The Great Absolute Write Spec Fiction Anthology!

Mr Flibble · Aug 10, 2011

MacAllister said:
The first round of "Nope this won't work -- got something else to send?" and "You've made it to the next level of considerations, hang in there" will be going out tonight and tomorrow, by the way, if all goes according to plan.

Did it all go according to plan? Ie did you send out all the first responses?

MacAllister · Aug 10, 2011

For the curious, we're sitting at just over 40 submissions, as of about a half hour ago. Of those, several are from writers with semi-pro and pro publishing credits.

I'm absolutely delighted at the quality of what I'm seeing -- but competition is looking like it's going to be pretty stiff. Thanks so much, everyone!

IRU -- I have NOT yet sent responses. They'll start going out a little later this evening, though.

Pthom · Aug 10, 2011

Apparently, there seems to be some confusion as to what to submit in order to be considered to be included as an illustrator.

At the moment, because we have no idea whatsoever as to what the stories will be about, all I want is samples of the kinds of things you do. Do you do hand work? Pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, watercolor, oils, acrylics, gouache, computer renderings? All this is acceptable and desirable. We'll worry about content in a month or so. Right now, I want samples of your stuff, to assess your skills and more to the point (because at the moment, whereas Mac is getting 40 some-odd stories, I'm getting samples from ONE artist) to assign the right artist to the right story.

So c'mon! lemme see what you got!

Gale Haut · Aug 10, 2011

Posting something at Comic Books & Graphic Novels and Self-Pub/POD Covers will generate interest. There are several artists who frequent those boards.

Psychomacologist · Aug 10, 2011

MacAllister said:
For the curious, we're sitting at just over 40 submissions, as of about a half hour ago. Of those, several are from writers with semi-pro and pro publishing credits.

Well, now I'm officially daunted and discouraged. Well, not so discouraged that I won't submit anything, but still... wow. Okay. Hmmm.

Catadmin · Aug 10, 2011

How will this book be published and what distribution channels will be used? I.E., ebook on Kindle / iBook or CreateSpace / Lulu or will it actually hit bookstores? Just curious.

Pthom · Aug 10, 2011

I realize there are qualified artists (some immensely so) hanging around looking for work. Probably, in this economy, thousands of 'em.

But you know? I don't care about them, unless they are members here. For this anthology, I'm looking for artists who are also members of Absolute Write.

Hell, if we were to open this gig to everyone in the world, it'd be done by now.

No, the only eligible writers and artists are members of Absolute Write.

Gale Haut · Aug 10, 2011

I appreciate that very much. But, Peter, those are boards on AW...

Pthom · Aug 10, 2011

Psychomacologist said:
Well, now I'm officially daunted and discouraged. Well, not so discouraged that I won't submit anything, but still... wow. Okay. Hmmm.

Have heart, Psychomacologist. There are still three weeks to go, more or less, and the panel who reads and selects stories for this gig will have NO IDEA who wrote what.

I'm in process right now writing a piece of crap story that I hope might get some interest. It might. It probably won't. Or it might not be among the top 20 or so that get accepted. Never mind. What we do know is this: every single entrant in this thing is a member of Absolute Write. NO ONE outside the AW borders will be considered.

And that makes me feel good.

MacAllister · Aug 10, 2011

Catadmin said:
How will this book be published and what distribution channels will be used? I.E., ebook on Kindle / iBook or CreateSpace / Lulu or will it actually hit bookstores? Just curious.

Naw - we don't have the distribution channels to get it onto bookstore shelves, so we're looking at a simultaneous e-book release (Kindle/iBook) and a POD version available by order only. We'll send out contributor's copies of the POD version. That's a big part of why we're not paying very much, but also only asking for one-year, nonexclusive rights.

Honestly, I really don't expect we'll sell enough copies to pay back the upfront costs for the writers and artists. We'd have to sell somewhere in the neighborhood of 2-3K copies to do that. That's totally okay with me, by the way -- I'm largely viewing this as both a community-building project, as well as a good opportunity to entice some of our shyer members into actually submitting, so they get a taste of it.

If by some strange chance we DO earn the upfront costs back, btw, the plan is to evenly split any earnings between the contributors, payable quarterly. (But that's all in the contract.)

MacAllister · Aug 10, 2011

*sigh*

Some of you definitely should go and look at this Standard Manuscript Format for Short Stories example, please. I'm not a total stickler about it, so if you're close but not quite there, don't worry.

Also, I'm not using a failure to use standard format as an auto-reject standard -- but other editors might.

Calla Lily · Aug 10, 2011

I've never subbed a short and I mistakenly assumed it was the same as novels.

MacAllister · Aug 10, 2011

Alice, you're not who I'm looking at.

I'm looking at a couple of subs that are unformatted, single-spaced, with no paragraphs; one has no title, page numbers, and no author's name anywhere on the ms pages -- another is in Verdana or Arial typeface, which doesn't print out at all well and has to be reformatted before going to the panel.

Mr Flibble · Aug 10, 2011

callalily61 said:
I've never subbed a short and I mistakenly assumed it was the same as novels.

It's not all that different (and that article is for paper subs and mentions it might be different for e subs)

First time I ever put my name and address on the left - it's always on the right over here.

Main points:

Courier or TBR

1" margins

Double spaced.

Page header with title/surname

Everything else is pretty subjective (ie read the guidelines!) in in subs.

Mae it easy to read/contact you. Other than standard dialogue stuff, the rest is mostly gravy (their style prefs).

MacAllister · Aug 10, 2011

IdiotsRUs said:
Main points:

Courier or TBR

1" margins

Double spaced.

Page header with title/surname

Everything else is pretty subjective (ie read the guidelines!) in in subs.

Mae it easy to read/contact you. Other than standard dialogue stuff, the rest is mostly gravy (their style prefs).

What she said.

Calla Lily · Aug 10, 2011

*breathes easier* I did most of those--all except the contact info. One less thing to stress over.

Strss? Me? *innocent look*

Sai · Aug 10, 2011

And I just hit send! Fingers crossed that my sub makes it into the GAWSFA! (Geez, even the acronym is long...).

MacAllister · Aug 10, 2011

Crazy bunch of writers, you.

About half the notifications have gone out -- so if you still haven't heard back, no panicking. <g> Probably tomorrow you'll get word one way or the other.

Bartholomew · Aug 10, 2011

My pet eyeballs were very happy with what they read over my shoulder from their jar.

Mr Flibble · Aug 11, 2011

Bartholomew said:
My pet eyeballs were very happy with what they read over my shoulder from their jar.

Me too

Also, this has got me started on another story - that would be way too long for this, but is fun so far. So the little skittery pets from that are happy too

Calla Lily · Aug 11, 2011

Bartholomew said:
My pet eyeballs were very happy with what they read over my shoulder from their jar.

Bart is a keeper. He really is.

Mr Flibble · Aug 11, 2011

callalily61 said:
Bart is a keeper. He really is.

Well all right, but you're changing the litter tray.

Calla Lily · Aug 11, 2011

That's what kitty doors are for.

Mr Flibble · Aug 11, 2011

Hmm, he might be a bit big.

Then he'd get stuck

Then we'd have to call out firemen

Oooh, men in uniform! Okay, we keep him.

SaraP · Aug 11, 2011

MacAllister said:
Alice, you're not who I'm looking at.

I'm looking at a couple of subs that are unformatted, single-spaced, with no paragraphs; one has no title, page numbers, and no author's name anywhere on the ms pages -- another is in Verdana or Arial typeface, which doesn't print out at all well and has to be reformatted before going to the panel.

Um...

Ok, I did part of that. :e2smack:

Serves me right for only finding this thread after submitting. How's that for being intelligent?

Mac, do you want me to re-sub it, properly this time?

The Great Absolute Write Spec Fiction Anthology!

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

'Twas but a dream of thee

Word butcher

waxing digital artistic

The Sarcasm Fairy

An Author in Search of a Plot

Word butcher

waxing digital artistic

Word butcher

'Twas but a dream of thee

'Twas but a dream of thee

On hiatus

'Twas but a dream of thee

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

'Twas but a dream of thee

On hiatus

Book lover/Spy

'Twas but a dream of thee

Comic guy

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

On hiatus

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

On hiatus

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

You can't forget those you've loved