Editing/submission

The I Do anthology is filling up well and we already have a "short list" of some great stories by wonderful authors. It's interesting to see life on the other side of the coin, as part of the editing/choosing process. What's surprised me is the different formats that people use, instead of sticking to industry standard. Another is the fact that some stories submitted are not as polished as I would have expected them to be. If you work in a restaurant, you don't just plonk your food out any old how, so if you are submitting a story - even if it's for a non-paying charity anthology - you should give your story every advantage you can give it.  Perhaps it's because it's a non-paying charity that people don't think that it matters as much, or something.

Granted, everyone makes typos and mistakes - I'm one of the worst for that and my beta is constantly reminded as to my lack of knowledge when it comes to commas. But when I submit that story to the publisher, it's in the best state that I (and my beta!) can make it.  Because, frankly, unless your story is completely stand-out, must have-brilliant, just the fact that you didn't bother to use even the basic tool of Spellcheck is going to tell that publisher a lot about you.  Check every word - weed out incorrect homonyms such as lose/loose, there/their - and always always always!! get someone else to look at it!  They can't help you with whether the publisher will like it, but they will hopefully spot some of the errors you've missed.  Betas, specially good ones, are like gold dust, and the best way to get one is to beta for others.  This is a great exercise to help with proofreading your own stuff too. This is one thing I'm very grateful to fanfiction for - that's a medium where you learn to beta almost as soon as you write anything yourself.

So do your stories a favour and give them every single chance they have!!

It's flipping freezing

Things that we've learned from gaming. 

My favourite: "bad guys enjoy carrying around the types of bullets you use, even if they themselves are unarmed." 

SO TRUE!!

Don't forget to check the Advent Calendar. Something new each day, and there will be competitions at least twice in the month.

Jessewave has reviewed Standish, and she absolutely loved it. She says :This is definitely not a book for the faint hearted and I don't know that I can classify it merely as a romance partly because it's so complex a story, and also some of the horrific scenes are very detailed especially the rape, but I have to admire the author's superb writing and her desire to produce a story which she thought was truly representative of the era.



Full Review here. Thank you Jessewave.