[stylist] Catching up

Thu May 7 07:17:47 UTC 2009

Kerry,

When I was doing my research on submissions and queries and all that fun
stuff, it was back when the internet was still geek territory with only
thousands of users...  Well, anturally I was on it!  /grin/  It was not the
unlimited fount of all information it is today, except on the subject of
computers.  I couldn't afford my own copy of the Literary Marketplace, so
there was nothing for it but to trundle down to my local library and haul
the thing out (I think I strained various muscles a time or two) and lay it
out on the table in inadequate lighting (what's with libraries and crappy
light?) to wade through seventy million  gzillion teeny tiny pages of tiny,
tiny print....

My memory may be magnifying the horrors by now, but when I get to it again,
I will happy to use the internet.  /grin/

Now I need to focus on slogging away at the tedious details of the small
stuff so I can start getting something out there to build on.  /smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Kerry Thompson
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 7:24 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Catching up

Hi friends,

Tami, unfortunately queeries, like submissions, need to be taylored to each
market. Some publishers specifically say to include sample chapters,
typically the first three chapters of the novel. Sometimes though the
publisher wants to see more than this, typically a complete outline and/or
table of contents; sometimes the queery and only the queery. More tedium,
I'm afraid, but you need to consult an up-to-date edition of _Writer's
Market_ or an up-to-date online reference. I  presume such references exist?
Perhaps Writers Digest online? Ideally, consult the submission guidelines on
the web sites of each individual publisher. Yes, it's a major drag! But,
publishers don't like getting queeries or submissions that don't adhere
exactly to their own particular guidelines. *shrug* What can you do? They're
fusspots. *grin*

I'm glad my explanation of blogs was helpful.

Helene, I cannot urge you strongly enough to avoid tangling with J.K.
Rowling! She and her legal team have no compunction about destroying people
who infringe her copyright or even look like they might be thinking about
infringing her copyright. Make up or reapply your own word for a nonmagical
person born to a magical family. 

By the way, Rowling did not invent the word squib. It already existed,
meaning a type of firework. She applied it to the particular usage she
needed. You might do something similar; that is, find a word that is not
much used in ordinary current day speech and apply it to this usage.
Alternatively, make up a word and define it clearly.

As to the dogs: you could call them Shepherds or police dogs, or give them
another place-derived name from your fictional world. Actually, I thought
Brits called German Shepards Alsatians. The more I think of it, the better
it seems to me for you to use a name analegous to German Shepherd
substituting a nationality from your world for German. That would be the
easiest for you and the clearest for the reader I think.

Robert, excellent Provoker!

One fell swoop is from MacBeth.

The Crowd, er, Addy? That piece you posted was nothing more nor less than an
infomercial, long on hype, very short indeed on substance. There are
reputable print on demand (selfpublishing) companies, and I suppose
Outskirts Press may be one. But, others are unscrupulous, nothing more than
vanity presses that demand the author pay them some outrageous amount for
the privilige of seeing his book in print. I rather suspect Outskirts Press
to be one of this latter type. In any case, it behoves a writer to check
very carefully into any such company in order to protect his reputation, his
selfrespect and, most importantly, his wallet.

Having given that strong caveat, I've heard of Lulu (sp?), a print on demand
outfit that produces good quality books. Recently, they have instituted a
program whereby, for a fee, they will place your book on amazon.com.
Cafepress also allows for selfpublishing. The chief problem I see with
selfpublishing is that of marketing. Let's face it. Marketing genre and
niche books is hard enough when they have a known house or imprint name on
the title page. When you have to be your own marketing department, things
must get even hairier. I doubt that in real life very many selfpublished
authors make a lot of money. Not so many authors published with established
houses make a lot of money. But, that doesn't generally deter writers from
writing or would-be authors from seeking to get published. It can be done,
and done successfully, with a large, mainstream house, a speciality
publisher or a print-on-demand company. Just make absolutely **sure** you
know what you're signing up for!

Solidarity and Peace,
Kerry

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