From the Editor's Desk
Hi and
welcome once again to Fiction Factor! And, as always,
welcome to our new subscribers.
March has not been a happy
month for me. Aside from two hospital visits with
appendicitis and a ruptured cyst, the unusually long
recovery time from complications surrounding these issues
means I'm not as prepared for this issue as I usually
would be. For that lack of preparation I'd like to
apologize to all our subscribers. The articles that are
included in this issue were written before my hospital
visits so I'm thankful I got those out of the way! I'd
also like to thank Tina Morgan for preparing a great
interview and an equally good review for this issue so
quickly and professionally.
I really hope April is much brighter!
We still have a great issue for you this month, so let's
get straight into the writing stuff!
This issue Lee Masterson looks at how to get your book
published and also why writing short stories can help
your novel writing career. Tina Morgan interviews
Patricia Briggs and Michael Gibbs reviews "My
LandLady the Lobotomist" by Eckhard Gerdes.
It's time now to grab a beverage of choice, sit back, and
enjoy this issue of Fiction Factor!
Lee Masterson
Editor-in-Chief
http://www.fictionfactor.com
"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't
quit."
-- Richard Bach
 Horror Short Fiction
Market Listings
Looking for somewhere to sell your short horror
fiction?
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hundreds of paying markets for your horror from
all over the world.http://horror.fictionfactor.com/horrormarketguide.html
|
 Did
you know...
Authors who write and sell sold short
stories have a 92% higher chance of having a
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Lee Masterson's step-by-step ebook can show you
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will love.
Click here for more details: http://www.fictionfactor.com/order2.html
|
Mystery Writing: Keep Your Audience Intoxicated
by
Patrick Davis
So
you've finished your manuscript, packaged it up and sent
it out to every publishing house and literary agent you
can find a listing for.
You wait the obligatory several months for the replies to
come in, hoping that one of them will contain a contract
for your book - along with a hefty advance cheque and a
promise of heaps of royalty payments for years to come!
Does that sound like a favourite day-dream of yours? I'm
guessing it will be for most people reading this article.
It's why you're here after all.
The unfortunate truth isn't quite so appealing.
Recently, a member of the Fiction
Factor Forum asked the question: - "How
do I get published?"
The easy answer is: Find a publisher willing to pay
you for putting your book into published form. I'm
guessing that's not the answer you're looking for.
I'm assuming the real question is: "How do I
find a pubisher willing to pay me to publish my book?"
That answer is more difficult.
According to Writer's Digest, less than 5% of the
estimated total number of manuscript submissions are
published at all.
Of that 5%, only 15% of manuscripts accepted are for
debut books.
Not very promising for a new author, huh?
There is no bias within publishing houses or literary
agencies against publishing new authors. Quite the
opposite. Agents and editors hope to find a new rising
star, one in which they can build a promising backlist
and boost sales.
Why is it so few new authors manage to get a foot into
the traditional publishing door?
Most editors and many agents will tell you the
predominant reason for rejecting any work - from new or
established authors alike - is simply poor quality
writing.
The other major factor which detemines whether a book is
published or rejected is the marketability of the novel.
After all, if there are no sales, there's no profit and
no one gets paid.
Publishing is still a business.
So how do I get my book published?
Before you can submit your work anywhere, you need to
have written a great story that a publisher will want to
buy!
Look over your manuscript carefully, then edit your words
so your story gleams at a professional, publishable
level.
Learn all you can about strengthening your writing
skills. Make sure your characters jump off the page and
grab your readers by the collar with how vivid they are.
Read what other authors are writing and learn how their
stories are crafted.
Remember - an editor will happily reject a manuscript
that is poorly written, regardless of whether the author
is a professional or a complete beginner. Make your
manuscript stand out from the rest of the slush pile.
Yes, but how do I find a publisher?
Basically, there are plenty of ways to locate a publisher
and get your book published.
Here are just a few suggestions...
You can read the rest of this article here: http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/howtogetpublished.html
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 Create A Character
Clinic
Can you create a great character that editors
can't turn down? Holly Lisle can and she can show
you how too!
Did you know that starting with a name and a
character description will KILL your character?
You can learn to bring all your characters to
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Why Should You Write Short Stories?
by Lee Masterson
Many
novel writers avoid writing shorter fiction. Some believe
it might distract them from focusing on longer works,
while others find that the more concise style needed for
short fiction doesn’t allow them the freedom to
explore the characterizations deeply enough.
There are also plenty of writers who mistakenly believe
that the short story markets are dwindling so they simply
don’t bother.
The truth is, there are always markets for short fiction.
Even if you choose never to sell your flash fiction there
are plenty of great reasons to try your hand at this form
of writing.
There are so many advantages for novel writers in the
short fiction markets that can actually help your writing
career.
Short stories can be an excellent way to build a
published portfolio for any writer. Not only can they
give future editors an idea of your writing style, but
short stories can help to introduce new readers to your
fiction.
While the pay for short stories isn’t high, there
are other benefits to attempting shorter-length fiction
work. Having your short story included into an anthology
or collection of short stories can be exciting. You could
choose to enter your short fiction into any number of
writing contests. You’re also able to re-sell a
short story as a reprint to a different publication at a
later date.
Perhaps the biggest benefit to writing short fiction is
using a character you created for a novel-length piece to
give you a clearer insight into a part of the character's
past. You could choose to give a character from your
novel a specific task to complete outside of your main
story and turn this task into a new short story on its
own. You might even decide to write a short story to
introduce your fictional world to potential new readers
or editors.
Having a short story accepted for publication into a
magazine, periodical or ezine can be a huge boost in
confidence for any writer. Spending so much time and
effort writing a novel can often reduce confidence levels
in your own talents and abilities. This is where writing
short fiction can help to keep your moral levels high.
Editing short stories can be particularly challenging.
Word limits can be restrictive when you want to tell your
story as clearly as possible while still keeping the
conflict levels high. This can mean that by cutting your
words too far you risk losing the depth in your tale, but
not cutting enough can mean losing the crispness you were
striving for.
No matter what reason suits you best, learning to write
short fiction can be a great way to hone your writing
skills. With shorter forms of fiction you’re
restricted by your word counts. This means learning to
tell your tale using a minimum amount of words can test
your ability to tell a story concisely.
While there are plenty of good reasons to write short
stories, the biggest reason of all is that it should be
fun!
If you're ever lost for place to sell your short fiction,
try browsing through our Market
Listings. You're sure to find something to
suit your short story!
You can see
the online version of this article here: http://short.fictionfactor.com/articles/why-write-short-stories.html
Crafting the
Romance Story
Did you know... 55% of all fiction sold worldwide
is romance fiction?
This interactive package for aspiring romance
writers is so successful, so easy to understand,
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|
 Create A Plot
Clinic
Have you ever lost interest in your story only 20
pages from the start and not know how to get it
going again?
Best Selling Author of more than 30 novels, Holly
Lisle, can show you exactly how to structure your
story for maximum effect. Learn to fix problem
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editors beg for more.
Jump Start your novel today: http://tinyurl.com/2z3ant
|
Interview with Patricia Briggs
by Tina Morgan
Join Fiction Factor as we talk to Patricia Briggs, the
bestselling author of the Mercy Thomspon series.
Fiction Factor: What are you working on now?
Patricia Briggs: I just finished copyedits for
"Seeing Eye", a short story that will appear in
St. Martin's Strange Brew, an anthology about
witches. I'm currently writing the next Alpha and
Omega book, Hunting Ground. And as soon as I finish
that, it's back to Mercy in Silver Borne, which will be
Samuel's book -- at last. Also in the book, Mercy
finds that returning a book she borrowed won't be as easy
as it should.
FF: Will "Hunting Ground" cover the
back story of what happened to Anna in Chicago prior to
the events in "Cry Wolf"?
Patricia Briggs: No. There is a story that
does some of that -- "Alpha and Omega" in the
Ace anthology, On the Prowl, tells how Anna and Charles
meet. The short story is also available by itself
in an electronic format. I'm not planning on going
farther back and telling the story of how she became a
werewolf (it's depression, for one -- and prequels are
notoriously hard to get right, for another).
FF: Do you write your stories according to a
pre-organized plotline?
Patricia Briggs: Sometimes <grin>.
Sometimes not. I usually have an idea about the
story when I start, some issues I want to cover, some
scenes I think I'll put in -- but nothing too
concrete. I prefer to draw up characters, give them
a problem or two-- and throw them all together and see
what they do. Of course, sometimes that means I
throw away a lot of pages, but it makes the story more
fun for me to work on -- and I hope less predictable.
FF: What was the best piece of advice you've
received with respect to the art of writing? How did you
implement it into your work?
Patricia Briggs: I've been given a lot of good
advice over the years. One that I found very useful
was from Jerry Oltion who reminded me that a protagonist
has to act. Even if (especially if) there is
nothing they can do. They have to try to change
things. Passive characters are difficult to connect
to. There are some instances (Orwell's 1984) that
they are useful -- but generally, protagonists should
play an active part in the story.
FF: Have you ever suffered from writer's block
and if so, how do you overcome it?
Patricia Briggs: There are a lot of variants of
writer's block. Infamous is the "middle
doldrums" where all the characters have been
introduced, the plot has been implemented -- and you have
two hundred pages to get to the end. Getting over
that one is largely a matter of experience and it seldom
bothers me anymore. The most useful thing for
dealing with it is to send the protagonist out to deal
with the problem (Plot!) and fail or make the situation
worse. There are other tricks, but a lot of them are
personal -- or dependent on the book you're
writing.
A second type, which still plagues me, is when you know
what you want to write, you sit down to work -- and end
up staring at the blank screen. The trick here is
to figure out what's wrong. Mark Ferrari (writer
and artist) told me once that one of the problems is that
people sit down to work -- when they should be sitting
down to play. The "work" side of your
brain is the analytical part -- very useful in editing,
but not so useful when writing the first few
drafts. It is the "play" side of you
brain that knows how to tell stories.
Sometimes it's just that the well is dry and I need to
read some good books or watch The Lord of the Rings
movies again. Sometimes I'm stuck because I'm
trying to force a character to do something they wouldn't
do -- or I've backed myself into a Plot Hole.
I've never suffered the famous Writer's Block -- where a
writer is trapped, unable to write for months or years.
If I had to guess, I'd say they were stuck because they
felt that every word, every sentence had to be
profound. I guess I don't take myself that
seriously. If I am every profound, I assure you it
is a total accident. I like telling stories, I try
to tell them the best way I am able to -- and I know I'm
not Will Shakespeare or even Tolkien. I'm okay with
that. As long as I get to keep writing, I'm happy.
You can read the rest of this great
interview here: http://www.fictionfactor.com/interviews/patriciabriggs.html
Review of 'My Landlady the
Lobotomist"
by Eckhard Gerdes
Review by Michael Gibbs
My Landlady the Lobotomist is a great piece
of experimental fiction that is humorous and
absurd.Although I cannot say that My Landlady the
Lobotomist is my favorite book within the Bizarro genre,
the novel was well written and held my interest to the
very last page. I highly recommend this book to open
minded people who like to read fiction that is outside
the norm.
The book earned a Rating of four stars * * * *
You can read the entire review here: http://www.fictionfactor.com/reviews/landlady.html
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~ "Words are, of course, the most powerful drug
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Paying Market Listings
You can find the complete
Market Index here: http://www.fictionfactor.com/markets.html
Happy Market Hunting!
(Disclaimer: Mention of a market/ contest in Fiction
Factor is not necessarily an endorsement. Check all
guidelines in full before submitting)
Catastrophia Anthology
http://news.pspublishing.co.uk/2008/09/09/catastrophia-anthology-call-for-submissions/
Catasrophia will be a collection of short stories based
around the theme of catastophes, disasters and
post-apocalyptic fiction up to 6,000 words. Payment is
£0.03p per word (approx 6c per word US) to a maximum of
£100 ($200). No reprints.
Deadline: 31st May 2009
Submission Guidelines: http://news.pspublishing.co.uk/2008/09/09/catastrophia-anthology-call-for-submissions/
Destination: Future
http://www.hadleyrillebooks.com/DestinationFutureSubs.html
Destination: Future is an anthology seeking science
fiction short stories, particularly Hard SF, Space
Operas, Alient Worlds, Exploration and Quest stories.
Editors prefer no submissions of alternative fiction,
steampunk, fantasy or horror. Word counts should be
between 3,000 and 6,000 words. Payment is 3 cents per
word plus royalties if anthology earns out expenses. No
reprints.
Deadline: 30th June 2009
Submission Guidelines: http://www.hadleyrillebooks.com/DestinationFutureSubs.html
Skulls and Crossbones
http://mindancerpress.wordpress.com/books/skulls-and-crossbones/
'Skulls and Crossbones' is a collection of short stories
that feature women pirates in any setting and any time
period. All stories should be between 4,000 and 7,000
words. Editors may consider reprints. Stories should NOT
focus on romantic hook-ups or erotica - rather the
editors prefer stories that feature adventure, intrigue,
battles, trickery, thievery and/or assorted banditry and
outlaw behavior.
Pay is $35 plus one contributor copy of anthology.
Deadline is 1st September 2009
Submission Guidelines: http://mindancerpress.wordpress.com/books/skulls-and-crossbones/
Quantum Genre on the Planet of the Arts
http://www.crossingchaos.com/submissions2
seeks submissions of short stories, flash fiction, film
and book interpretations for a new print anthology:
Quantum Genre on the Planet of Arts. Basically, the
Quantum Genre is not theme-based but style-based. In
other words, Quantum Works are not about quantum theory
but quantum representation of characters and their
worlds. The style is
distinguished by a high degree of obscurity of both the
narrative and characters which are subject to mutability
and ambiguity.
Stories should be less than 3000 words. Payment is 4
cents per word. Deadline is 1st May 2009
Submission Guidelines: http://www.crossingchaos.com/submissions2
Shadows of the Emerald City
http://jwschnarr.webs.com/submissions.htm
Shadows of the Emerald City and The Terrible Wizard of Oz
is a new anthology featuring short HORROR stories based
in the world of Oz. Deconstruct the 'Wizard of Oz' and
the world it's based within however you choose. Include
blood and gore. Scare us. Disgust us. Be sure your
stories are under 10,000 words. Payment is $20US plus one
contributor copy. Anthology is purchasing one-time
rights. Rights will revert back to the author upon
publication.
Deadline: 31t July 2009
Submission Guidelines: http://jwschnarr.webs.com/submissions.htm
Silly Western Anthology
http://residentialaliens.blogspot.com/2008/10/silly-western-antho-call-for.html
CyberAliens Press are looking for short stories from
500 to 3500 words in length, as well as poems, jokes,
puns, limericks, artwork, and general silliness. All
submissions must express one of the following themes:
+ American Wild West
+ Steampunk
+ Prairie Romance
or some mixture of the above.
Submission Guidelines: http://residentialaliens.blogspot.com/2008/10/silly-western-antho-call-for.html
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