[MissJan]: Hi Everyone. Welcome to Casual Tuesday chat. If you have a question, I might have an answer.
[georgekulz] 2:02 pm: Jan, is Highlights very receptive to stories of a speculative nature?
[MissJan] 2:03 pm: You mean like speculative fiction? Not really, they're pretty conservative...which tends to stretch into pretty conservative plot structures too.
[georgekulz] 2:04 pm: I'm trying to find a good paying market that'll take a story involving characters traveling into the future. But it's not really heavy sci-fi or anything like that.
[georgekulz] 2:04 pm: For the MG audience, btw.
[MissJan] 2:04 pm: I really haven't seen much science fiction at all in highlights...but they did ask for stories about the future for their contest so they aren't totally closed to it. I might get them a chance, George.
[georgekulz] 2:05 pm: Well, it's funny you mention that. I submitted a story to them for that contest, and this story I have now is the one I DIDN'T pick for that contest.
[Mirmarwishes] 2:04 pm: Jan, on an adult nonfiction book, when you contract with a house do you pay for editing?
[MissJan] 2:05 pm: Mir, no, you should never ever ever ever ever pay for editing once under contract. Paying an editor is totally something you might choose to do early on before really submitting or if you're wondering why you collect rejections but stories under contract are edited by the publisher...it's part of their job.
[jamey] 2:04 pm: does anyone know if I can resend an assignment
[MissJan] 2:06 pm: Resend an assignment? You mean do a revision of an assignment for another assignment in the course?
[MissJan] 2:06 pm: Or just send a revision? Usually an instructor has to ask for a revision or you have to be on the "revision" assignment.
[MissJan] 2:07 pm: But if you feel like you did a really strong revision, you can send a note to your instructor, mention the revision...and why you like it so much...and ask to send it in place of an assignment.
[MissJan] 2:07 pm: I've been open to that before depending upon a number of different things, but I can't vouch for all the instructors.
[jamey] 2:08 pm: yes I've done a revision once for assignmet #2 I was just wondering if my instuctor would look at it again...
[MissJan] 2:08 pm: I didn't mean "editor" in my answer, jamey, I meant "instructor" -- it's the brain cheese thing again.
[omalizzie] 2:08 pm: Jan, I think what Jamey is asking is can she send in a revised assignment along with another assignment
[jamey] 2:08 pm: I want to get it ready for submission.
[MissJan] 2:09 pm: Most instructors aren't open to looking at two pieces at once (we don't get paid for the second one)...sometimes if my student did a really short piece and she's doing another short piece...so the two together only run about 4-5 pages...I'll say okay, because I really want folks to be happy. But it's a big thing really and not something that's going to happen often.
[MissJan] 2:11 pm: Sometimes I've let a student substitute a revision for an assignment too...especially if the assigned exercise is something the student is already really strong in, or somethign the student totally never wants to do under penalty of death like nonfiction. But again, that's pretty rare and it happens on a case by case basis. So I guess my answer is probably not, but tentatively maybe. You really should ask in the next note to your instructor.
[chippy] 2:11 pm: So then what comes under contemporary world-cultures for a contest?
[georgekulz] 2:11 pm: Let's ask Jan :-D
[MissJan] 2:12 pm: Contemporary world-cultures would be a present day story with some aspect hinging on a culture outside of main stream United States...so you might have a plot with a family celebrating a holiday in Brazil.
[MissJan] 2:12 pm: Or a story with a US student moving to Papua New Guinea and the challenge of adjusting.
[MissJan] 2:13 pm: Something with an element from outside what US kids would really "know"
[zebrakitchen] 2:13 pm: I agree, I seem to take for granted my ethnic background because I am soooo American. I feel very unworld view sometime.
[chippy] 2:13 pm: So, I could do something with an African theme then?
[MissJan] 2:14 pm: Yes, chippy, something with elements from Africa would be a good choice.
[MissJan] 2:15 pm: You can actually see a number of contemporary world cultures story examples on the Highlights website ...stories with characters or settings from different parts of the world. It might give you an idea of the kind of thing they really like since they bought it in the past.
[christine] 2:16 pm: Jan, I queried or sent things to Imagination Cafe, True Girl and Kiki and no responses at all, are things terribly slow
[MissJan] 2:17 pm: Every magazine hits slow response pits according to what's going on at the magazine and whether editors are traveling for conference so similar things -- and that can get even worse with tiny magazines because there aren't a lot of fall back people when someone is out of the office. I think Rosanne at Imagination Cafe is just responding now to some older queries...she must have been off line for some reason.
[MissJan] 2:18 pm: I know Kiki's editor was out of town for a while because I got an email response on something I asked for Kid Magazine Writers. So you just don't know what might be slowing things up. It could be coincidental that three are slow at once, or it could be tied with some event that we'd all recognize if we were on the publication side of magazine work. Hard to say.
[MissJan] 2:18 pm: I dunno about True Girl, but this is a big conference time of year, I think. A lot of folks seem to be hard to get hold of.
[christine] 2:18 pm: yes Rosanne is considering a friends of mine aritlce about the silent zone in volcanoes and she sent she had to think about it
[Roundtuit] 2:22 pm: I have tried to email ICL but not getting a response any one else have trouble with that?
[MissJan] 2:23 pm: You can try emailing me, Roundtuit, at jan.fields@forums.institutechildrenslit.com -- and I can forward it to the right folks. Sometimes that helps. They get so much email, I think sometimes the server just gets tired of delivering stuff and eats it.
[georgekulz] 2:31 pm: Jan, I noticed you had a write-up on Crow Toes Quarterly awhile back. DO you know of any other magazines along the same lines?
[MissJan] 2:32 pm: There's the new one, George...Labyrinth's Door.
[MissJan] 2:35 pm: There aren't a lot of "weird" short story publishers for kids, George, which is too bad because kids eat that stuff up. My daughter is constantly bringing home short story anthologies of creepy stories.
[georgekulz] 2:36 pm: Where do I find info on those types of anthologies then Jan? Maybe that would be a route to get something published?
[MissJan] 2:38 pm: There's a e-zine called Gila Queen's Guide to Markets http://gilaqueen.us/ and it has tons of speculative fiction anthologies in it regularly. It's not always for kids...often they are not, but there are many anthologies for that sort of story as well as ezines and magazines.
[Roundtuit] 2:36 pm: Jan I had a question about transcripts and college credit. can I ask it here or
[MissJan] 2:37 pm: I don't know much about the whole college credit thing but there's a tutorial about it in the Student Center on the institute site...have you been there?
[MissJan] 2:39 pm: I know it has specific stuff about transcripts and some forms you can download and everything, Round
[Roundtuit] 2:38 pm: Oh okay I will take a look at that thanks
[ColoradoKate] 2:39 pm: I went to a regional SCBWI conference recently where the visiting editors and agent said that the book industry was fairly "recession-proof." Whistling in the wind, maybe? I hope it's true, anyway.
[MissJan] 2:40 pm: Well, the book industry is...and isn't. Right now, children's lit depends more on bookstore sales than it ever has in the past because of the No Child Left Behind. AND so there are some issues...especially with expensive books. But mass market books are probably forever safe. And really, the publishing industry moves so slow that it's possible a recession can get over before they notice much -- this is not an industry that turns on a dime. But they have felt some pain from changes in sales to libraries and schools.
[zebrakitchen] 2:51 pm: Jan, with what you just said, is there a larger market for instructional material, non-fiction with publishers?
[MissJan] 2:52 pm: Actually, nonfiction is suffering most because parents don't buy it as often as fiction, and schools don't have the funds for it. The only publishers really experiencing positive effects from NCLB are test prep companies. They're doing great...and some of them are helping keep some kid magazines afloat since they buy short stories for test use.
[Cathie] 2:53 pm: what is a test prep company?
[zebrakitchen] 2:53 pm: Put you to the test Jan-- Can you give us the name of some test prep companies?
[MissJan] 2:54 pm: Test prep companies produce the materials classrooms use today...they basically drill kids on the kinds of things to expect on the standardized tests by giving them "practice" with those kinds of things.
[christine] 2:54 pm: That must be what Measured Progress is that bought an excerpt from Apple Orchard Road
[MissJan] 2:54 pm: Sorry, not off the top of my head. Except Renaissance Learning -- they don't so much do test prep as the accelerated reader tests.
[christine] 2:54 pm: or similar at least
[MissJan] 2:55 pm: Right, Measured Progress would be one.
[ColoradoKate] 2:55 pm: I think the actual test-developing companies sometimes buy reprints, too, don't they?
[MissJan] 2:56 pm: Test prep companies have been around forever -- like the stuff Barrons produced to ready kids for the SATs, but with the increased importance (and use) of testing, they have grown.
[MissJan] 2:56 pm: Test-developing companies primarily buy reprints, I think.
[ColoradoKate] 2:57 pm: We used to use stuff the school district provided for test prep, using old test materials--so no profit for writers in that, I'm afraid.
[jamey] 2:58 pm: I remember as a kid getting tested once a month with these cards that had a story on it. After a time limit of reading, we had to answer the questions...It was reading comprehension. Is that the same kind of thing you are talking about Jan?
[jamey] 2:58 pm: I heard Collages and Univs. are trying to phase out the SATs.
[zebrakitchen] 2:58 pm: http://www.renlearn.com/
[MissJan] 2:58 pm: One of the great things about Rennaissance -- the link zebra provided -- is that you can look up books and find out their reading level and word count.
[ColoradoKate] 2:59 pm: Yeah, I love that--use it all the time.
[zebrakitchen] 2:59 pm: good to know
[MissJan] 2:59 pm: It's wonderful for finding out the word count for books you know are similar to your work in progress, so you can see if you're in the right ballpark on count.
[ColoradoKate] 2:59 pm: Mostly to prove to myself that my novels really AREN'T too short, thank you.
[MissJan] 3:00 pm: Right, and with some time expended, you can find out if certain companies are running shorter "chaper books" or longer ones...and stuff like that.
[MissJan] 3:00 pm: I have used it a lot.
[MissJan] 3:00 pm: And with that, I have to run -- catch ya next week writerfolk.
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