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mary rosenblum
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This is the Tuesday Forum with
me, Mary Rosenblum, LR Web Editor, fiction and nonfiction writer, talking
about polishing your work. 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, or use the ask a question icon in
order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! You can
also type /ask in front of your question to reach me.
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mary rosenblum
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Hello all!
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mary rosenblum
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I hope you had a fun weekend.
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mary rosenblum
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This is a great time of year
to use that holiday ambience and make notes about ideas for Christmas
stories...
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mary rosenblum
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to sell for next year.
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mary rosenblum
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You have all year to work on
them and get them off, but right now, you're up to your ears in ambience!
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mary rosenblum
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I wanted to talk about
polishing today...
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mary rosenblum
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because it's not the same
thing as revising and judging by the student ms I see...
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mary rosenblum
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it's not a big habit with a
lot of novice writers, LOL.
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mary rosenblum
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And it does matter.
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mary rosenblum
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Remember that the first times
you send your work to a new editor, it's like a job interview.
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mary rosenblum
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Your editor/employer notices
all kinds of details that won't e important after you establish a working
relationship.
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mary rosenblum
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The smudge on your collar, the
mud on your shoes, the untied shoe laces...
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mary rosenblum
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they won't matter later on
when you're working well for the boss, but they make a poor first
impression.
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mary rosenblum
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And that is what polishing is
all about.
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mary rosenblum
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It's that final run through
AFTER you are happy with the story.
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mary rosenblum
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And most novice writers are
either so tired of working on the story by then or so excited and anxious
to send it off...
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mary rosenblum
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that many skip that step.
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mary rosenblum
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Whooo boy are some of the
homonyms side splitters!
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mary rosenblum
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She grated her friend rather
than she greated her friend...
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mary rosenblum
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and since she was cooking
dinner, I'm snickering...
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mary rosenblum
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And that happens to be a
climactic scene where the writer had NO intention of making me snicker!
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mary rosenblum
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Not good. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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And will a sloppy ms full of
little typos get you rejected?
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mary rosenblum
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Not per se...BUT...if you have
told a good, publishable story, and another person in the slush pile has
told an equally...
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mary rosenblum
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good, publishable story, and
the editor is trying to decide between the two of you...
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mary rosenblum
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because she only has space for
ONE new writer in the next six issues...
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mary rosenblum
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and YOUR ms is messy and the
other is pristine and obviously got a lot of polishing...
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mary rosenblum
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want to guess which one will
sell?
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mary rosenblum
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So if you tell a dynamite
story, your sloppy ms won't keep the editor from buying it..
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mary rosenblum
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but remember, as a new writer,
you have a LOT of competition in the slush pile...
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mary rosenblum
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and you don't want to be 'just
as good' you want to stand out.
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mary rosenblum
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And to editors, who fix typos
and small problems all day long...
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mary rosenblum
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a clean and shiny ms is
impressive. They KNOW how much work it takes.
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mary rosenblum
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Why not make the extra time
and take that polishing look.
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mary rosenblum
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This is the Tuesday Forum with
me, Mary Rosenblum, LR Web Editor, fiction and nonfiction writer, talking
about polishing your work. 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, or use the ask a question icon in
order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! You can
also type /ask in front of your question to reach me.
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mary rosenblum
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The hard part can be to DO the
polishing run.
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mary rosenblum
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In essence, it means you need
to turn off your creative brain entirely and let Editor Brain out of its
cage...put it in charge.
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mary rosenblum
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And make it Nitpicky,
no-content Editor Brain at that..
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mary rosenblum
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Tell yourself you will NOT
change anything but flow/typo problems.
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mary rosenblum
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NO content changes...
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mary rosenblum
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just catch slips in tense (oh,
I see a LOT of those!!!), the homonyms your spell checker missed... (Ellen
grated her friend in the kitchen...)
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mary rosenblum
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and maybe streamline those
sentences where you used those fat and flabby to be verbs or catch those
redundancies...
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mary rosenblum
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She told him to knock it off.
"Knock it off," she said.
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mary rosenblum
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But leave the order of events,
the character development, all those big content issues alone.
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mary rosenblum
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This is the Tuesday Forum with
me, Mary Rosenblum, LR Web Editor, fiction and nonfiction writer, talking
about polishing your work. 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, or use the ask a question icon in
order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! You can
also type /ask in front of your question to reach me.
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smeagol
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Mary, anything you can say about
how much editing should be done before a manuscript is sent to an editor
AFTER he or she has purchased it? I am currently going insane. I have an
editor waiting on my manuscript this week, and I am stuck in tweaking it
and can't seem to let go and get it out the door!
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mary rosenblum
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Aha...
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mary rosenblum
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and HERE lies the flip side of
the polishing coin...
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mary rosenblum
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the writers who are still
polishing that story they wrote three years ago...
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mary rosenblum
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and don't laugh. I know a few!
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mary rosenblum
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What you hve to realize,
smeagol...
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mary rosenblum
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is that an editor IS going to
change your words.
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mary rosenblum
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That's what editors do. THEY
know just what they want to see in a strong ms...
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mary rosenblum
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and yours is never going to be
perfect.
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mary rosenblum
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So when you get down to tweaky
changes of word order, inverting sentence structure, and that sort of
thing...
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mary rosenblum
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you're not really polishing,
you're tweaking, and if every time you read it, you want to change things
you changed last time...
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mary rosenblum
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then you are making changes
that are equally trivial. Leave 'em to your editor.
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mary rosenblum
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The minute I find myself
changing a sentence I changed LAST pass, I know I'm done polishing.
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rissa
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So basically, we are just helping
the editor cut out some of the work that we can do ourselves
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mary rosenblum
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No, you're doing what you're
supposed to do BEFORE you send your work to an edtior.
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mary rosenblum
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What editors do is to make
your work as strong as possible, and they will look first at content, then
style...
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mary rosenblum
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but sloppy mistakes are YOUR
job, not the editor's.
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smeagol
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Yes, that's exactly what I'm
doing, but it is based in the fear that if the editor isn't thrilled with
me, then she might not want to work with me again.
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mary rosenblum
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If your editor simply does not
like what you write or it does not sell, yes, you won't sell to that person
again...
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mary rosenblum
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but if she likes what you
write and it sells for the publisher, she'll do the work gladly.
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mary rosenblum
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Editors have as much ego
involved with your story as you do
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mary rosenblum
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They don't mind the small
changes work, if they think your work is valuable...
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mary rosenblum
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they are part of creating that
final version.
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pan
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is it possible to polish until
you kill the story flow/style? i read that somewhere
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, it is possible to change
your story until you kill it...
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mary rosenblum
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and that does happen to new
writers, alas...
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mary rosenblum
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but I wouldn't call it
polishing when you do that...because you're making content
changes...revising the work.
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mary rosenblum
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But I have seen new writers
who lack confidence take every suggestion made to them by writers groups or
critiquers...
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mary rosenblum
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and of course, some of the
suggestions work against others, and some are not right for the story...
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mary rosenblum
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and what was a rough, but
strong piece ends up a mish mash.
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mary rosenblum
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Does that mean you should
never ask for a read and listen to advice? Absolutely not.
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mary rosenblum
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Readers will see things that
you will see only after ignorning the ms for months or years...
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mary rosenblum
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and who wants to do that?
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mary rosenblum
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BUT you need to listen to
suggestions and decide if they are right for your story or not. It is YOUR
story...
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mary rosenblum
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and there comes a point when
you have to say, 'this is as good as it's going to get' and either send it
out...
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mary rosenblum
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or file it if it doesn't feel
right and hope that the 'missing piece' pops into being later..
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mary rosenblum
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And it probably will. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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So far, no filed story of mine
has stayed 'dead' but some were resurrected years later.
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mary rosenblum
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So how do you know if a story
is done?
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mary rosenblum
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When you find yourself
changing only word order, adjectives, that sort of thing...
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mary rosenblum
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you're just polishing and
you're finished crafting.
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mary rosenblum
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So polish it and send it off.
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roe
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Mary, what do you do when an
editor changes your words and adds a lot "LY" words. EX: Tom
declared decisvely
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mary rosenblum
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Well, roe, you can change them
back if you get the edited ms and the chance to fix things...
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mary rosenblum
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and if those changes end up in
the final published version and you're not happy with them, don't sell
anything more to that editor.
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phil-w
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How important is content versus
style? Can you give us a ratio?
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mary rosenblum
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That entirely depends on the
market phil.
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mary rosenblum
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If you're submitting to a
literary journal, your style is going to come before content, for most of
them...
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mary rosenblum
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But if you have a dynamite
mystery or SF or fantasy piece, the editor will be willing to work with you
on style...
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mary rosenblum
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Mainstream is a mix of both
and it's going to vary from editor to editor...
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mary rosenblum
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and even in the other genres,
some editors are more interested in style than others.
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mary rosenblum
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For example, Jay Lake, a SF
editor really cares about style and it DOES matter to him. A lot.
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roe
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she sent it to me for revision,
that is a suggestion she made, actually a lot of the suggestions add ly
words to the ms. I'm changing them back but does that mean she might not go
with my changes
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mary rosenblum
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Yep. This is the relationship
between writer and editor...they change and if you unchange, they don't
always accept it...
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mary rosenblum
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I'm pretty flexible, but I've
had editors who did things I didn't like and I kept that in mind, next time
I wrote for them!
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mary rosenblum
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When I worked with Jim Turner
at Arkham House, the best editor I've worked with so far, we discussed
every change he wanted...
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mary rosenblum
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and it was a lot of fun. Most
of the time he was right, sometimes I was and he backed down, sometimes I
didn't agree with him, but resigned the arguement.
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mary rosenblum
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When you sell your
story/article you ARE selling the right to edit, folks.
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mary rosenblum
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With major publishers, editors
aren't going to seriously change the content of your piece without your
permission...
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mary rosenblum
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but it has happened with
small, fringe presses.
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smeagol
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Mary, apparently my contract has
a clause in it (according to my attorney) that allows an author to make or
suggest changes (in the manuscript or galleys) up to a certain point (a
given time limit) and after that date, no changes can be made without
penalty (to me). I think this is contributing to my being stuck in
tweaking. I assume this is typical?
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, and it's a generous
clause, smeagol. Usually, by the time you see page proofs, if you want to
REWRITE rather than fix typos, they will make you pay. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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Because you are costing them
expensive typesetter hours as they reconfigure page numbers!
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mary rosenblum
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But up until then, you can
change changes.
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mary rosenblum
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And it's a good idea to
discuss your reasons with the editor if you want them to stand...
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mary rosenblum
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Not all editors are equally
skilful and if you can give a good reason why you'd rather not use a bunch
of adverbs, for example, you might just change the way your editor thinks
about that prose.
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mary rosenblum
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You don't have to be a GOOD
editor to call yourself an editor remember!
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mary rosenblum
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But in the larger circulation
magazines, fiction and nonfiction, they are mostly good because the mag
will lose money if they are not and they'll get fired!
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mary rosenblum
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And the competition for those
jobs is fierce!
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mary rosenblum
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But in the smaller mags, the
editor is often the publisher who has funded the 'zine...
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mary rosenblum
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and you get what you get.
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mary rosenblum
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But my personal feeling is
that the cleaner your ms is, the less your editor messes with content...
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mary rosenblum
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If she is in there fixing
every sentence, it's easy for her to start making bigger changes..
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mary rosenblum
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if she gets caught up in the
story and no problems in the prose distract her...
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mary rosenblum
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she may read right through,
and send it on to typesetting.
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mary rosenblum
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Which is a VERY good reason to
polish before you submit! LOL
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bobbi
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Is a writer a writer only after
they sell something?
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mary rosenblum
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Not at all, bobbi. Not even to
the IRS, so it's official!
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mary rosenblum
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I believe that you are a write
when it stops being a hobby to YOU.
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mary rosenblum
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When you start to put the
writing first rather 'when you have time'...
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mary rosenblum
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when you say no to other
things because you 'have' to get this story finished...
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mary rosenblum
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when you write and submit and
write and submit and cry over the rejections and feel like you're NEVER
going to get there and write some more and submit some more...
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mary rosenblum
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you are a writer.
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mary rosenblum
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You are not a lawyer, or a
mom, or a clerk who writes in his/her spare time...
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mary rosenblum
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you are a writer with a day
job.
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writermom
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amen to that Mary
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mary rosenblum
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Well, it's the only standard
that really makes sense in the reality of the writing world.
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mary rosenblum
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Some hobbyists get published.
They write a nice article on how to build a birdfeeder with your cubscout
troop...
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mary rosenblum
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send it off and sell it.. But
they write once in awhile, maybe sell a couple of pieces to local
publications...
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mary rosenblum
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but it's a hobby. Everything
else comes first.
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bobbi
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Guess I am a writer then thank
you Mary!
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mary rosenblum
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Good for you, bobbi!
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mary rosenblum
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The distinction between
'writer' and 'hobbyist' has nothing to do with sale.
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mary rosenblum
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This is the Tuesday Forum with
me, Mary Rosenblum, LR Web Editor, fiction and nonfiction writer, talking
about polishing your work. 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, or use the ask a question icon in
order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! You can
also type /ask in front of your question to reach me.
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mary rosenblum
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As long as we're talking about
polishing...there is a step post sale that you'll run into eventually...
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mary rosenblum
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which is the page proof or
galley.
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mary rosenblum
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The publisher sends you the
typeset pages so that you can check for typos...
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mary rosenblum
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and this is a time when most
people need to read the pages twice.
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mary rosenblum
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It's very easy for many
people...including me...to get caught up in your story and read what you
meant to write rather than what is on the page.
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mary rosenblum
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And you'll miss the typos.
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mary rosenblum
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BUT...you need to read for
content, because I have found as much as a full paragraph of dropped text
in some typeset pages...
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mary rosenblum
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and talk about an upset editor
when you find that!!! At least she was mad at the typesetter and not me!
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mary rosenblum
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My suggestion ...unless you
are the editorial sort who can always find typos in your own work...
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mary rosenblum
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is to read back to front for
typos...
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mary rosenblum
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that way you don't get caught
up in the story...
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mary rosenblum
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and then front to back for
content to make sure you don't have any missing chuncks.
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christopher dale
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doesn't the publisher also send
you the book art work to look at? Do you get to Yea/Nay it?
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mary rosenblum
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You mean the cover art,
Christopher?
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mary rosenblum
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Oh yes, you'll get cover
flats. :-) And you can scream and tear your hair and threaten suicide if
you hate it...
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mary rosenblum
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you know how much good it does
you?
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mary rosenblum
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Ha.
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mary rosenblum
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In the traditional publishing
houses you have NO say in the cover art, none, nada, and it is NOT
negotiable.
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mary rosenblum
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That is the marketing
department's venue...
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mary rosenblum
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BUT...
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mary rosenblum
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if a particular cover issue is
really important to you..DO suggest a cover scene to your editor and send
supporting photos, etc.
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mary rosenblum
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I did that with my
mysteries...sent in photos of the Columbia Gorge for one book so the artist
wouldn't make it look like the Grand Canyon...
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mary rosenblum
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and photos of Leach Botannical
Garden for the other so that the artist would create a recognizabale scene.
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christopher dale
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But what if you feel that the
marketing people either did something you feel is inappropriate or WAY off
base for your book? (No, I don't ahve one sold, and this is NOt from
personal exxperience, sadly...) ;-)
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mary rosenblum
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You're stuck, Chris. Happens
all the time. Gives you a topic for that writers conference cocktail party.
You'll find you are one of many.
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mary rosenblum
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There are writers whose book
sales suffered because of an inappropriate cover...
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mary rosenblum
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I think it was Nancy Kress who
ended up with a book cover that made it look like a romance rather than
SF...
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mary rosenblum
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sales were awful.
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mary rosenblum
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And she's a very well known
name...
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mary rosenblum
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but some bookstores shelved
her in Romance.
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mary rosenblum
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Nothing she could do about it
either.
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mary rosenblum
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Again...
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mary rosenblum
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give your editor
suggestions...
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mary rosenblum
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The art department usually
asks the editor for scenes to recommend to the artist...
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mary rosenblum
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or a sense of what should be
on the cover...
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mary rosenblum
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and the artist takes it from
there.
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mary rosenblum
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Now that is very different
iwth a small press house...
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mary rosenblum
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where you will probably work
with the publisher on your cover art.
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geezer
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A Christian writer could get
killed if it's racy!
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mary rosenblum
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Well, I doubt that would
happen, geezer.
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mary rosenblum
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The reason it's such a 'hands
off' issue is that cover is the major selling point for the book...
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mary rosenblum
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even if you're a well known
name...
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mary rosenblum
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unless you're SO well known
that your name is larger than the title...
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mary rosenblum
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and then it doesn't really
matter and your cover will just be your name with maybe foil letters to
make it look really good. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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But it DOES get the reader to
take the book off the shelf...
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mary rosenblum
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and even persuades readers to
buy the new re-issue if the cover is gorgeous...
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mary rosenblum
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even tho he/she already has a
ratty earlier release.
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mary rosenblum
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And marketing people have VERY
definite ideas about what makes a good cover and what sells.
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mary rosenblum
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I've gotten some excellent
education by tagging along with a couple of editors and marketing people
from Random House as they critqued the books in a Barnes and NOble for
cover.
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mary rosenblum
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Learned a lot.
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mary rosenblum
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So they don't want the
uninformed author telling them anything.
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phil-w
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Do you think book stores will
ever stock self published books? Mary.
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mary rosenblum
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Not brick and board
bookstores, phil...
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mary rosenblum
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the cost of that bookshelf
space is too high for them to put poor-sellers out there.
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mary rosenblum
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But the online bookstores are
different and I think that's where the future of book sales lies...
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mary rosenblum
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and that will change the
playing field...
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mary rosenblum
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BUT...we are going to have to
end up with some system of triage for readers...
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mary rosenblum
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because the problem with self
published books, including the POD self publish houses like iUniverse...
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mary rosenblum
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is that there is no indication
of quality currently.
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mary rosenblum
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And the cost is high enough to
make it unlikely that purchasers will buy ten books to find one that they
really like...
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mary rosenblum
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But I think that will sort
itself out in time...
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christopher dale
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please post this: It was pointed
out to me by someone who never associated my article ("Storyboarding"
) with "me" - Bravo 6, so I decided to create ME! :-) The REAL
me... (OK, my pen name)...
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mary rosenblum
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There you go, Christ!
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mary rosenblum
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Chris!
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mary rosenblum
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The real bravo, is Chris Dale
and he DID write the storyboarding article...
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mary rosenblum
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and has another one on a
freebie system like Microsoft's Office that will be up this week.
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mary rosenblum
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As a practice, I don't disclose
real names here unless asked...and if you don't TELL me your real name, I
have no idea who you are when you're not online, LOL.
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mary rosenblum
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This is the Tuesday Forum with
me, Mary Rosenblum, LR Web Editor, fiction and nonfiction writer, talking
about polishing your work. 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, or use the ask a question icon in
order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! You can
also type /ask in front of your question to reach me.
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mary rosenblum
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Oh yes...one polishing trick,
to get back to our topic here...
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mary rosenblum
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is to put your made up words
into your dictionary, including your charater names.
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mary rosenblum
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It's easy to misspell
character names and if your computer is underlining them all as mispelled
words...
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mary rosenblum
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you won't necessarily catch
the problem and your editor may not be sure which version is right.
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mary rosenblum
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But if you put your name or
made up technology name...or what have you...
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mary rosenblum
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into your dictionary, you'll
only see your misspellings and you can correct them.
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phil-w
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Do you think eloctronic i-book
readers you can use in bed will move Internet publishing along?
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mary rosenblum
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Oh I think so, Phil.
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mary rosenblum
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Don't forget, a new generation
is coming up who live by text messaging and ipods...
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mary rosenblum
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and reading onscreen is not
such a big deal...
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mary rosenblum
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so the hand held readers will
be more doable...
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mary rosenblum
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ANd..what I'd like to see and
may try some day is a mix of regular text, sound, and visuals for a book...
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mary rosenblum
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with a menu that allows the
reader to easily eliminate any of those features so that you don't HAVE to
listen to the music/sound effects or down have to see the brief visuals of
background if you'd rather not.
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phil-w
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But the Stephen King book didn't
doo so well, did it?
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mary rosenblum
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Too early, phil.
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mary rosenblum
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Technology support and level
of interest just wasn't there.
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roe
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Oh that sounds neat
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mary rosenblum
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I think that's the way to make
onscreen prose something other than an awkward read of type...
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george kulz
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Stephen King's venture into
E-Books was an experiment, according to him.
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mary rosenblum
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It was, and Bill Gibson did
it, too, in SF and he admits it was too early, too.
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mary rosenblum
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We're not there yet.
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speckledorf
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I agree the sound and visuals
would be neat but I don't think anything will replace the smell and feel of
a new book. Or at least I hope not:-)
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mary rosenblum
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Well, I think there will
always be room for both, unless paper publishing is totally eliminated...
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mary rosenblum
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and I don't think that's
likely soon.
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mary rosenblum
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But reading type and
translating that into internal visuals is different from seeing a movie...
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mary rosenblum
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and I think an ebook that
incorporates visuals and sound needs to find a way to allow the reader to
do most of the visualization.
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mary rosenblum
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But meanwhile...electronic or
print medium...polish your work before it goes out!
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mary rosenblum
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Look for tense shifts...it's
easy to slip from past to present tense in a fast paced scene,...
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mary rosenblum
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catch your homonyms...and when
you find yourself fixing a sentence you just fixed, STOP.
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mary rosenblum
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Send it off.
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mary rosenblum
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Polishing a polished ms will
not make it sell. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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When you're done making big
changes, it's time to get it out the door.
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mary rosenblum
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That's a BIG part of being a
writer. :-) You're not a writer if it's all in your file drawer!
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mary rosenblum
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Any other topics anyone wants
to bring up>
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mary rosenblum
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I think we've sort of covered
polishing. :-)
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t green
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i've got a story (about 1000
words) for kids... how do i know if it's a picture book or a magazine
piece?
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mary rosenblum
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Well, a lot of it depends on
whether or not you need pictures in order to complete the story, t.
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mary rosenblum
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If you read picture books..the
ones for early readers...the pictures tell the story..
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mary rosenblum
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and the prose without the
pictures is pretty spare.
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mary rosenblum
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Books that are merely lavishly
illustrated don't NEED the pictures, they just add to the story...
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mary rosenblum
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like Snow White, illustrated
by Susan Jeffers (one of my favorite childrens illustrators)...
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bobbi
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I am having a difficult time
getting
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bobbi
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first assignment out to LRWG
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mary rosenblum
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Goodness, bobbie! Don't let
that bother you. It's not a test... it's just a greeting to your
instructor..
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mary rosenblum
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and a way for us to get a feel
for what level you're at, what you might need to work on...
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mary rosenblum
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and the bio letter gives us a
sense of what your interests are, so we can more effectively help you find
what you're most interested in, writing-wise.
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mary rosenblum
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And what life complications
might get in your way. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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PIck a person or just make one
up...
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mary rosenblum
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You can't be WRONG in this
course you know.
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mary rosenblum
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It's not an English test in
high school...
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mary rosenblum
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it's a way for us to help you
do better what you want to do.
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pan
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for the christmas contest story,
my story won't go more than 400 words (unless I pack in "filler"
material which I don't want to do), is that ok?
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mary rosenblum
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Absolutely, pan. Never 'fill'
a short story if it's not as long as the word count...
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mary rosenblum
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those are maximum values.
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mary rosenblum
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Shorter is nearly always
better!
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sweett
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Mary, Is it too early to submit
the Christmas Contest story to you? Is humor okay for contest?
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mary rosenblum
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It's fine. I've already received
a few submissions. And humor is wonderful. I can't write it for beans and I
LOVE it.
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arfelin
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How's the novel writing course
coming along?
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mary rosenblum
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It's coming along very well.
I'm very please with what Pam and I are putting together. (Pam is the LR
editor I'm working with).
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mary rosenblum
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It's going to be a very strong
course and it's still on target to be available this summer.
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mary rosenblum
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Or earlier.
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mary rosenblum
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We're deciding on the texts to
accompany the course. Tehre are NOT a lot of good general novel writing
books out there.
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tory
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Mary, re" christmas
Contest--Does entering - or winning - constitute first rights publishing?
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mary rosenblum
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It will, Tory, because I'll
publish it on the website.
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mary rosenblum
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Do keep that in mind.
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mary rosenblum
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And since this is the
Christmas gift season...here's a suggestion for you.
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mary rosenblum
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If you like a particular
author...give that author's books to your friends as gift...
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mary rosenblum
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sales matter, and the more
that author sells, the more she or he is likely to remain on the bookstore
shelf.
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mary rosenblum
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Same thing with magazine
subscriptions. It's an easy way to shop and you'll help keep what you enjoy
reading in print!
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bobbi
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First rights publishing? Please
explain thanks
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pan
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first rights publishing?
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mary rosenblum
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When you sell a story or
article to an editor, you are selling permission to publish your story in a
certain way...you are not selling your words.
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mary rosenblum
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Most publishers want 'first
rights'...which means that they buy the right to publish this piece FIRST
in either North America or in the world, depending on whether the contract
specifies 'world rights' or North American serial rights'...
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mary rosenblum
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If your story wins the
Christmas contest I WILL publish it on the website...
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mary rosenblum
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and even though you don't get
paid for it, it IS published.
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mary rosenblum
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So if you have another market
for it do send it there instead of to me.
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mary rosenblum
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Because you will only be able
to sell Second rights...but that only affects you if you are one of the
winners...
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mary rosenblum
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and not just if you submit...
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bobbi
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Can beiginners enter the
contest?
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mary rosenblum
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It's for everyone on the
website, bobbi.
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roe
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does that mean you aren't putting
them all up like you did with halloween ones
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mary rosenblum
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I don't think I will, roe,
because it can complicate first rights for those who didn't win...
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mary rosenblum
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But I'll probably post the top
ten...
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mary rosenblum
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there are way more short short
markets now than there used to be...
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mary rosenblum
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and they pay.
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bobbi
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How do you enter or get more
information?
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mary rosenblum
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Next website update that goes
out will include submission information, bobbi.
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mary rosenblum
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If you sign up for email
you'll get it.
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roe
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so if ours was posted last time
doesn't that give us a clip
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mary rosenblum
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Well, it isn't going to
impress the editor if you didn't WIN, roe. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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But I'd certainly say it was
published on the LR website... :-)
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mary rosenblum
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Sounds good.
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arfelin
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I think that's a good idea about
not posting all the submissions. Thanks.
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mary rosenblum
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Well, there are enough paying
markets like storyhouse.com that I started worrying...
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mary rosenblum
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and I think I'm going to leave
the contest winners up permanently...
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mary rosenblum
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So if you use it as a clip,
you can include the link.
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mary rosenblum
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Well, I"m going to get to
work on the novel course.
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mary rosenblum
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See you all tomorrow!
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mary rosenblum
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I had a dentist appointment
yesterday, but I'll be here tomorrow for our casual chat.
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mary rosenblum
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And I'll post this transcript
in Writing Craft: Forum Transcripts:
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mary rosenblum
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bye all!
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