And to you Mat. Yeah, not easy. My sister works from home too at the moment. Tough situation all round.
Hope everyone is coping alright in these tumultuous times. I hope those of you who have been directly affected by it aren't offset too much by events and bounce back as quickly as you can. If anyone wants to send me stuff to look over for them, I'd be more than happy to. I'm in a strange position where I now have nothing but free time. I've never not been busy so this is taking some getting used to. This evening I started writing what I think is one of my best short story ideas. I've been thinking about it on and off for over a year now without ever bothering to write more than a few pages and then starting again because I wasn't happy with the shape of it. But this time I think I've finally cracked the ending and I'm going to spend the next few days writing the first draft. This is the first bit of writing I've done in weeks - the dread of the pandemic really affected my creativity for a while there, but as of tonight I am back to my normal self. If anything, writing for an hour tonight and getting away from the news was nothing short of therapeutic.
Question for the rejection crew -- If you were an editor or slush reader, would you read cover letters prior to looking at a story? I've seen the argument both ways on this one. When I've worked for journals, I did read cover letters. Although, I don't think it swayed me much. I once had to reject a piece after I had solicited it. That was hard. But I do like to get a quick purview as to where someone is in their writing career. I understand that's not always going to be apparent, but I don't see the harm in looking. When I made my first big sale my cover letter didn't say much more than please publish me. Now there's some meat in my cover letter, but I don't really feel it's making a difference. Do you think cover letters matter?
What sort of things do you say in your cover letters? I'm not so sure it really matters, maybe not at all. I've started sending out a basic form cover letter. I was trying to make them tailored to the places I was submitting with a brief mention of being familiar with the publication and that sort of thing. But it really doesn't seem to make a difference and I certainly don't get a more personal response back because of it. Or maybe my cover letters are the best part of all my submissions. I pretty good at excelling at useless things that don't really count.
I don’t think cover letters are very important... Maybe after the ‘reader’ has skimmed two paragraphs and the prose appears lucid? I reckon that process of itself skims [rep] 8 in 10 drafts, Don’t you..concur? You’ve done that job... ...yes at that stage they might read the cover note. I tend to go for ‘breezy,’ style, well more often than not, ‘unhinged’....mania... But who’d ever want acceptance from a title that expected a ‘LinkedIn financial proposal/school/leaver resume’ kind of introduction? I would/or any writer of integrity (hew) would rather grow potatoes ...[so how does that read? Thumb text special ) ]
Mine are pretty standard and brief. I list my publications because there aren’t many of them. I don’t really say much else.
@Woodstock Writer Mine are absolutely the same - as brief as I can make them. Thank you for considering (story name) for (journal name). I am a writer from X and my work has appeared in X, Y, Z. Yours, I never even considered for a moment that they were important until this post. @deadrats as someone who has been on the other side of slush what would put you off about covering letters? I realise I can't make myself sound like a better writer than I am in the cover letter, but is there anything that would just be a big no-no?
I would say that pretty much all attempts to be funny just come across as unprofessional in a cover letter.
I've done some back and forth with publishers and agents - again, I don't want to exaggerate and give the false impression that I've had great success at this point, it's all just research for now - and I've had mixed advice. (aside: one of the most frustrating things about this exploratory phase before I commit to pitching my manuscripts is the wide range and conflicting advice... I'm getting to the point where I think I could just make a career plan with a Magic 8 Ball and save myself the headache) Several publishers have told me that their ideal cover letter should show that I am a responsible business oriented writer, and include my modelling for the book as product, right down to a book launch plan. This isn't as big a burden for me as you'd think - I generally have an ABI associated with any manuscript I expect will end up on the market anyway. It's always tentative, a WIP, but it keeps me focused on how the manuscript needs to fulfil a role as product. And then a week later, I'll meet a publisher or agent who says they don't care about these because it's the publisher's job, the author shouldn't be wasting time outside her scope of competence. Magic 8 Ball says: "Reply hazy, try again"
Timing is interesting on this. WritingExcuses podcast just did an episode on querying - Sunday the 5th was "Agent Query Trenches" So, I'm a little relieved to hear advice similar to what I had heard from several publishers, that I captured in my post above. Basically, try to convey that you understand this is a business proposal. The way one of my publishers phrased it was to consider it a job application, and the cover letter and ABI is the CV. The publisher on that WE episode went so far as to say that the query letter has to let the publisher/agent know this is a person who's going to be easy to work with, and that might even be more important than the sellability of the book itself. But I'm a new guy and have limited experience with querying, what I don't know is: how much of this is actually true? Ultimately I may only learn the hard way through trial and error.
I've thought about it. I have a piece that might work. Trying to decide if I've included a hidden genre element in it. I'm not sure. What a strange entry fee though. $17? Maybe there's numerological signifiance to it. Or maybe they just want enough for an IMAX movie.
I have very limited agent exposure (exactly one), but this is consistent with what I gleaned, at least with respect to the "easy to work with" part. I'm older (mid 40s) and established in my non-writing career. I'm querying a novel for the first time. An agent I connected with advised that it's important to convey that even though I'm a first-timer, I'm "normal" and hardworking and disciplined and professional. The implication was that they see a lot of crazy. That said, the agency passed on my novel, so "easy to work with" wasn't enough (but I did get great feedback and and feel good about revising and resubmitting elsewhere). BUT --- I think if the agent sniffs crazy in your query, the sellability of your work better be damn good. And even then, they may pass. And I agree that if they think you'd be a dream to work with, they would be more willing to take a chance because they sense you'll be committed to making it better.
Just joking here ...but are they going to demand access to your social media accounts as well? Like some employers now do? Ever get the feeling this writer's lark is a heavily overrun buyer's market? Where it now takes more than a good product to get a look-in?
The price is kind of stiff. I think it's gone up, even. I would advise against genre at all for this one. You've got to think of Carver's work. Yeah, don't do genre.
Interesting... I do have places that have published me friend or follow me on some sort of platform. I just think it's cool. But I haven't been on social media much or at all lately. I will post on social media when I publish. But I still haven't even gotten around to screenshotting my last piece and putting it on Instagram.
I hate the places that reject stories all over the place as reported on duotrope. Most of the time reported responses come across in a way they makes sense and can give you an idea of where you are in the process. But what is going on at some of these places is beyond me. All I know is that it's been a little too quiet for me. I'm probably due for another good old batch of rejection. A lot of submission periods are closed right now. That's my excuse for not having fifty submissions out. I've got about thirty. I could have more with more dedication.
https://www.litro.co.uk/author/matty/ Published. This is the 2018 version that I was getting angsty about... I’m on a mobile...can’t q see if anyone’s read it [crimge]
I've always said the difference between good writing and great writing is, with good writing, I think, "I wish I had written that". Great writing, "I wish I could have written that". That story is one of the latter. Beautiful.
I just read it...it’s okay innit, phew . Thanks for what you said..it was touching and got me through this day at work.
Charming write Mat. Your kudos spiced with my envy. Sincerely, was proper engaged. Got a knock back today, three monther in its swelling, from a pitch to the ‘Audible’ Amazon lot. Deflated as self-belief got popped.