Just like horse trainers must shovel poop, so must writers deal with rejections. Get a goal. Make it hurt less. Get tough!
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Do prep work. Be friendly. Ask questions. Leave the shyness at home. Don’t be a jerk. Don’t be a creeper. You’ll do fine.
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So once you know who you’re contacting, HOW do you contact them? Hint: Less is more.
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So I’m very embarrassed, as one commenter mentioned, I kind of skipped three episodes. So in an effort to make numbers completely meaningless (actually to not confuse people in the archives) here is episode 275.
We talk about the Agent HUnt and great sites like Agent Query, Writer’s Market, and Absolute Write.
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It’s another rapid fire episode! I talk, well, read the dang headline! There’s not much more to say! I’m trying not to obsess about reviews, listener numbers, etc.
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I hesitate to write this because I know my heart sinks every time I see an awards post I want my friends or myself to be on it and we’re not. But I do want to write it because of some works/people I think deserve consideration but may not be in the eye of fandom.
So I won’t be listing my entire ballot here. Just a few thoughts.
Best Dramatic Work (Short)
At the meeting this year I’m going to lobby for it to be named “Best Dr. Who episode” because come on, we all know the Doctor will win. Again. And AGAIN. But that doesn’t mean we can’t put worthy work up against it.
I endorse Mario Warfare by Beatdown Boogie. This indie company made a name for themselves with Modern War Gear Solid, a hysterical mashup of the video games Modern Warfare and Metal Gear Solid. Their second offering (aside from other very funny shorts) is Mario Warfare, a mashup of the Mario world and Modern Warfare. The video quality, the choreography, and the humor are all awesome.
Best Fan Writer
“Any person whose writing has appeared in semiprozines or fanzines or in generally available electronic media during 2012.” But really, what they’re looking for is writing that looks at the genre with unflinching eyes, critique, and excellent writing ability.
So I’d like to bring up two people who fit all of the above criteria with laser accuracy, two women who are not afraid to say damn well anything they think, never mind internet reactions:
K. Tempest Bradford: She keeps up with the short fiction market unlike anyone else, and in a world where you can only find commentary on short fiction either in a larger anthology, or in comments about the story itself online, Tempest reviews both print and electronic media. She’s thorough, smart, funny, and is fearless about talking about race, gender, and other issues many tiptoe around.
A Cracked Moon: The blogger behind the blog Requires Only That You Hate. She’s a Thai blogger with absolutely no fear. She reads voraciously and reviews viciously, calling out sexism, racism, homophobia, colonialism, white tears, and simply bad writing. She has upset many, many authors. I am a straight white Western woman, and some of her reviews make me uncomfortable. And you know what? THAT IS A GOOD THING. She makes me think about why we accept certain sexist or racist tropes in our bestselling fiction. She makes me think about my own work and whether something is veering into Happy White Straight American Land where the PoC/GLBT/women/non-Westerners are all friendly and definitely not bitter or “tone” using. Some people really, really don’t like her. And that is what makes her viewpoint so damn important. She’s an excellent reader and an excellent reviewer and if she hates on your book, you can either deal with it the way you deal with any bad review (don’t read it; cry and drink a lot of wine; shrug and go back to writing; or do some introspection and see if your work can be improved based on her comments) or you can go all Anne Rice on Amazon on her. We need critics to have a critical eye aimed at our work. Fandom is about talking about literature and dissecting literature, among other things, and if she makes people uncomfortable, she’s doing her job.
And yeah, I fear bad reviews, and am certain that she would find my work sorely wanting (I would be in the “cry and drink wine” category, frankly), but that doesn’t mean she’s not good at her job, which is challenging SFF to be better and more inclusive.
I was looking at my stats today. I don’t like looking at my numbers, as they haven’t really done much in the past several years. I hit a plateau of listeners and didn’t really budge.
And yeah, “Do more regular shows,” is the clear answer. I know. I know.
But I decided to peek at them today. January had a noted increase from December, and Feb looks like it might just outpace January. So that was cool. Then I found out Libsyn gives a neato map of your podcast reach. So here are the people listening to ISBW:
Click on image to embiggen.
I was delighted with all of the listeners in the Southern Hemisphere, I usually hear from Australia and New Zealand, I didn’t know I had listeners in South America and most of Africa. Of course, now I’m looking at the little white countries and wondering if anyone knows anyone in Greenland, or Suriname, or Ethiopia to spread the message of I Should Be Writing?
People are bringing to my attention that there were files on the poor departed website that died in the destruction of the site. One of the things was a critique sheet given to me by, I believe, my producer Patrick Hester. I’ve found a copy and am uploading it again, you can find it here. Critique Template Word
I’ll be including my appearances this year on a permanent page shortly, but I wanted to mention now that I have the following cons/appearances coming up:
I am doing some rapid-fire shows this week, to catch up on things and to give you some content. I talk style sheets in this one, hope you like!
I mention VooDooPad, one of my favorite wiki programs.
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I’m in a bundle! I’m in a bundle! Since we’re writers and stuff, many of us who have written in RPGs have also written fiction (me*, Matt Forbeck, Chuck Wendig, and others). So Allen Varney got a group of books together and decided to call it the Bundle of Holding and offer the ebooks, DRM free, for a “choose what you pay” price. While not an official “Humble Bundle” it works in the same way: The authors get a cut, a charity (in this case, Childs Play or Reading is Fundamental) gets a cut, and the site upkeep gets a cut. You choose what you pay, you choose what percentage goes to to the three recipients, and you get a bunch of awesome, DRM-free ebooks. Win-win-win. So go check it out!
FYI- when the rights to Playing For Keeps reverted back to me, the publisher said they had the rights to the Superman-homage cover and I was no longer allowed to use it, so we’re back to the 2007 cover. Don’t get confused- it’s the same book!
*I do know that the fact that I wrote RPG fiction will be the news flash for some of you (instead of me writing fiction), but I did do RPGs first, then fiction. You can find my stuff in older Mage, Vampire, Exalted, and WoW RPGs.
When I get to the feedback questions in a timely manner, the shows are a lot shorter!
How to find a literary agent:
And also: Elizabeth Bear on auctorial constructs.
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Every Xmas Story from Mur: Only $3.99!