I attended a Reedsy Live where Jonathan Oliver gave some wonderful tips for fantasy and sci-fi writers that I'd like to share. Some of these tips are for all genres though. What's a word count for fantasy and sci-fi? For adult fantasy, he mentioned the range to be about 130,000 to 250,000 words. Sci-fi landed … Continue reading Fantasy and sci-fi tips from an award-winning editor
Tag: publisher
A writer’s journey (part nine) – getting published in a journal
Getting published in a journal was one of my hardest goals to hit. Writers take different paths toward this. Some submit through email. Others submit through websites like Submittable. Both have their pros and cons. Where to Submit? When I submit through email, I tend to not hear back from the publisher for months, but … Continue reading A writer’s journey (part nine) – getting published in a journal
How does a book become a book? – part three
If you missed the first two parts, here's part one and part two. #5 - Making your marketing plans Look at where you can submit your book to win awards. (I suggest the Writer's Market book for this. They list many places you can to submit to. They also come out with an updated version … Continue reading How does a book become a book? – part three
How does a book become a book? – part two
If you missed part one or need a recap, it's here. #3 - Editing your manuscript Don't panic, but this can take many rounds. Editing a book is difficult, and sometimes minds will disagree. You're about to dig deep into your work. How is your dialogue? Believable? Does your character's motivations seem valid, true to … Continue reading How does a book become a book? – part two
How does a book become a book? – part one
Books become books in different ways, but they usually take the same general path. But how does that work? Here's a general sense from a manuscript to a book in hand. #1 - Decide trade vs self-publishing If you want to go into trade publishing, your next step is to get a literary agent. Once … Continue reading How does a book become a book? – part one
Should you go to AWP? My 2020 AWP experience.
I did a poll on Twitter and found that most of my followers don’t know about the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) conference. Or maybe you’re curious about going. Since I went this last March, I’ll let you know about my experience. Pricing For national conferences, this is one of the cheapest I … Continue reading Should you go to AWP? My 2020 AWP experience.
A small change for female writers
My old coworker got a job at Barnes & Noble and loves it. But she got so frustrated there once because an older man refused to buy a book from any female writer - in 2018. He's the customer that publishers are afraid of. Because some people still believe females cannot write well. Most female writers … Continue reading A small change for female writers
Common query mistakes
At my new internship, I got to see what was in the bottom drawer: rejected queries. For over an hour, I read query after query. The rejected queries all had repeated mistakes. Here's some of the most common ones: Misspellings One writer wrote "aknolegments" instead of "acknowledgements." Spelling, especially in the writing career, is essential. … Continue reading Common query mistakes
