A Few Of Things

[mmerriam]

1. I just discovered that I qualify for an affiliate membership with the Horror Writers Association. Do I join HWA? I'm taking advice and opinions.

2. The Reverend is sleeping on my legs. I'm lying on my stomach and she's curled up in the crook of my knees. She is very warm.

3. I finished the requested rewrite and sent the story back to the editor.

4. In a rejection I received today, the editor pointed out that the piece read more like the beginning of a novel than a short story. I am concerned that it may morph into "Untitled Novel #6."

5. It's snowing. Seriously.

Comments

[mnfiddledragon.livejournal.com]

4. In a rejection I received today, the editor pointed out that the piece read more like the beginning of a novel than a short story. I am concerned that it may morph into "Untitled Novel #6."

My aunt and I were just talking about this very idea this morning. She provided input on songwind's story...and mentioned that in her opinion (while she absolutely LOVED it), she felt that it should be shorter for publication in a magazine or longer for a novel.

Is it possible to edit it into a more rounded short story (grasping for words here)?

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I could try to turn it into something slightly smaller than a novel, such as a novelette or novella, but both are hard to market.

[mnfiddledragon.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* which was another thing my aunt and I were talking about.

But what I don't know - and what I don't know if she knows about - is whether or not that is a SF thing or if it's a industry wide thing. She's been involved mostly with children's literature over the years. She and my uncle wrote a children's book YEARS ago (The Dragon's Nest), which was inspired by or inspired their toy store by the same name :) ...my cousin majored in and did her internship in children's lit publishing and editing with Candlewick Press...and now she's writing a YA novel with a class she's taking (my aunt). So really - she has her hands in the children's/YA market - but I didn't know if that translated into SF? Does it? Does it matter? :D

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

There;s this kind of "dead zone" where it is hard to sell a piece, ranging from 10,000 to 70,000 words. Novelettes run 7500 to 17,500 (I've managed to sell three of these) Novellas are technically from 17,500 to 40,000 and anything above 40,000 a novel. That said, in the SF/F/H, it's next to impossible to sell anything under 90,000 as a novel these days. In YA you can get away with as little as 70,000.

Middle school books are the best markets for long novellas and short novels.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

HWA is now officially the Horror Writers Association. Their website is at horror.org.

What I've heard about HWA isn't favorable, but it's from a former member.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Association, check. I can't believe I didn't notice that. I have to admit, I'll heard bad things about all HWA,SFWA, and SFPA (which I am a memer of).

[pezwitch.livejournal.com]

Do you think it could be limiting to your career to be a member of the HWA (or SFWA or some other not-so-greatly-thought-of organization)? Or is it something that you could get personal joy/benefit from at the expense of your reputation? Or is it something that you may derive no joy/benefit from but grants you some kind of credibility in that genre?

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I think the main reason to join either of those organizations is to have access to a couple of the good things they do, such as the Grievence Committee (help with bad contracts and publishers) and the Emergency Medical Fund (or in HWA's case, the Emergency Loan Program). Those are good things for my dues to support. As for crediibility within the genre: they don't matter much except to show you've written at a certain level for a period of time.

[kythiaranos.livejournal.com]

Most of my short stories seem to turn into novels, blast them! So I sympathize.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it is simply because my focus is shifting away from short fiction and toward novels. Maybe I'm seeing novel possibilities where before I saw those same possibilities as short fiction?

[musingaloud.livejournal.com]

HWA ... Toward the end of last year, I almost joined as an associate, as they pro-rate the membership fee .... but I procrastinated myself past the end-of-year date. I'm thinking the one positive, if it could be called that, is you could officially list it on your resume. Dunno if that's a good thing or not.

Heheh.... almost every short story I put up at critters comes back with comments like "this reads more like a chapter of a novel than a short story!" Gah! I haven't quite figured out how to stop myself from doing that though.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Being able to put something like HWA or SFWA on your resume at least shows to editors that you can write to a certain level of compantancy and to others that you feel strong enough about what you do to join the trade organization that represents your genre.

It think its mostly a matter of do you want to pop for the dues and what are those dues being used for?

[timprov.livejournal.com]

Being able to put something like HWA or SFWA on your resume at least shows to editors that you can write to a certain level of compantancy

I can assure you that it does not. Almost universally the worst stories I received were by people who felt the need to put "member SFWA" in their cover letter. (The people in SFWA who wrote good stories either had other things to brag about or were secure enough not to brag at all.)

Admittedly I never received the sort of extremely low-quality submissions print markets seem to. Although I don't imagine identifying the people who write in crayon is very hard.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I remember reading a piece by (if memory serves) Dozois saying the same thing.

Now that you mention it, I've been a member of SFPA for sometime and I never bother listing that on my cover letter for poetry subs. I assuming the three credits I list are more than enough information and that the cover letter doesn't really matter much anyway. I just list it in my bio at the webpage and LJ.