THE ICE PICK

2006 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. Cincinnati : Writer’s Digest Books. ISBN 1-58297-397. 650 pages. $24.99.

Aimed specifically at those of us who write fiction, whether long or short, N&SSWM lists non-paying markets as well as those that pay, with over fifteen hundred listings for literary agents, book and magazine publishers, conferences and workshops, and contests and awards.

Book publishers and magazine markets are listed alphabetically, with magazines divided into literary, small circulation, online, and consumer magazines. There is a general index in the back to help you locate a specific market by name and an extensive category index to help you find markets that take the kind of story or novel you have written. And fantasy, horror, and science fiction are not combined, but are listed as separate genres--a nice touch for us.

There is also a category index for the approximately two hundred literary agents listed in N&SSWM.

In the back of the book, conferences are listed by region and indexed by date. Under "Resources," publishers are listed with all of their imprints, along with notes for Canadian writers. And a glossary of printing and production terms is included along with a more general glossary.

In each market section, new markets, paying markets, and those seeking or accepting new writers are clearly marked, as are Canadian and non-North American markets, and for book publishers, those accepting only agented submissions.

As with its sister publication Writer’s Market, the magazine listings in Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market explain the kinds of stories the editors want, minimum and maximum lengths for your manuscript, how many manuscripts they receive per month (to give you an idea of the competition you face), and payment rates, as well as tips from the editors. Entries include information on how to obtain guidelines and/or sample copies, submission guidelines, response times, e-mail addresses, rights acquired, and whether payments are on acceptance or not.

Entries for book publishers give details about how to obtain guidelines or order a catalog, along with subjects published, and recent titles. They also tell the number of first-time authors published in the last year and the publishers’ policies on simultaneous submissions, on response time, on how long it usually takes to publish a book, and on royalties, advances, etc. The all-important contact information, including names of editors, is given, as is advice from the publishers.

About two hundred literary agents are listed with recent sales, terms of payment, the kinds of books they represent, and the writers’ conferences they attend, if you’d like to meet them.

In addition to the market listings there are articles on "The Writing Life," "Craft & Technique," and "Getting Published," plus interviews with authors and editors, including Gordon Van Gelder and Mel Odom, and a list of resources for SF/F/H writers.

In addition, if you buy the book, it includes a coupon code for ten dollars off the regular $29.99 year’s subscription to their online service, which gives recent updates and market changes, as well as a host of other services.

I think you will find this annual market guide indispensable if you want to sell your work, and I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter,Nov. 2005.}

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Writer’s Market 2006. Cincinnati : Writer’s Digest Books, 2005. ISBN 1-58297-394-6. 1178 pages. $29.99.

One of our members recently wrote me and said, "I have no idea who all is looking for stuff, or where to look to find out. I’d love to sell something, anything, to anyone."

If this sounds like you, you need to check out this market guide or one of its sister publications--Novel & Short Story Writer's Market, Poet's Market, or Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market.

Whether you are trying to sell a story, a novel, an article, a nonfiction book, a poem, or a filler, this guide has the largest list of paying magazines and book publishers.

In addition to the sixteen magazines dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, and horror, it features dozens of other magazines, as well as literary and "little" magazines, that take SF/F/H stories and pay cash for them. But there is no subject index for magazines, as there is for the book publishers, so you will have to read through the listings to find them. Of course, if you write other kinds of stories or articles on science or any other topic, you will find markets for your writing here. Also featured are many contests and awards.

In each market section, high-paying, Canadian, and online markets are clearly marked. And each section has introductory information about that market.

The magazine listings explain the kinds of material the editors want, how many manuscripts they buy each year, minimum and maximum lengths for your manuscript, and payment rates, as well as tips from the editors. Entries include how to obtain guidelines and/or sample copies, e-mail addresses, submission guidelines, response times, rights acquired, and whether payments are on acceptance or not. They tell whether the magazines accept fiction, nonfiction, poetry, fillers, photos, and reprints, and what the columns or departments accept.

Entries for book publishers and producers include the number of queries and manuscripts they receive and the number of titles they publish per year, with the percentage of those titles from first-time authors and the percentage from unagented writers. The entries give details about how to obtain guidelines or order a catalog, along with listings of various imprints, subjects published, and recent titles. They also tell the publishers’ policies on simultaneous submissions, on response time, on how long it usually takes to publish a book, and on royalties, advances, etc. The all-important contact information, including names of editors, is given, as are tips from the publishers and a summary of the kinds of things they are currently emphasizing or de-emphasizing.

Fifty literary agents who are seeking new clients are listed with bio notes, recent sales, terms of payment, the kinds of books they represent, and the writers’ conferences they attend, if you’d like to meet them in person.

In addition to the market listings is a section "For Beginning Writers," plus interviews with authors and articles covering such things as improving your odds of getting published, query letters, writing groups, and e-mail communication.

The "Business of Writing" section includes information on contracts, rights, and taxes. Each year special articles deal with topics of interest. This year they include articles on finding time to write, overcoming writer’s block, and creating online publicity.

Missing from this year’s guide, as from last year’s, are the script markets and script agents, and the list of magazines, websites, and organizations for writers, but it still has a glossary of terms like "frontlist" and "kill fee" to help you, as well as average word lengths for "novella," "short-short," etc.

In addition, if you buy the book, it includes a coupon code for ten dollars off a year’s subscription to their online service, www.writersmarket.com. I use the book and the website together, finding it easier to locate markets in the book and then check the website for recent changes or updated information.

In writing for publication, I find this market guide indispensable, and I’m always amazed when I meet writers who know nothing about it. If you want to sell your work and don’t know where to start, I highly recommend this market guide.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Oct. 2005.}

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Making the Perfect Pitch : How to Catch a Literary Agent’s Eye, edited by Katharine Sands. Waukesha, Wis., The Writer Books, 2004. 287 p. $18.95. Includes: index and "Selected Resources: How To Find & Contact an Agent." ISBN: 0-87116-206-7.

This book is a collection of interviews with agents and articles by them telling both what they themselves are looking for in a submission and giving general advice on how to make a good impression when querying.

Much of the advice is the same basic information you hear over and over, but if you are new to the game of trying to get an agent, it may be very helpful to you. Things like: don’t query an agent before finishing your novel or non-fiction work; don’t allow spelling or grammatical errors to ruin your query letter; don’t send to agents who don’t deal in your genre or subject; don’t send candy or dog-doo (or any other weird thing) with the query; don’t tell the agent you’re the next J.K. Rowling or you’ve written the best thing ever written; don’t say you’re going to make him or her rich; don’t lie about anything; and don’t give up after "a mere thirty rejections."

I think I was most impressed with the differences in what agents want or expect. Some recommend just launching into a description of your book or "a single attention-grabbing sentence." Others want you to first state that you are writing to them because you would like them to represent your work. One warns against calling your book a "book," saying that technically it’s a "manuscript" until published, while others don’t seem to care. Some of them are turned off by the very thing the next agent wants. It is confusing and discouraging and made me realize why it is so tough to get an agent. There is, after all, only so much research you can do about an agent before you send something out.

But as I continued to read, certain patterns appeared and I started taking notes, trying to think how I could make my own query letter better.

In the end, of course, it is your writing that will sell or fail, but if you can’t get an agent’s attention in the first place, he or she will never see your manuscript to be able to judge your sparkling prose. You have to somehow make that dull query contain some of the same charm, vigor, and color that shines in your novel. There are hints and tips and advice galore in this book to help you make that happen, and if you think you are ready to start sending out your work, this book may save you a lot of time and a lot of grief.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Sept. 2005.}

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I Have This Nifty Idea : Now What Do I Do With It?, selected and edited by Mike Resnick. Holicong, Pa., Wildside Press, 2001. 405 p. $22.00. ISBN: 1-58715-481-1.

Although Resnick never mentions it, the idea for this book was suggested by our own Kathleen Woodbury, and like her OSPS : Outlines, Synopses, Proposals That Sold, it is a collection of novelists’ submissions to agents and editors that resulted in sales.

If you’re struggling with a synopsis, outline, or proposal for your own novel and wondering how published science fiction authors wrote theirs, this book shows you exactly what they did.

Some of the synopses are from well-known authors, others are from first-timers. They include: Robert Silverberg, Katharine Kerr, Jack Dann, Jack L. Chalker, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Walter Jon Williams, Laura Resnick, Charles Sheffield, Mike Resnick, Susan R. Matthews, Joe Haldeman, Jack McDevitt, Robert J. Sawyer, David Brin, Terry McGarry, Barry N. Malzberg, Alan Rodgers, Stephen Leigh, and Kevin J. Anderson.

Most of the synopses are long, but there are a few short ones, and some bonuses, as when Katharine Kerr gives her story "in a nutshell," in a two-page "Quick Summary," and also in a longer synopsis.

Most are formal proposals, but some are "informal letters to friendly editors," and most are for stand-alone novels, but there are trilogy synopses and even movie synopses, as well.

Where one or two examples in a how-to-write book can show you some of the techniques or formatting you need to know, this book, like SFFW’s own OSPS series, actually shows you how to put a synopsis together that works. (In fact, several of these authors contributed to OSPS. Mike Resnick himself was featured in Issue #2.)

In studying these synopses you see the general rules authors follow, like using third person present tense and telling how their books end. But the examples show you much more in the wide variety of approaches to the synopses, e.g., you can see that some authors dive right into the story, others give a great deal of background information first; some do chapter-by-chapter, others do not.

Although this book may be more valuable to read and study if you’ve read the particular novel featured in the synopsis, it is still extremely helpful to see how these authors encapsulated their stories, and it might even encourage you to buy some of the books you haven’t read and read them.

{Published in SF & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, May 2005}

THE ICE PICK

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Science Fiction, by Cory Doctorow and Karl Schroeder. Indianapolis, Alpha Books, 2000. 360 p. $16.95. Includes: bibliography, index, model contracts, online resources, and publisher and agent listings. ISBN: 0-02-863918-9.

I was disappointed with this book. Aimed at the beginning science fiction writer, the book’s emphasis is, as the title says, on submitting and publishing your work, particularly science fiction. All well and good. And the book seems to do the big stuff right, but I have a lot of quibbles with it.

To begin with, although they mention fantasy, it is given little attention, which may be just as well considering that the authors’ definition of high fantasy varies from page 30, where The Lord of the Rings is praised as the place "to start reading high fantasy" to page 125, where LOTR is considered not to be among the fantasy classics and is criticized as being "the direct source of most of the pseudo-fantasy that is written today."

In fact, according to the authors, "most modern ‘high fantasy’ novels are actually science fiction, though the author may not know it." They argue their case rather well, but I doubt that most fantasy readers or fantasy authors will buy into it.

Still, a lot of the book’s advice is good. For example, that about attending a convention as a published author is excellent, except that most people reading this book are going to be far more interested in just meeting a published author at a convention than attending as one.

And that was the problem with a lot of their advice. It is a very uneven book, with some things aimed at beginners and other things at professionals, as if the authors threw a lot of stuff together without considering their target audience.

I was also surprised to learn that SASE is supposed to be pronounced to rhyme with "mace," since everyone I know calls it a "sassy," but that’s minor, and maybe the people I know are the ones off the beaten trail.

There are many worthwhile hints and tips scattered throughout the book, and if you have it already on your bookshelf, you may profit from much of the advice. But you do need to apply a lot of common sense to some of the things said.

For example, in the chapter on submissions, the authors say, "you should NEVER [their emphasis] use a cover letter to explain or summarize your story." This may be true in general for short stories, although even there you should carefully follow editors’ guidelines. But for novels, you are nearly always asked for a brief explanation in your cover or query letter.

Such things made me lose confidence in the authors, and I don’t feel it’s a book you can trust very far. Not recommended.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Sept. 2004.}

THE ICE PICK

Formatting and Submitting Your Manuscript, by Cynthia Laufenberg & the Editors of Writer’s Digest Books. 2nd ed. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, 2004. 282 p. $19.99. Includes: index and sample submission forms, letters, manuscripts, outlines, proposals, synopses, etc. ISBN: 1-58297-290-7.

Are you struggling with decisions like the preferred margin size and line spacing for your short story; which pages to number or what font to use for your novel; where to put paging, word count, contact information, and the title of your article; or what you should include and/or exclude with your submission? Are you uncertain how far down on the page a new chapter should start, whether a short story should have a separate title page, or if you should fax a query to an editor?

If you want to know the correct way to format and submit your work, this book will show you how. It includes short stories, novels and nonfiction books, children’s books (including picture books), articles, poetry, scripts, essays, and even greeting cards, fillers, columns, op-eds, radio and television commentaries. If you need to know how to set up a query, a cover or follow-up letter, a proposal, a title page, a sidebar, an outline or a synopsis, you can find the answers here along with mistakes to avoid.

"Why is proper formatting so important when sending a submission?" Because you are competing with so many other authors, and "proper formatting helps you to distinguish yourself as a professional" and get your work read and accepted.

Bearing in mind "that the examples presented here are only models and are not set in stone," these guidelines can allow you to stop worrying about mechanics and concentrate on your work.

You may still run into questions this book cannot answer, and you must always prefer the publisher’s guidelines if they differ from what is stated here, but this book can provide you with a standard formatting, that you can have confidence in and that can give you a starting point from which to handle any exotic formatting problems.

Should you buy the new edition if you already have the first?

The new edition omits some samples, e.g. the shorter query letter for a short story, but includes more samples on mistakes to avoid, as well as information on faxing and electronic querying and submissions.

Errors and conflicts in the first edition have been corrected. For example, in the first edition you were instructed on one page to use third person in novel synopses even if the book was in first person (correct) and on another page to use first person even if the book was in third (incorrect). They’ve straightened that out. And the book’s organization has been improved, along with more "Submission Tips," "Formatting Specs," and "Other Dos and Don’ts" for things like epigraphs and title and acknowledgment pages.

If you are serious about wanting to submit and sell your work, and especially if you don’t have the first edition, you definitely should have this book on your shelf.

Very highly recommended.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Aug. 2004.}

THE ICE PICK

1,818 Ways to Write Better and Get Published, by Scott Edelstein. Updated edition of The Writer’s Book of Checklists. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, 1997. 213 p. $14.99. ISBN: 0-89879-778-0.

With something for beginning writers, as well as amateurs and professionals, this book is a gold mine of very specific and practical information on everything from how “to generate fresh ideas” to “how to fire your agent gracefully.”

The first two sections are aimed mostly at beginners and deal with getting started. The first part offers suggestions on responding to criticism and comments, spotting and ignoring bad advice, and living with rejection or success, plus setting up a workspace and finding the best time for you to write.

The second section helps with things like keeping a journal or notebook, rewriting and editing your work, beating writer’s block, and creating titles.

Like the rest of the book, both of these sections give very practical and detailed advice and information, from choosing the kind and color of your journal to using copyediting marks.

Next, there is one part dealing with fiction (characters, plotting, “how to show instead of tell,” description, dialogue, viewpoint, beginnings, endings, children’s stories, etc.) and another part dealing with nonfiction (research, interviews, etc.). Both parts cover preparing a proposal. Do you need to get to know your characters better or how to qualify an assumption you are making in an article? This is where you will find lists of questions to ask about your characters or advice on what things to bring to an interview.

Most of the book deals with the business end of writing: “Publishing opportunities,” “Finding Information and Support,” “Doing Business with Editors,” “Selling Yourself and Your Services,” “Dealing with Agents,” “Keeping Track of Business,” and “Legal Matters.”

Types of magazines and other markets are listed along with advice on whether they are easy or hard to break into and average pay scales. There are guidelines on how to make business contacts that will help you, how to prepare a manuscript, what to do if an editor is slow to respond, how to handle deadlines, ask for more money, compose a resume or an invoice, arrange a book signing or reading, deal with an agent, fill out IRS forms, alter a written agreement, etc.

The lack of an index is very annoying to me, but overall I have learned a lot from the book and have found it to be extremely useful.

Writers always have lots of questions. This book has lots of answers. I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Dec. 2003.}

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The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, by Tom & Marilyn Ross. 4th ed. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, 2002. 521 p. $19.99. Includes: illustrations, bibliography, glossary, index, & resources. ISBN: 1-58297-091-2.

How to Get Your E-book Published : an Insider’s Guide to the World of Electronic Publishing, by Richard Curtis & William Thomas Quick. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, 2002. 278 p. $21.99. Includes: bibliography, index, & resources. ISBN: 1-58297-097-1.

If you are considering self-publication, you are about to enter a wilderness of possibilities, responsibilities, and confusion. There are rewards and, as the Rosses say, "options beyond your wildest imaginings." And also many pitfalls.

Beginning with the "publishing scene" of what is out there and the basic choices you will have to make, the Rosses take you from "product development" (writing your book) to selling it.

You can learn how to establish your own publishing company and how to handle bookkeeping, billing, pricing, discounting, taxes, and all the other nitty-gritty of setting up shop. They walk you through copyright registration, getting an ISBN and a Library of Congress Card Number; and explain what you need to know about cover and page design, typeface, proofreading, and choosing a title for your book that will help sell it.

The second half of the book is devoted to marketing, in both traditional and non-traditional ways. And they discuss how to approach a regular publishing house, if your book is a success, or how to raise your small one-book publishing enterprise to become a small press with more books, if you ever have time in your life again to write another book, because self-publication is a full-time job.

The book is awesome in what it covers and provides and in the little tips and hints it gives. For example, in most areas, when you set up a company, you need to advertise "your intention to do business as (dba) XYZ Publishing Company." They recommend saving money by advertising in a small "weekly neighborhood paper" instead of a major daily.

The Curtis book is restricted to e-publishing. Richard Curtis, is a leading New York literary agent, and William Thomas Quick is a self-described "full-blown computer geek" who writes science fiction. Together they are well qualified to help you understand e-publishing and publish your book electronically.

The Ross book includes a great deal about e-publishing, as well, but if you are serious about electronic publishing, the Curtis book has very much more for you.

Curtis covers the kinds of e-books and the issue of rights, how to get your book into digital format, set up your domain name, etc. And he discusses whether it is better to try to make money advertising on your website, use pay-per-download with PayPal, or try Amazon.com’s honor system.

If you would rather go with "brand name e-publishers," Curtis outlines the advantages and disadvantages, tells how you can find them, and warns of some of the scams that are out there.

The last section of the book deals with marketing. It tells why you should avoid spam advertising and why you should not ignore libraries. It explains how to get your book stocked in e-bookstores or sold through Amazon.com, how to get your e-book reviewed, create other publicity, and submit to search engines and improve your rankings on the major ones.

If you are thinking of self-publishing, you should read the Ross book. It will help you decide whether to "do-it-yourself" or not and, if so, how to go about it. They even include a "self-publishing timetable" and "a realistic and complete marketing plan" for you.

And if you are considering e-publishing, the Curtis book has the most complete coverage of the field that I’ve seen.

Both books are down-to-earth, practical guides full of detailed instructions, advice, and tips to help you publish your book and make it a success. I recommend both of them highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Oct. 2003.}

THE ICE PICK

Agents, Editors, and You: the Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book Published, edited by Michelle Howry. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, 2002. 260 p. $22.99. Includes index. ISBN: 1-58297-141-2.

Whether you are a beginning writer or a professional, you should be able to find the answers to many, if not most, of your questions about publishing in this great book. Sometimes books on publishing seem to conceal as much as they reveal, and what they do tell you is frequently couched in language that is difficult to understand and proves even more difficult to put into practice. But this book, which is a compilation of up-to-date advice and information from top-notch agents and editors, explains things in a no-nonsense, practical, and easily comprehended manner.

The golden rule of publishing fiction is explained: Finish your novel first before you approach either an agent or an editor with it. Stephen King may be able to sell a novel on an idea and a promise, but most of the rest of us, who have a limited or nonexistent track record, should finish our book first.

Included with advice on finding and approaching an agent and submitting your manuscript, are warnings about the kinds of agents to avoid and what to do if you have doubts about the legitimacy of offers you receive from agents or editors.

Sample letters are included along with the agents’ comments on what made the letters stand out for them. If you have been wondering whether you should send an e-query or not, and if so, how to format it and what to include, guidance is provided here.

Advice is also given on how to meet agents and editors at conferences--what to say, what not to say, what to bring (including a plan, a pen, and your own business cards), and what not to bring (a shy attitude, for one thing). And what to do if you can’t attend conferences.

There is also a chapter on what to do after you’ve caught an agent’s or an editor’s interest. This includes how to prepare a proposal, cover letter, synopsis, and outline for a novel or a nonfiction book.

There are chapters on what fiction, nonfiction, and children’s book agents and editors are looking for these days.

An entire section covers what happens after your book is sold, including the actual process your manuscript goes through, as well as how you can best cooperate with your editor to make your book a success, what you need to know before you sign a contract, and how to help market your book.

Chapters on e-publishing and self-publishing discuss both the advantages and the pitfalls, but if you plan to go in either of these directions, I recommend you look into books like Tom and Marilyn Ross’s The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing or Richard Curtis’s How to Get Your E-book Published for more information.

The chapter entitled "Are all the good agents and publishers in New York City?" includes fascinating information about how agents and editors operate and relate to each other and to authors, particularly in handling and building the careers of first-time authors.

I enjoyed reading this book and I learned a lot. If "it often seems as if the publishing industry itself was structured to make it as difficult as possible for a first-time author to figure it all out" or you wish for a guide through the publishing maze--"a kind of ‘publishing mentor’" to answer your questions, or you just want to learn more about the publishing industry and how it works, I highly recommend this book.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Aug. 2003. Reprinted in Worlds of Wonder E-zine, Sept. 2003.}

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Writer’s Market FAQs: Fast Answers about Getting Published and the Business of Writing, by Peter Rubie. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, 2002. 271 p. $18.99. Includes: sample letter of agreement between agent and client, glossary, and index. ISBN: 1-58297-071-8.

Peter Rubie, of the Peter Rubie Literary Agency in New York City, and professor of "the only university-level course in the country on how to become a literary agent" has, by now, probably heard all of the Frequently Asked Questions. As an author, he has probably asked quite a few of them himself.

Arranged in a question-and-answer format, the book provides answers to questions like: "Should I start my . . . career publishing short stories rather than a novel?" "Why do I keep getting rejected?" "Can I make more money keeping rights and selling them myself? Or should I let a publisher take a share and sell the rights?" The answers given are not merely brief retorts, but are fully developed discussions. For example, there are explicit instructions on what should be included in a fiction proposal, including information such as: "if the book is part of a series, include a half-page or one-page description of a few more titles in the series, as well as a brief series overview."

"The Basics" includes such questions as: "How do I get started?" "How do I know if my manuscript is ready to be published?" "Is keeping a journal a good idea?" "Should I go to school or take lessons or something?" "Why does it sometimes feel like everyone in publishing is conspiring to stop me from getting published?" and are writers’ conferences worthwhile?

The second chapter explains genres and cross-genres, tells about meeting "the reader’s expectations," and why it might make sense to use different names if you write in different genres.

"Agents, Editors and Other Publishing People" answers questions like: "How do I approach editors or publishers?" "Why has publishing become so hard-nosed these days?" "Why is it so hard to get hold of an agent between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.?" "What do I do if I’m able to actually speak with an editor?" "How do I protect my idea?" "How do I register my copyright?" "How do I get permission to use somebody else’s work?" "What should I know about an agent before I approach one?" "How do I attract the attention of a good agent?" "What should I ask a potential agent?" "Why should I bother with a literary agent?" and how do I "submit to an editor without an agent"? The Code of Ethics for the Association of Authors’ Representatives is reprinted and explained paragraph by paragraph in plain English.

The chapter on marketing explains how to "define" or "target" your audience, that is, the people who might buy your book. And it discusses what publishers do to distribute and promote ("not much") your book after it is published, and some things you can do to help. Questions include: "How do I write a letter to a ‘famous’ person asking for an endorsement?" "Should I hire a publicist?" "How can I get myself on TV?" and "What do I do if my editor and imprint are swallowed up in a merger?" A list of Web sites you can "go to for help with marketing and publicity" is provided.

Chapter five, "Developing Ideas and Creating Book Proposals," covers everything from "What should I write about?" to "How do I create a fiction proposal?" Other questions and answers include things like: "How long should I wait before I contact the editor or agent to see whether they have read my material?" and "What is meant by a ‘narrative hook’?" There is also a list of organizations and useful web sites for writers.

"Cultivate a reputation for being a sweetheart to deal with," advises Rubie in the chapter on the process of "How Your Manuscript Becomes a Book." That process and "Reading Your Contract" make up the next two chapters. A sample contract is given with each clause explained and warnings included.

"Subrights and Royalties" are detailed in chapter eight, and the advantages and disadvantages of "E-publishing and Other Routes" are discussed in chapter nine.

The last chapter is on "Writing and Editing Tips" and includes things like: "How do I get started writing a book?" "How do I go about tackling rewriting?" "I write description well, but my characters are weak. How can I get over this?" "How can I improve my writing style?" and "What do people mean when they talk about structure in writing?"

This fascinating book is written in clear, easily understood language. It has a wealth of information that can help you become a better writer and help you sell what you write, and I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, June 2003.}

THE ICE PICK

Writer’s Market Online, www.writersmarket.com.

This nicely arranged site comes up fast and gives you quick access to its features so you don’t waste time. Even if you don’t subscribe to the service, there is much available here.

The Featured Web Resource has links to writers’ groups, newsletters, and other websites of interest to writers, and is worth checking out.

The Featured Marketing Tip has information on targeting markets, query and cover letters, agents, manuscript formatting, mailing and recording submissions, writing tools, etc. For example, the advice on book proposals tells what to include if the publisher’s listing doesn’t specify what they want.

The Market Watch has publishing news about changes of editors, etc. and links to the publishers’ websites, plus marketing trends, societal changes, and postal information.

The daily Spotlight Market features different markets with full descriptions and links to the market. If you point to the dollar sign, it will tell you the pay rate. Stars indicate "high opportunity markets for freelancers."

The online Writer’s Encyclopedia and entertaining and informative "Ask the Agent" column by Sheree Bykofsky will help answer questions you have.

If you subscribe to the service, you get access to daily updated listings for thousands of markets and hundreds of literary agents. Searching the markets is easy by type of market, market name or website URL if you know it, by genre, by location if you want something local or regional, or by fiction or nonfiction subject. You can search for only newly listed markets or those markets that have changed their information in the last two months. You can qualify your search by such things as pay rate, whether they accept simultaneous submissions, pay on acceptance or not, buy reprints, or by kind of rights purchased. You can even find markets that publish online exclusive material or accept queries by phone, fax, or e-mail. For book publishers, you can easily find those that accept unagented submissions if that is what you need.

Each market entry is laid out very clearly, and you can quickly locate what you are looking for. The information is like that in the book, or check "Sample listings" on the website to see the kind of information available.

A Submission Tracker is provided for you to keep records of queries, submissions, rejections, and successes. This section is protected by the Secure Sockets Layer encryption for your safety and privacy. You can list and describe a manuscript and then search for a market to submit it to, or you can choose a market and then search for one of your manuscripts to submit to it. If you use the Task feature, it will remind you of deadlines, etc.

You will be alerted to changes in markets in your Favorites Folder and to any updated markets that may fit your personal profile. And you can change your personal profile at any time.

So, how much does it cost? For $29.99 a year you can have access to the most up-to-date marketing information available. This comes with a thirty-day money-back guarantee if you change your mind. Or you can subscribe for $2.99 a month and cancel anytime. For $39.99, members of Writer’s Digest Book Club can get both the online service and the Writer’s Market book. Or, if you’ve already purchased the book, you can get $10 off the subscription price.

The question always is, if you buy the book, do you need this online service? (Or vice versa.) Well, individual preferences vary. Personally, I find it faster and easier to work with printed pages than flipping back and forth on screen, but you lose the "up-to-the-minuteness" of the website, with its changes in editors, addresses, closed markets, etc. And some listings appear only on the website, e.g. Absolute Magnitude, so if you can afford it, a combination of the two is ideal.

If you’re trying to sell a story or get a book published or you are looking for an agent, you owe it to yourself to check out this website and see what it can offer you.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Feb. 2002.}

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Writer’s Market 2002. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2002. ISBN 1-58297-044-0. 1112 pages. $29.99.

Trying to sell a story or a book? If you want to be paid cash for your writing, this guide has the largest list of paying magazines, book publishers, and script buyers for your work. High-paying, Canadian, on-line and cable TV markets, and new listings are clearly marked, as are those that buy many freelance or unagented manuscripts.

In addition to the seventeen high-circulation science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazines, it features dozens of literary and "little" magazines that take SF/F/H stories. Of course, if you write other kinds of stories or articles on science or any other topic, you will find markets for your writing here. Also featured are newspaper syndicates and markets for greeting cards and gift ideas, plus contests and awards.

Each market section has introductory information, such as topics of current interest and a discussion of what editors want.

Each magazine listing includes openness to freelancers, whether payment is on acceptance or not, rights acquired, how to query, response time, and information on obtaining guidelines and/or a sample copy. The entry explains the kinds of material they want, how many manuscripts they buy each year, minimum and maximum lengths for your manuscript, and payment rates, as well as tips from the editor. They tell whether they accept fiction, nonfiction, poetry, fillers, photos, and reprints, and what their columns or departments accept.

Entries for book publishers and producers include the number of queries and manuscripts received and the number of titles published per year, what percentage of those is from first-time authors, and what percentage from unagented writers, whether they accept simultaneous submissions, information on royalties, advances, etc., response time, how long it usually takes to publish a book, how to obtain guidelines or order a catalog, their various imprints, subjects published, and recent titles, as well as contact information, including names of editors. There are also tips from the publishers and a summary of what kinds of things they may be currently emphasizing or de-emphasizing.

Seventy-five literary agents are listed with bio notes, recent sales, terms of payment, the kinds of books represented, and writer’s conferences attended, if you’d like to meet them in person. And you are warned to follow the submission requirements carefully since "for these agents in particular, time is extremely important, and wasting theirs won’t help your case."

In addition to the market listings are interviews with authors and articles covering such things as getting ideas, query and cover letters, book proposals, improving your odds of getting published, on-line and niche markets, electronic rights, pay rates for writing tasks, professionalism and courtesy, writing tools, proper manuscript format, submitting photographs and slides, and photocopying, mailing and recording your submissions.

The "Business of Writing" section includes information on contracts, rights, and taxes. Each year special articles deal with topics of interest. This year there is one on how to write outlines and treatments if you are doing a screenplay.

The guide also includes a resource list for writers: magazines, websites, and organizations. And there is a glossary of terms like "frontlist" to help you.

I’m always amazed when I meet writers who know nothing about this wonderful market guide.

If you write for publication, I find it is indispensable.

However, if you prefer to use an online service, take a look at Writer’s Market Online, www.writersmarket.com, and try it out.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Feb. 2002.}

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Ralan’s Specfic & Humor Webstravaganza, www.ralan.com.

Ralan Conley performs a marvelous service for all of us in speculative fiction with this well-designed, award-winning website. Primarily a marketing tool, the site offers much more.

The pages load quickly, and the site deposits no cookies. The navigation bar on the side stays with you as you scroll down the home page, allowing you to access what you want easily.

On this website you will find Ralan’s showcase for his own fiction as well as his personal response time log for markets he submits to. You can use this time log to estimate how long it will be before you hear back on your own submissions.

But the heart of this site is in the market lists for adult and juvenile books, anthologies, magazines, and webzines, all of which he maintains and updates regularly.

He lists "Pro," "Paying," and "4theLuv" markets. "Pro" markets are those paying 3 cents or more a word. "Paying" markets pay up to 2.9 cents a word. And "4theLuv" markets pay only in copies or "exposure." The Humor section includes story, article, and greeting card markets, as well as contests.

In these sections, Ralan gives the latest news and highlights new markets. Deadlines and market notes, like "Dead market, DO NOT SUBMIT" or "no unsolicited subs" give you fair warning. And if you click on the name of a market, you will get that publisher’s guidelines. An alphabetical finder helps you locate known markets quickly.

Accessible through the markets pages, but not shown on the navigation bar, you will find lists of contests, dead markets, and abbreviations, plus information on proper manuscript format, etc. I would put a caveat on his recommendation to include your Social Security number on all your manuscripts. A victim of identity theft myself, I was warned that you should not do this unless specifically asked for it in the guidelines. If the publisher is going to pay you, they usually send a contract and ask for your number anyway.

In addition, Ralan includes links to: agents, articles, artists, associations, authors, beware, book stores, chat, contests, copyright, courses, dictionaries, editors, events, film/TV, fun, genre, grammar, groups, help, hired help, jobs, libraries, links, magazines, markets, names, newsletters, promotion, publishers/publishing, reference, resources, service, free software, songwriting, and writing for and by youth.

Do you need to design an alien planet? Try the "reference" links, where you will also find C.J. Cherryh’s list of words commonly used before 1900 (which comes to thirty-five printed pages) and www.bartleby.com, which contains links to the Columbia Encyclopedia and Gazeteer, American Heritage Dictionary and Book of English Usage, Roget’s Thesaurus, the King James Bible, Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, and Columbia World Quotations, the World Factbook, Strunk’s Elements of Style, Gray’s Anatomy, the Oxford Shakespeare, and much, much more.

If you want to start your own zine, try the "resource" section, which has links to all kinds of writing articles as well as links to groups like our own workshop.

The "service" section includes postal information.

The sheer volume of information here is overwhelming, and Ralan is to be very highly commended for providing all of this for us for free! You owe it to yourself to take a look at this fabulous website. (I like his little animated monster, too!)

{Published in the SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Jan. 2002.}

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The Writer’s Digest Handbook of Novel Writing, edited by Tom Clark [and others]. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, 1998. ISBN 0-89879-507-9. 260 pages. $14.99.

This book is a collection of thirty-seven of the "best articles . . . on writing novels" that have appeared in Writer’s Digest magazine (www.writersdigest.com) since about 1979. The authors include many names familiar to science fiction and fantasy writers: John Gregory Betancourt, Orson Scott Card, Jack Dann, Dean R. Koontz, Nancy Kress, Joel Rosenberg, Stanley Schmidt, Darrell Schweitzer, and George H. Scithers.

The articles cover every aspect of novel writing from "I have an idea," through plotting, creating characters, "choosing your storyteller," developing setting, writing "believable love scenes," and using dialogue, flashbacks, and foreshadowing. These are followed by articles on the business end of writing: deciding whether or not you need an agent, "negotiating your book contract," and dealing with a copyeditor. All of these articles contain plenty of inspiration, but the emphasis throughout is on the nuts and bolts (or in our case, "pens and inks") of writing good, sellable fiction.

This isn’t a "pie-in-the-sky," "how to make a million bucks quick" book, but rather a compilation of practical advice that you can really use in writing your novel. It covers the simple things, like how to create fictional geographic names that sound real, whether it’s better to make changes in the margins of drafts or by cutting and taping your pages, and how to do a "slap-dash" outline for those who need guidance, but don’t like the formal, detailed kind. And it also covers the difficult things, like going from writing short stories to writing a novel and how to create the illusion of reality in a story.

I found the index to be excellent, the articles of uniformly high quality, and the book enjoyable to read--something that, unfortunately, doesn’t happen very often with how-to-write books.

Like the magazine itself, much of the information is basic and aimed at beginners, but most of it is for the amateur or the professional who feels the need to learn more. I recommend that beginners read through it, learn what they can, and come back to it again and again as they progress.

No book can teach you how to write, but this one can help you get started or help you improve your writing. And if you’re feeling blocked, it can perhaps give you the inspiration to "finish that novel before it finishes you."

{Published in SF & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Aug. 2001.}

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Guerrilla Marketing for Writers, by Jay Levinson, Rick Frishman & Michael Larsen. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2001. ISBN 0-89879-983-X. $14.99.

Just as guerrillas must improvise to fight a better-financed and better-armed enemy, guerrilla marketing for writers is about using "unconventional weapons and tactics that substitute time, energy, and imagination for money."

You may think selling your book to a publisher is the end, that after you celebrate you can get on with writing your next book. But "writing a good book doesn’t guarantee recognition or royalties," largely because few books receive adequate promotion. It makes you wonder why publishers bother publishing the books in the first place. To help you overcome this lack of publicity, the authors list and explain one hundred free or low-cost ways for you to attract attention and sell your books.

Although nonfiction is easier to promote and sell than fiction, and most of the techniques listed here work better for nonfiction, there are still plenty of weapons in the arsenal available for novelists. For example, you might start a quarterly newsletter or a zine with teasing excerpts from your book; reviews; letters from pleased readers; answers to questions about writing; and news about your book tours, interviews, and forthcoming books. You could even join with others in your genre to produce such a newsletter, sharing the publicity, the work, and the cost. Or, if your job requires or permits travel for meetings, etc., try to fit in readings, interviews, or book signings on your trips. And while "the average number of books sold at a book signing is four," this book lists things you can do to help ensure success.

"Writing and promoting books are both full-time jobs, so weigh the desire to help and the visibility of getting involved against the most productive way to use your time." In the end, the authors say, your courage and your enthusiasm can make or break your book’s success. "This is not a challenge for the faint-hearted. Only a total commitment to your literary and financial objectives will motivate you . . . to overcome the challenges you will encounter." But before you lose heart, the book includes a number of things you can do to uplift your spirit and harness your own inner strength, ranging from little things like writing ideal reviews of your book or pasting a write-up of your book in the number one slot on a bestseller list, to major things like scaling down your goals until your successes make you ready to meet the demands of major publishers and media.

If you would like to read excerpts from this book, see the January, February, and March 2001 issues of Writer’s Digest.

The index is excellent, and the book includes a "Resource Directory" listing publicity services, writer’s organizations, etc.; a list of "weapons" for fiction and nonfiction; advice on finding a publicist and how your network of family, friends, and acquaintances can help you; a sample media kit; a publicity campaign timeline; and a publicity questionnaire.

This book won’t tell you how to write a successful book, but if you want to make money from your writing, if you want to know how to turn your book into a bestseller, or if you’re not happy with the promotion--or lack of it--that your publisher is providing for your book, you may find the answers you need here.

{Published in SF & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, June 2001.}

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How to Write and Sell Your First Novel, by Oscar Collier with Frances Spatz Leighton. Rev. ed. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1997. $12.95.

"The whole purpose of this book is to take the fear out of writing your first novel." Updated from the first edition, this revised classic is a great book for both beginners and more advanced writers.

The first half of the book takes you step by step through the process and challenges of writing a novel. Collier and Leighton begin by helping you decide what type of novel you would like to write, and then go on through character creation, viewpoint, plotting, working with dialogue, handling flashbacks and foreshadowing, and the all-important task of actually getting started. Even if you already have most, or all, of that down pat, their advice on establishing a writing routine that will work for you and that you can live with, and setting reasonable goals and quotas that will help you finally finish that novel you’ve been working on is worth the price of the book.

Their system of what they call "loose outlining" really worked for me. Take a sheet of paper and make a list of the scenes or "actions" that you want to have take place. Count them. That’s the approximate number of chapters you’ll have. Use a manila folder for each chapter and put in it any ideas, pictures, background information, questions or notes to yourself, scraps of dialogue or description you’ve jotted down for that scene, etc. When you start writing the chapter, all the material is ready for you.

Next, they lead you through editing and marketing your manuscript, explaining about agents and contracts and telling you what to expect.

The second part of the book is devoted to the stories of seventeen first novelists. Most of these stories are exciting and inspiring. You may find some of them a bit depressing because of the amount of sheer luck involved or the number of rejections before final success. But the message is to not give up hope.

If you’ve been writing short stories, and would really like to try working on a novel, but have been afraid to start; or you’ve got half a dozen novels half-finished, or finished, but lying in your file drawers, this book may give you the confidence to get moving.

"Nobody was a famous writer before writing that first novel. . . . Everyone has to start somewhere." This book is a good place to start.

{Published in GPIC, the Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers Newsletter, Feb. 2001. Reprinted in SF & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Jan. 2006}

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Manuscript Submission, by Scott Edelstein. (Elements of the Fiction Writing Series) Cincinnati, Writer's Digest Books, 1989. ISBN: 0-89879-398-X. $13.95.

As an author, editor, and agent himself, Edelstein is well-qualified to help you through the process of submitting manuscripts. And even though this book covers the basics of formatting short stories, novels, novellas, and book proposals, it offers you far more than that.

Edelstein includes an in-depth discussion of the fiction market, as well as advice on whether or not you need an agent, and if so, how to obtain one. He explains when to use a query and what it should look like, how to make and use contacts, and how to approach editors and agents, and what to look for in an agent.

His advice ranges from the general to the very specific. On the manuscript itself, he recommends excluding any indication of the rights you wish to sell, a copyright notice unless your piece has been previously published, and your social security number. Along with instructions on preparing folders for mailing book proposals, he even has advice about paper clipping your manuscript. (Use a regular paperclip on manuscripts up to twenty-five pages and a buttefly clamp on manuscripts of twenty-five to eighty pages. A manuscript longer than that should be mailed loose.)

In the chapter on "listing your credentials and background" he recommends, among other things, that you list your memberships only in those "organizations that have a publication requirement for joining." That is far more impressive to editors and agents and doesn't look as if all you did was pay your annual dues.

Edelstein tells what you should put in an author's bio and how to submit writing samples, reviews, and endorsements. He includes instructions on writng novel outlines and proposals, as well as cover and query letters.

If you are looking for directions on how to format manuscripts for fillers, greeting cards, poems, recipes, or scripts; or you simply want the basic typing instructions for short stories and novels, you need Dian Dincin Buchman's The Writer's Digest Guide to Manuscript Formats or Jack Neff's Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript. If you want to know more, then you need this book. It is a treasure, and I recommend it highly.

{Published in SF & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Feb. 2001; reprinted Apr. 2001.}

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The Writer Got Screwed (But Didn't Have To) : A Guide to the Legal and Business Practices of Writing for the Entertainment Industry, by Brooke A. Wharton. New York: HarperCollins, 1997. 288 p. ISBN 0-06-273236-6. $14.95.

If you are interested in writing for Hollywood or have hopes of seeing your work produced as film, TV, or interactive entertainment, you might want to take a look at this book. Written by an entertainment and copyright lawyer, this is a frank assessment of the pitfalls and dangers that await the unwary (and even the wary).

Included are discussions on copyright--what can and cannot be protected and how to go about keeping your work from being stolen from you. Along the way, Wharton explodes many myths, including the one that if you mail a script to yourself--the so-called "poor man’s copyright"--the postmark proves the date you wrote it. She calls that "a waste of valuable postage."

She warns against discussing your ideas with anyone. Ideas are not protected by copyright.

Wharton also explains how you can avoid libel, explains what the Writers Guild of America is and what it can and cannot do for you, and defines exactly what a valid contract is and is not. (Is a contract scribbled on a cocktail napkin a contract? What about an agreement over the phone?)

She explains the differing roles of agents, lawyers, and managers in your career, and how to get your work noticed and purchased if you don’t have or can’t get an agent.

The book covers writing for films, episodic television, TV movies and mini-series, as well as for interactive entertainment. Interviews with noted writers give valuable and practical advice on everything from pitching your ideas and "breaking in," to writing with a partner and problems with contracts.

Also included are a glossary of terms; lists of competitions, fellowships, and internships; a partial listing of WGA agencies; a list of organizations that provide access to attorneys, legal information, and cheap (or even free) legal seminars for writers; and an excellent index.

Recommended for anyone interested in screenwriting.

{Published in GPIC, the Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers Newsletter, Oct. 2000. Reprinted in SF & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Mar. 2006.}

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The Writer’s Digest Guide to Manuscript Formats, by Dian Dincin Buchman and Seli Groves. Cincinnati : Writer’s Digest Books, 1987. ISBN 0-89879-293-2. $16.95.

Do you know how to format anecdote, article, book, filler, greeting card, poem, recipe, screenplay, script, and short story manuscripts for submission? How about the forms for submitting illustrations, proposals, and queries? Or how to present cover letters? Or do you avoid even trying to submit certain things, because you don’t know the proper format? If so, then this book is for you.

In the section discussing fiction, for example, there are sample cover letters; a list of steps to follow in submitting your novel; a sample proposal including cover sheet, table of contents, novel overview, bio, and outline; and sample manuscript pages with instructions on spacing for your title page, your first text page, succeeding chapters’ first pages, and normal text; as well as how to format your novel’s acknowledgments, dedication, epigraph(s), foreword, preface, and table of contents. And there is a sample follow-up letter for when you don’t hear from the publisher after many moons.

There are similar sections for short stories and other short forms, nonfiction, and scripts that answer nearly every question you could have. The only thing I’ve found lacking was how to format and submit a sidebar with an article.

Buchman and Groves have also included mailing information, such as when to fold a manuscript, packaging tips for everything including photos, and a checklist so you don’t forget anything.

Also, there are a number of blank checklist and log pages that can be photocopied, including a Book Progress Checklist, Editorial Checklist, Research Correspondence Log, Telephone Expense Log, and Submission Logs to help you track your work.

There are even special sample letters for everything from requesting information from an agent to asking for corrections in reprints and from requesting rights to requesting permission to quote from another’s work or reproduce their graphs or charts.

But the instructions on formatting, typing, and spacing are the heart of the book. If you ever wonder what your margins should be, how to space your lines or arrange your headers, or what should be centered or capitalized, you can find the solution here, and the index is one of the best I’ve seen, making it easy to find what you need to know quickly. Whether you use a manual typewriter or a computer, this book will help you present your manuscripts in the most professional manner possible.

It’s one of my favorite writing reference books, and I highly recommend it.

{Published in GPIC, the Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers Newsletter, Oct. 1999.}

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The Writer’s Essential Desk Reference. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books. ISBN 0-89879-759-4. $24.99.

This is a book for serious writers. By serious, I mean those who either are, or want to become, professionals. These are people who don’t write just for themselves, friends, and family, but who want to be published authors.

It includes information on "Living as a Writer," e.g. health insurance, contracts and literary rights, dealing with agents, setting up a freelance business, bookkeeping, home office expenses, taxes, whether you should incorporate or not, and how to judge whether a publication is apt to stiff you for payment (as Pulphouse’s The Report did me when I was starting out--not a fun experience for a new writer).

Lists of professional associations, retreats, conferences, fellowships, university writing programs, and correspondence schools are provided, along with advice and caveats and the relative advantages and disadvantages of different programs. Information about evaluating writers’ groups or creating your own is also included.

The rest of the book involves the actual production of your writing from research through selling it.

The chapter on research explains interlibrary loan; online researching; getting permission to use others’ copyrighted material; as well as obtaining U.S. government documents, scientific reports from the National Technical Information Service, and specific facts from individual government agencies.

There is also a section on some of the special needs of researching for fiction.

Desktop and self-publishing, and working with artists, collaborators, grammar services, graphic designers, illustrators, indexers, printers, proofreaders, translators, and typesetters are covered in the chapter on producing and polishing your manuscript. I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t give any information about traditional publishing, but the book is billed as a companion to Writer’s Market http://www.writersmarket.com, and they probably assumed that submitting to publishers is adequately covered there.

The chapter on selling your work includes in-depth analyses of freelancing for newspapers, radio and television, advertising, and technical writing.

Also included is a section called "Promoting Yourself," which discusses the pros and cons of advertising and book reviews, public speaking, TV and radio publicity, and hiring a publicist, as well as dealing with bookstores.

The final chapter deals with writing for Canadian markets, researching Canadian subjects, and selling in Canada.

Throughout the book are lists of further sources and resources on all the topics discussed. And these are all nicely indexed. There is, in addition, an excellent subject index.

Most of the book is aimed at nonfiction writers, but there is plenty here for fiction writers as well. If you are a serious author, you should at least take a look at what this book offers.

{Published in GPIC, the Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers Newsletter. Feb. 1999. Reprinted in SF & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, June 2000.}