  For Authors
This week: Contests ~ Paid Publication or Rejection Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Thank you for welcoming me into your virtual home as the guest host of this week's WDC For Authors Newsletter. Whether writing verse or prose, fact or fiction, we're all writers, authors, with a need to form images with words and share them in print or on line.
Once writing has become your major vice
and greatest pleasure,
only death can stop it.
Ernest Hemingway
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Amazon's Price: $ 0.99
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Greetings, fellow authors of prose and verse, fiction and fact(ion) 
So, how do we get our words 'out there'? We write because we must, we edit to make our stories or verse clear and entertaining, enlightening, inciting perhaps. To get a reaction, however, we've got to get our work 'out there.'
With that goal, you've revised and edited and vetted and removed the passive telling stuff. You've checked spelling and grammar. Your metaphors are one-of-a-kind or at least not redundant. Your red pencil is worn to the nub. You're ready to send it off to the magazine, agent, editor. You've read the guidelines, not twice, but three times, and your work is ready. But so are thousands of other writers doing likewise. So, you check out some contests - most of which have an entry fee. In interviews, published authors of books of fiction, poetry, short stories, articles, are of two minds with respect to entering contests. The opinions I've read are based on their own success (or lack thereof) in such contests. One writer with several books to her name answered my question with the following: "Why pay for rejection?"
I'll admit I tossed my hat in the ring and received everything from a polite rejection and encouragement to submit work for consideration in the future to one contest where the judges deemed my work so uncommendable that they didn't bother to return my SASE after six months of waiting with the winner's list, instead keeping my stamp along with the $10 entry fee. I call that my $10.44 lesson ($10 entry fee and .44 stamp).
The same writer who made the above comment recommended submitting work, be it short stories, verse, or articles, to the editor of a publication I like to read or which I think of as a 'fit' for my work. And I've a better chance of getting past the stamped 'No Thanks' and, with subsequent submissions, working up to a personal comment of encouragement and even publication for pay
First and foremost, to treat the editor with courtesy and in a professional manner, I would submit my best effort. My story or poem(s) may be the most creative and ingenuous, but if I've been careless with voice and tense, even left a type-o, it won't make it through their initial spellchecker and, if I'm lucky, I'll get the stamped 'no thanks.'
Once I've crafted my creative work with care, I read the guidelines, read an issue or on-line extract, and assess whether my story or poem(s) would complement or otherwise fill their readers' needs. They are in business to make a profit, and if they don't offer readers quality entertainment or otherwise engage them, the readers will go elsewhere.
Follow the submission guidelines as to submission type (on paper or via electronic submission (what type of formatting and whether as attachment or in the body of email) to get through the initial gatepost.
Direct my submission to the appropriate editor. Think about it, when you receive a form letter addressed to 'Occupant' do you give it as much attention than the one addressed to 'Ms. (or Mr.) So-and-So'? No, you don't. Sometimes electronic submissions offer specifics on transmitting the data to a pool of editors, but the fiction or article or poetry editor's identity can be found on their masthead or website with but a little research. Good form to locate it and copy it down for the cover letter in the email as well as for any follow-up inquiry (at the appropriate time noted in their guidelines, of course).
Consider the submission process as a part of the writer's craft. We each have the passion and the art of the written word, be it in prose or verse. We craft our art, as the artist puts color to canvas, the glassblower forms a vase, the metalsmith a statue, that others not only are able to, but want to engage them. In our Community, we have the ability to share our words with fellow authors who appreciate the craftsmanship and are willing to share their perception of our art and ask only that we return the 'favor.'
Consider the challenges offered by fellow writers in our Community who want to read our work and who ask us to challenge ourselves to expand our comfort zone, to write and share our words. Consider the professional quality of these challenges, in the guidelines, prizes and, best of all, comments by fellow authors who offer encouragement along with their insights and experience.
Authors, emerge, share your words, enjoy the journey ~
Write On
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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I invite you to read a few of the creative entries and check out several contests. I've selected entries for challenges which allow for editing after submission, so that your comments can be addressed by the writers if they choose to act upon them. Also, you may have some fun with trying to match the entry to the challenge without looking ~ remember the old 'cup is to saucer' as 'pencil is to paper' in grade school Let the authors know your thoughts, and pass along some encouragement to ease their 'test anxiety'
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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Thank you for working through my 'test anxiety' ~ I wish you success in your own writing endeavors ~ and fun along the way
Write On
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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For Authors: July 20, 2011 Issue [#4509]
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