| mary rosenblum | Hello, all!
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| mary rosenblum | I hope you've had a good week! Welcome to our Friday After Hours.
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| mary rosenblum | This is our After Hours Forum, with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor, talking about 'literary, mainstream' and all those other 'fuzzy' labels for fiction. I've published seven novels and 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..
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| tory | Mary, who is the author of the book you've mentioned--The 10% Solution...?
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| mary rosenblum | That's Ken Randy, Tory. It's an excellent guide to simple tightening and can do a LOT for your prose.
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| mary rosenblum | Fairwood Press publishes it, and just brought out a new addition at 6.99.
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| mary rosenblum | www.fairwoodpress.com
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| wyrde | what is the 10% solution, and what happened to the other 90%
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| mary rosenblum | The ten percent is the percentage of your draft that you will remove simply by tightening your prose. Removing excess words without changing anything.
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| tory | And do you recommend it?
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| mary rosenblum | I highly recommend it, tory. I learned that from editors...
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| mary rosenblum | but why not learn how to write tight before you submit to editors?
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| mary rosenblum | What he does is help you use your computer search function to find the most common...
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| mary rosenblum | weak prose habits that nearly every writer has..
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| mary rosenblum | things such as to be verbs, overuse of adverbs, would, could...things like that.
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| mary rosenblum | I have a student who was writing publishable SF story ideas, but his prose was so flabby, I knew Stan would never buy it for Analog.
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| mary rosenblum | And 10% was a revelation to him. His stuff is very publishable and he will certainly start selling to Analog.
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| mary rosenblum | BIG improvement.
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| ladybird39pm | would it help in normal non prose writing
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| mary rosenblum | Absolutely, ladybird. It will help any type of prose writing.
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| mary rosenblum | He's dealing with prose basics, not techniques of fiction.
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| mary rosenblum | I frequently buy several copies to give to people when I do writers workshops.
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| ashton | Mary, I'm having tons of problems finding a market for my Inspirational fiction. My instructor suggested "God Allow's U-Turns" and other publications such as this, but they don't accept fiction. Can you help me? I'm wondering if my stories will fit under another label and I'm just not realizing what other "label" it could fall under.
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| mary rosenblum | Ashton, it sounds to me as if you are caught between markets. Alas, a lot of mainstream markets really don't want a lot of direct mention of God...
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| mary rosenblum | which does not mean that you can't do inspirational fiction for those markets, it simply has to be more subtle.
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| mary rosenblum | Have you purchased a copy of Christian Writer's Market?
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| mary rosenblum | That is a market guide that contains only Christian markets.
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| mary rosenblum | The 'Chicken Soup' books are an option, although the response time is very long and they get a LOT of submissions.
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| ashton | No, I haven't tried that, Mary.
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| mary rosenblum | I would buy a copy, ashton. It contains a LOT of markets
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| mary rosenblum | This is our After Hours Forum, with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor, talking about 'literary, mainstream' and all those other 'fuzzy' labels for fiction. I've published seven novels and 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..
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| ladybird39pm | So prose does not mean poetry
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| mary rosenblum | No, it doesn't ladybird. Poetry is not prose, although I like to think of it at one end of the prose spectrum, if you will...
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| mary rosenblum | and this leads us neatly into our topic. :-) Thank you.
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| mary rosenblum | Think of fiction as a spectrum.
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| mary rosenblum | At one end you have poetry. At the other you have novels.
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| mary rosenblum | As you get closer to the 'poetry' end of the spectrum, words, language become more important.
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| mary rosenblum | At the novel end, story, characters, plot are what matters.
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| mary rosenblum | So a short short is much more like poetry than a novel.
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| mary rosenblum | And in the language spectrum, it's the same.
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| mary rosenblum | At one end of the spectrum, you have poetry...where language matters most.
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| mary rosenblum | AT the other, you have 'genre fiction'...mystery, romance, sf, fantasy...where the story matters most.
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| mary rosenblum | In between, you have those fuzzy genres 'contemporary', 'mainstream', 'literary', and 'experimental'.
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| mary rosenblum | And when you read the market lists, they can be sooo confusing.
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| mary rosenblum | And they really are not cut and dried.
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| mary rosenblum | One person's 'literary' is another's 'contemporary fantasy' or 'magic realism'.
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| mary rosenblum | I've had the same story published in both a mainstream or literary anthology AND a fantasy anthology. Go figure.
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| mary rosenblum | d5, try typing /ask in front of your question in your main send bar or send me your question in segments and I"ll put it together up here.
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| labtek2 | Did you have to get permision to use it that many times?
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| mary rosenblum | Of course not, labtek. :-) I just sold different rights.
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| mary rosenblum | First antholgy rights to one anthology, second anthology rights to another anthology...there was a period of months or years between publications...
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| mary rosenblum | you can sell your stories over and over again. Some of mine have been published five or six times.
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| d5o3 | Is there a list of all the genre terminallogy being used?
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| mary rosenblum | There isn't d5...because what is one thing to one editor is something else to another...
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| mary rosenblum | which is why I'll try to give you some guidelines tonight...
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| mary rosenblum | but if your literary markets run out, try mainstream, or fantasy or whatever might also apply.
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| tory | Do you change them, Mary?
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| mary rosenblum | Nope. I routinely sell my magazine stories to anthologies, and rarely change anything.
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| mary rosenblum | That's how you make money in short fiction....you get paid but put in no more hours!
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| mary rosenblum | THAT is why you NEVER sell ALL RIGHTS!!!
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| mary rosenblum | I made close to five thousand dollars on one story in royalties to several different anthologies.
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| mary rosenblum | I still get royalty checks for several stories in anthologies that are still in print...
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| mary rosenblum | and I can still sell them again.
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| joanc | yes please explain those fuzzies, I think I fall somewhere in there.
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| tory | Are there any "general definitions"? They are all besically new to me.
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| mary rosenblum | Well, let me give you some general definitions, but realize these ALL overlap.
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| ladybird39pm | How do you sell part rights? or some of your rights?
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| mary rosenblum | Okay...quick diversion. :-) Ladybird...
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| mary rosenblum | I sell First Rights to a magazine. Then I sell First Anthology rights to a mag.
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| mary rosenblum | Then I sell second anthology rights, sometimes called reprint rights...
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| mary rosenblum | to as many anthologies as want the story. Usually I get a request from an editor...
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| mary rosenblum | who is putting together a theme anthology, read the story in a mag, and wants to use it.
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| mary rosenblum | I get paid every time, and anthologies pay royalties like any book.
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| mary rosenblum | As to our fuzzy categories...
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| mary rosenblum | contemporary simply means it's set in today's world.
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| mary rosenblum | You'll see references to 'contemporary fantasy'...
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| mary rosenblum | 'contemporary romance' and 'contemporary'...
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| mary rosenblum | and that's all it means. Not historical, not fantasy, not set in the future..
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| mary rosenblum | set in today's world.
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| mary rosenblum | So it very much overlaps 'mainstream' but some 'mainstream' is set, for example, in the past.
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| wingedwarrior24 | what word processor do you suggest?
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| mary rosenblum | Hi, winged.
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| mary rosenblum | Well, I have to say that ms word is the one that nearly everybody uses, no matter what you think of the 'evil empire'.
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| mary rosenblum | Most people can handle wordperfect and ms word.
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| mary rosenblum | Mainstream simply means it's not mystery, romance, sf, fantasy, etc.
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| mary rosenblum | BUT...that's not the only consideration.
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| mary rosenblum | Traditional plot structure is not as strongly expected in mainstream and it really becomes a negative in literary and experimental.
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| mary rosenblum | If you are writing for something like 'Women's Day' then a traditional plot structure for your family story is good.
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| mary rosenblum | If you're writing for the Antioch Review, you will be very unlikely to sell a story with a traditional plot structure.
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| mary rosenblum | And that, I suppose is the best boundary to divide 'literary' from 'mainstream'.
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| wolf122 | By 'today's world', how far back in history does that involve?
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| mary rosenblum | Well, this is again fuzzy...
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| mary rosenblum | one magazine that takes 'mainstream' may include stories set in WW II...another wants stories that are set in 2005.
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| mary rosenblum | And here you have the very hard reality of market lists.
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| mary rosenblum | ALL they are worth is the contact information and general category.
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| mary rosenblum | You can NOT tell what an editor wants from the guidelines.
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| mary rosenblum | AND...the main reason most stories are rejected...and this comes directly to you from the many many editors I know...
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| mary rosenblum | is that the story does not fit the magazine.
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| mary rosenblum | And that is also true for nonfiction queries, by the way.
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| mary rosenblum | You really MUST read the magazine if you think it's a good market.
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| tory | Mary, did you mean that plot sturcture (or lack thereof) is the dividing line between mainstream and literary?
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| mary rosenblum | That's a big one, tory. It's not the ONLY one.
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| mary rosenblum | Literary stories rarely follow the conflict/resolution structure of genre fiction and some mainstream fiction.
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| mary rosenblum | They tend (and I am speaking in generalities, here, ok?) to be more vignettes...
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| mary rosenblum | and use more omniscient POV than limited third. Or first.
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| mary rosenblum | THey tend to depend much more heavily on language for impact unlike genre fiction where language tends to...
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| mary rosenblum | be spare although strong.
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| mary rosenblum | If you think of poem -- story spectrum, literary fiction is closer to the poetry end of the spectrum.
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| mary rosenblum | The words matter as much as what is going on.
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| mary rosenblum | AND...
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| mary rosenblum | the thing that you won't find out unless you are inside the biz...
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| mary rosenblum | is that many of the lit-mags out there...the literary journals, especially the university published ones...
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| mary rosenblum | are very inside. They know who is teaching what grad program at which school and who that writer's proteges are...
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| mary rosenblum | and it's kind of an inside market.
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| mary rosenblum | Not that you can't sell to one...but it's hard.
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| wyrde | so read the magazine
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| mary rosenblum | So read the magaqzine, wyrde.
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| mary rosenblum | Call it a business expense and write it off on your taxes, if you're filing as a writer.
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| mary rosenblum | It's a legit expense.
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| mary rosenblum | I buy at least three issues of a mag if I want to consider it seriously as a market...
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| mary rosenblum | and most of the time, if I think I'll sell to it regularly, I subscribe for a year.
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| d5o3 | What types of things fall under experimental?
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| geezer | Define experimental?
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| mary rosenblum | Experimental is more 'fuzzy'...but generally it means something in the literary end of the spectrum written in a nonstandard way.
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| mary rosenblum | You can have experimental SF or fantasy...
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| mary rosenblum | but most of it is literary experimental.
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| mary rosenblum | You might have a string of conversations with no context.
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| mary rosenblum | or the entire piece might be a running monologue with no punctuation.
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| mary rosenblum | In this form, the format plays a role in the piece...an active role.
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| wyrde | but there are also online back issues and the library
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| mary rosenblum | Yes there are. They tend to be the large circulation magazines at the library, but online you have a wider selection.
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| joanc | Mary, if you haven't published anything, can you still file as a writer on your tax and your expenses? What about using this course as an expense?
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| mary rosenblum | Joanc, I interviewed John Caton last spring...he happens to be my accountant.
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| mary rosenblum | And he gave a lot of very valuable information on how to show the IRS that you are a serious writer without having sold. You can read the interview in Surviving and Thriving.
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| mary rosenblum | Look for John Caton.
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| labtek2 | do you read 3 consecutive mags or do skip around,
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| labtek2 | Like maybe one in spring, one in summer and so on?
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| mary rosenblum | I don't know that it matters, labtek.
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| mary rosenblum | The reason I say three, is that an editor usually has a private theme for a particular issue...
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| mary rosenblum | and the writers he/she picks for that theme may not reflect his/her tastes accurately.
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| mary rosenblum | You simply get a better sense of what an editor likes with a larger statistical sample. :-)
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| mary rosenblum | And it's hard at first. I'm much better at reading editors now than I was ten years ago!
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| tory | guess e e cummings would be experiemental?
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| mary rosenblum | I'd say so. Don't know what the literary PhDs call it. :-)
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| tory | Is there a very large market for experimental?
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| mary rosenblum | No not at all, tory. It's sort of a select subgroup of literary...do it if you love it, but it's hard to sell...
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| mary rosenblum | and again, a lot of the markets are the 'grad school insider' type.
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| ashton | Would "spiritual healing"... categorized in the New Age section... be the same as Inspirational stories in the Christian market where the lead character is changed, uplifted, or recieves a spiritual awakening?
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| mary rosenblum | Ashton, I bet you would get three different answers to that if you asked three different editors.
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| mary rosenblum | You're really going to have to do some bookstore or library browsing time and look for the sort of thing you're writing.
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| mary rosenblum | Then and only then will you know who's publishing it.
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| mary rosenblum | This is the problem with most fiction. You can label it, but is that what THIS editor wants?
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| mary rosenblum | Bookstores with coffeeshops are a great boon to your marketing. :-)
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| mary rosenblum | I can spend two hours browsing markets in a Barnes and Noble without even noticing the time passing.
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| mary rosenblum | Bring a notebook or tape recorder and buy the issues that seem to fit your work.
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| mary rosenblum | Submission addresses are inside on the masthead page.
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| mary rosenblum | But mainly, don't limit yourself.
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| mary rosenblum | If you think your fantasy is mainstream or literary, send it to one of those magazines.
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| mary rosenblum | You never know.
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| wyrde | except it's wise to try to guess, because you have to wait to submit again, yes?
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| mary rosenblum | That IS the downside. Your work is sitting on that editors desk for a few months.
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| mary rosenblum | So it's worth trying to guess right, wyrde! :-)
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| mary rosenblum | I frequently tell my students not to send to a particular market when I know it's not likely to sell there. I'll suggest something else instead.
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| jems9255 | How do I go about finding people to critique my work?
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| mary rosenblum | Jems, you can hang out here and find people online who will swap work with your for critiques.
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| mary rosenblum | You can check your local small bookstores and see if the owners know of local writers groups.
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| mary rosenblum | There are a lot of online writers groups, but I would be wary of one where your work is posted on a public site where anyone can read it.
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| mary rosenblum | Swapping ms via attached files is different.
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| d5o3 | If my style deals a alot with just the right adjective,
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| mary rosenblum | You're probably on the literary end of the spectrum, d5.
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| mary rosenblum | And language can play a big role in genre, too.
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| mary rosenblum | Read Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn if you want some LOVELY prose.
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| mary rosenblum | I cried the first time I read that book because I wanted to write THAT WELL one day.
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| mary rosenblum | I'll never do language as well as Peter does. But she says with a wink, I think I tell a stronger story. So to each, our own strengths...
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| realityczech | Organizations like SCBWI post critique group openings on their websites. Public libraries often have offerings as well.
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| mary rosenblum | Thanks reality.
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| mary rosenblum | This is our After Hours Forum, with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor, talking about 'literary, mainstream' and all those other 'fuzzy' labels for fiction. I've published seven novels and 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..
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| christopher dale | Okay - time for SuperGeek to come out again. :-) A digittal voice recorder ( - ) can hold 5 - 8 hours of digital voice and is GREAT for notes, meetings or even "eve's dropping" at a book store or coffee shop. You can later go back and listen
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| mary rosenblum | wow, sure beats those darn micro casettes! time to buy a new recorder...thanks Chris.
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| tory | Mary--can you commenton e-publishing? I'm totally confused. Thought things would only be readable on line but last night's gues had printed books that were e-published.
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| mary rosenblum | Oh, she meant that the e book ALSO came out in print, tory, probably POD...print on demand.
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| mary rosenblum | Many e publishers also offer a POD paper version, too.
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| mary rosenblum | E books are generally offered in two ways...as downloads or as CD roms.
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| mary rosenblum | I'm sure they'll end up on IPODS and there are some hand held readers out there, although I've never tried one.
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| ashton | What's the word count for a short story verses a short-short and so on and does every publisher go by the same "rules" for that or their own version of word count for that particular market?
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| mary rosenblum | Yes, they do use the same word counts for short story, novelette, novella, and novel.
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| mary rosenblum | Novel markets will specify desired word counts...
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| mary rosenblum | and short short markets will do likewise.
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| mary rosenblum | Hang on let me dig out my SFWA Forum and I'll give you the exact counts.
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| mary rosenblum | Short story: 7499 words or fewer
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| mary rosenblum | Novelette: 7500-17,499 words
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| mary rosenblum | Novella: 17,500-39,999 words
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| mary rosenblum | Novel: >40,000
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| mary rosenblum | Now every market has its own limits...many may not take a story longer than 3500 or 5000 or 7500 words or whatever.
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| mary rosenblum | The word counts are used when categorizing stories for awards.
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| christopher dale | And one other thing about DVRs (Digital Voice Recorders) a simple cable connected to your mic port on the computer and some free software from the internet and you can downlod the recording onto the 'puter and burn it on a CD for posterity! :-) PLUS t
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| mary rosenblum | Not sure I WANT my notes for posterity, LOL 1
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| mary rosenblum | Thanks Chris.
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| realityczech | Writer's Digest Short Short contest is always 1500 words or fewer
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| mary rosenblum | and every contest or market will publish their word limits, reality.
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| mary rosenblum | The 'short story' definition simply places your story in a category for awards.
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| wyrde | then there is "flash" - equiv, more or less to short short, usually under 1k though
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| mary rosenblum | And there is no standard there, wyrde. The market can specify 500 words...I saw one for 250 the other day, I HAVE to try that one... or 1000 or 1500.
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| mary rosenblum | They're all considered 'flash fiction' or 'short shorts'.
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| labtek2 | is that the same for childrens (YA)?
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| mary rosenblum | Wow, labtek, I'm really not sure. It's used for adult fiction in multiple genres, but I don't know if childrens lengths are different or not.
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| mary rosenblum | You can do some research with the childrens writers organizations and find out.
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| freelancerx1 | How strict are these word counts?
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| mary rosenblum | Well, free, I'd say you can go a few words over. You could probably do ten percent if the editor loved the story. :-)
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| mary rosenblum | A little..ah...creative rounding...doesn't hurt, as long as it's not ridiculous.
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| mary rosenblum | No editor will belive that your thirty pages of ms is really 2000 words...I have a few students who think so though, heheh.
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| christopher dale | there is one I just read about called an "ultra mini" wanted an "ultra mini short story" for a contest - 150 words or less (Yes! 150 words or less). A freind at work said "See spot run." But I thing THat is copyrighted. :-)
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| mary rosenblum | Hey, they're a GREAT challenge! My first literary sale was when I decided to try a 1000 word short short.
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| gabe | Mary do you normally incorporate events from your life into your fiction stories.
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| mary rosenblum | Everybody does, gabe. You DO write what you know, and your experience is the basis for a lot of fiction. BUT...
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| mary rosenblum | few writers use events directly...
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| mary rosenblum | we tend to extrapolate, to use that event as the starting point and make it more extreme..
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| mary rosenblum | twist it, embroider it.
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| mary rosenblum | Still, the more writers you get to know well, the more you see those bits and pieces of them...
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| mary rosenblum | in their work. Some of us joke that writing is simply walking around in your underwear for the general public!
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| paja | If you write for Christian devotional markets 150 words to 250 is normal and often includes title, quotation, story, application, and prayer. Perhaps a bit more.
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| mary rosenblum | Wow, that's GREAT practice, paja.
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| mary rosenblum | I will tell you that I get a lot of reviewer praise for my tight, strongly paced novels, and that's directly caused by the fact that I"m a short story writer first.
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| mary rosenblum | I have learned to write tight and a tightly written novel is a strongly paced novel!
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| realityczech | Per ICL HAndbook, Baby/toddler to 500/preschool 200-1,000...4-8 500-1,500...6-9 2,000-9,000...7-10 10k-20k...9-12 12k-25k...9-13 and 10-and-up/20k-40k...12-and-up 25k-60k...YA 40k-80k
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| mary rosenblum | ah, thank you reality. That is a very different type of catogory breakdown, as you can see.
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| christopher dale | DO you REALLY want to see ME walking around in my underwear??? ALthough that WOULD be quite comfortable. :-)
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| mary rosenblum | Just keep writing, Chris, heheh.
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| ladybird39pm | Have any of you fiction come to Canada and could I get it in
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| ladybird39pm | te library hereunder May Rosenblum
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| mary rosenblum | You'll have to look and see, ladybird. My hardcover collection, Synthesis and Other Virtual Realities sold very well to libraries...
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| mary rosenblum | most of my stuff is paperback and not all libraries keep it. They don't last long...they wear out.
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| paja | Every word has to count,,,a lot.
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| mary rosenblum | No kidding, paja.
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| mary rosenblum | That's why I think short shorts are a GREAT exercise. Write 'em, polish 'em, send 'em off!
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| mary rosenblum | Why not?
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| tory | Good info from Reality. But what is ICL?
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| mary rosenblum | Institute of Childrens Literature...the writing for kids sister school to Long Ridge.
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| mary rosenblum | A lot of literary mags take short shorts...
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| mary rosenblum | and a lot of the short short markets like literary and experimental fiction.
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| mary rosenblum | this is a great place to experiment and maybe sell a few pieces.
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| owlybear | Mary, I got your mystery series in the library when I live in CutKnife, Sk...and their libraries can get them from other libraries...I didn't look for your SF series tho...:-)
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| mary rosenblum | That's cool, owly! I know you told me that, but I forgot. I write mystery as Mary Freeman, ladybird.
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| ashton | Maybe a stupid question, but what's the difference between science fiction and fantasy?
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| mary rosenblum | That's not at all a stupid question, ashton. Writers argue over that at SF /Fantasy conferences all the time!
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| mary rosenblum | The main difference is that fantasy involves the unreal, while SF is based...at least tenuously...on science and reality.
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| mary rosenblum | And they sure do overlap. :-)
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| mary rosenblum | These 'genre' labels mostly help bookstores shelve books.
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| mary rosenblum | They really don't define what is in the book
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| wolf122 | Is 'sword and sorcery' a subgenre of fantasy? Or it's own category?
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| mary rosenblum | It's a subgenre of fantasy, wolf. A BIG one.
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| mary rosenblum | Harry Potter gave fantasy a BIG shot in the arm.
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| mary rosenblum | It's a much larger genre than SF right now.
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| realityczech | Okay, now I'm confused. Mists of Avalon would be fantasy, but is based upon historical idea like clash of Christianity/pagan tradition. Ender's Game is Sci-Fi, in which a race of superior bugs nearly destroys our planet and must be avenged by a boy general. I'm not getting the real versus unreal thing here...grin!
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| mary rosenblum | I told you it was blurry!
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| mary rosenblum | And here's a bit of insider info for you.
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| mary rosenblum | Mists was MZB's masterpiece. She really worked VERY VERY hard on that and fully intended to sell it to the...
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| mary rosenblum | mainstream historical fiction market, like Mary Renault's historical fiction about Theseus, Alexander, etc.
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| mary rosenblum | She was FURIOUS when it was published as fantasy.
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| mary rosenblum | Never forgave her agent for not selling it mainstream.
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| mary rosenblum | And it's just as historical as Mary Renault's work.
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| mary rosenblum | So go figure.
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| ashton | You can pitch some romance into a sci-fi story and still have it under the sci-fi label in a short story, right?
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| mary rosenblum | Absolutely, ashton. And Sheila Williams, the new editor of Asimov's likes romance in her sf, hint hint.
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| tory | Mary, re: Mists of Avalon, do publishers not tell how they plan to market, or which imprint? And once we see it, they can do whatever they want?
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| mary rosenblum | Unless it is specified very clearly in the contract, they can market it as they choose...I don't recall the details of this one, but I THINK...
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| mary rosenblum | the publisher just wouldn't buy it as mainstream because Marion Zimmer Bradly was so well known as a fantasy author...
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| mary rosenblum | they were afraid she wouldn't sell outside her genre and they KNEW she'd sell very well inside her genre.
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| mary rosenblum | They wanted the sure money.
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| freelancerx1 | I've seen an increase in "Dramatic Radio Shows".
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| mary rosenblum | Really freelance? As in what?
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| mary rosenblum | There are some radio plays out there... a friend of mine has written and performed in a few...
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| mary rosenblum | but they seem very far outside the main markets.
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| mary rosenblum | That...as in tv and movie...is a genre where you need to work through inside contacts.
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| mary rosenblum | And the playwright markets are their own thing. Again...inside contacts.
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| freelancerx1 | Well, there was the "Left Behind" series
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| mary rosenblum | That started out, I believe, as a published series. It has been widely adapted to other media.
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| tory | Was that maybe a case where an author might use a pseudonym to change genres?
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| mary rosenblum | Oh there are many.
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| mary rosenblum | Stephen King published 'The Body' and other mainstream novellas under a pseudonym.
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| mary rosenblum | I am a different person in mystery: Mary Freeman.
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| wolf122 | Is there a big problem for writers to be typecast into a genre? Or just the 'big' sellers?
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| mary rosenblum | Oh, there is a problem, wolf.
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| mary rosenblum | If your books sell very well, the publisher will move heaven and earth to keep you writing THAT kind of book.
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| mary rosenblum | They will really resist a genre change, afraid your fans won't like it.
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| mary rosenblum | You can tough it out, but you probably won't get offered as much money for the 'genre jumping' book.
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| ashton | A little off the beaten path here...I'm on assignment #7 and when asked to list a magazine market for the story, would it be okay to list online publishers verses hold-in-you-hand magazines?
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| mary rosenblum | Sure, ashton. Online mags are very legitimate markets.
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| mary rosenblum | The highest paying market in short SF is SciFiction an online mag...
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| mary rosenblum | big award contender, too.
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| wolf122 | Could you just change publishers rather than just pseudonyms, or would that backfire on you?
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| mary rosenblum | You can change publishers. If you're selling well, you'll get offers. :-0
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| mary rosenblum | People change publishers all the time.
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| ladybird39pm | where youre mystrie books children's mystries
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| mary rosenblum | Adult mysteries, ladybird. :-)
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| mary rosenblum | Well, this has been a fun Oregon hour.
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| mary rosenblum | Next week, on Tuesday for our Forum..
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| mary rosenblum | I'm going to analyze a popular magazine...
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| mary rosenblum | for what the editor is looking for...sort of a hands on example.
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| mary rosenblum | I'll probably use Women's World unless we get freezing rain all weekend and I can't buy a copy!
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| writeaway | Mary are you familiar with Vestal Review?
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| mary rosenblum | I've heard of it, haven't read it.
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| janp | and I'll have a copy if I can get through the freezing rain
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| mary rosenblum | Homogenous weather, huh?
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| mary rosenblum | I'll do fiction magazines on Friday for the After Hours.
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| mary rosenblum | So have a good weekend, all!
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| mary rosenblum | Drop in on Sunday at the same time for our casual chat.
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| mary rosenblum | I'll post the transcripts in the usual place: Writing Craft: Forum Transcripts.
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| mary rosenblum | Remember...write what YOU want to write and believe in it.
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| mary rosenblum | Markets come and go and if you can't sell it today, it'll happen tomorrow.
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| realityczech | Thanks Mary (and for the Newf advice on Wed. too--we go to pick a puppy on Sunday!)
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| mary rosenblum | Oh, have fun, reality! Puppy breath!
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| mary rosenblum | Good night all!
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| mary rosenblum | Have a good weekend, winter weather and all!
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