You can learn a lot about what it takes to place a story in an ezine by starting up one of your own.

Last month we started work on a new ezine for writers, which we intended to use to publish high-quality, contemporary fiction, from writers all over the world. We placed a few adverts asking for submissions of just that. What we got was a revelation.

As a writer myself, I know how competitive the market is. Even non-paying markets are deluged by wannabe writers desperate for a by-line and some publicity. Competition, I had thought, would surely lead to a high quality of submissions, with every writer determined to submit only their very best work. Not so.

Of the handful of submissions we received the day after the adverts went out, only around four were fiction. One was a “how to write” style article. One was an essay on “the day my gran died”. Two were stories about vampires. One guy just sent us his CV – in Arabic.

Lesson one, then: read the guidelines carefully. If the market you’re aiming at publishes fiction, then no matter how brilliant your essay or article is, it’s not going to be accepted. Neither is your CV….

Lesson two, I hardly even need mention: If the publication is in English, don’t send your submission in Arabic, on the off-chance that the poor, beleaguered publisher will understand it. Simple.

Having deleted the non-fiction submissions, I moved onto the “good stuff”. Or so I thought. Of the four remaining pieces of writing, none had been proofread too carefully. One story made reference to a businessman “clenching the deal.” One made frequent use of the word “the” and had apparently random. Punctuation. A bit like. This. The other two were … stories about vampires.

Lesson three: Proofread. Or, ideally, get someone else to do it for you. Any writer knows that once you’ve worked on a piece of writing, you become blind to its mistakes. You can “proof” it as many times as you like, but you’ll still just see what you think is there, rather than what actually is there. In any artistic Endeavour, a fresh pair of eyes is essential in providing a little bit of clarity and perspective. For this reason, I present:

Lesson four: constructive criticism is your friend. There are a lot of aspiring writers out there. Get together with one, even if it’s only by email, and swap stories with them. Chances are they’ll be able to point out something about your story that you’ve missed. They may have some knowledge about your subject matter that you lack – for example, the fact that it’s called a “bass” guitar, not a “base guitar”, as one enlightening submission had it.

Finally, a quick note about bio’s. When you send your work to an ezine, of course you want a little something in return – other than cold hard cash. You’re looking for publicity, and your author bio is the ideal way to do it. Keep it simple, though. Of all of the submissions we’ve received so far, the one that sticks out the most is the one from the author with the most impressive credentials of the lot. So impressive, in fact, that her bio ran on for four A4 pages.

The problem was, her work stood out for the wrong reasons. She had certainly been published in a lot of magazines (I know, because she’d listed every single one of them) and won a huge amount of competitions (yep, she’d listed all of those too. Every one of them.) , but by the time I’d waded through all of the story titles, publication dates and other non-essential info, I was heartily tired of her. Her bio was four pages long: her story only two. When that happens, you know you’ve gone into overkill.

Essentially, too, after such a tremendous build-up, I was expecting something utterly spectacular which her writing failed to deliver. It seemed almost as if she was trying to use her bio to persuade me to publish her – the story was just an afterthought.

Lesson five: let your writing do the talking. When it comes to biographical info, less is more. I want to read your story, not a breath-by-breath account of the last twenty years of your life. Keep it simple, keep it short.


- DEV DAAS

So you’ve decided to crown yourself with a title that a million other people (just like you (yes, just like you!)) give themselves every day. Some people believe giving yourself such a title is equivalent to, and just as beneficial monetarily, as naming yourself Queen of England. But, there is no grace, rarely enough publicity, and only the title of Court Jester seems to be becoming for you because you are a fool among others.

What is this sacred title? Poet.

Why does titling yourself a “poet” make you a Fool? Well, it doesn’t, not in and of itself. But if you’ve only been published online, never in print—that could be a sign of your well-earned Fool status. To be blunt—that is a sign that you write bad poetry.

Why would these sites accept your work if it sucked, you ask? Maybe to raise their quota, maybe to get more submissions of the site’s particular interest, but mainly to actually HAVE something to post—most (but not all) sites are desperate for submissions. Or maybe they’re out for a profit. Come on, who among us HASN’T had something accepted by the National Library of Poetry, and then gotten all the brochures for expensive products featuring our work?

The Webmaster vs. Editor Problem: Go to any website, check it out. Can you find someone with the title of Webmaster? How about editor? Or, still yet, Webmaster AND Editor? A Webmaster does not, by any means, mean Editor. Simply because someone is a webmaster (someone who controls the site, updates the postings, etc. . . ) does not mean that the person is an EDITOR (someone who corrects the work, proofreads, re-writes, re-words, etc…) of the work posted on the site. In many cases, webmasters who are disguising themselves as editors are giving real editors a bad name. A webmaster, will too often post submissions “as is” and not give a damn about the content or presentation. However, if a site has someone who can both edit and be a webmaster then the site is moving in the right direction.

This is the main problem source. Building a website, and getting work “published” on a website is so easily done by anyone whether they have talent or not that it de-values the word “published” and lessens the role of an Editor.

Granted, the internet IS a great marketing tool for promoting your work, getting your name in the public’s eye, and getting writing experience, but have you ever asked yourself why your work is ONLY published online? Perhaps it is because no discerning EDITOR has ever seen your dribble poems, except in browsing the web for bad poems to laugh at.

Here are a few tips that will help you to get your work published online. Hey, I figured if you’re going to be a fool about getting your unpolished work published on the internet for the world to see, I’d give a few tips to help your bad poetry stay that way, since you seem to like that way best:

1. Place the word “Love” in your title. That’s a major plus!

2. Be straight-forward, don’t use symbols, metaphors or anything that will make the reader think. Readers don’t have time to think.

3. Focus on form—(sonnets, villanelles, and haiku). Since you think in form, write in form.

4. Keep your poem in a rhyme-scheme. Why? Well, EVERYONE knows that all GOOD poems rhyme, the rest can be disregarded as a post-modern mess!

5. Only write in YOUR point of view. Write exactly what you believe, never try to portray the image of someone else. Better yet, start the poem with “I”.

6. Keep your poems untitled. Readers love to be creative and imagine what the title should and could be.

7. Write in the same place. If you write in your bedroom—always write there; if you write outside under a tree—always write there—why try variety and ruin a good thing?

8. Don’t ever base a character in a poem on someone you actually KNOW. Heaven forbid you get the piece published, and have to explain to the person—“this is you”.

9. Read, but if you don’t like a poem or a poet—just toss it. Don’t even question why you don’t appreciate the work.

10. Have no structure. Poetry is about limitless expressions, right? So in that sense, make your lines and stanzas as long as you wish. Just write exactly how you feel!

11. Don’t keep a journal. Journal causes too much self-reflection and you want to write for the moment, not yesterday.

12. Use clichés as much as possible. People like to read familiar phrases.

13. Not every line of a poem is important. Just make sure you have a good first and last line.

14.Poems don’t progress, that’s the difference between a story and a poem. Poems aren’t suppose to take you on a journey to learn.

14. Submit your poems to only websites. That way, you will never have to face the fact that your poetry SUCKS, because it will only be read by the friends and relatives to whom you give the site’s URL, and your friends will never tell you that reading your poetry is greater torture than letting a small, sharp-clawed guinea pig walk on their sunburned skin.

If you follow these guidelines, and start writing, you will be a “poet” in no time. Remember that poetry HAS to rhyme, and remember that the less you practice the better you are.

Joking aside—you might want to try doing exactly opposite of the “tips” in the list. And, since many webmasters (who are titling themselves Editor) aren’t doing their job, it’s up to you to learn to edit your work before you embarrass yourself.


- mohan mittal

When you take marketing tips from self-publishing companies they are doing this for a reason. Seasoned Authors have learned that once you have written a book you are a long way from people being a known writer. There are Authors out there who believe that their work will show for them and this is just not true. I am sure that all of your friends know about famous Authors but you are in their midst and if you don’t tell them you are a writer then they will have no idea. Have you ever asked yourself the question of how these famous writers get well known in the writers community? Most of the writers do not stand on street corners pedaling their novels but instead use their extra money on publicity. They hire people that let the whole world know that they have written a novel and that it is exceptional.

Writers need to learn the strategy of marketing. If you have a handful of business cards made and you stand on the corner and you hand them out count how many are just thrown in the street. Business cards and flyers are a very old approach to marketing and may still have some use if you are looking at statistically spending more money then you take in. Business cards are definetely useful if you are at an Authors convention because it will let other writers know that you are serious about you work and are professional.

Calling small newspaper publications and asking them about listing your novel in their entertainment section is a great way to get sales and become known. The hard part is getting enough money to place the ad.

If you are like most writers you need to market yourself as cheap as possible so here is a sure way to reach readers that actually buy books. Look around your neighborhood for writing opportunities in magazines and newspapers as a trade off for some free advertisement for your books. You must be prepared for being turned down alot but if you have tried to get a Literary Agent you should be used to this by now. If you have tried and no one is interested in you writing for their magazines or papers there is one place that always is. Log on to your PC and search the web. I made a good start writing for Marty at useless-knowledge.com and got free advertisement that worked.

A Website presence is a must so if you cannot afford 10 dollars a month then you can still use social networks that will allow you to build a free and attractive website. Myspace is an okay place to start but you will need to spend time on the website chatting and getting friends. This is what Networking is all about, hard work and positive results. Ning is also a great source for networking as well and on Ning you can find others that share your interests and can help you get your name out there.

Last but not least remember that your web placement in very important. Type your name in google and yahoo. Do you see any information on yourself? If not you need to go to work and get your name on the web. How? It’s easier than you think. Type in google submissions and use the free service and type in your URL. It will take some time but in the end when it appears people will know that you exist. In my next article I will try to give some pointers on naming conventions for your wesite because this is very important as well.

 


- Arthur L Burton III

your query letter is your first step to getting your novel published. A good query letter catches the agent’s attention and is the first step in how to get a novel published. What should be included in your query letter?

The first paragraph should be a brief synopsis of your novel. No more than 100 words, perhaps 150 words. This synopsis is written in the present tense. You want to hook the agent’s curiosity to read more. It’s a challenge to condense a 100,000 novel down to 150 words, but important you do. Think of the synopsis as a back cover blurb. It gives just enough information to create excitement about the novel. If you need some examples go to the bookstore and look at the back cover blurbs of books in the same genre as yours.

The second paragraph describes the market for your novel and includes the genre. Are you aiming for romance readers, cozy mystery readers or is your book a young adult novel? You can compare your book to other similar books, saying something like “readers of Sandra Brown will enjoy TITLE OF YOUR BOOK. Mention the word count and that the novel is completed.

The third paragraph includes your background as a writer and a brief bio. If you have writing credits make sure you mention them. Many agents don’t consider a vanity/subsidy book or self-published book as a writing credit. If you include the title they will look it up on amazon.com to see who the publisher is.

The third paragraph is where you can describe any special experience you have that could become a publicity hook or gives you an insight other writers might not have. For example if you are a pastry chef and your heroine is also a pastry chef that would be relevant.

End the letter by thanking the agent for their time and consideration and asking if they would like to see the first few chapters or a completed manuscript. The purpose of the query letter is to motivate the agent to ask for the manuscript.

The query letter should be no more than one page single spaced. You could also include a 2 or 3 page synopsis of your novel, but don’t include the first chapter or the entire manuscript.

A great query letter is the first step in “how to get a novel published.”


- Dee Power