Submitting Archives - Annie Bellet

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Writers of the Future Results Q4 2010

I got my 4th Quarter results for WotF. Another Honorable Mention. Not surprised at all really. I didn’t think this story was finalist material, though I like it a lot and think it’s a good story. But it is a very dark, somewhat strange fantasy story.

My story for Q1 is probably not a winner either, but truthfully on that one, I have no idea. It’s totally different from what I usually write, so we’ll see. I’m currently working on my Q2 story and think it has a ton of potential. I just have to finish this novel first, then I’ll get the story done and mailed.

So that’s that for Q4. Time to find another market and send the story back out.

Appropriating and Updating the Race

In this crazy new world of e-publishing, the rules of getting published and making a living at writing are shifting. As anyone reading this blog at all will know, I’m a huge follower of Heinlein’s Rules for Writers. But where does putting my own stuff up without going to an editor who can pay me fall in the mix of those five rules? I’m not sure.

But e-stuff sells. I’m selling handfuls of copies of two literary short stories a month, stories I’ve done basically no marketing for at all. How much better will novels sell? Novels I intend to push in front of people and do as much marketing for as I can handle? Does that count as “keeping it in the mail until it sells”? Maybe.

Dean Wesley Smith came up with a points system called the Race back in the years when I was a wee little girl. The gist is that you get one point for each story in the mail, three points for each novel proposal (only for each novel, not for each editor you send it to), and eight points for each full novel out (again, only counts once per book). Dean explains in his blog here and here much better than I can.

But if I put a story up on Kindle… I lose the point in the Race. I’m sure that Dean will come up with a new Race point system to account for that, but in the meantime, fellow writer Amanda McCarter and I decided on a rough new plan, which we’re calling the E-pub Race (different from the Trad-pub Race). It works like this: (and this is probably way more complicated than it needs to be, but hey… games are fun!)

1 point for each short story. If you bundle shorts, this counts as 1 point up to 4 shorts bundled.

3 points for each short story collection (5+ shorts minimum, repeats allowed with shorts on their own).

5 points for each novel. (Novels bundled in Omnibus form count separately unless they are repeated, in which case you only get the points once).

No points count until you’ve sold at least five copies (the original race has you losing points after getting paid, so we figured the E-pub race should have something opposite of that). Copies you buy yourself don’t count of course. Editions don’t count as separate (so if you do a POD version, you still only get points for that novel once).

Ok. Hopefully that isn’t too complicated. Suggestions and comments are welcome, of course.

(More) Things I Learned about Novels

The novel is finished. It’s the third one I’ve written (well, that I count, because the early attempts were just that…attempts).

This novel kicked my ass. I don’t think I’ve ever found a writing project to be so difficult before. But I learned some valuable lessons.

1) In the future when choosing to write a novel in a genre I’ve never so much as tried writing a short story in, allow more time than I think I’ll need. A lot more. Like twice as much or better. This will be very important to keep in mind if I’m ever under contract, because I’ll need to allow for a further out deadline than I might otherwise.

2) Just because a book has a lot going on and multiple points of view doesn’t mean it will be long. I figured that once I added a third semi-major view-point character that I’d be good on the length problem. No the case (though closer than the book would have come otherwise).

3) Fast pacing doesn’t mean skipping description. I think I also finally started to grasp the idea that “setting is character opinion” better in this book, so even if the rest of it is a giant fail, I got to practice pacing and setting.

4) It doesn’t have to be good, because frankly, in the middle of a book, I don’t even know what good is anyway. All I can see is the thousands of words standing in the way of finishing and the giant mess that might be on the page behind me. Done is good. Done is my new definition of good.

So. That’s over. Now, if my brain will stop trying to write sequels, I’m going back to short fiction and working on the e-book project until the end of the year. I miss short fiction. Being able to begin and end something in a single session sounds like heaven right now. And I’ve got five (yes…five! I’m so behind on admin work) stories that need to go out to markets.

As for the finished book, I have no idea. It’s being workshopped this next weekend and the query will go out to editors. I’ve given it to a couple first readers as well. Whenever they get back to me is when I’ll drag it out into daylight again and see about adding enough words (5-7k should do it) to make it commercially viable. Unless it gets a full request before then, in which case I’ll go into panic mode and do whatever needs doing at that point.

Clarion Musings

So, first… my sale. I have sold “No Spaceships Go” to Daily SF, a brand new magazine that will apparently start publishing later this summer/fall. So go subscribe now, because besides my story, it looks like they have lined up some top authors (including fellow PDX writer and Hugo winner David D. Levine). I’m pretty excited. More details whenever I get them.

Also, in other internet news, both Clarion and Clarion West have posted instructor lists for 2011. And wow, they are impressive (okay, when aren’t they? seriously. Sigh). Clarion list is here. Clarion West list is here.

As always, I kinda want to go to Clarion (either Clarion) because writing with both my potential classmates and under the tutelage of professionals such as those listed above would be freaking awesome. I’ve only applied once to Clarion West, and was form rejected. Which doesn’t shock me, it was my first submission to anywhere, ever. (Feb 4th 2009, for those of us ie me keeping track). And frankly, I mostly applied because I really wanted to meet Elizabeth Bear whose work and work ethic I super admire. Probably good I didn’t get in, since I don’t know how I would have survived.

I almost applied to Clarion last year, but decided I couldn’t afford it and took a couple of Dean Wesley Smith’s workshops instead (which, for the sake of honesty, I almost didn’t get in to. While there’s no formal audition like for the Clarions, Dean isn’t a guy who pulls his punches and if he thinks someone isn’t ready, he’ll say so. I’m not sure I was ready, but I am grateful. *grin*). And between discovering those workshops, reading Dean’s motivation posts (and Kristine Rusch’s posts on freelancing), and deciding to truly follow Heinlein’s Rules for Writers, I pretty much completely revolutionized how I was going about getting to my goal of making a living at writing fiction.

So… Clarions. Should I apply? On the one hand, I imagine I’d have a blast and learn a ton. On the other, can I get in? Or afford to go if I did? And, strangely enough, can I afford to take 6 weeks out of my writing schedule to focus on workshop stuffs? I know they write a story a week at the workshops, but frankly, for me, that’s really not an issue, even with additional work like reading on top of it I’m pretty sure I could keep that pace without blinking. But could I keep up my novel/novella/shorts schedule during Clarion/CW if I got in?

I don’t know. I don’t actually write nearly as well, especially on longer works, when I don’t have the comfort and stability of my home schedule and daily routines. I can make myself get some work done, but not with the focus I have at home. And I’m sure that between hanging out with fellow writers, doing the workshop stuffs, and the various functions and parties etc… I’d be pretty socially drained and low energy, which is not a productive state for me.

So if a) I did get in and b) could afford to go, then the question I’d have to consider would be is it worth losing potentially an entire novel’s worth of writing production? I realize I’d come out of the workshop with six short stories, though as to publishable state I can’t say. I hope that if I went I’d be really pushing myself in terms of how I’m writing and what I’m writing about, which might render whatever I write as a do-over, but workshops should be about risk in my opinion. No point going to learn something and not really pushing yourself to stretch out of comfort zones.

So yeah, that’s basically what’s going on in my head now. The line-ups for teachers looks very awesome, but between money and time lost, I just don’t know if the workshop would be worth it at this point.

Things to think about. Fortunately, I have time. I probably won’t make final decision until Feb 2011. By then, if I’m remotely on target, I’ll have five novels being shopped to trad. publishers, book one of my e-book series out, and at least 40 shorts circulating (unless editors buy more/all of them..nudge nudge universe). So I’ll see where I’m at.

Anyone else thinking about applying? Anyone who reads this been to one of the Clarions? What were your experiences?

(And, of course, there is always Odyssey as well, which I’ve heard lovely things about from both the woman who runs it and writers who have attended. So much to consider. Meep.)

Working on Vacation

My novel isn’t done yet, and I leave in two days to go on vacation for a week. So I’m bringing my netbook and intend to represent the iconic image of the fiction writer drinking an umbrella drink on a hot beach with the laptop open, working in the sunlight. Only, I’m Irish and don’t want to be a crackling lobster, so I’ll be in the shade instead. Covered in Zinc. Glamorous, I know.

I’m hoping I can focus and get at least 30,000 words done, which will leave about a week’s worth of work for the week after I get home before I head out to another workshop with Dean Wesley Smith. This next one is on pitches and blurbs, which will be perfect timing for finishing a novel. I intend to get the first three chapters cleaned up, a synopsis, and query letter done at the same time I finish the novel so I can use what I learn at the workshop to get this novel sent off. That will be novel number three.

Got two nice rejections, one on the fantasy novel, one on the sci/fi novel. So I switched which editor had which and will see if maybe the new stuff is more to their tastes. So far I’ve only gotten one form rejection on my novels, which said they were returning the material unread due to not being agented. Oh well. I sent it back out (and actually doubt that no one read it, since the packet wasn’t mailed back in the order I sent it and it was missing the top paperclip, so something happened to it on its journey between envelopes). The hunt for publication continues. This part is boring. Thank god for writing/working on new stuff. If I had all my hopes on the stuff I’ve already done, I think I’d be going crazy by now. The rejection on my full stung a little more than I’d expected, but I made myself get the query back out. Keep it automated and done, that’s how I manage to move on.

Besides, I get to go drink fruity girly drinks on a beach in the ~~sun~~ shade while writing about serial killers and thieves. There are definitely worse jobs 🙂

Oh, and my grandmother is apparently passing on her super-old awesome typewriter to me. I think I’ll have to type up a story and send it out that way just for old time’s sake. (I wrote my first stories on an old typewriter my parents had in a closet. They were two page epics with no punctuation). I wonder if you can still buy carbon paper and such. I’ll have to check. Maybe I’ll write a short story ode to the pulps with a crazy title. Sounds like fun.

A Little Ray Of Sunshine

Well, after the tiny flood of rejection last week (and another one this morning), I’ve got a tiny ray of hope. A couple months ago I sent out five submission packages of my first novel. Today, I got the first response to one of those packages. An editor has requested the full. It isn’t a sale, but at least it means that my query package isn’t sinking me in the slush pile. And it means my race score goes up to 33.

I probably won’t hear another peep about this submission for anywhere from 6 months to a year, but that’s okay. The process is working. Last week was tough, I started spiraling into the feeling that I’ll never be any better than I am now, that all of this was going to just be rejection after rejection. So this little injection of hope came at just the right time and is a great reminder to me of the rules I just need to keep following.

Write. Finish. Submit. It works!

Whew, Back to Work!

Got home from my trip to find two rejections waiting for me. The one in my mailbox was a nice fat envelope from Analog, but alas, it faked me out. It was fat because they’d folded up a couple pages of my story to send back, along with the longest form letter rejection I’ve ever seen. Two single-spaced pages outlining guidelines and with check boxes next to things (none of which were checked…). Oh well. That story has space squid and FTL travel, so I figured it was a long shot story for that market anyway. But in the name of not making decisions for editors, I sent it anyway.

Both stories are back out, one to a brand new market I’d never heard of (they aren’t that new, just my knowing about them). I also managed to get two more stories out, one is new, one is the story I sold that has reverted to me, so I figured why not try to sell it again? This brings me up to 22 stories out to markets. Not quite up to 80 yet, am I? Oh well, there’s plenty of time left in the year to get there.

I’ve been doing a bunch of targeted reading lately as well. If I’m going to get 80 stories out, they can’t all be spec fic. I have 4 “literary” stories out at the moment and an idea for another one. I went to the bookstore and got some mystery and thriller short story collections to pick through and dissect. So far I’m really enjoying reading the stories, so hopefully that means I’ll enjoy writing some as well. Meanwhile I’m trying to decide which novels of the ones I’ve read lately I want to reverse outline. I’ve read about 15 books in the last couple weeks, hence the needing to decide which to focus on picking apart to see how they work. The best part about this stretching and trying new genres is that I’m discovering authors and stories I’d never even heard of before (though I’m reading and re-reading some best-sellers, too). I’ve been trying to focus on books by authors who have a long track record, since I figure if they’ve sold 10 or 30 or more books that something in all those books has to be working.

Once again, Dean Wesley Smith has a great post up about writers and practicing. His comment about knowing what you are focusing on and working on with each piece of writing really hit home for me. Sometimes I remember to figure that out, but lately I’ve been working on so many things I hadn’t really given it a ton of thought. So I sat down and looked at my various projects and decided what I was going to work on for each. So, because lists are so much fun, here they are:

Menagerie– not researching, ie just making shit up. It’s fantasy and supposed to be fun and weird.

Hunting Delilah– pacing.

The City is Still Hungry– setting and noir pacing/feel.

To Honor and Obey– sex scenes, writing to a particular historical feel and tone.

The Weapons Master– sex scenes, not censoring myself.

And that’s just the novels. Each short story I’m working on has its own practice goal as well. I’ve got about five lined up that need to get done in the next few weeks, one of which is about an hour from done… still. Sigh. Need to stop poking at it and just get it done. I think my practice failed with this one because man is it being stubborn about getting written, but oh well, I’ll keep the idea and re-do it at some point if I want. Meanwhile, the story can go out into the wide world and get off my desk, so to speak.

Well, back to work. Between family obligations, trips, and car issues, I’m feeling quite broke. Need to write more, because no one can pay me for work I don’t do.

Lists and Motivation

Spent all afternoon not writing because I was scrubbing my hard drive of a nasty virus. Very frustrating. Fortunately, I seem to have obliterated it. Whew. Nothing is scary like thinking about trying to type five novels on a netbook screen. Seriously.

Spent another chunk of today brainstorming titles (I like to have a working title for any project, it helps gel it in my head) and looking around at what is out there already. I also secured three website domains for my pen names after making sure the names weren’t anything famous already. Don’t have a YA pen name yet, but not actually sure I can write YA type stuff, so screw it. I’ll cross the bridge when I get there.

I did some maths. Cause I like maths. I find doing simple math like finance spreadsheets and word count goals relaxing. (I also find watching friends shoot zombies relaxing, I’m weird.) In order to complete things on a schedule I feel comfortable with, I need to be writing about 105ppw (pages per week). That’s an average of six hours of typing each weekday, five if I’m really on a role. Over 5k words a day. Possible. I think I might add a weekend day to this though, just a couple of hours. And I’m allowing in this page goal 25-30ppw for a short story, because if all I work on is novels I will go crazy from lack of completion. Especially working on five novels. I’m not structuring it beyond this. Whichever novel is dominating my thoughts when I sit down to write will get the pages for that day.

My goal is to have all the novels done by September, along with at least 17 short stories. I say 17 and not 25 because I’m giving myself room to take days and weeks off if needed. 105ppw puts me at completion of novels by about 17 and a half weeks in. So I’m leaving wiggle room. It would be stupid not to. Life happens.

But I’m poor. Poor is a great motivator to write and submit things. My dad always used to say he liked it when his kids were broke, because it meant we’d be practically begging to do farm work for cash. And every time I’m tempted to throw my hands in the air and not write cause I don’t feel like it, well, I’ll keep in mind that this sure as hell beats 70 hour weeks and having to deal with stupid people or drunk people or dead people or things on fire. Just in case that wasn’t enough motivation, Final Fantasy XIII comes out tomorrow. And I’m not allowing myself to have it until these five novels are all done and in the mail. I’ve been waiting for that game for years now. YEARS. Sooner I get this stuff done, sooner I get to disappear for two months into video game heaven. Yesh. Will…be…Mine! (I’m 4 years old inside, seriously).

Oh, I promised lists!

What’s out:

20 short stories.

1 novel (to five editors and an agent).

To be done list:

The City is Still Hungry, 90-100k words

Hunting Delilah, 90-100k words

To Honor and Obey, 60-80k words

The Weapons Master, 60-75k words

Menagerie, 30-50k words

Write 17 new short stories and get them out to markets.

Continue to keep existing stories out to markets.

~350,000 words stand between me and Final Fantasy XIII. I will be … victorious.

Workshop Week

I’m headed out shortly to go the Coast for two Dean Wesley Smith workshops. First is a novel workshop, the second a short story one. I’d be lying through my teeth if I said I wasn’t totally nervous, but hey, worst that can happen is … wait… let’s not think about that. *grin*

I imagine in reality I’ll just learn a ton, and at the end of the novel workshop at least I’ll have my novel wending its way to the desks of editors, ready for the cold harsh evil world. And I’ll get to meet a lot of interesting people.

In other news, I’m back in nail biting territory on a couple of submissions. Having a nice spreadsheet that tracks what is where and how long each rejection took etc is very nice. Having all this information so that I know when a market is behaving differently from the 5-10 times previous that I submitted? Not as nice. Right now two, yes two, markets have held stories far longer than they usually do. And a third is right at the query point, which they’ve done to me before (last time I got a very nice, detailed rejection on the day I was going to query). So either somehow all three stories were lost in transit (I know that at least one wasn’t because of the email auto-reply), or they are all maybe getting real consideration. Yeah, yeah. I know I shouldn’t even be thinking about it or trying to dissect what it all ‘means’ because it probably doesn’t mean anything. But I can’t help getting anxious. Le sigh.

I’ll take notes and hopefully have something more interesting to say after the workshops.

Dancing on Rooftops

I just made my first sale. It works out to about 1.5 cents a word, so semi rate, not pro, but eh. I’ll take it. I’m singing inside. It’s crazy.

Not sure when is appropriate to say what/where, so I’ll just leave it a mystery for now until I’ve had a chance to confirm that I can tell everyone and their dogs.

But yeah. Sale. The funniest part is I thought it was a rejection and had to stare at the email a lot. Go me.

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