|
mary rosenblum
|
Hello all!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I hope you've had a great
week.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Me, I'm not sure where this
one went! It has sped by!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But then this year has sped
by! In a very few weeks...like three...we'll have reached...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
the summer solstice and the
halfway point of the year. The mind boggles. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
This is our After Hours Forum,
with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor. Tonight we're talking about
deadlines. I've published seven novels (number eight will be out in
November) , more than 60 short stories, and will do my best to answer any
questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on
the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question
mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular 'send'
bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into the
regular send bar if that works better for you..
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I thought deadlines was a good
topic tonight. Of course, if you're a LR student, you face those with every
assignment.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And while deadlines are mostly
self imposed as you're breaking into the world of professional writing...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
they are still pretty
important. If you don't write, if you don't query, if you don't send out...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You don't publish.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And when you're not getting
much positive feedback...such as acceptance letters and checks...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
it is amazingly easy to
procrastinate.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Of course when you do sell and
you do begin to deal with the post-breaking-in world of publishing...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
deadlines are a hard reality.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you have a stack of page
proofs that have to be back on the publisher's desk on a certain date...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
but you also have a novelette
due for an anthology and the finished draft of your new novel...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
is due in to the publishing
house on the same date, you may find that even 24 hours is not enough in a
day to get it all done.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And that can seriously harm
you, careerwise.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
So learning how to deal with
deadlines now can help you a lot.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I know writers who have ended
up 'backed to the wall' and had to write...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
the final half of a 400 page
novel in say, two weeks, because they put it off too long.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And the quality suffers.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
So fewer people buy the next
book.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Not a good thing to do to
yourself, your career, and ultimately, your bank account.
|
|
geezer
|
I was wondering about page
proofs. Do they send all pages back to you or only ones that the feel need
work?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Oh they send them ALL back
when you're at the proof stage, geeze.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But that's the very end, when
the page is actually what you will see in the book...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
and you DO want to read for
content.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Those typsetters can drop an
entire paragraph. Or an entire page. It happens!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Now you may have been asking
about the editing process.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That takes place in multiple
stages, generally. If you publish with a house that actually edits.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Many of the 'fringe presses'
don't edit at all.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Generally, the editor gives
you a list of 'big issues'. Those will require revising scenes, maybe
adding some or taking some out...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
enriching a character, etc.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
YOu'll usually send in an
entire new manuscript at the end of this stage.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Next you'll get requests for
any 'small fixes' the editor notices later.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Those might be a sentence here
or there, a name change, little stuff like that. Logic errors.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Finally you may get the edited
pages to read for content...those are the pages that go into the review
copies sent out to reviewers.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Then the book is typeset and
you get the page proofs. By then you should be down to typos. And by then,
you're usually utterly sick of reading this thing!
|
|
writermom
|
wow lots of paper
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
No kidding. I buy the stuff by
the case anyway. :-) Use 'em notepaper. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Or a handwritten rough draft
if you hand write.
|
|
andi
|
is that the reviewers working
for the publishing house?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
No, Andi. Publishing houses
don't use in house reviewers. They are...shall we say...biased!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
They send copies out to
authors who might agree to blurb the book and to the big reviewers for he
big papers.
|
|
geezer
|
I think I'd better start whittling
down my novel!!!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Yeah, you can go through a few
reams!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
This is our After Hours Forum,
with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor. Tonight we're talking about
deadlines. I've published seven novels (number eight will be out in
November) , more than 60 short stories, and will do my best to answer any
questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on
the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question
mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular
'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into
the regular send bar if that works better for you..
|
|
beirdd
|
I had a weird thing happen to a
submitted novel... somehow in the transfer stage between my pdf and their
typesetting, anywhere I had used underlining, their software removed
everything from that point on to the end of the paragraph. But the next
paragraph was fine. I lost about eight lines of text that way.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Oh, it can happen!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
These days, nearly everyone
takes an electronic file for the final, edited copy...usually in Word or a
text file.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But the publishing software,
Quark, or whatever they are using...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
is occasionally incompatible
with buried codes in your word processor.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And you get that kind of
hiccough, Beirdd. You really have to look at those pages carefully.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But before electronic
publishing, the typesetters did more typos...so it's a trade.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
BUT...each of these steps is a
deadline and they are HARD deadlines.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If they tell you that the ms
has to be back by the 22nd and you don't get it back by then...too bad.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It goes to press as is.
|
|
beirdd
|
I find that someone else reading
the novel can find the little quirky things like that. After I've read it
so many times, I see what I EXPECT to see, rather than what is there.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Oh, I am a TERRIBLE copy
editor. I read for content, and then I send it to my nit picky, eagle eyed,
reader, who, at 76, doesn't miss a misplaced comma!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
SHE finds everything. :-)
|
|
charie'
|
Is there any way to fix typos
for a 2nd print run?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
There should be, charie.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I would certainly be unhappy
if a publisher refused to fix typos in a second print run.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
A friend of mine published
with a small press publisher who did not send him the page proofs.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The very first page had TEN
typos on it...glaring ones.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It was awful.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
He fixed it for the second
print run, but the damage was still done.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
He just didn't know enough (it
was his first) to demand to proof the pages.
|
|
robastor
|
Don't the publishers use
software to catch some of those?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Rob if you depend on your
spell check to catch all the typos in your submissions you are going to
tick off editors.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
He sliced the hem and made a
fat sandwich with swiss cheese.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Me, I don't like hem
sandwiches. The threads get caught in my teeth.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You'll end up with more of
those correctly spelled wrong words than you want, believe me!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
One of the things that catches
pros as well as students and aspiring writers in terms of deadlines is
procrastination.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Most of us do it.
|
|
robastor
|
I guess I was thinking there was
a really good editing program that would catch some of the misplaced comas,
ect.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
No. It's no more useful than
the grammar checker in Word.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Especially in fiction, so much
of the grammar is 'wrong'...dialogue, remember?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
People don't speak with
correct grammar and it takes longer to tell the grammar checker 'that's
okay' than to do it by hand.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Nonfiction is a different
story.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It's very easy to put off
creative work when there's no guarantee that it will get accepted.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Hey, it's easy to put work off
even when you have a NY deadline staring you in the face!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
A lot of the reason for that,
let's face it, is that when you start working on that story, you can start
doubting.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Is this any good? Is anybody
ever going to publish me? What's the point?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It's a whole lot easier not to
start.
|
|
writermom
|
I find even with my regular
columns that I put them off till the last week before the deadline
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Sometimes you have to get
'bit' hard by missing a deadline before you get over that. But it can be a
hard lesson.
|
|
robastor
|
What are some useful tips for
getting out of the procrastination rut?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Sometimes, you simply have to
bite the bullet and do it anyway. Make yourself...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
a deadline that you KNOW you
can keep, and then MAKE yourself keep it, even though you'll find a dozen
better (and more important) things to do.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Every time you do that...make
a small deadline and keep it...you'll make it easier next time.
|
|
charie'
|
What are some of the
repercussions of a missed deadline?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If an anthology, say, has a
press time reserved and because your story comes in late it a: can't be
edited so the editor of the anthology is not happy with its quality or b:
comes in so late...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
that the book misses its press
time and is delayed even though the advertising is in place...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
you are NOT likely to sell to
that editor again...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
and there aren't that many
editors in the universe.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Not good to shut that market
down.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It reflects badly on the
editor if a story is sloppy.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The advertising campaign for a
book is planned WAY in advance and not easily changed...well not without
considerable cost.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Same with a novel.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The publishing world is a
small pool and people talk to each other.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
YOur reputation can get around
if you do this sort of thing often.
|
|
iamnina
|
In the course of a novel, what
are the various deadlines taht come up?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Good question, Nina.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I'm talking big publishers
here, then I'll take small press.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
For a big publisher, when you
sell the book, you get 1/2 of the advance and a 'due date' for the
'finished' book.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That is even if you have
turned in the entire novel (which you will generally have to do as a new
writer).
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That 'finished' date means the
edited ms that is agreeable to both you and your editor.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
So you have that due date, and
it's usually 6 - 9 months out.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You'll get a 'questions'
letter after a few weeks from your editor.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That is the letter that asks
for the major revisions...the ones that might require new scenes, major
cuts, what have you.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The editor will tell you how
long you have for this...this is a rough deadline. She might say 'three
weeks' or a month or longer.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Depends on what else she's
working on.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
After you turn THAT revision
in, you'll get one or more requests -- probably by email -- for smaller,
nitpicky changes.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Editors can TIGHTEN your
prose, but only YOU make changes.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Finally, by or before the 'due
date', the editor declares the book 'finished' and you get the check for
the rest of the advance.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
THEN...you may get the edited
pages for the review copies. Not all houses do that. Tor does, Del Rey did
not.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Usually you have about 7 - 10
days to send that back.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Finally you get the page
proofs. AGain...you have 7 -10 days to return it.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And believe me, Fed Ex
overnight is SPENDY.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You don't want to do that.
|
|
tory
|
"edited pages for the
review copies"? Copy editting for the books going out early to
reviewers?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The edited pages are pages
where the major revisions have been done and the editor has done his line
editing, but the pages haven't been copyedited yet.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Reviewers know they're going
to see some typos.
|
|
andi
|
this is confusing
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I'ts not when you're going
through it, Andi. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You'll get a request from your
editor, you do what you're asked, you send the ms back by the due date. :-)
|
|
geezer
|
Should you ever send things in
before the due date? Does that spoil them and make them more demanding?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Nah. They set the dates by
when the book has to be in production.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
For a BIG house that is
publishing tons of books, if your editor doesn't get that mss into the
printer on time...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
that book gets sent to the
'end of the line' and if you had planned on it coming out in say, July...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
it may not come out now until
October.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If the advertising is planned
or it was positioned for a particular award, you have just lost important
PR.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It is a BIG no-no.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
They LOVE prompt authors, they
HATE people who miss due dates, but they set the dates by when...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
the book has to be in the
printers hands.
|
|
andi
|
that means there are lots of
planning for a book ahead of time
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Ooooh yes.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
For a big publisher, the
editor is planning two years out, most of the time.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
My book just went to press for
a November release.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It is being printed, bound,
pages trimmed, all that, then it gets packed and sent to the warehouse...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
from then to distributor, and
out to the bookstore warehouses...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
all so that it can appear on
the shelves on...not before...the official release date in November.
|
|
andi
|
how do they decide how many to
print?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Depends on how many they
expect to sell, andi.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
A small press run of trade
paperback might be 2000 copies.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
A NY publisher might print
35,000 copies.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
This is our After Hours Forum,
with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor. Tonight we're talking about
deadlines. I've published seven novels (number eight will be out in
November) , more than 60 short stories, and will do my best to answer any
questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on
the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question
mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular
'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into
the regular send bar if that works better for you..
|
|
robastor
|
In your experience, have these
deadlines always been an ample block of time?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Well, ample if you don't have
fifteen other things on deadline at the same time, yes. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you have a 40 hour per week
day job and a family, you had better get to work the day you get 'em...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
unless you're good at staying
up all night for several days in a row!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That's where YOU have to know
how you work, how much time you can take, you need to realistically...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
assess how long this will take
you and start so that you have time.
|
|
geezer
|
If they decide to do a second
printing, how long does it take to get the book out?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I don't know. :-) They don't
alwasy tell me...I just notice that the book I"m signing is a second
printing...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
but I"m sure it's a good
six week to two or three month process.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The book is ready to print,
but it has to get printed, bound, etc, boxed, shipped, and distributed.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It might happen faster. As I
say, they don't usually tell me 'we're starting now'.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
This is our After Hours Forum,
with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor. Tonight we're talking about
deadlines. I've published seven novels (number eight will be out in
November) , more than 60 short stories, and will do my best to answer any
questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on
the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question
mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular
'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into
the regular send bar if that works better for you..
|
|
charie'
|
Please give an example of prose
and post editor prose
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You mean like line editing
Charie?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Sure
|
|
charie'
|
Tightened prose versus the
original prose
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Okay...hang on.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
"So what's this all
about?" she inquires, playing with her straw before placing it slowly
and seductively into her mouth.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
"So what's this all
about?" She places the straw slowly and seductively between her lips.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The editor's job is to make
every sentence as strong as it can be without CHANGING what it means.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
They do the same thing we LR
instructors do.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Tighten.
|
|
robastor
|
Is it true that authors do not
make anything beyond an advance/ A lot of articles I've read suggest this.
How is it from your perspective/
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Again, it depends, rob.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If your books don't sell well,
then they won't reprint them and you won't earn anything beyond your
advance.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you DO sell well, they will
reprint your books and you will 'earn out' your advance...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
that is, you will earn more
money from royalties than they paid you in that 'advance against
royalties'...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
and you will begin to get
royalty checks twice or four times per year as long as...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
the book remains in print.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Many first time authors never
do earn out that advance and the books go out of print...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
without earning any royalty
checks.
|
|
tory
|
If they don't sell well, how
long before they ask you to return some of the advance?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Never, tory. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The advance is yours to keep
no matter what.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
BUT...if your book doesn't
sell well, you might not get as much money for your next book or they might
decide not to buy it.
|
|
charie'
|
Smart new writer's follow the
editor's advice, yes?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Well, the editors don't expect
you to quibble over the line editing. That's not a content change and they
figure they're better at this than you are. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
So if you don't like what they
do in line editing, you have to argue about it. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And yes, you can.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The assistant editor who
worked on my book is a sweetheart, he loves the story, but he is SO wedded
to narrative...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
and we went head to head on my
use of paraphrased internal monologue. He just didn't get it. Sigh.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
He finally DID get it and
stopped bugging me.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Didn't bother David, my
editor, but Denis, the assistant worked on some parts of it.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
In this case I was right. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you think you're right you
have to SAY so!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Of course all editors think
they know better and many are excellent...others are not.
|
|
charie'
|
So your story might be edited by
many people?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Usually just your editor and
the copy editor.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Denis didn't work on the whole
book, but he did work on some parts. I think he's in line to become a SR
editor is why.
|
|
foxx
|
What is para. Internal monolog?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Writing thoughts in a
narrative form using the POV's voice and vocabulary to avoid using direct
thoughts (which are clunky and tend to get italicized).
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
George peered into the room.
No Samantha. He sighed and checked his cell phone again. Late, always late.
She' never gotten anywhere on time in her life.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
She'd never...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I have paraphrased George's
thoughts No Samatha. Late, always late. She'd never gotten anywhere on time
in her life.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It reads more smoothly than
direct thoughts.
|
|
tory
|
How accepted is your style of
internal monologue, Mary? Of course, my critique group doesn't get. But
will most editors?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Oh yeah. Of all the editors
I've worked with...and that is MANY...Denis is the only one who had trouble
with it. That's just him. :-)
|
|
iamnina
|
Mary: so a copyeditor comes in
after the editor and dots all the i's puts commas in the right place, etc?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
They also check for logic
errors, make sure that names and any 'made up' words are spelled
consistently and often tell you what your idiosyncracies are.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Not all will do the last, but
I've had a couple who were really sharp about telling me my commonly used
idioms. :-) Great input.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I stopped using them so often.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
This is our After Hours Forum,
with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor. Tonight we're talking about
deadlines. I've published seven novels (number eight will be out in
November) , more than 60 short stories, and will do my best to answer any
questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on
the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question
mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular
'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into
the regular send bar if that works better for you..
|
|
megger
|
Magazines must have a radically
different timetable, right? Especially if you're doing a seasonal piece or
the magazine only comes out 6 times a year. Can you easily find out those
"rules?"
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Yes, megger.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Nearly all magazines use a 6
month lead.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That means they have roughed
out the format for the magazine that will be on the stands 6 months from
now.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
They have assigned or
purchased the feature article and they know what the issue will be about.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
They'll fill in with smaller
pieces between now and when the magazine goes to press...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
about two months, I think,
before the shelf date. At least I generally get page proofs 2 months ahead
of publication.
|
|
iamnina
|
when yu say idiosyncracies do
you mean like 'sparkling' eyes, or characters that sigh too much?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Exactly.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Everybody has 'tropes' like
that.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Readers do notice, so it's
nice to have them pointed out.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
This is our After Hours Forum,
with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor. Tonight we're talking about
deadlines. I've published seven novels (number eight will be out in
November) , more than 60 short stories, and will do my best to answer any
questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on
the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question
mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular
'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into
the regular send bar if that works better for you..
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
As far as deadlines NOW...it
really will help you to give yourself those deadlines you CAN meet...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
and then make yourself meet
them, even if it feels like digging a ditch.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I have written a LOT of words
in 'digging a ditch' mode. You can't avoid it...you just won't FEEL like
writing all the time.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And you won't feel GOOD about
writing all the time.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And you know what?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The stories I dragged myself
through were as good as the stories I loved.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Once I realized that...it made
me feel better about slogging when I really wanted to procrastinate.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
How you FEEL about what you
are writing is rarely accurate when you start out.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Not so now.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I have much more distance from
the emotions you have to deal with when you start out...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
when you're worried about
whether you have any talent, whether you're going to make it or not...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But when I was starting out,
even after I had started publishing, I was still dealing with those 'this
is awful I can't write' blues.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It's really worth it to sit
your butt down and do it anyway.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It won't feel good, but what
you FEEL does not likely reflect the quality of that story.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I've had quite a few students
send me something with a 'I really hated writing this' sort of
disclaimer...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
only to find I had the
strongest piece they'd written in the course to date. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That practice at writing when
it doesn't feel good will do more for deadlines than any other exercise you
can do.
|
|
geezer
|
My second grade teacher advised
me to just get my pencil moving when I was stuck. I find that is good
advice for many things in life.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Yeah, it really is.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And it's the kind of thing
that slowly but surely gets easier to do.
|
|
charie'
|
What if the editor asks for a
change and you can't think of an alternate scene?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You can always talk it out
with the editor. I spent lots of time arguing with David on the phone about
this scene or that scene or what my character was doing. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It's not a case of 'you do
this!' and you just do it!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It's you and the editor
working together and generally, you'll spend time on the phone doing just
that sort of give and take. (On their dime, fortunately! :-))
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Oh..small press timelines.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I didn't cover that.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Generally, small press is MUCH
quicker.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
A small press publisher is
going to bring out one of my out of print SF novels early in 07 and we
haven't done anything about it yet...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
probably won't until late this
year.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
The publishing process there
can take only a few months...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
although most publishers...the
good ones...bring out a limited number of titles in a year...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
and they do the editing,
copyediting process, so that takes time.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But instead of two years from
sale to shelf, you may see your book on the shelf in a year or maybe nine
months.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But the process is much the
same.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Content edit, copy edit, page
proofs.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And if you're publishing with
small press, DO ask if you can copy edit the page proofs!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
There is no reason they
shouldn't let you do that.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You do NOT want your first
book out there full of typos!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Once you have begun selling,
you have to begin balancing converging deadlines.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
I had to balance my work on
the novel course for LR with work on Horizons.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
When I knew that pages or page
proofs loomed on the horizon, I had to get the LR course up to date or even
pushed ahead so I...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
wouldn't hold them up while I
did page proofs or an edit.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you're pursuing a career in
nonfiction as a freelancer, you REALLY need to keep a good log.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you have ten queries out
and they all say yes, and they all want those articles in the next
month...can you cover them all?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Don't send out ten queries
three weeks before you plan on taking a month off for vacation!
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
When those editors say yes,
they'll want that article very very soon, for the most part.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And if you then say 'sorry,
can't do it', you go on that editor's personal black list. Not a good
career move.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Since nearly all new writers
are balancing at least writing and day job, if not writing, day job, AND
family, do think about upcoming...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
job and family events and try
not to paint yourself into a corner with a writing deadline.
|
|
foxx
|
How does all this apply to short
stories and articles? Are there differences?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Yes and no.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
For the most part, you're
going to send in stories and deadlines will only apply...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
once you have sold that story.
You'll get page proofs from most of the major magazines and good
anthologies before press time.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
That's going to be the only
deadline unless the editor asks for content revisions.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But once you start selling,
you'll get invited into anthologies.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Then you'll have a deadline
just as if you sold a novel.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
You will have to turn in a
completed story by a particular date.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you're on vacation when the
page proofs of a story arrive, it's not the end of the world.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
They'll just publish the story
without your input and hopefully you won't find too many typos.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
If you don't turn in the story
to the anthology...you're on THAT editor's major black list.
|
|
foxx
|
How about internet publishing?
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
It really depends on the
publisher, foxx. You have a huge range of ezines...from those that will
simply post whatever you send in, just the way it arrives...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
to more established ezines
that will edit your work and let you look at the piece before it's posted.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
SCifiction did that, and I
believe Strange Horizons (an excellent SF ezine) does that.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
So see? Those LR deadlines are
there for a reason. :-) They're good practice for later.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
They ARE a part of life as a
writer. :-)
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
But believe me, the hardest
ones are the ones you set yourself before you publish.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Well, this has been a fun
Oregon hour. :-) I'll post the transcripts at the usual place:
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
Writing Craft: Forum
Transcripts.
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
And I hope you all join us for
our casual Sunday chat...
|
|
mary rosenblum
|
where we just hang out and
talk about whatever.
|