Writer's Support Room - Open Forum Transcripts

Q: Jan, is Highlights very receptive to stories of a speculative nature?

Jan: You mean like speculative fiction? Not really, they're pretty conservative, which tends to stretch into pretty conservative plot structures too. Though they will look as some fantasy and science fiction, but they're going to want a definite plot arc like a traditional story form.

Q: I'm trying to find a good paying market that'll take a mid-grade story involving characters traveling into the future. But it's not really heavy sci-fi or anything like that.

Jan: I really haven't seen much science fiction at all in Highlights...but they did ask for stories about the future for one of their contests so they aren't totally closed to it. I might give them a chance.

Q: 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.

Q: Jan, on an adult nonfiction book, when you contract with a house do you pay for editing?

Jan: 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 at a legitimate publishing house.

Q: 2:04 pm: does anyone know if I can resend an assignment?

Jan: Resend an assignment? You mean do a revision of an assignment for another assignment in the course?

Jan: Or just send a revision? Usually an instructor has to ask for a revision or you have to be on the "revision" assignment. 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. I've been open to that before, but I can't vouch for all the instructors.

Q: yes I've done a revision once for assignmet #2 I was just wondering if my instuctor would look at it again I want to get it ready for submission

Jan: 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.

Jan: But you can drop the instuctor a note and ask, especially if you're under some kind of time constraint for submissions -- like it's a contest or something.

Jan: 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.

Q: So then what comes under contemporary world-cultures -- I saw that HIGHLIGHTS has contemporary world cultures as the theme for this year's contest.

Jan: 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 look at a family celebrating a holiday is Brazil. Or a story with a US student moving to Papua New Guinea. Something with an element from outside what US kids would really "know"

Q: So, I could do something with an African theme then. Can it be fiction or nonfiction, Jan?

Jan: It's the Highlights "fiction" contest so I'm assuming fiction with a plot.

Jan: You can actually see a number of story examples on their 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.

Q: Jan, I queried or sent things to Imagination Cafe, True Girl and Kiki and no responses at all, are things terribly slow?

Jan: Things are terribly slow at the end of the year most of the time. Plus with really tiny magazines, you're always dealing with a lot of work on a few people so that can lead to huge slow-ups, especially in the winter when some of your key people could be off with family things or down with the flu, even.

Jan: Also, this is a big conference time of year, I think. A lot of folks seem to be hard to get hold of.

Q: 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?

Jan: There's the new one, George...Labyrinth's Door.

Jan: 2:38 pm: There's a e-zine called Gila Queen's Market Guide (or something similar, I know the Gila Queen is right) 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.

Q: 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.

Jan: 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 the industry as a whole will survive, but that doesn't mean you won't see a lot of belt tightening measures are the individual houses.

10/24/08

Q: I am so interested in sending out my stories but have not taken the step.... any suggestions?

Jan: What do you feel is holding you back? Market knowledge? Stark terror? Sometimes it helps to break the "chores" of submission down and tackle them one at a time...kind of sneak up on it.

Q: Fear of looking stupid? AND DEFINATELY INEXPERIENCE.....

Jan: Well, you don't have to worry about looking stupid. If you stay in this business...sadly, eventually you'll do something that you know makes you look doofy. Like the time I promised an editor the whole manuscript...only, I typoed "whole" with...um...an R instead of the L. Just start with one. Sometimes a short story is less scary to submit than a picture book or easy reader. It's that first hurdle that can be tough. Really, Louise, there is nothing you can do in a submission that an editor hasn't seen before ...and sometimes you can just think. Okay, this is just a practice submission...I'm not going to worry about whether it is accepted (though...well, we always want to be accepted.)

Q: In my little detective story, I have Rusty walking to the grocery store and walking to the library - small town. The editor who critiqued it at a conference told me I should show that it's a small town. It's in first person POV. Isn't the fact that he is able to walk down the street to the store enough?

Jan: You might give a little more detail of the street...so the reader can see it's a small town. Is it meant for a magazine or a book?

Q: a book

Jan: Then you almost surely have room...all you have to do really is describe the street a little...the difference in the look of a small town street and a big city street are huge. You'll lack the bustle...cars mostly drive a ltitle slower and without the honking horns. You often find flower planters everywhere in small towns, but not so much in big cities...especially the hanging basket kind. So you don't need to say...I was walking down the street in my small town...but if you pick a few details that would contrast with a city, you'll still fulfill the editor's suggestion.

Q: Why do magazine editors not respond to e-mail submissions? I don't want to assume 4 weeks later after hearing nothing that my piece is not wanted. Does it take that long to hit the reply button and kindly say not interested at this time or some other reply? It could be that one piece they are considering but aren't quite sure what to do until the 32nd day after submitting and I've already submitted elsewhere on the premice that their guidelines say that if you hear nothing after a month assume they aren't interested.

Jan: Here's the problem with email submissions. You have to have someone dedicated to handling them as they come in...a system needs to be put in place with someone handling it. And you need to know that submissions CAN make it past your SPAM filter. Many publishers have SPAM filters...rabid ones. And so accepting email subs means dealing with people calling all irate because you never responded to a submission that you never actually got. And it means having someone deal with submissions immediately before they vanish into the world of the inbox. Even magazines/publishers who DON'T take email submissions get hundreds and hundreds of emails a day.

Jan: Accepting email submissions would up that....so you would have to get the emails logged in and acknowledge daily before they vanish. Most magazines just don't have any incentive to add that kind of time and effort. Because another thing that happens when you accept email submissions is that the quality of the submissions tend to go down. Email submissions are easier, and cheaper...so more people will do it lightly...so you're not only adding more work but doing it with little reward on the publisher's side except to make writer's happy. Honestly, our happiness just isn't that important.

Q: by postal mail, how long does it take a publisher to respond to a submission?

Jan: It kind of depends on the publisher. Some really new, really tiny micropublishers or emagazines respond really blindingly fast. Sometimes in the day you send it. Most magazines respond from 2 months to 6 months. Book publishers are a little more exciting. More like from 6 months to a year. But there are variations. In your market guides, you'll find the response time the publisher claims...add a few weeks to that and you should be entering the reality ballpark.

Q: QUESTION - fiction or nonfiction? I have been writing fiction but have been itching to do some easy reader/picture book biographies.

Jan: In magazine writing, nonfiction is easier to sell. RIGHT NOW in most publishing houses, fiction is easier to sell. Though there are a lot of educational publishers who do only, or predominantly nonfiction. Many of them though do not take submissions...they take resumes and send assignments.

Q: What do so many ICL course focus on magazine writing. Is that really a gateway to book publishing?

Jan: It's not that magazine writing is a gateway to book publishing so much as you use the same skills but get that boost of publication quicker because it takes less time to complete the form.

Q: With all the time, work, and resource funding you put into it, do you actually make any money?

Jan: Yes, though not a lot right away. I supported myself entirely on my writing before I got married. Then I started teaching at the Institute and doing the web editor gig and I make a pretty nice income...but it's not all writing though it is all writing related.

Q: I heard that Cricket holds onto stuff for a long time, but I got my rejection in only one month.

Jan: Yeah, their response time is getting a little better again, but they are still paying super slow -- way way after publication.

Q: Do you think that having a lot of sales is in direct relationship to how many submissions you send out? Did I say that right? rather do you send out one story a week vs month w/o waiting for a response BETTER?

Jan: Well, clearly you have to get things out there to make sales, but I think you should send out your best work at whatever rate you can produce it. When I started, I sent out a lot of things and sold about half (keeping in mind that I came into magazines from newspapers so wasn't starting totally cold)...now I sell closer to 80% but it's becuase I'm better at writing what they want...it's not really relative to how much I send out.

Jan: I think it's a little tougher now than it used to be. We have more competition and magazines have tighter purse strings. At one point, I was selling well over 90% of what I wrote and I'm not doing that well anymore...but I write to the market very hard in magazine work. I tend to write what I know they want but then I've spent YEARS focusing on coming to know what they want.

Q: When editors ask for revisions, what kinds of things do they ask you to do?

Jan: You get different kinds of revision requests. I've been asked to add a "twist ending" I've been asked about making grammar/line copyediting type changes, and I've been asked to change a character or add nonfiction content. I'm just happy when I'm asked. Some magazines don't ask...they just make the changes even if it mean rewriting you.

Jan: Guideposts does that. Reader's Digest does that. Humpty Dumpty (and all the CBHI magazines) do that. The Focus on the Family magazines do that. They just make the changes that they want and you don't even get to see proofs before it goes to press.

Jan: Heck, one magazine changed my BIO...my BIO...added stuff that was factually incorrect...I guess I sounded boring.

Q: I'm not sure I understand why they would ask for a revision. Isn't a rejection just easier for them, especially since they get so many submissions?

Jan: Usually if you're asked for a revision...they like something about what you've written A LOT and they feel you can fix the thing they don't like so much. One of my students went through ....like four revisions for Highlights on a story she'd written for the course, I believe. Anyway, she finally made the sale.

Jan: In most commercial publishers, all editors go through the writer. But the smaller a press you go through, the more...unusual...you may find the editing practices. Oh...and Christian publishing is a WHOLE different world. There are a number of business practices that ONLY happen there and it's a world I don't know much about as I haven't written book length work for Christian publishers -- just magazine stuff and children's church curriculum.

Q: Do you think self-publishing is ever a good idea?

Jan What do "I" think about it? I think it can work very nicely for tight niche nonfiction -- like stuff you can sell from museum gift shops. I know some folks who've made good money doing that. I think it can also work for fiction with a slant that makes it work through the same system...like a mystery at a natural history museum...would be a good museum seller. And it can work for folks with a venue for hand selling...like a speaker who sells books or a storyteller who sells her own books or tapes or whatever. MOST of the time...it's an expense that doesn't pay you what you put in financially. And it's not a good "stepping stone" to commercial publishing. But if approached carefully, I know of a number of folks who've been happy with the result...though I know of far more who basically took a bath financially.

Jan: And unless you're working in an extremely tight easily marketed niche...I think you should exhaust all commercial publishing options first...than, honestly, *I* think you should write another book and sell that one to a commercial publisher.

Q: OK, how about RE-TELLING the folk tales or indian folk stories?

Jan: Folk tales can work with commercial publishing...I wouldn't consider self-publishing unless I had exhausted trade publishers and (2) knew the problem wasn't with my telling of the stories. Meaning, I really knew the stories were competititve but the market just seemed not to want Indian folktales. But selling them is going to be tough unless you want to do a lot of school visits, storytelling...and sell them that way. I've known of storytellers who did VERY well with self-published folktales because they handsell them through school visits/library visits and the like.

Q: Do you think the Delacorte contests are worth entering? They tie up your ms for so long, but, wow, if they liked it...

Jan: Sure, I think the Delacorte is worth it...as long as you're working on something else while you wait.

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