Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

The theme of this post is doing your due diligence. I did not, for example, with that wedding anthology a few weeks back and totally missed the homophobic coding in the language. Needless to say I'm not submitting to that one. I am, however, working on that other wedding horror story (I'm at the I hate everything I write stage) and I went back to look. It says nothing about LGBT so knowing I'm not sending in things as Jana I used her email to ask. Yes you can send LGBT weddings to this one. I wish they had put that in the open call but there's not really a nice way to say that but I'll try.

Another place you need to do your due diligence is in editing. I know as a self publishing author you have to decide how to spend your money in getting your book out there. It all costs, marketing, editors, cover artists. How do you decide where the money goes? I don't know because I haven't done it yet but if you are, you need to read up on it, watch some YouTubes, something.

I picked up a self pubbed urban fantasy at Tsubasacon with an amazing cover check it out here. I see others had the same issue as me. I don't even see a credit page in my version but they claim there was an editor. This is twice in recent months that I've picked up a self pub with claims of an editor.

That leads me to the next due diligence, check out the editor you hire. If either of these books honestly had one, that editor sucks. The above mentioned book has the worst editor ever if they exist. The book has interesting ideas and characters and it hurts that this book series will fail in its current state. The tenses change from sentence to sentence. You know how some people sprinkle commas like glitter? This author did it with periods. PERIODS. Just randomly in it. I'm not even sure how a reader (which most authors are) gets grammar this badly messed up (tenses maybe but periods. just jammmed in. wherever. like i just did??

So how about all of you? Do you have an editor you love and trust? How about a cover artist? Voice actors? Feel free to share them. It will help everyone.

OPEN CALLS


here is that wedding horror open call again

Elder Things Expeditions Lovecraftian open call, pays pro rates

Solar Punk Magazine January 2025 Window also pays very well

Plasma Pulp Retro-future adventures fun theme but the call ends this weekend coming and it's royalties...

Space Opera Stories Why have I stopped writing space operas?


Modern Mummies

Silk and Foxglove – A BIPOC AnthologyEco-horror BIPOC authors only

Heartlines Spec Spring 2025 Issue Speculative fiction focused on long-term friendships and relationships

Foofaraw 2025 Stories inspired by either of the definitions of “foofaraw”: A great fuss or disturbance about something very insignificant OR an excessive amount of decoration or ornamentation, as on a piece of clothing, a building, etc.

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in January 2025

wildscape. literary journal: Now Seeking Submissions

41 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for January 2025



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Comments

[havocthecat]

I do not know what I missed based on the wedding thing, but it sounds awful. Yikes.

[cornerofmadness]

Oh it was an open call boosted by an editor I worked with (who probably also missed it or being a cis gendered het married man never registered the issue) and it was under submitted to well there was a line in there how it had to be committed heterosexual only wedded couples because it was SO important to this anthology editor

[havocthecat]

there was a line in there how it had to be committed heterosexual only wedded couples because it was SO important to this anthology editor

Oh for fuck's sake. Well, I mean, I guess if that's the kind of political demographic you want to appeal to, I don't want to go anywhere near your anthology!

[cornerofmadness]

yep and now I'm side eyeing my editor who like I said didn't seem to be anti-anything but promoted this around which he might be doing to help without reading it fully (like I did) but I will feel him out better in the future if he has another anthology I want to try for

as for the other guy I SHOULD write his name down as a do not bother regardless of open call down the road

[barbaratp]

No Twitter eu sigo uma ilustradora sáfica incrível que faz artes inspiradas no estilo quadrinhos que faz as capas dos livros que ilustra uma coisa única. Também digo vários outros, mas sou péssima de nomes no momento. Editores conheço poucos, mas por sorte todos bons. Eu me rodeei de artistas de boa qualidade nos últimos anos após passar problemas com alguns não muito legais.

[cornerofmadness]

I'm really glad you have those good artists. That's a treasure

[jenett]

The whole 'selecting editors and cover designers' thing is so tricky because - especially for folks starting out - you don't necessarily have the knowledge of what different parts of it are, or how to evaluate it effectively.

I think that's what happens for a lot of people: they don't know the difference between different kinds of edits. They don't know how to navigate the line between stylistic choices and 'yeah, this is just getting unreadable'. And they don't know how to determine if an editor is doing a good job in all the relevant ways. And then you add in financial constraints, the trick of finding an editor, scheduling, etc.

(In general, what I've seen is that people who have an ongoing relationship with their editors tend to name them, people who hired someone off Fiver or Reedsy often don't.)

My editor is one of my best friends, and they do everything from developmental editing to line and copy edits for me. (I also run my books through a small number of early readers, who will also help catch typos that slip by. There are always typos. They breed.) My editor isn't currently doing it for anyone else, though has in the past in a small publisher context.

The same thing's true for cover design, which is a lot more than just 'make some nice images go together' (and here, I will absolutely rec Augusta Scarlett.) My covers have a distinctive unified style, but she has a substantial range. She's also great at the 'look at what's going on in the subgenre in question and figure out something that looks like it fits there in terms of genre signifiers' part of the question.

I am just about to launch my first audio book - in that case, she approached me, was really informative about the process (huge learning curve on my end!) I just paid her for the final files yesterday, and later this week will be getting them out to people who backed the Kickstarter, and then up for sale elsewhere. (I'm going to do a post about the process on my DW in the near future: my DW is locked by default but I'm glad to add people.) That's Maria Nicola Johnson, who also managed a range of accents for me.

One of the biggest things I look for is 'is this person familiar with how this bit of the industry works', and 'is their communication really good'.

[cornerofmadness]

Thanks for the good information. My beta reader/editor is my friend too plus whoever I end up with at the publisher (as I'm indie not self, at least not currently)

It is hard to find reputable people or even know what you need getyourwordsout had a good post about beta readers and how to get what you need out of it. I've been guilty of the 'whatever you feel you can give me' request which isn't that helpful.

And definitely money is an issue. I've made so little off the books and short stories I've sold that I'd be in a hole if I paid going rates for so much of that.

I haven't done audio books yet (my indie stuff has sold so poorly I feel unable to request that they do that, I can't imagine it would pay for itself) though I do have a friend who does them for a living so I'd pay her if I was doing things entirely independent.

I also wonder if some people aren't taking what the editors say all that seriously. I generally don't argue with my editors (occasionally but for the most part I follow instructions like my life depends on it)

[spikedluv]

Coincidentally, I just finished a series (it came in a box set) that had the worst editing. So many errors. It drove me nuts. (I just made the book post about it.)

[cornerofmadness]

it's very frustrating when other than that it wasn't bad story