The Great Absolute Write Spec Fiction Anthology!

night-flyer · Aug 31, 2011

Good luck everyone. Sorry about the rejection areteus.

best of luck on submitting it elsewhere. Keep submitting.

And I just want to throw a thank you out to Mac and everyone that put this together, you've given AW'ers a great opportunity here, and glad to see so many writers joining in.

Whether my story makes the cut or not, it was great participating in this.

Gale Haut · Aug 31, 2011

Sarah1981 said:
It's great to see this thread full of people who submitted stories--especially those of you who're new to this kind of thing.

Unfortunately for all of you, my golden words are so perfect and revolutionary that Mac will reject all the other stories and print mine however many times it takes to fill the book.

Really, though, best of luck to all of you.

Oh yeah... well... well... I invented a new language and then wrote the story in it. I think she will be teh most impressed. :box:

Chris1981 · Aug 31, 2011

Gale Haut said:
Oh yeah... well... well... I invented a new language and then wrote the story in it. I think she will be teh most impressed.

I don't know how, but that has to be cheating because I didn't think of it first.

orion_mk3 · Aug 31, 2011

Bah, I turned mine in with telepathy

Beat that!

DeleyanLee · Aug 31, 2011

hive mind

MacAllister · Aug 31, 2011

Okay, folks - so we're up to (but not through) the submissions that arrived on August 24th. If you submitted before then and haven't heard anything - drop me a note!

So far, about 50 stories have been sent on to round two, just over 50 have been rejected, and there's between 50 and 60 still in our inbox. The final cuts are going to be frankly brutal, and a lot of really excellent stories are going to end up published somewhere else, I'm afraid.

I'm really impressed with the quality of submissions and wanted to make it a point to let you guys know:

Even if you got rejected from our teensy-tinesy little anthology market? Don't stop submitting! Send that sucker out to a different market! Don't lose the momentum -- especially those of you subbing for the first time.

Otherwise how will all the other editors out there get their own chance to crush your hopes and dreams? (Kidding! Although I know as well as anyone that it can sort of feel that way, sometimes...)

Bookewyrme · Aug 31, 2011

MacAllister said:
Even if you got rejected from our teensy-tinesy little anthology market? Don't stop submitting! Send that sucker out to a different market! Don't lose the momentum -- especially those of you subbing for the first time.

This whole anthology thing was just part of your nefarious plot to make us all write more short stories, wasn't it Mac? I'm on to you!

Seriously though, I personally have to thank you. Even if my story gets rejected, this is the first story I've written, completed, and edited in months. This anthology was exactly the kick in the pants I needed to climb the last little way out of the writing slump I fell into this year.

MacAllister · Aug 31, 2011

Oh good - I can't even begin to tell you how much it means to hear that.

It's exactly the sort of long-term result Peter and I were really hoping for.

jazzman99 · Aug 31, 2011

I have submitted--on the very last day, which is typical for me, but then I only found out about this forum and thus this book last week! I hope it's not stepping on any toes for a newbie to toss his hat in the ring.

night-flyer · Aug 31, 2011

Well, as I see it jazzman, you're a member now. And the anthology was open to new and old members alike. So, I don't see how you could be stepping on anyone's toes.

Good luck to you and Welcome to AW!

MacAllister · Aug 31, 2011

(We're still open to submissions tomorrow, too, so you even had a little more time.

)

Bookewyrme · Aug 31, 2011

I have a question: Will an .rtf file look any different than a .doc file? I just saved my document as an .rtf but it looks identical to the .doc file, so I'm worried I somehow did it wrong.

Gale Haut · Aug 31, 2011

Try opening it in another word processor or a rich text editor. The one you saved it from will more than likely convert it back to .doc in the viewscreen, assuming doc is its default. And the original processor is less likely to show the discrepancies it created.

Bookewyrme · Aug 31, 2011

Ah! Thanks Gale. It still looks mostly the same (doesn't seem to have introduced any weirdnesses in format) in a different word processor, so I guess that's alright. Which means I now have no more excuses to procrastinate submitting it. :tongue

blacbird · Aug 31, 2011

Bookewyrme said:
I have a question: Will an .rtf file look any different than a .doc file? I just saved my document as an .rtf but it looks identical to the .doc file, so I'm worried I somehow did it wrong.

Straightforward non-fancy .rtf files generally look just like .doc files, but are more easily read by word-processors other than MS-Word. Why does it bother you that they look the same?

caw

Bookewyrme · Sep 1, 2011

blacbird said:
Straightforward non-fancy .rtf files generally look just like .doc files, but are more easily read by word-processors other than MS-Word. Why does it bother you that they look the same?

caw

Because there were no formatting problems, and if nothing goes wrong I start to get paranoid that I've done something wrong and just can't see it.

(Don't try to follow the logic of my brain, it doesn't even always make sense to me...)

Anyway, just submitted my story. First submission in over a year...What I wouldn't give to be able to have a good stiff drink (or 3) about now...
*Proceeds to chew knuckles nervously instead*

Psychomacologist · Sep 1, 2011

MacAllister said:
Oh good - I can't even begin to tell you how much it means to hear that. It's exactly the sort of long-term result Peter and I were really hoping for.

What this antho has taught me is that I can write, edit, re-edit, polish and sub a story in about a month. Which means I could do it every month if I put my mind to it. Which I think I might

CobraMisfit · Sep 1, 2011

I think this was mentioned before (by you, Psycho either here or in the Cantina), but is there anyway we'd be able to read the subs that didn't make it (with author approval, of course)? Maybe a thread that is closed to comments, but open for viewing?

CobraMisfit · Sep 1, 2011

Oh, and good luck / job well done to everyone who entered. An extra special huzzah to those who subbed for the very first time! This was such a great idea and hopefully it proves successful enough to try again with other genres.

Shadowflame · Sep 1, 2011

blacbird said:
Straightforward non-fancy .rtf files generally look just like .doc files, but are more easily read by word-processors other than MS-Word. Why does it bother you that they look the same?

caw

Actually not all the time. .rtf files do not agree with programs such as open office and can be a formatting nightmare with some Adobe programs. (small town newspaper experience here)

But generally, .rtf files and .doc files are basically the same.

Psychomacologist · Sep 1, 2011

CobraMisfit said:
I think this was mentioned before (by you, Psycho either here or in the Cantina), but is there anyway we'd be able to read the subs that didn't make it (with author approval, of course)? Maybe a thread that is closed to comments, but open for viewing?

I know we talked about it in the Cantina, because we were going to have an Arbitrary Name Change Cantina Spec Fic and Smibbles Anthology of Doom.

Ok I just made up that title.

AbielleRose · Sep 1, 2011

Shadowflame said:
Actually not all the time. .rtf files do not agree with programs such as open office and can be a formatting nightmare with some Adobe programs. (small town newspaper experience here)

But generally, .rtf files and .doc files are basically the same.

Aah, that's probably what was screwing mine up. I was using Open Office for my story and whenever I'd save it in .rtf it would change the spacing.

Shadowflame · Sep 1, 2011

Oh and congratulations to everyone who subbed or even attempted to. Sometimes we all need a little kick in the but.

Good Luck!

Mr Flibble · Sep 1, 2011

Psychomacologist said:
an Arbitrary Name Change Cantina Spec Fic and Smibbles Anthology of Doom.

How about Arbitrary Name Change Anthology of NinjaVikingPirateZombies! From Space!

Shadowflame · Sep 1, 2011

AbielleRose said:
Aah, that's probably what was screwing mine up. I was using Open Office for my story and whenever I'd save it in .rtf it would change the spacing.

Yep, even in a .doc file, it will change formatting. Best thing to do is if you know before hand that you will be using a .rtf file is to use Wordpad. It will autosave in a .rtf format. If you have to change you can always copy/paste into a new .doc format.

sometimes you can save a .doc into a wordpad file without any problems,sometimes you aren't so lucky.

The Great Absolute Write Spec Fiction Anthology!

roasting cows

waxing digital artistic

Just Another Transman

Ne Cede Malis

Writing Anarchist

'Twas but a dream of thee

Imagined half of it.

'Twas but a dream of thee

Recovering Academic

roasting cows

'Twas but a dream of thee

Imagined half of it.

waxing digital artistic

Imagined half of it.

Imagined half of it.

The Sarcasm Fairy

I want to be Comic Sans.

I want to be Comic Sans.

Gametrovert

The Sarcasm Fairy

Crazy Cat Lady

Gametrovert

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Gametrovert