I’d like to see if I’m on the right track with the kind of information that people want to see.

Let me know what you think of the lessons I’ve posted so far.

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Word Counts - Today: 0 | September: 1,560 | 2009: 159,602

To follow up on the lesson I posted yesterday, here’s a tip someone told me about how to keep POV from shifting within a scene. Many writers don’t even seem to realize they are doing it and this will help. more…

Word Counts - Today: 0 | September: 1,560 | 2009: 159,602

[Lesson #1]

There are many reasons why I had to reject stories from the anthology. The most obvious is that the plot wasn’t very good. While this is somewhat subjective, there is no easy way to say that some stories didn’t do much for me.

On a less subjective note, there were good stories that got rejected. Some of them were due to issues writers can address and I’ll offer some suggestions on those.

1. The story didn’t grab my attention in the first few pages, so I didn’t read enough to find out how wonderful it was. There isn’t enough time to read every page of every story. And to be honest, if a story doesn’t interest me in the first page or two, is it going to interest readers who buy the anthology? How many times have you skipped to the next story because one didn’t get your interest? Don’t be the writer who gets skipped over. more…

Word Counts - Today: 1,560 | September: 1,560 | 2009: 159,602

We’ve been told this since before we could read and write, but it’s still excellent advice when you’re querying or submitting your work to an editor or publisher. This is probably more useful to new writers, but it never hurts to remind people why it’s important.

If I excluded all the subs I received where the author didn’t follow directions, I would have ended up with 10 stories instead of more than 50. I decided to not let this determine which stories I read, though it may have influenced my final decision when deciding finalists. Is that fair? Yes, and here’s why:

Bottom line here before the examples: editors can form an opinion of how easy you are going to be to work with by whether or not you can follow simple instructions and how well you can communicate. The publishing process requires a lot of communication, from contracts to editing to working with cover artists. Any time you fail to follow instructions delays the process.

Just as important: How well you pay attention to detail in submitting your story is probably a good indicator of how much attention you paid in writing it. If you don’t go and check the call details before subbing, does that mean maybe you didn’t go back and revise your story before sending? more…

Word Counts - Today: 1,055 | August: 11,272 | 2009: 158,042