Female Forum

Thanks for all that Penny.

I looked into vanity publishing after Souxi mentioned it as it was a ‘term’ I wasn’t aware of. It’s invaluable advice as after doing some research I found there are many traps out there that can end up costing you an arm and a leg.

Souxi its dreadful that you lost your work! You still have copy write though, yes?

The information given here has all been invaluable. I’ve now got new direction. I know what I need to do to complete my writing and have something worth sending to agents and/or publishers. I have a whole new positive and most importantly productive outlook on it all.

I’ve had articles etc published before through magazines and the like, but I found book publishing is very different. The book I’ve been working on for most of this time is non-fiction - so it needs to be ‘right’. But also needs to flow and all the points come together just like in a novel. I found when your writing continuously and you get to a point where you’re re-reading over and over again what you’ve written you know it almost word for word. You tend not to see where you’ve missed out things and where it stops flowing etc. The best thing I could have done was set it aside for over a month and then go back and read it fresh. I could see where things didn’t meet, things I hadn’t explained properly, things I’d missed. What’s in your head doesn’t always get down on paper so to speak and it takes that break from it to be able to see that.

I like the idea of formal appraisals - not necessary, but certainly I think worth the price at least on a first book as it can be invaluable having someone else prepared to be honest about what it needs. I’m thinking about doing this with my book once I’ve made the changes I can now see it needs.

I had my novel professionally appraised, and although it seems a lot of money - well, it IS a lot of money really - it was well worth it. Not only for the positive feedback and the compliments (all gratefully received!) but also to know what I needed to do to make the book better, more saleable and attractive. This has led me to do a course in novel writing, where I am doing the lessons, taking the critiques on my chapters, and once I have finished, will rewrite the book where necessary, following all the instructions and advice given in lesson feedback.
And I agree that it does you good to take a step back, put the work away in a drawer for a month perhaps, then read it again. Coming to it with a fresh eye is a good thing, as is having a friend who reads a lot, and who will be honest with you putting aside friendship, for an honest view of how it reads, what jarred and so on.
Belief in yourself is a good tool to have.

Ah it’s good to hear that. For the young children’s book I have almost ready to go, I getting the best people I could think of to give me constructive criticism on it - all the little kids I know. I’ve asked their parents to write down the kids comments and their reactions for me as well as the parents themselves (seeing they’re the ones actually reading it out). Its only a short story as it is for little kids, so am going to print out enough copies for these kids, put a cover on it etc and do some crayon illustrations so its visually stimulating. This way, they are basically giving a critique on close to the real deal - For that age group I wouldn’t get a realistic overall view if it were just words on paper, they need the visual experience as well. So I’m going to try that anyway.

My non-fiction book is getting lots of good feedback and some very constructive criticism from friends and family who’ve read it so far. I think, as you said with the formal appraisal, even the positive feedback and compliments are well appreciated when its honest. Its goes a long way to helping you know you have something worthwhile. I’d rather be told honestly my book was rubbish than falsely believe it was good.

How long have you been writing Penny? Just curious is all. I wonder if all writers are the same - we start as kids and keep writing until eventually we think to do something a bit more with it.

So hows it going then CB? Any nearer to getting it published yet? I expect a signed copy when it is please. 

Yes it was very annoying when I didn,t get my stories back. I,ve started writing it again though so fingers crossed. My daughter actually came up with the main characters name. It,s very good if I say so my self.

My son has come up with a brilliant idea too. He had to write a kind of fantasy story at school and the two characters have really weird but unique names. So I,m going to write the story, with his help. Then when it,s published and becomes a best seller, he can get half of the profits as it was his idea. He,s well pleased about that.

It’s going great Souxi and I’ve been busy madly writing while the creative juices are flowing - hence my absence from here.. doh. Will be yelling with excitment here once I’ve sent it off!!!!

I’m still waiting on the yearbook to arrive. Which reminds me to go and have a look and track its progress.

Awesome to hear you’re writing again… ah the characters name!!! Yes I agree!! Names can make a enormous impact and I’m sure your daughter’s characters name is a great one

tis magic isn’t it - kids are so naturally creative! Its great that you’re so interested in writing as it will keep him inspired and he won’t lose his creative essence! Great to hear!!!!!!!!!!

Right I,ve sat here and typed out my short story. I,m going to leave it overnight, give it one final read in the morning, then send it off!!

It takes up to 12 weeks because they get so many submissions which is fair enough. It,ll give me time to work on something else whilst I,m waiting, nervously chewing my fingernails. With any luck, what I,d like, is to be a regular conributor to this magazine. Who knows eh?

Good luck!

I hope you don’t use commas as apostrophes in your submission, Souxi!! We love you for it here at Female, but you might confuse others!

Martin - 07 Apr 2009 03:25 PM

Good luck!

I hope you don’t use commas as apostrophes in your submission, Souxi!! We love you for it here at Female, but you might confuse others!

Ooops I never noticed that.   I tend to get so carried away when I’m writing I forget about things like that lol.

When I was at school I was just the same. All my essays came back with: “paragraphs” written all over them. I got carried away with the story you see. Things like that didn’t seem important.

Stoke of luck though. Good old Word corrects things for you automatically, so when I just checked it, it was right. It had apostrophes instead of commas. I am a prize berk arn’t I.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well let us know how it goes Souxi!!! Keep up the writing and submitting in the meantime and the time will pass much quicker than you thought.

I got a surprise with the editing… I realized after sending one article to a magazine that I’d left the word ‘of’ out of a sentence. The article was accepted and I figured they’d fix it up. Well guess what - it went in without having been corrected!! When I asked about the editing of articles they said they hadn’t picked up that error but normally they don’t accept anything they have to edit, so your punctuation etc needs to be spot on. (I am shocking with punctuation so have to check over and over again!)

I’m so pleased to hear you’re going to submit it and as the authors have all said in this thread, don’t give up if at first it is not accepted. Take it on the chin, you can even adjust the story a little and re-submit. A lot of the time with magazines it simply doesn’t fit with the theme their looking for at the time, and it may well fit 6 months later etc. Also if one magazine doesn’t pick it up, another might so submit elsewhere if its not accepted. Your story can well be built on to turn it into a longer story for magazines that accept larger submissions, so its all positive.

You have the ability and what it takes to write good stories, Souxi. I’m looking forward to reading you’re kids story once its been published. Good luck - not that you need it

Awwwwwww thanks CB. Your encouragement means an awful lot to me. Well I sent it off today. Now I have to sit and chew my fingernails for up to 12 weeks. I know it seems like a long time but these magazines do get an awful lot of submissions to go through.

Apparantly the longer it takes for you to hear, the better. This is because the rubbish ones are usually sent back fairly quickly.

I bought a copy of a magazine that only publishes fictions stories to give me an idea of the kind of stuff they accept.

I’m really excited about this. Whilst I’m waiting to hear I shall be starting on something else.

BTW Martin please note I’ve used apostrophes instead of commas. I am a dork.

WOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Keep us informed Souxi!!! Dying to hear from this end as well as to how it goes!!!!