July 30th, 2010
Friday link – good advice
Hi, this is from Ask the Publishing Guru – great advice on writing like a pro.
Happy writing
Perry
July 27th, 2010
Contest Deadline on Saturday
We’ve had some great entries for our first Summer Short Story Contest and we’re eager to see the rest of them. (you do have a story almost ready don’t you?)
Our contest is open to all genres. There are cash and publication prizes and of course bragging rights. Seriously what are you waiting for. (I’d enter but I’m not allowed).
Tell your friends, relatives and anyone you know who writes and has always dreamed about getting published.
“Winner of the PaperBox Books Summer Short Story Contest” will look really good on your next query letter.
Contest details are available at http://paperboxbooks.com/summer-short-story-contest.php
July 19th, 2010
Fodder for future novels
Well, experience is always good, sometimes it takes a while to get to that point. When you are going through something difficult, or many things difficult, it can be impossible to remember that you might want to use the experience in a book. That’s what write what you know is all about, isn’t it?.
Right now I’m handling my brother’s estate and it’s not easy. I am running around trying to get information, and taking a half step forward and three steps back most days. I’m sitting here in Starbucks waiting for his apartment to be cleaned – special cleaning required – and trying to keep a positive attitude about this huge task I’ve been handed. Why am I doing it, oldest sister syndrome – it has to be done and no one else will do it.
So rather than grouse about it, I’m thinking about how I’ll use the experience in a new book.
I’m not quite there yet, but I am trying to keep notes on what I’m doing, not only for research, but also for the estate records.
Anyway, the message is everything you do is useful – at some point in your life.
Happy writing,
Perry
For sale and coming soon from PaperBoxBooks.
July 13th, 2010
What Makes a Good Short Story
Since we’re about to launch a short story section here at PaperBox Books, I thought it would be a good time to go mention some important aspects of a short story.
Like novels, a short story needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end.
The beginning has to jump right into the story. You don’t have the word count available to do a gradual set-up.
An advantage to those of us who suffer from sagging middles, the path from Point A to Point B is shorter. You don’t have room to introduce more than a sub-plot or two. Even so you still need to keep the pace moving toward the end of the story.
The end of a short story can be tricky. Especially for anyone who is used to writing novel length pieces. There is always the temptation to leave a few loose ends. Unfortunately, this makes it a chapter not a stand-on-it’s-own short story. Endings should make the reader satisified not leave them wondering.
Short stories force writers to be concise without skimping on details. The reader must have an understanding of the world you’ve created for your characters within a small word count.
You have to make the characters just as real as in a full length novel so your readers will care about them and continue to read to see what happens.
Short stories are awesome. They are quick reads to make you smile (or have chills run up your spine) without a lot of time investment.
With the advent of e-publishing they’re even easier to buy than ever before. You can purchase them as a stand alone product instead of having to buy a magazine or anthology.
Authors love it because they can release stories frequently to always have something new for people to read.
So what are you waiting for?
Check out the rules for our Summer Short Story Contest (deadline July 31st).
If you are more interested in having your short story published, check out our submission guidelines.
Sue
July 4th, 2010
Summer Short Story Contest
Over this summer we’ll be launching a section for short stories. To celebrate we thought we’d do a contest.
So… send us your short stories.
Prizes:
- 1st place: $75 and publication in the winners anthology plus a complimentary copy.
- 2nd place: $50 and publication in the winners anthology plus a complimentary copy.
- 3rd place: $25 and publication in the winners anthology plus a complimentary copy.
- 4th & 5th place runners-up: publication in the winners anthology plus a complimentary copy.
Check out the rules and entry guidelines at http://paperboxbooks.com/summer-short-story-contest.php
June 24th, 2010
Welcome Fiction Therapy
Over the past few months, Perry and I have been approached several times to help author’s polish their work to submit to print publishers or just get feedback on their current work in progress.
After a lot of thought and encouragement (thanks guys) we decided to expand our services.
To help prevent confusion between the role of PaperBox Books and our paid critique service, we created Fiction Therapy. Visit our website at fictiontherapy.com.
Don’t worry, when you sumbit your work to PaperBox Books, you’ll still receive the same level of feedback as you always have but it IS only a review. We mention 3-5 points that you have done well or could use improvement. By necessity, our main focus is on whether your work is ready to publish or not.
Fiction Therapy on the other hand offers an indepth critique. We address several story components by both comments within the manuscript and an overview document. There is no obligation to publish with PaperBox Books – although, we won’t mind if you do.
Check out our latest venture at FictionTherapy.com. We’re on Twitter too at @fictiontherapy, stop by and say hi!
Sue
June 18th, 2010
Writing site – 750words.com
Last night I was introduced to 750words a site for writers to get the juices flowing
The idea is to write 750 words every day and you’ll find the rest of the writing easier. You can write whatever you want, it doesn’t need to be a story or a scene.
When you write you graduate through the process of egg to turkey to penguin to … well you need to earn the points to get there. The fun thing is that you get all kinds of statistics and analysis of your writing.
I recommend you try it out, what the heck it’s a tool and we all have those days when we can’t seem to get going.
Perry
Don’t forget the great pricing contest $2.99 romantic fantasy or $6.99 dual version of a paranormal fantasy.
June 14th, 2010
Tips for Submitting to a Publisher
Over the past few months we’ve been receiving a lot of submissions. Many are in the funnel, going through the polishing process and their novels will be uploaded soon. For this we are truly grateful.
I have some advice to all writer’s who are considering sending their work to an agent or publisher.
Read the Guidelines!
Editors and publishers use this as a simple test to see if the author can read and follow simple instructions.
If the publisher doesn’t seem to have established guidelines, do yourself a favour and default to the standard format as described by most writing how to manuals.
Save your submission in a separate document and attach it to your email.
Why?
1) It shows you’ve done your homework and are serious about a writing career.
2) Long prose in an email is harder for the editor to read, mark their place and make comments. So you’re handicapping yourself with a needless disadvantage right from the start.
Some editors won’t even bother to look at embedded submissions.
Need I say more?
Sue
June 11th, 2010
Never throw anything away – the paper edition
Hi, first, this is not a post for hoarders to use to point out they don’t need help. This is about keeping information that might be useful in your writing.
I generally clean house periodically, and I’m not someone who keeps things, I like clean spaces and lots of room. But, I do tend to keep books. Over the years I have purchased a lot of ‘how to write’ books. Most I’ve glanced through and kept them because they make my bookshelves look writerly. But, today I was clearing out my storage – preparations for moving house – and I found three books that I have used more than once.
Looking through this is inspiring and gave me lots of ideas when I started to work on Closing the Circle.
I have to say there’s nothing like a dip into religions to give you ideas on building your own world.
Any help on building a coherent myth – or borrowing one appropriately, is worth it’s weight in Leprechaun gold.
Do you have any writing books that you keep returning to time after time?
Perry
June 8th, 2010
Contests and other neat links
There have been a tonne of posts lately about contests and workshops. I got in trouble with a few of my followers because I’ve been tweeting constantly about a Kobo contest. So, here’s a quick list of links.
The Kobo contest – every time you buy an ebook from Kobo, you get entered into a contest to win an iPad – contest ends June 10, check the site for time. What could be better? Well, you might want to buy a PaperBox Books e-book as your entry – links below.
Surrey International Writer’s Conference had a link to this contest all about the SFU summer workshops contest and the SIWC contest.
That’s 3 great contests for you.
happy writing
Perry
Off Track on Kobo
Sue’s books on Kobo
