell your book, you'd get nothing from it. One of them actually asked you to let them know your awards, etc. - most real publishers say, "We don't care about your awards or whatever, we just want a brief summary of THIS book. That's what we're judging." One of them asked you to get all your editing done before submitting and suggested some agencies. I suppose that may be to spare them some of the truly dreadful stuff that makes me go cross-eyed while reading ASIM slush, but still, it implied that while they might do the proofreading(and even that they wanted you to get done by one of their suggested agencies before submitting) they were not going to edit. If it's good enough for them to accept for publication, then they should have an editor to make it look its best. And there was no information about what they pay you after you've paid the agencies to do their job for them.
Then there was the one that told you that, no, they didn't charge you for publication, although you did have to pay a reading fee if you entered their writing competition. There was a link to the submissions guidelines page, which had nothing on it but a blurb about the said competition.
Others were closed for submissions.
And then there was the Big Name Publisher with its ebook YA arm. Um, no. What it was seemed to be one of those self publishing services set up by the large presses in recent years. You pay them to put your book together and then you can have their name on your title page and people will assume you've been paid for it by a well known company. And no details, either, about the process.
In fact, none of the web sites I visited seemed to have any details about "what happens when we accept(notice I didn't say "buy") your book."
Sigh! I will go back through some of the more recent previous issues and see if I can find anything more useful. Then I'll look up some more market guides on line.
Meanwhile, I have an article to finish. The publisher - NSW School Magazine - is one I have dealt with many times before and which I decided to have another go with, after concluding I wasn't going to sell any fiction in the near future. They are honest and professional, and pay you on acceptance, even if it takes a while to come out, and they don't care what you do with your article or story after they've finished with it. In fact, in the past, I've received a forward from them saying someone ELSE wants to reprint your story/article. Sometimes they even ask to reprint and you get paid all over again!
What's not to like? Fingers crossed!
My sister asked me how the writing was going. I said I was working on my article, but still need to finish off the research. She pointed out that I now have the time and no excuse. So I was up 6.00 am this morning and made my way through the market guide to which I subscribe. It comes about twice a month, for a very reasonable price, and so far, I haven't been able to really check it out properly. The editor is a highly- respected and well-known writer. She puts a lot of effort into compiling the lists.
However! Today I checked the most recent issue, and what a disappointment! I checked through all the links. One was completely broken, and Googling it I found that the web site seemed to have disappeared. My memory of that particular publisher was that at one stage it had been a vanity press, but I thought, you never know.
The rest were mostly small press, which is fine, except that they were not like the wonderful small presses with which I have dealt. No advances on any of them and some were strictly Print On Demand, which meant that if they couldn't sell your book, you'd get nothing from it. One of them actually asked you to let them know your awards, etc. - most real publishers say, "We don't care about your awards or whatever, we just want a brief summary of THIS book. That's what we're judging." One of them asked you to get all your editing done before submitting and suggested some agencies. I suppose that may be to spare them some of the truly dreadful stuff that makes me go cross-eyed while reading ASIM slush, but still, it implied that while they might do the proofreading(and even that they wanted you to get done by one of their suggested agencies before submitting) they were not going to edit. If it's good enough for them to accept for publication, then they should have an editor to make it look its best. And there was no information about what they pay you after you've paid the agencies to do their job for them.
Then there was the one that told you that, no, they didn't charge you for publication, although you did have to pay a reading fee if you entered their writing competition. There was a link to the submissions guidelines page, which had nothing on it but a blurb about the said competition.
Others were closed for submissions.
And then there was the Big Name Publisher with its ebook YA arm. Um, no. What it was seemed to be one of those self publishing services set up by the large presses in recent years. You pay them to put your book together and then you can have their name on your title page and people will assume you've been paid for it by a well known company. And no details, either, about the process.
In fact, none of the web sites I visited seemed to have any details about "what happens when we accept(notice I didn't say "buy") your book."
Sigh! I will go back through some of the more recent previous issues and see if I can find anything more useful. Then I'll look up some more market guides on line.
Meanwhile, I have an article to finish. The publisher - NSW School Magazine - is one I have dealt with many times before and which I decided to have another go with, after concluding I wasn't going to sell any fiction in the near future. They are honest and professional, and pay you on acceptance, even if it takes a while to come out, and they don't care what you do with your article or story after they've finished with it. In fact, in the past, I've received a forward from them saying someone ELSE wants to reprint your story/article. Sometimes they even ask to reprint and you get paid all over again!
What's not to like? Fingers crossed!
