Strange Chemistry Unagented Open Submissions starting May 1 (2013)!

If McDonalds and KFC have twitter accounts to hock their products, why are you so surprised that small publishing houses would want you to have them too?

Goodness - that is a lot of people missing the point.
Firstly, I am not claiming that they are a vanity press, I've said quite clearly that they are legit.
Promotion after signing is fair enough - it is the interest in your 'activity' before signing that looked odd to me.
Are they interested in the work or the twitter followers?

If McDonalds and KFC have twitter accounts to hock their products, why are you so surprised that small publishing houses would want you to have them too?

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But about a book/pen-name not yet published?
As for insulting the publishers - what is this site for if not to ask questions about what may or may not be right? We can't just cower away because it might knock back our already slim chances. There may be legions of other authors with similar concerns who have held off from submissions because of a lack of clarity on this issue – which is now solved (confirmed that this is ‘important’ but not essential). Lambasting other members for daring to air their misgivings is not helpful.
For the record, I will be submitting – if the editor is deranged enough to try and ferret out the real person behind this avatar then I’ll count the discarding of my manuscript as a blessing if done for that reason. But of course they won’t care about that, as they are professionals.

Debeucci said:

Um...Odar Berkley, it's not that much of a stretch for the "deranged" editor to find out who you are since your name is on your signature, that is unless you're willing to submit under an entirely new name, rebuild a new website, and start all over with your online presence.

Oops.

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Of course this is my real name and not a pen-name I created for my Kindle novel.

My real self has no on-line presence. Which is exactly my concern.

The_Burning_Quill said:

For the record, I will be submitting – if the editor is deranged enough to try and ferret out the real person behind this avatar then I’ll count the discarding of my manuscript as a blessing if done for that reason. But of course they won’t care about that, as they are professionals.

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Social media checks are a standard part of life in this day and age. if you apply for a job, a public-facing role in a community, a freelance gig, or a writing gig, someone will be looking up your online activity. There was a memorable case recently in UK news where someone didn't do social media checks on a new police youth commissioner, and it was a very bad idea.

It really is nothing to worry about. Most of the time, it's just a quick check of the basics: is this a person, not a robot? Do they seem relatively stable?

If they show a flair for interacting with others online, that's great and will be useful when they have published books to promote, but it doesn't change their spot in the submission queue.

Don't overthink it. Nobody is looking at submissions differently because of a high or low Twitter follower count.

EMaree said:

Social media checks are a standard part of life in this day and age. if you apply for a job, a public-facing role in a community, a freelance gig, or a writing gig, someone will be looking up your online activity. There was a memorable case recently in UK news where someone didn't do social media checks on a new police youth commissioner, and it was a very bad idea.

It really is nothing to worry about. Most of the time, it's just a quick check of the basics: is this a person, not a robot? Do they seem relatively stable?

If they show a flair for interacting with others online, that's great and will be useful when they have published books to promote, but it doesn't change their spot in the submission queue.

Don't overthink it. Nobody is looking at submissions differently because of a high or low Twitter follower count.

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Thanks - that is the best response I've had on this issue and true. I guess I will just have to upgrade to the modern world.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Angry Robot or Strange Chemistry, and I have no intention to submit to them in the near future, so I have no stakes in this.

The_Burning_Quill said:

As for insulting the publishers - what is this site for if not to ask questions about what may or may not be right? We can't just cower away because it might knock back our already slim chances. There may be legions of other authors with similar concerns who have held off from submissions because of a lack of clarity on this issue – which is now solved (confirmed that this is ‘important’ but not essential). Lambasting other members for daring to air their misgivings is not helpful.

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Yes, asking questions of publishers is very important. But if you want people to answer your questions, it's also important to at least attempt not to insult your fellow writers in the process.

The_Burning_Quill said:

Promotion after signing is fair enough - it is the interest in your 'activity' before signing that looked odd to me.
Are they interested in the work or the twitter followers?

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The_Burning_Quill said:

The social media thing bothers me. I can't see why this should be a pre-requisite at all. It has nothing to do with how good your novel is or how marketable it is - all it proves is that you spend an inordinate amount of time making internet noise, rather than honing your craft (as I am doing now).

It depresses me that we have got to this stage - writers should be spending time writing and polishing, not blogging and tweeting.

The idea that they want to make sure the author is going to self promote on their social media also seems strange to me. This can surely make absolutely no difference in exposure to a non-vanity publishing house?

Do they really want authors who cheerlead their own novels to their echo-chamber of friends? The audience is limited to say the least and self promotion from authors is vulgar.

It is fair enough asking authors who are signed to put up some sort of presence and make an effort to help the book, but using it as a determining factor for selection is crazy, for me.

I'll be subbing in any case, but I have no intention of putting up my personal networks up for scrutiny like this - depressing that it might cost me.

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The_Burning_Quill said:

...

Basically it comes down to this: If having a pre-existing social media profile and activity history are requirements for success in this call for submissions, then this publisher is treating this process in the similar vein to a vanity publisher. How are we to know that they are not selecting the authors with the most twitter followers as their primary selection criteria?

With a ready-made audience and a free marketing employee (the author), the risk to them is decreased and the legitimacy of the submissions process is compromised.

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The_Burning_Quill said:

This is the sort of thing I would expect from a vanity publisher - picking out submissions where the author has a very high twitter follower count etc and trying to tap into an instant, free, market at little risk.

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Given that it's already been established there are many other Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry authors on the boards, some of whom got their contracts through a similar open door submission, do you understand how insulting these quotes are? That they didn't get signed because of the quality of their books, but because they had a lot of twitter followers and the publisher just wanted to "tap into the instant, free, market at little risk" and that after signing they just "cheerlead their own novels to their echo-chamber of friends." Or that authors who engage in "self promotion" are "vulgar."

Again, asking questions is important. But implying that your fellow writers who got signed because they "spend an inordinate amount of time making internet noise, rather than honing your craft" is not going to help the discussion.

And while you keep insisting you know they are not a vanity publisher, you've more than once stated they are acting "in a similar vein" or that these are the same "flashing red" that remind you of a vanity publisher. Again, given that so many people here are published by Strange Chemistry/Angry Robot, can you see why continually repeating this point, even when you know it's not true, is insulting to them?

You don't get to say "it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck... but I totally know it's NOT a duck, and I've never actually called it a duck, so we're cool right?"

The_Burning_Quill said:

Goodness - that is a lot of people missing the point.

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Ahem, yeah.

Okay, dumb question but I'm hoping someone who subbed last year might know:

The guidelines say the first 5 chapters, or 10k words if the chapters are short. No more, no less, or it gets rejected. So...what if the chapters are long? 5 chapters takes me to 14.5k. Do they want all of that, or do I cut it down to about 2 pages from the end of chapter 4 (which is where 10k gets me to)?

Send around 10k, so 4 chapters.

Thanks, Laura! I figured, but wanted to double-check. No sense getting booted because I was too silly to ask, right?

I think you could probably finish chapter 4 so it ends on the right note. If you're worried you could drop them a line on their blog post--Amanda seems to be answering questions

Hm. Right now I have 12k at the end of Chapter 3, but I haven't sent it to my beta yet, so that might change... Do you reckon I should scale it back, or go for the full 12k, assuming it's a similar length after I get it revised and all?

I'd try to get it as close to 10k as you can, I think. During revising you might find chapters break up as well.

I'm at 10k on a WIP just now and I'm not quite done with chapter 5, but I always have really short first chapters for some reason.

lauralam, maybe you know. And if you don't, maybe Amanda can chime in again.

I was stalking the comments on the open call post on the SC website and noticed that someone said "I can lengthen it, but not without adding a cliffhanger, which I’ve heard is a big no-no."

I think I'm out of the loop here, but is it a big no-no to leave a cliffhanger with the actual first chapters you submit? Or is it a big no-no to submit the first book in a series?

Sorry if the answer is kind of obvious but I'm coming out of my 9 hour day at work haha. Thanks for the reply!

I hae heard it a big no-no to submit a book with a big cliffhanger at the end that cant stand by itself so the poster is probably refering to that.

What Cjiadon said - it is probably a caution on ending a first book on a cliffhanger. I can't imagine it would be a problem in a partial, not to mention that since the first 10k words is obviously not the whole novel, it'd end up being a bit of a cliffhanger anyway.

For the chapters, not a big deal--hard to have 5 chapters not end on a cliffhanger!

For the book, still not as big of a deal as a lot of people think--they prefer self-contained but if it's a series there is a bit of flexibility. Pantomime isn't totally self-contained. It wraps up the stuff in the circus, but it ends on a cliffhanger (which some people have liked and some people have, uh, really not).

Hi! Just saw this thread.

Since I just recently signed with Strange Chemistry I thought I'd chime in on the social media front...well, just my experience. I didn't get in through an Open Submissions but through an agented submission so that's also something to consider but...I don't really have much of a huge social media presence yet. I'm currently working on putting together a blog/website. And at the time of signing I had around 350 twitter followers, so not that much. I don't spend a huge amount of time on twitter but I do like to be active - not just for writerly reasons. It's just fun to interact with people on twitter. But I think these things can be built gradually over time.

So, for me at least it wasn't a case of the publisher deciding to sign me because of my huge pre-built fanbase as exemplified by a massively loyal twitter following lol. But that's just me.

Good luck everyone on submissions!

I submitted yesterday (on my birthday for extra luck!)
Are we going to keep track of this like we did for HV? Could be interesting.

I haven't decided if I should submit my YA contemporary yet. Hard to imagine that it would really be their thing, but they asked for it-- right? There's not really anything to compare it to since they usually only take sci-fi fantasy. hmmm

The news about this came just as I was in the process of editing a recently completed YA fantasy novel, talk about timing. I've got a couple of beta readers I'm waiting on for their opinions on the edit, then I'll submit this. The elevator pitch (one liner) is a toughie, never had to do that before, so I've kicked around a few ideas with a friend and I'll get something I think works. It's a standalone, although there is scope for it to continue. In fact the sequel is my current WIP.
I do have a question that they don't seem to cover on their website for this. This is for unagented submissions and I totally get that, it's a great thing of them to do, however while you're waiting to hear from them should you still try and get an agent? Is that acceptable?

Yes, you can still query agents in the meantime if you want.

I submitted right on May 1st when they first opened to submissions, but haven't heard anything yet.

Has anyone else gotten any kind of response yet?

I've replied to two so far!

I'm gearing up to submit my ms now - yikes! (And I thought I'd bump this thread so people aren't still looking at last year's.)

I understand SC received nearly 500 submissions last year over their 2 week window of opportunity, and I'm wondering whether people have been spacing out their submissions over this year's longer WOO or whether SC have been inundated with more because they've opened up for longer?