Sandra Stixrude

Please welcome author Lisa Lane to Writer's Habitat! Lisa writes in several genres, including horror and speculative fiction. She's here today to talk about her Science Fiction Romance - and specifically, the difficulty of writing for aliens...

Alien Beauty

While writing science fiction romance (SFR) can be tricky, writing erotic SFR is a challenge all its own. As humans, our taste in sexual appeal is based at least partially on physical beauty—and aliens, at least how many of us perceive them, tend to lack the types of features most would view as arousing. While aliens in SFR can exhibit whatever characteristics their authors attribute to them, truly making them as appealing as their human counterparts takes care, planning, and dedication both to the story and to the characters themselves.

Obviously,humanoids are a good first step at creating aliens with sex appeal; however,the devil is in the details.  Humanoids need languages, unique physical characteristics (or specific mention of a lack thereof), and emotional attributes that complete their characters and prime readers for deeper interaction. They obviously must exhibit at least a modest level of intelligence, and culture always makes a character richer, but I think it is most important that the alien character has heart.  He or she (it?) might not have perfect attributes, or might even be unlikeable in some ways, but there must be some type of redeeming quality that adds to the story,gives meaning to the character’s place in the genre being represented, and keeps readers interested.

When I agreed to write the erotic, STAR TREK-inspired LUST IN SPACE, I knew that I didn’t want to write just another space opera—I wanted to turn the quirky title on its head, writing a work that would be both bold and experimental. The story worked so well, the characters so fun and memorable, that when asked to write the second installment, PANDORA’S HOPE (the name of the ship), I eagerly got to work on the outline to their next deep-space mission.  It took me six months to write PANDORA’S HOPE, as I had other concurrent obligations, but I worked hard to continue the episodic and speculative feel of its predecessor. The ensemble cast grows by a character or two, and the crew pushes boundaries like never before. Among those returning are:

Captain Nora Bradley and First Officer Robert Smith:  The lead love interests find their relationship on rocky ground after cold feet coupled with misunderstanding threatens to end them for good.

Leah the Barkeep and Jim the Locaru:  Being in a relationship with an insect-sized man has its downfalls, and when reality begins to set in over their differences, they might just determine that size does matter….

Tactical Officer Suxie Kasri:  Finds a new companion who is physically perfect for her—but her emotional Esirian mind might be too extreme for her composed and sensible new love interest.

Doctor Johnson and Engineering Manager Andrew Wallace:  Their budding relationship takes an unexpectedly kinky turn when they find they enjoy the thrill of having sex in public.

Navigator Geoffrey Stanton:  … is still a womanizing pig.

And introducing “Quality Control Manager”Patrice Jocar:  From a planet barely represented in Space-Corp, few people know much, if anything, about her people and her race.  When she boards Pandora’s Hope, sent by Space-Corp to monitor the mal-reputed crew, she proves that all parties involved look much different on file than they actually are in real life.

Excerpt:

Nora decided to stop by Leah’s bar for a snack before returning to the bridge,surprised to find Officer Jocar sitting on the stage with her strange instrument, strumming and singing a slow, sad song. Her singing voice was clear and powerful, moving from complicated trills to bold octave jumps, her words trembling from her lips like a morning herald escaping a delicate bird. Even more intriguing, however, was the unique effect that resulted from Jocar’s two sets of vocal cords harmonizing with one another in perfect pitch and sync, one carrying the melody in alto while the other met it with a breathtaking tenor.

She finished her song, and the handful of patrons sitting inside the bar gave her a standing ovation.

“I dedicate this next song to all of you out there who have loved and lost,” Jocar said, and startedher next selection in finger-style. The notes reverberated against one another, the sound of heavy bass echoing with a complex arrangement of pitches and tones.

Leah moved to meet Nora across the bar as she sat. “Hot chocolate and finger foods?”Leah guessed.

Nora nodded. “Have I become that predictable?”

“Yeah,”Leah said, smiling playfully. She began to heat a cup of milk as Jocar’s harmonizing voice filled the room:

The wind sings a song through the leaves of the tree,

and it whispers into my ear of a man I long to see. . . .

Leah swallowed hard, her distraction obvious.

“You okay?” Nora asked her.

Leah nodded and looked down, her lip quivering. She mixed the chocolate into Nora’s mug. “I think it might be over between me and Jim.”

Nora tried to look sympathetic, although she had never quite been able to understand Leah’s strange relationship with the bug-sized man. Sometimes size did matter. What the two of them had seemed incomprehensible, at least to Nora. It just didn’t seem natural, and Nora couldn’t help but feel the strange couple merely had finally realized the inevitable.

Jocar’s lyrics continued:

How do I let go of the only man whom I fully gave my heart?

All I want is to be with him, although we’ll always be apart. . . .

Leah’s eyes filled with tears. She held them just long enough to serve Nora her cocoa,then retreated to the back room with a self-conscious sniffle.

Alone, just this world and me . . . fighting the tears back with my dreams. . . .

She buried her face in her hands in an attempt to stifle her cries.

Thinking about what could’ve been . . . what should’ve been . . . what will be. . . .

She leaned against the back wall, missing him, wanting him. Images of his smiling face flashed through her mind’s eye, and she slid to the floor, the loneliness suddenly too much for

her to bear.

Alone, just this world and me. . . .

Nora could hear Leah’s intermittent whimpers from where she sat, and her mind wandered back to the dark thoughts just recently planted in her own mind by Phoebe. The knot returned to her throat as Jocar’s song only added to her melancholy:

Thoughts on paper,letters never sent . . . he has long let go of me.

Wish that I could just talk to him, to mend the past and set us free. . . .

She wondered what she would do if she found out anything had happened between Robert and Suxie, if even just a kiss. Was it possible? Phoebe definitely was not the best judge of human intention, so her words could very well have been misleading. Still, the conversation had left her feeling uneasy and suspicious, and she wasn’t going to write it all off on raging hormones.

The days go by slowly,and the nights are so lonely.

Will I ever truly love again? Will my heart ever fully mend?

Nora felt her eyes well up, and she snatched a napkin from a nearby silverware setting just in time to catch them as the tears escaped her. She turned her back both to the table of engineers sitting nearby and the officer sitting a few seats down from her at the bar,embarrassed, then turned again as she heard yet someone else crying.

In her awe, she surveyed the room, suddenly realizing the strange singing alien had every person there in tears.

LUST IN SPACE and PANDORA’S HOPE are both available through Kindle and othere-readers, and are also available at http://www.ravenousromance.com.

For more about Lisa Lane’s LUST IN SPACE books and direct buy links, go to http://www.cerebralwriter.com or http://newsensuality.blogspot.com.

Sorry–it’s been a bit since I’ve been here. Life is heck and all that. Today I’d like to say a few words about reviews. As with most of my posts, this discussion is geared towards the small press world. Anyone with one of the Big Houses has press releases and reviews taken care of for them. Small press and e-publishers don’t usually get time in the big newspapers’ book reviews but we can’t sit around and wait for it.

We need to make our own noise.

The webverse essentially has two kinds of reviews: reader reviews and professional reviews. The first is self-explanatory and something over which you have no control. The second is an interesting conglomeration of hit or miss sites, some of which do a fabulous job, others of which have no clue what a review should contain.

Reader Reviews:

These can appear in some interesting places. Your publisher’s website may have a place for them. Amazon certainly does, if your pub distributes through them. Reader sites, such as Goodreads and Library Thing, are all about the reader–sharing opinions and info on all things literature-esque.

A reader review is One Reader’s Opinion. Do not look at it in any other way. Not everyone will love your story, novel, poem, play, or manifesto. If you take a few deep breaths after a bad reader review and concentrate on the content rather than the wording, you may glean some helpful constructive criticism.

Some things not to do with the reader review:

• Don’t take on so. Really, everyone does have a unique opinion. The reader is entitled.

• Do not, ever (I repeat EVER) respond in any negative fashion to a reader review. Do not trash the readers, do not engage in public arguments, and do not try to find out who they are so you can wait outside their place of business for them. Think this is obvious? I’ve seen authors behaving badly more than once over a bad review. In public. Where all of their other potential readers could see.

Professional Review Sites

We’ve all seen these and while some specialize in a certain style or shtick, most are pretty straightforward. I’m not going to name names and make recommendations here. You need to shop around and see what’s best for your writing and your readership. However, I will mention that a good review site will have several things going for them:

• A unique URL for each review—this is imperative if you want to link to this review on your own website, on the publisher’s website, in your promo emails, etc.

• A brief summary of the story followed by the actual review—a review is not a rehashing of the plotline; it’s an opinion about the quality of the writing and the structure of the story. Too many ‘reviews’ give a rating and then don’t follow up with any concrete reasons for the rating chosen. This helps no one.

• Reviewers who can write—I hear you laughing again. Stop that. There are far too many review sites that will let anyone review for them, regardless of experience or skill. If you come across a site where the reviewers can’t put two well-written sentences together, consider using someone else.

Your publisher may already have a list of review sites and a person designated to sending out reviews. Wonderful! Make sure you get that list before you send any additional review requests yourself to avoid duplicating work.

Keep in mind that not every review site will pick up your book, and that it may be some time before reviews roll in. Most sites allow their reviewers to choose what they would like to review.

Once again, I’d like to reiterate that reviews are opinion. While they can be helpful marketing tools, they will not ruin or make your career. DO NOT respond in any negative way to a reviewer on a professional site. Thank the reviewer. If you like, point out something good that they caught, but don’t disagree in public. If there are blatant errors, you may point these out to the site owner IN PRIVATE. Don’t be a jerk to try to soothe your ego.

As I said, I won’t name names here. I won’t endorse or condemn in a public forum. If you have questions or if you’re looking for recommendations, please email me offline. There are sites out there for every need.

I've been reviewing a lot of Romance lately and I'd like to discuss a pet peeve of mine:

First Lines

If I have to read one more story that starts out "First Name Last Name did X" there will be a shriek of sufficient volume to reach the Horsehead Nebula. And, please, everyone, before I get angry mail from Romance writers, this is not limited to a single genre but happens far too often in Fantasy, Mystery, Suspense, and every other genre, sub-genre and cross-genre out there.

Folks, first lines are like that first hello, that initial handshake - one shot to make a good impression. It's a window into how you think, how you write, how innovative and creative you are, how interested or bored readers are likely to be with your story.

Jenna Dark stood on her front porch.

Karl Nugent stared into his coffee.

Nina Ashbury-Smith-Hyde-White gazed out the window of her carriage and sighed.

(None of those are from actual stories but I've seen too many like them)

STOP THE MADNESS! No more of this dreck. I don't want to be hit over the head with characters' full names in the first sentence. I don't want the same tired, old formulaic beginnings. Hit us with something important, something surprising. Plunk the reader straight down into the action and explain later. The word 'hook' makes me cringe (readers are not trout) but, unfortunately, it fits. Hook 'em hard and reel 'em in.

One of my favorite first lines is the one from L.E.Bryce's Twice Born: "Tharril did not remember what it felt like to be dead."

My reaction as a reader was "What? Wait! Did it really say...oh, yes, it did...wow. I have to see what's going on here."

Let's face it; Snoopy never landed a publishing contract because all his novels started out with 'It was a dark and stormy night.' Not a First Name/Last Name Did X beginning but equally bad, starting out with something passive and vague. If the storm actually is important to the opening scene (and I wouldn't know, Snoopy never asked me to critique his work), anything more active would have helped him grab a submissions editor's attention. Maybe something more along the lines of:

A branch cracked against the window hard enough to rattle the ancient locks.

At least it gives the reader an immediate sense of setting and an active start.

Full names and history can wait. Exposition can wait. Anything passive and/or cliché can just turn around and go home. I'm not suggesting that you can't begin with a beautiful descriptive passage but make sure it puts your reader directly on scene, paints for them exactly what you see. Active, important, attention grabbing--all of those things need to be in that vital first sentence.

I.M. Writer looked at the blank page and sighed...

Go on, get started. That first sentence is the hardest and it won't write itself.

Sandra's Note: We're taking a break today from the Structural Integrity Series for a guest blogger, Anastasia Rabiyah. Ana is a published author of several books, both in e-format and print, a successful cover and layout artist who works with several publishers, and an editor. So listen up, folks. This is the voice of experience.

But I used the Spellchecker, how could it be wrong?

I’m beginning to think that word processors have crippled writers. We rely too heavily on those little red and green squiggly lines to tell us if a work is error-free. There is a fundamental flaw in this reliance, though.

Spell Check and Grammar Check only appear to speak English. It is not, in fact, their native language.

With that in mind and metaphorical red pen in hand, I’d like to go over a few common errors which the processor won’t be able to spot but, believe me, the Submissions Editor will.

Overused/Weak Words

You may find you have overused words unique to your writing. I struggle against the absurd need to add ‘a bit’ to far too many sentences. However, there are common ones which many writers fall prey to: could, feel, that, had, knew, look, etc. These are often signs of a sentence in need of editing with a stronger verb, more specific description or the deletion of unnecessary words.

Yes, but how do I find these? Ah, glad you asked. Most of us need to retrain ourselves to do so and here the computer age gives us a handy tool: the Autocrit. I like this one: http://www.autocrit.com . Use the Chapter/Scene editor (which can be accessed free of charge) and pick the ‘overused words’ report. Remember this is only a tool and should not be used in place of human critique partners, but it will show you things you never suspected.

Some other common issues I see regularly when editing other writers’ work:

Then vs. Than

‘Then’ is a temporal indicator, ‘than’ is a comparative.

First the sun rises, then the birds begin to sing. (Except at my house, they don’t wait for the sun.)

If you insist on wearing that dreadful thing, then I won’t be seen with you.

As opposed to:

This year’s nominees were much less deserving than last year’s.

It took longer than she expected to stuff his body in the trunk.

Its vs. It’s

This is an easy one. ‘It’s’ is a contraction. Period. If you aren’t trying to contract 'it is', don’t use the apostrophe. (It's not as if its feelings would be hurt.)

 Your vs You’re

Again, this is possessive versus contraction. ‘Your’ is the possessive. ‘You’re’ is the contraction for ‘you are’. Yes, I know we all know this and still I’ll see the wrong word used. Just be mindful of the tendency.

There/They’re/Their

I won’t belabor the point – just watch for the confusion of these three. Often our fingers get away from our brains.

To vs. Too

This one I think people do get confused. Not as hard as it looks. ‘Too’ is synonymous with ‘also’. If you can’t substitute one for the other, you’re using the wrong word.

Malapropism

This is the inappropriate use of a word in place of one with a similar sound. Bugs Bunny was a master of malapropism as in “Brudder, you got a preposition and that thing will give you a conclusion of the brain.” Good for comedy, bad for writing a serious passage.

Unless you are the world’s best self-editor, there is only one remedy: someone else’s eyes. You might read the same passage of your own work over and over and only see what your brain believes should be there.

Next time, by request, a little bit on commas and such.

Printed Manuscripts – Yep, We’re Going Old School

Electronic file submission is so much faster, easier to sort and more environmentally friendly, why would anyone still want paper?

Let’s set aside issues of formatting and setting. One of the many reasons publishers cite is that sending a paper manuscript takes effort. There has to be a certain amount of dedication involved to go through the process and it’s painfully easy to spot the amateur, armchair novelist at a glance in a paper format.

Most of the time if a publisher requires a printed manuscript mailed to them, it is assumed the author knows how to set it up correctly. Don’t count on instructions on a website. Paper formatting conventions stem from the days of typewriters (come on, I know someone out there remembers using these – correction tape, sticking keys, getting the paper lined up just so…anybody?) and are precise and unforgiving.

Let’s start with equipment:

• Software – any word processing program will do. The paper won’t know if it’s in Word or WordPerfect, etc. But the more robust your program, the easier this will be for you. I do work in Word simply because so many e-pubs require .doc files, so any specific instructions on the oddities of formatting will be for Word.
• Printer – should be a laser or inkjet.
• Paper – white (please, please, don’t use any other color) 8 ½ x 11, 20 lb paper. Go to the office store. Buy a couple of boxes. Novels eat a lot of paper.
• Envelopes – I know this sounds like a no-brainer but you need a couple of different kinds.
• 4 1/8 x 9 ½ envelope (#10) – For submissions of five pages or less, (e.g. a query and synopsis) and for you SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope.) White again, please. Fold the SASE in half to insert into the main envelope. Fold the pages in thirds.
• 9 x 10 or 10 x 13 envelope – For submissions of over five pages. Don’t fold the pages. If you want the MS sent back with the reply, include a SASE of the same size. If you’ve specified that you don’t need it back (and I always do, less trouble for everyone) a letter size SASE is fine.
• Labels – Go ahead, try and put a 9 x 13 envelope in your printer to print an address. Tell me how that works out. You can, of course, hand address your envelope if your handwriting is legible. Mine is not. I’d rather spare the postal folks and a printed label looked more professional.
• Stamps – This sounds so laughably obvious but the fact is, so few of us even send our bills through the mail any longer. Half of the time, I have no stamps in the house.

Now you’re back from the office store, suitably armed and armored. Let’s go back to your manuscript.

As to the basics, you all know the drill by now. Double spaced, Times or Courier, 12 point, yadda, yadda, yadda. Yes, yes, get on with it! We’ve been over this a hundred times!

Sheesh. Settle down. There are some specifics to keep in mind when formatting for paper.

Autoformat items: Before you go any farther – set up your Word to stop certain Autoformat quirks which simply don’t work with typesetting. Go up to your toolbar…yep, go ahead, I’ll wait. Click on ‘Tools’  then ‘AutoCorrect Option’. When the AutoCorrect window opens, go to the ‘Autoformat’ tab. In the list boxes, uncheck the following auto replace items:

• ‘Straight quotes’ with ‘ smart quotes’
• Hyphens with dash

Now go to ‘Format’ then ‘Font’ and make certain your character spacing and position at both ‘Normal’ and that the ‘Kerning’ box is unchecked. They should be if you haven’t done anything funky. Now over to ‘File’ and ‘Page Setup’ – set your margins to 1” all around. Don’t touch the gutters.

Italics: all of your italics need to be replaced with underlines. The easiest way to do this is to go to ‘Edit’ then ‘Find’. In your ‘Find’ window, you’ll see a check box for ‘Highlight All’. Click this. Now hit the ‘More’ button to expand the window, click on ‘Format’ ‘Font’ then highlight ‘Italic’ under font styles, hit OK to return to your Find window and hit ‘Find All’. Now all of your italics are highlighted. Just hit the U button on your toolbar and undo the I button. Voila. Do go back through and spot check though so you don’t end up with things that look like this: words with underlines in the spaces.

Bold: Anything bold should have a wavy line drawn under it. I did say this was old school and if your document has more than a couple bold words in it, something’s wrong.

Page Breaks: Make certain there are physical page breaks between chapters. (Insert-Break-Page Break)

Cover page: A cover page isn’t a bad thing, with title and contact information, but it’s not necessary if you’re sending a partial. A cover page should have your contact information in the top left hand corner, single spaced and your genre and word count in the upper right hand corner. In the exact center of the page, type your title. All caps or not. Skip a line. Center under the title: by Author’s Name (Real or Pen)

First page: should look like this:

Jared S. Writingperson                                                                                    83,520 words

123 High Hopes Ave                                                                                          Paranormal

Blarney, MO 63144

314-555-1212

jswritingperson@gmail.com

STOPPING FOR A BITE

by J. S. Writingperson

Chapter One

            Lorna was not accustomed to being out quite so late. Her parents were overprotective to the point of obsession. So her inexperience with normal night noises was partially responsible for her failing to take alarm at the sound of giant wings. Etc.

Note that the author information is single spaced but from the title on down, everything is double spaced again.

Header:  Those weird little things at the top of the page that aren’t part of the text and don’t count in your word count. In order to place something in the Header go to View – Header and Footer. Click in the little Header box to type. On the far left type: Author Last name/One word title (for the example above this would be Writingperson/BITE for instance.) On the right, you want the page numbers. A little tool bar will pop up with your Header. Click on the “Insert Page Number” icon and the program will number all the pages for you. Neat, huh?

Scene Breaks: for print these should be centered to be more visible and should be typed as ‘###’.

There are writers who will tell you they make doc templates and all of that. Not a bad idea but we won’t go into all that here.

A lot to digest, I know, but it’s absolutely imperative that your print manuscript looks as professional as possible. The best prose in the world won’t get a hearing if you don’t look like you know what you’re doing.

The Editor is not a Proofreader

You’ve done your research. You’ve written your query, targeted for a specific publisher, polished your synopsis and squeezed it down to the required length. Now you’re all set to send that submission, right?

In some cases, yes, you are. The publisher has specified no unsolicited manuscripts or partials for the first round. Hurrah! Send it off and try not to bite all your nails off while you wait.

However, in those cases where the publisher does request full or partial, there is one more vital piece to consider: the manuscript.

Several things should have been done before you reached this point. If you have missed any one of these steps, go back and do them, quick! A submitted manuscript is not a first draft. It is not something you can ‘fix later’ nor is it the job of any professional editor to correct your mistakes.

Wait, wait, isn’t that what an editor does? Fix stuff? To a certain extent, yes. But the editor assigned by your publisher is there to make certain your story is the most tightly written, compelling story it can be. This means concentrating on story flow and continuity, awkward passages, points of possible confusion, pacing and so on. He or she does not have time to correct a hundred grammatical and spelling errors per page and will not be asked to do so. Your manuscript will be rejected first.

To be sure you aren’t tossed in the circular file first thing:

1. Do the Spelling and Grammar Check – yes, yes, just do it. You will have missed things.
2. Know Your Personal Demons—the computer is only so smart. It can’t tell if you’ve typed the wrong word. I know for a fact that I often type ‘form’ instead of ‘from’. Dyslexic fingers. I run a search and destroy on any manuscript for this particular issue (among others.)
3. Find Critique Partners and Use Them—I can’t emphasize this enough. You must have other eyes look at your work prior to submission. Ask for specifics when you run things by them and do so in various stages of your drafts. “Please look at this one for the mechanics” or “I’m not sure about the end of this chapter” and so on.

A note on critique partners: There are two kinds and both are necessary.

• The beta reader: someone you know who fits into your target audience who can respond as a reader to your work. The beta reader can let you know if the story works and if your readers will enjoy it.
• The peer/mentor critique partner: a fellow writer, preferably someone with a bit of experience or at least a good critical eye. Obviously the writer will respond as a reader of fiction but will also be able to point out the specifics of why something isn’t working.

Now that you’ve fixed every ‘i before e’ and every continuity glitch, you’re ready to format. We’ve covered a little bit of this before and if you happen to be submitting to an e-publisher, they will often have specific formatting requirements, right down to the font size. Normally, since e-pub is all done in files, no typesetting involved, the manuscript should be in a ready-to-read format. Keep your italics as italics and so on.

The standard guidelines, if none are specified, once again:

• 1 1/2” margins
• Double Spaced
• Legible, standard font (Times New Roman or Courier are preferred)
• 12 point (Sounds large? Think about the submissions editor’s eyes)
• Your contact info on either a cover page or the first page only, upper left, including your real name, address, email, phone, word count and, for some publishers, the genre or line you are targeting (note: single space the contact info)
• The TITLE (in caps)
• Enter twice – here’s where the story starts

Some publishers will ask that you do not include page breaks or page numbers. For data files, this makes sense since they’ll just have to remove them later. But make certain your chapters are clearly marked if you do not insert page breaks.

Scene breaks are, unless otherwise specified, denoted by a single pound sign with a line before and after:

Scene one ends here

#

Scene two starts here

Printed, paper manuscripts, to be sent snail mail, are a completely different species and pose unique issues for the computer user. I think we’ll save those for next time. These can get messy.

Making Cheese

Writing a synopsis is like making cheese. No, really, I’m serious. Stop laughing.

In cheese making, one begins with a large volume of material, which, after undergoing filtering and a certain amount of chemical change, is then highly compressed into a handy, portable wheel.

Not that anyone would advocate making a wheel-shaped synopsis or one that smelled like Gorgonzola but there are similarities to the process. The writer must compress an enormous quantity of words and ideas into a spare, few pages.

A bit daunting, yes, but shake it off. It can be done. What the publisher wants is a handy, portable version of the novel, the cheese (not cheesy) version, which will convey the tone and setting, describe the characters and plot. Some publishers will request a chapter by chapter outline but the goal is the same: hit the important points, leave out the little stuff.

The best way to start is by writing an outline (fine, go ahead and use the laptop if you forgot how to use a pen.) No need to be terribly formal; no one will come to check if you used the correct header conventions. Reread your story chapter by chapter and jot down some quick and dirty notes, the meat of the matter for each chapter.

Now you should have the most important points of the story right at your fingertips. Write. Don’t think too much. Write. Edit later. Start with your main character, where they are and his/her conflict and proceed from there.

Some conventions to keep in mind:

• A synopsis is the whole story. Yes, the whole thing. You must give away the ending or how will the publisher know you have an ending that works?
• When writing the synopsis, just like a blurb, do it in present tense. (e.g. Geoffrey has a problem. His nightmares are following him to school.) Please don’t ask me why. This is how it’s done.
• The first mention of any character should be in ALL CAPS. Thereafter, you should go back to normal capitalization but try to refer to the character in the same manner throughout. If you’ve said ‘Mr. Hyde’ for the first page and a half, don’t suddenly switch to ‘Edward’.
• Unless the publisher specifies: use a conventional font, 12 pt, double spaced (The old convention is single spaced, though this is more difficult to read.)
• Write THE END at the bottom. No, the publisher won’t think you’re in second grade. This is normal, a signal that you truly have reached the end and haven’t left off a piece or page. 
• Compress that cheese! Traditional publishers may ask for two to ten page synopses. The rule of thumb is generally one synopsis page for ever twenty-five manuscript pages. Online publishers usually want shorter, two to five. If you can’t tell you 80K word story in five pages, something may be amiss.

Yes, it’s highly compressed but that doesn’t mean it has to be dry and boring. Work with it, let it age awhile; work it into something exciting in its distilled and concentrated form.

• Just as in your writing, use strong verbs. Don’t be afraid to describe emotions and motivations as well as actions.
• Go ahead, let your characters speak, especially if it’s an important quote which drives the plot or gives a hint into something to come. Keep it brief, though, and don’t overdo it.
• Don’t forget the setting as a character. This may be as brief as saying “Brooklyn in the late 1890’s” or a short description if it happens to be a more unusual locale in the case of fantasy or science fiction.
• Have someone else read it. You would never try to submit a manuscript without at least a second pair of eyes (at least I hope you wouldn’t, please tell me you wouldn’t.) The same holds true for your synopsis. Your critique partner, editor, friend, your grandmother—anyone will be able to tell you if there are any points of confusion or if it’s deadly boring.
• Edit. Edit some more. Edit again.

As always, follow the publisher’s guidelines. You may need to write two or even three synopses during the submission process depending on what each publisher requires.

Not that bad, once you get started. Get your milk and rennet together. Start stirring. It’s just a bit of cheese.

You’ve Got Thirty Seconds Kid – Sell Me

We’ve all seen the time-worn scene. Eager, young, writer/director/inventor stands before the expanse of Big Shot’s mahogany desk, bright-eyed and bubbling over with The Idea. In the movies, Big Shot usually concludes with ‘hey, kid, I think you’ve got something there’ but that’s Hollywood.

Film clichés aside, this is one of the best ways to think of your query letters. One shot. Thirty seconds. This is your introduction and your chance to sell your work, your voice and yourself. This is the instrument through which the submissions editor will sort the professional from the amateur, the marketable from the un-sellable, and the good fit for the company from the bad.

I hear you wailing out there. I’m not a salesperson, I’m a writer! I hate marketing! Duly noted. Everyone here understands and sympathizes. Now get over it.

In today’s market, the query or cover letter is often an email and the components may vary according to the publisher’s guidelines. Some may specify they need a short synopsis in the body of the query or your promotional plans and so on. If the publisher provides no specific requirements, the basics pieces are pretty much the same:

• Story information
• Author information

Story

The most vital piece of your query is your blurb, the short description of your work. Most editors will tell you they’ve made their decision in the first sentence or two. So it’s time for one of those painfully obvious statements: this is fiction, put the story first. Talk about yourself, your credentials, where the idea sprang from later. Story first. Get that hook in.

Please remember that this is a blurb-- bare bones, just the necessary bits. Your entire query letter, unless it contains other components the publisher specifically requested, should not be more than a page long. Not sure what a blurb should look like? Anyone who has ever shopped for a novel knows. Flip your current paperback over and read the back. Short, concise, meant to catch the buyer’s attention and give them a feel for the plot, mood and setting of the story.

Somewhere in these descriptive paragraphs should also lurk a couple of vital, nitty-gritty bits about the work. The publisher will want to know:

• The word count (Oh, boy, is this easy these days. Your word processing software has a word count option somewhere. No more estimation and math involved.)
• The genre (If it’s cross-genre use you’re best judgment according to what the publisher sells. A publisher of genre romances will want to know whether it’s fantasy romance or contemporary, etc.)
• If the work has been previously published
• If you are submitting elsewhere (per my last couple of posts, you should know already if your potential publisher accepts simultaneous submissions.)
• If you can relate your story, market-wise, to others the publisher has listed, all the better. Don’t gush, don’t overdo it, but it doesn’t hurt to show the publisher how this work will fit in with their strategies and catalog

Author

Oh, no, I have to talk about myself? Yes, yes, you do. Never fear, though. No need to go into great detail. The publisher may, in their submission guidelines, request something specific such as a website address for you, but most queries will require:

• Your writing credentials – if you have been published before in any professional setting, say so. Writing a column for the local paper counts. If you have never been published before, say so. Once again, you should know by this point whether the publisher accepts brand new authors or not.
• Other credentials – this only counts if you have some experience or knowledge important to the story. If you’ve written a fantasy novel in a mythic Celtic setting and happen to be a professor of Celtic studies, this might be a good time to mention it.
• Contact information – In your anxious rush to get your work submitted don’t forget this. You’re laughing. It happens. Real name, pseudonym if you write under one, address, phone number and email. Yes. All of it. If you want someone to send you a contract, they have to know where to find you.

These are the basic components. Now let’s take a look at what the editor expects in a professionally structured letter. If you are sending snail mail, please make sure you know how to format a letter. Single-spaced, no odd, cutesy fonts, plain white or cream paper, spell check the darn thing, please.

A sample letter:

Anatomy of a Submission - Introduction

So now you have a list of publishers…

Publishers are busy people. Once upon a time, perhaps when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, folks at publishing companies had time to read each and every manuscript which crossed their desks. 101 Uses for Giant Ferns, Allosaurus and Me and The Best Predator-Free Vacation Spots all come to mind. Those were the days.

At some point in the twentieth century, someone (probably on a talk show) spoke the fateful words “everyone has a novel in them”. (Whoever that was, please call me. We need to have a serious talk.) The floodgates opened and publishers have had no peace ever since.

Many publishers drown in unsolicited submissions. They don’t have time to wade through them, much less evaluate them. Some, if they chose to open every envelope, would require a full-time, twenty-four hour staff just to open mail. I once received an apologetic rejection letter from a publisher who stated that they could no longer even take unsolicited queries since they were receiving over two hundred a day.

And this was a fairly small publishing house.

So – what’s a poor publisher to do? Devise strategies which cut down on the volume and streamline the process of sorting the marketable pieces from the stuff that shouldn’t even be kept in a shoebox under the bed, of course.

Publishers have different approaches to submission triage and there are those who will only look at material from trusted, tried sources. We won’t even discuss those because if you had a well-connected, New York agent and a publicist, you probably wouldn’t be reading this little missive. Those who do take unsolicited submissions take a few of different routes. Some have a single point, one submissions editor, whose job it is to sort through and find what might be promising. Some have a staff of editors for specific lines, such as a historic romance editor and a fantasy editor and so on. Some use the anonymous grader system where several employees or trusted contacts will pre-screen submissions. Some use the committee system, though this is more common for the second or third round of decisions rather than the first.

Each of these strategies lends itself to different submission requirements but the basics of submission, regardless of the order in which the components might be requested are these:

• Query and/or Cover Letter
• Synopsis
• Partial
• Manuscript

We’ll take a look at queries first in our next installment. Have a safe and happy holiday, everyone!