I'm just wondering if anyone has heard of editorial and had any experince with it. It's a editorial service that will look over your work for a fee? $50-70
thanks
First (correction):
"It's aN editorial service that will look over your work for a fee. $50-70"
If you consider yourself a writer, then write like a writer.
'an editorial ', not 'a editorial', and w/o the ? mark at the end of the sentence. What you did was to put a statement, which is not a question, in a question fashion b/c of the American way of stating something in the intonation of a question, as if the other is dumb or something. State your statements and ask your q's, don't ask statements and q's too.
That's one.
Second:
WR (Writer's Relief) is doing a good job that otherwise would take you lots and lots of time, even using Duotrope (
http://www.duotrope.com), which I recommend to everyone, for submitting. Or Ralan (
http://www.ralan.com/home.htm).
It costs money, yes, but it certainly isn't a scam, absolutely not.
I used it (poetry; waiting for responses; had submitted in the past quite a few times on my own, too, fiction & poetry), to my great satisfaction as to its first phase - the submitting phase: it's very organized, which is a must.
I am not in any way connected to them, and I won't do it again, for the simple reason that, after I learnt what is really requested and what and how WR is doing it, I'm willing to spend hours again in self-submitting, for this is how much it takes (literally hrs, even one or two subs).
That is, if you care to read the guidelines of each and every one of the publications which you search and to which you submit (after you decide to which one you send your children, a process in itself) and to abide by it, even if it's an electronic sub (by e-mail).
That is, if you care for the quality of work that you submit (format, grammar, syntax, punctuation, style, etc., all of which is EXTREMELY important), and if you care to track the submissions (which can involve using Excel, for best appearance and clarity). Sub Tracking takes a lot of time (on Duotrope or on your own prop), and is imperative, an absolute necessity for any serious writer.
So no, WR is NOT scam. But if you're willing to DIY, then it isn't necessary.
I'd advise though to spend a little, like for the WR's "A la carte plus" service - $250, and you'll get a bunch of very good printed advices from them, a bunch of 25-30 markets (which is not little, 99% up to date magazine names w their addresses and editors details - extremely important again), a taylored cover letter (composed after you filled a form about you and each piece of your work being submitted), and a how-to-do list of the submitting sequence for the said bunch of work (first-first, second-second, step by step), and believe me you need it, believe me, it can be overwhelming, even for me, due modesty, and I'm used to high-profile clerical work, among other things.
If you're a serious writer, you GOTTA submit. For 1 (one) acceptance, you gotta submit 100 (one hundred) times, statistically, which means subbing to 100 markets, meaning searching, looking, filtering, considering, and deciding, which one of the apr. 2500 magazines listed in Duotrope, frex, is for you and for your specific piece of work you're about to submit. Not simple, eh?
After that, comes the submission process itself, which, as I said, is not as simple as it sounds, but much more complicated, much more.
Not to worry, though, and not to be scared, you're a grown up, right? But take it as it is - not simple.
And have a copy of the Writer's Market, Short Story Writer's Market, and Poetry Market by Writer's Digets Books or some other such publication (there are some others, too), a MUST all of them, or some, according to your specific need. And don't you dare buy it new, only used, from Amazon or B&N or other such shop, even if only the last yr's edition is available. You can always check for updates on it online, just look for the magazine's name in any search engine, and you'll get the current beef - submission guidelines, address, editor name and title (manager or associate), to whom you have to send it. New is good for the online service that it confers to the buyer, which can be unnecessary, as I said, if you care to conduct a search by yourself.
Good luck!