How was your writing week?

[Jozanny]

Before my life got shot to hell, I tracked my submissions in college ruled notebooks. Name of publication, genre, date. This became harder to do as the Internet started to dominate traditional literary presses and journals, but I still use this method for submissions with traditional response times. I use red ink to write out the full submission, black ink for notations, like SS (simultaneous submission).

Before I came online I had two pages back to back of poetry, fiction and non-fiction submissions. As of this wet Sunday morning, I have all of three, and my visceral fury @ my landlord would frighten the lot of you if this forum wasn't so heavily moderated, given the extent to which they disrupted my life from point A to point B.

I have, however, been spending a good deal of time pitching to publishers who pay freelancers, so I cannot be too furious, even though I am. (I have actually decided to seek legal counsel over the conduct of this, mmm, incorporated entity which treats low income people like chattel, and reminding myself of this eases my blood pressure, ever so slightly).

Anyway, for those who are babes in the woods, a query, or pitch, is an informal term for proposing ideas to your editor or publisher. I used to do it as a contracted freelancer, and now independently. The difference between a contract freelancer and an independent one isn't much; it is sort of a way for the company which "employs" you not to have any legal obligations toward you as a salaried writer. Those of you in a salaried profession understand your employer contract provides for certain contingencies. A consultant is a different cup of tea, and that is a contract freelancer.

If I could relax, find a plateau of tranquil space, I can get back in the zone. Getting the witches that run this building fired would be an immense restorative, but one can only dream .

I'm having an excellent morning otherwise.

[Haunted]

As it turned out, he only wanted me to pull over. So my writing project for the day was writing my name on the bottom of a Georgia State Traffic Citation. Fascists!

That's one piece of sheer entertainment right there! Totally unexpected. Thanks for a good chuckle

[DanielBenoit]

Submitting poems and fiction to the American Literary Review as well as some other smaller journals from around the country

Thanks again Jozanny for the links

[Maryd.]

Having a bad few days at the moment. 'Tis Melbourne Cup here on Tuesday, (public holiday, for a 3 minute horse race... Blah!) but as it is on a Tuesday all the schools and some employers allow everyone to have Monday off. Any excuse for a long weekend. So have had visitors and the computer has been used by everyone except me... I shouldn't complain, I do get most of the use with it, but I haven't edited any of my book for 3 days and I have itchy fingers...

[Jozanny]

Having a bad few days at the moment. 'Tis Melbourne Cup here on Tuesday, (public holiday, for a 3 minute horse race... Blah!) but as it is on a Tuesday all the schools and some employers allow everyone to have Monday off. Any excuse for a long weekend. So have had visitors and the computer has been used by everyone except me... I shouldn't complain, I do get most of the use with it, but I haven't edited any of my book for 3 days and I have itchy fingers...

Maryd: Novelists most benefit from hiring a good mid-press literary agent, though I don't know of any from memory who serve Australian authors; it would be a good idea for you to think about hiring one though, if you believe in your abilities with the novel. SE Hinton was near my age 30 years ago when The Outsiders made her the beloved sensation of my upper track English teachers.

I don't know if I prefer her fate (a flash in the pan) or mine as the interminable flat foot, but hiring an agent is like much else: you research, pitch, and make sure you do your best to understand their commission, the percentage you will get off your sales, and what you are giving to the publisher. It is a good idea to reserve film rights, etc.

This stuff is daunting, even for me, but for a novelist especially. I keep up now and again about agent deals. You should start reading up too .

Agents are good for novels, some non-fiction deals, and scripts, especially. You can't get anywhere near a studio without a reputable agent representing you. For journalists, poets, most freelancing situations, agents aren't really necessary.

[Maryd.]

Maryd: Novelists most benefit from hiring a good mid-press literary agent, though I don't know of any from memory who serve Australian authors; it would be a good idea for you to think about hiring one though, if you believe in your abilities with the novel. SE Hinton was near my age 30 years ago when The Outsiders made her the beloved sensation of my upper track English teachers.

I don't know if I prefer her fate (a flash in the pan) or mine as the interminable flat foot, but hiring an agent is like much else: you research, pitch, and make sure you do your best to understand their commission, the percentage you will get off your sales, and what you are giving to the publisher. It is a good idea to reserve film rights, etc.

This stuff is daunting, even for me, but for a novelist especially. I keep up now and again about agent deals. You should start reading up too .

Agents are good for novels, some non-fiction deals, and scripts, especially. You can't get anywhere near a studio without a reputable agent representing you. For journalists, poets, most freelancing situations, agents aren't really necessary.

Thanks for your advice Jozanny. Will keep it in mind when I am completely finished... It won't be for a while yet... Need to get the novel looked at for spelling, grammar and continuity. But am nearing the end of all that and am very excited so may have to do some research on Agents... Was seriously thinking about it anyway. So thanks once again.

[Sancho]

Thanks for a good chuckle

Thank you for the shout-out, Haunted. How ‘bout them Yankees?

Jozanny, you paint a depressing picture. I guess I hope that the publishing business is still run mostly by lovers of literature, unlike the music business which seems to be populated mostly with lovers of money. Here’s a fun quote about that business by Gonzo:

The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. --Hunter S. Thompson

Why is it that the finest things in life - art, literature, drama, and music - are also some of the hardest ways to make a living? And why is it that artists, writers, actors, and musicians - those people who see things more clearly and feel things more intensely than the rest of us – are also among the most viscous at making a buck?

[Jozanny]

Thank you for the shout-out, Haunted. How ‘bout them Yankees?

Jozanny, you paint a depressing picture. I guess I hope that the publishing business is still run mostly by lovers of literature, unlike the music business which seems to be populated mostly with lovers of money.

I don't mean to make it seem like an entirely joyless process. It is not, but it really isn't the way to become economically secure. If I had to live on the money I actually earned, I'd be dead, and since I am almost dead anyway that raises some interesting questions.

But I don't want to turn this into another narcissistic exercise, as I have work to do.

I will not be "leaving" litnet again, but I will be posting much less than I have been, and will begin to stay with particular reading commitments. I am too advanced for the GW forum and need to find another Speakeasy even though Speakeasy is still here (it now functions much closer to what these forums are here, young people policed by super moderator, and for an entity devoted to writing that is a shame).

A place where professional writers can talk, and WM moved theirs to WD, which is fine, but I only just started posting when they moved, so I am still trying on my boots, and staying on the lookout for others.

TC peoples!

[blazeofglory]

This week has really been a very bad week, to start with. I got so much engaged in my official works and went home late night. Workload has fatigued me all the while. Of course I have some imaginations raised within me but they settled down when I could not make any use of them. I am a professional and write as my pastime. I can not finance myself by writing in my part of the globe. Here writing gives you entertainment not money. Writing cannot a profession here but a luxury and of course a kind of leisurely pursuit. I cannot be a fulltime writer. I write at weekends, on holidays only. When I write I do it passionately and intensely and I get totally lost in the world of writing and nothing on earth can distract me from writing, but the problem with me is I have little time and the amount of time at my disposals is also divided between reading and writing. I have a list of books awaiting my attention. I have started two bulky books simultaneously but am unable to complete them. In fact I do not have specific writing weeks the rest of others may have.

[Maryd.]

My writing week has been totally exceptional. I have completed editing my novel, but would still like to spend next week adding in a few fancy words here and there. Then it is off to some family for some good old fashioned, constructive criticism. Wahoo!

[Virgil]

My writing week has been totally exceptional. I have completed editing my novel, but would still like to spend next week adding in a few fancy words here and there. Then it is off to some family for some good old fashioned, constructive criticism. Wahoo!

Fantastic!

[Maryd.]

Fantastic!

Thanks

[Jozanny]

I suppose I could add one or two more comments from my sterile mountaintop: With creative writing submissions, it is generally understood that an editor will get back to you, whether it is yea or nay.

This is not always the case with article pitches, however, my writer friends of the 90's misled me slightly on this issue. Sometimes a publisher will write back to you in this instance, even in turning you down, because they are indicating one or two things.

1. "We can't use this but we like you and try again."

Or

2. "You won't get into this market until hell freezes over, so stop trying." Ignore this, but get a sense of when to take a break from said publication.

3. Sometimes they get back to you and you don't know what it means.

And, as a rule, I don't critique. I had my looney fan club mail me book length manuscripts as early as the late 80's and came to have some sympathy for more successful writers on the basis of this experience. However, if, like Daniel, you really want to become a pro one day, perhaps I will look at something once in a while.

Perhaps the blahs will surprise me yet, but so far my week is in blah upset stomach mode.

[Veva]

1. "We can't use this but we like you and try again."

I love this one, it is so eloquent in its own way.... But I wish I had the guts to tell that to some people who are writing to a magazine, where I am an editor-in-chief.... then I have to do so much editing

[Jozanny]

I think digital technology and the economic changes congruent to that are going to continue to rock the publishing industry for some time to come, but, even allowing for my level of anxiety at certain times of the month, since I am definitely in the pre-stages of *the change*, I was genuinely provoked with a thread last week, to the point that I will not be around LN that often anymore.

It may be that my 1990's virtual writing clique cannot be replaced, which is most likely the case, as the more a writer builds their career the less useful interactions such as these become, but I will stop in once in a while.

It isn't just the simplistic binary oppositions that this community prefers in framing certain issues--it is genuinely, as I attempted to pm some members, that my health prevents the level of posting I used to engage in between manuscripts. In any case, however those of you who create your work perceive it, I hope your good writing weeks are many.