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Sally Murphy, Australian author

Guest Article: How to Make Sure Your Manuscript Submission is Up to Snuff, by Mervyn Love

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More useful advice in the form of another reprint article. Enjoy!
Sally

Send in a sloppy, grubby manuscript and your chances of rejection are greatly increased. Send in a smart, clean, tidy manuscript and the publishers offices will ring with the cry – “Hey, here’s someone who knows how to do it properly! Break out the Champagne! Bring on the dancing girls!’ But maybe not the latter if it’s a Monday.

Publishers are inundated with manuscripts. In most cases they are unsolicited. They didn’t ask for them, they just arrived in a flurry of dust laden wings like angels of doom. Problem: which to read first. Ah, here’s one that’s half decent. It’s clean and tidy and looks pleasant enough to read. Let’s give this a try.

The point is this: if you please the editor with a first class, well presented offering then your stock will go up faster than the price of oil and you’ll have a head start against the other losers.

So let’s get down to it. How can you impress the editor or publisher with the presentation of your manuscript?

1. Use double spacing and print or type on one side of the paper only.

2. Put the title of the work only (not your name or any other fascinating information) at the top of every page. This helps if the person reading your novel drops them all over the floor along with someone else’s.

3. Number the pages at the bottom. This is an absolute must because if the person reading your work drops them all over the floor (what again?) he/she will know how to cobble them back together again. For a novel number the pages straight through. Don’t start afresh at the start of a new chapter. If you put each chapter into a separate document and you’re using Word, click on the link below and go to the ‘Writers Questions’ page if you want to know how to do this.

4. Use a cover sheet which should give: the Title of the work; your name and pseudonym if you use one, address and telephone number, plus an email address if you have one. Also give the number of words, usually to the nearest 1,000 for a novel or 100 if a short story. Finally add the date.

5. Staples are anathema as are any method of binding the pages. Publishers do not like going around with broken finger nails, especially the ladies. You will definitely lose brownie points if you don’t adhere strictly to this rule. You have been warned.

6. Enclose a brief (that is to say – brief) covering letter.

7. Keep a backup copy of your work on a CD-ROM, a memory stick or some other device so that you don’t lose it through computer breakdowns. And if you are using one of those. er, now what are they called, oh yes, typewriters make sure you get your manuscript photocopied before sending it off. Some publishers have, on very rae occasions you understand, been known to lose stuff.

Having said all this, here’s a word to the wise: get hold of your prospective publisher’s submission guidelines and follow them to the letter. Their requirements may differ from those I give above so treat them with respect. Remember publishers are gods and we wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of any thunderbolts for getting it wrongArticle Search, would we?

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mervyn Love offers a warm welcome and a stress free zone for all writers at his website: http://www.WritersReign.co.uk Here you can relax and browse pages of advice, resources, competition listing, markets and much more. His free Article Writing Course has proved extremely popular, so why not sign up now while you’re thinking about it? http://www.writersreign.co.uk/WRac.html

Guest Article: Getting a Children’s Book Published – The Pony Game

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Another guest article, from multi-published children’s author Robyn Opie. Enjoy!

Sally

Getting a Children’s Book Published: The Pony Game
by Robyn Opie

When I’m looking for ideas for a children’s book, I sometimes think about subjects children love, such as horses, dinosaurs, sport etc. These popular subjects inspire book after book. Lets face it, they sell in the thousands and publishers love anything that sells well.

A few years ago, I wrote a non-fiction book called Looking After a Pony. I was involved in the photo shoot for the book and met several people who were very enthusiastic about horses. It was at this time that I decided to write a fiction story as well. Why not? Girls love horse stories. Look at all the series about ponies and horses.

I thought about the subject and remembered my experiences from childhood. I wasn’t really into horses. I loved all animals, especially dogs. But my best friend was horse-mad. We often played games that featured horses.

I also remember playing games with my dog. We pretended to have great adventures and I often imagined that my dog was something else, like a horse or a dragon.

When writing for children, I often draw on the experiences of my childhood. Writers often hear the advice: write about what you know. I know what it’s like to be a child. I was one a few years ago.

The above memories inspired my book The Pony Game. The main character, Lucy, loves horses but she isn’t allowed to have one for obvious reasons. They are too expensive and too much work. So Lucy pretends that her dog, Black Beauty, is a pony and plays the pony game with him. One day Lucy gets to look after a real live horse and poor Beauty is forgotten.

I wrote the book for a series aimed at 6 to 9 years olds with a word count of between 1500 and 2000 words. I believed in the story and spent a lot of time getting it just right.

Unfortunately the first publisher rejected The Pony Game. I did further
polishing and editing and submitted it to another publisher. Again, I received a rejection. But this rejection included some nice comments about the story and the publishers regret that they couldn’t publish it because the word count was too short for their list.

Back to the drawing board.

I still believed in the story. It featured two girls, a horse and a dog. It had a good message and it was cute. I was certain that little girls would love it.

Part of my work as a writer includes reading children’s books for research, so I know what stories are being published and also what series are being published. I knew of a series (now called Giggles) published by Lothian Books as I’d read many of the titles. Wondering if The Pony Game might fit their list, I researched the series. The books are for 6 to 9 year olds with a word count of 2500. But, most importantly, the series didn’t include a “horse” book. I saw this as a gap I could fill.

The Pony Game was too short at around 1700 words, so I sat down and extended the word length. After I’d finished, I edited and polished. Then I handed the story over to Rob Parnell from www.easywaytowrite.com to assess. I never submit a manuscript to a publisher without first having it assessed. A writer is so close to his/her work that he/she can miss mistakes or problems that are obvious to fresh eyes, like Rob’s.

Rob made a few suggestions and alterations and I submitted the manuscript to Lothian Books. That was in May 2006.

In August of that year I received the wonderful news by telephone: Lothian Books wanted to include The Pony Game in their Giggles series and release it in May 2007. They loved it!

Of course I was thrilled and I was pleased that my “targeting” had worked. I’d been right. The Giggles series didn’t include a book about horses. Now it does.

The point I’m making here is that popular subjects sell. You can write about dogs, cats, horses, dinosaurs, school, friends etc. However, success is not guaranteed. Writing your story is only the first step. The next step is making sure the story is the best that you can make it with editing, polishing and manuscript assessments or critiques by people in the know. Then, when you’re ready to submit to publishers, spending time and targeting the right publisher can make a big difference.

The first publisher could have accepted the manuscript. It fitted their series in word count, age group and they didn’t have a horse story either. To be honest, I suspected that the manuscript would be too short for the second publisher. When they said no, I looked for a more suitable publisher and adapted the manuscript to fit their list. I’m glad that I did!

Lothian Books are thrilled with The Pony Game. The illustrations by Elise Hurst are wonderful. The editors call the book “delightfully gorgeous”.

Obviously I’m working on further titles for Lothian Books.

So, when writing for children, if you can think of a popular subject and can tackle it in a fresh way, you could be onto a winner. But remember when you’ve finished it to near perfection (The Pony Game needed little editing by Lothian Books and the quality obviously made them sit up and take notice), spend some time researching the market. You might just find a gap and increase your chances of success.

Now I’m wondering what I can do with dinosaurs . . .

If you’d like to read the blurb of The Pony Game please visit RobynOpie.com .

© Copyright Robyn Opie. All Rights Reserved.

Preaching to the Not-Necessarily Converted

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An Article First Published in Buzzwords Magazine in 2007

Preaching to the Not-Necessarily Converted

By Sally Murphy

Most children’s authors know the importance of self-promotion, and most are equally aware of the value of speaking engagements as a self-promotion tool. Most of these engagements involve speaking to the converted: those who have a ready interest in children’s books, including children (at school visits), teachers and librarians (at conferences and professional development) and other writers (at festivals and workshops). But what about speaking to those who are not necessarily converted?

As well as the above mentioned groups, there are numerous opportunities for speaking engagements which may pay off in the form of book sales. Social groups, special interest groups, community groups, and non writing-related conferences all have a need to find guest speakers. The key is to make the most of these opportunities to increase awareness of you and your books. However, you also must make your speech relevant, interesting and entertaining for your audience.

In the past month I have been had three such speaking engagements, each very different from the other.

In the first instance, I spoke to a group of parents and grandparents about the considerations of choosing books for children. Although there were a couple of writers in the audience, most were simply people who wanted tips for choosing great books to share with their children. I discussed aspects including subjects, formats, prices and even the best places to source quality children’s books, and gave examples of good books.

In the second instance, I spoke to a local craft group at their monthly meeting. There were a couple of women present who were interested in writing, but the majority weren’t. My focus here was on me as a person. These were people from my town and so many knew me, or had seen me around – but I was familiar to them as a mother, wife and local teacher. Some didn’t know I was an author, whilst others knew just a little about that part of my life. So my speech focussed on why I write, how I came to be a published author, my books, and, more generally, the importance of following your dreams.

Thirdly, I spoke at a Rotary Club changeover luncheon. This is an important event in a Rotary Club’s annual calendar and sees the handing over from the outgoing president and committee to the new one. I was asked to be the after lunch guest speaker, and given free reign on my topic. This one was harder to narrow down. The audience would be varied in background and interest, probably equally male and female and many with not a lot of interest in children’s books.

In this instance I spent a lot of time trying to decide on my focus, but just the day before I was to speak I had a little flash of inspiration. I decided to use some of my books as a framework for my speech to show how my children’s books – featuring frogs and dogs and teddy bears – were really just thinly disguised stories of my life. It was, in essence a speech about myself – but with a dash of humour, some public soul-searching and the opportunity to read from my books to a group I wouldn’t ordinarily read to.

How did these opportunities come about? Two out of three (the second and third speeches) came from direct contact. I was approached by people who knew me – grandmother of one of my students is the president of the craft group, and a work colleague is the new Rotary Club president. The talk about choosing books came about through someone finding me online and emailing me.

In the past I’ve had speaking engagements come from direct approach at festivals, search engines (people looking for children’s book authors, for example) and word of mouth – friends of friends. I was once rung out of the blue by a lady whose daughter went to school with me. From this I was booked for two paying speaking engagements – one at a literary lunch and the other reading my books at a local agricultural show.

So how do you make the most of these opportunities? Here are a few dos and don’ts.

Do: 1. Take chances. Accept invitations and have a go. You might surprise yourself.
2. Take your books with you, even if you’re not talking about them. If possible, set up a display so that people can see them. Then they’ll know what to look for in bookstores.
3. Ask the organiser if it is appropriate for you to sell your books. In some instances this will be possible, in others it isn’t appropriate. I didn’t sell books at the Rotary lunch, for example, because it didn’t seem the right place – but a question from the floor asked where my books were available, and I was ready with an answer.
4. Tailor your speech to your audience. The talk you give to primary school students probably won’t be quite right for a group of retirees.

Don’t:1. Present your speech as a sales pitch. You don’t convince people to buy your book by asking them to do so. If they engage with you as a person, or enjoy hearing an extract from your book, they are likely to seek out your book. When I spoke about choosing children’s books, I didn’t plug my own books – but the people there knew that I also wrote books. That was enough.
2. Be afraid to accept or even ask for payment. You will need to decide if you are going to demand payment, but then stick to your decision. In my own case, my criteria is simple – if someone is making money out of it (now or in the future), then I will too. The craft group, for example, were not making money and were not learning from me in the same way as if I ran a workshop, so I didn’t charge. If they asked me to present a writing workshop, I would charge – and expect them to charge participants.
3. Forget that everyone knows a child or knows somebody else with a child. The little old man in the front row might have a tribe of grandchildren. The twenty-something girl near the door might well be an aunty, or a babysitter.
4. Expect all the sales to happen on the day. The people who hear you might remember your book when they’re looking for a Christmas present in six months time. Or they might not buy your book, but they might tell a friend or relative about your work.

I love getting out and speaking to a wide range of people. I also love increasing the sales of my books. If you, too, have the gift of the gab, use it to your advantage to get the word out about your work.

Guest Article: Parts of Speech for the Timid Writer, by Mervyn Love

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This article is a reprint by guest writer Mervyn Love. Lots of good advice here.

Parts of Speech for the Timid Writer, by Mervyn Love

Dear writers, we are gathered here today to bring together these Nine Parts of Speech into a holy matrix of well turned out sentences which, by the grace of God, no publisher or editor shall cast asunder. Are you a bit hesitant about parts of speech? Don’t know your verbs from your conjunctions? Read on…

1. Adjective. This is a word that adds a description to an object, person, place etc.

Example: ‘Mary’s house had a lovely blue door’. ‘Door’ is the object whilst ‘lovely’ and ‘blue’ describe what sort of door it is, These are adjectives that describe said door. Simple, eh?

2. Verb. As my old English teacher wisely said “A verb is a ‘doing’ word”. It indicates movement; something going on. And here’s the clincher: a word is a verb if you can put the word ‘to’ in front of it and it still makes sense. So we can have: to fly, to gravitate, to uphold, to petrify. You can’t have ‘to digestion’, unless you’re proposing a toast.

If you’ve been following along so far, you might perk up and ask: ‘What’s the difference between fly, flew and flying? It’s not righ to say “to flew” is it?’ Quite right, but ‘flew’ is the past tense of ‘fly’ so it’s still a verb. ‘Flying’ however, describes what an aircraft, for instance, is doing, and is therefore an adjective.

3. Adverb. These are similar to adjectives except that this time they describe a verb. So we can say ‘the plane flew swiftly through the sky’. ‘Flew’ is the ‘doing’ or action word, ‘quickly’ describes how the action was done. Again: ‘Clarissa loved to watch the horse gracefully canter around the ring.’ ‘Canter’ is the verb (to canter) and ‘gracefully’ is the adverb describing how the horse cantered.

4. Article. These are unbelievably simple. Yaawn! An article is one of three little words we use all the time: ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’. I read recently that they are “used to signal the presence of a noun”. Gosh, what does that mean? Put simply it means they go before the name of something, like: ‘a brick flew out of his hand…’ Or: ‘the brick hit Rodney on the nose.’ Or: ‘an brick fell off the wall’. No, no that’s not right. We use ‘an’ when the next word starts with a vowel. OK, so: ‘an extruded brick fell off the wall’. (Yes, there really are such things – I looked it up.) ‘A’ and ‘an’ are known as indefinite articles because they could refer to just any old brick, whereas ‘the’ is the definite article when we’re talking about a specific brick.

5. Noun. This just means it’s the name of an object or person, such as: door, bicycle, sandwich, skyscraper. Or it could be a person: Bill, Maisy, Trayci, Algernon, Kerryn. How easy is that?

6. Pronoun. A substitute for a noun: he, she, it, that. So instead of: ‘Trayci stamped on Algernon’s foot’ (the little minx!), we could say ‘she stamped on Algernon’s foot’ providing it is clear who the ‘she’ was in the first place. We can’t have readers thinking it was Maisy, can we? She would never do such a thing.

7. Preposition. The secret here is the word hidden within ‘preposition’. Got it? Yes, it’s the word ‘position’. A preposition describes where something (a noun) is situated (its position) in relation to something else (another noun). Not so simple this, but a couple of examples should make it clear:

‘The telephone (noun) was on (preposition) the table (noun). ‘The telephone gyrated gracefully three feet above (preposition) the table.’ (Fantasy writers take note!)

8. Conjunction. Conjunctions such as ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘for’, ‘because’, or ‘yet’ are words that join words, phrases, and clauses together. There are more of these than you can shake a past participle at so we won’t go too deep. And to make matters worse you can have different types of conjunctions. Scary.

Let’s be satisfied with: Bread ‘and’ butter; I love Mary’s door ‘because’ it’s my favourite colour; They could find neither hair ‘nor’ hide of him.

Besides, I’m nearly out of single quotes.

9. Interjection. One of my favourite parts of speech this. Is it! Gosh! I didn’t know that! Yes, dear reader, these remarks are interjections because they show surprise. They are exclamations, and they can stand alone even though they are often not proper sentences. Amazing!

So there you have it. You can go out into the literary world proudly confident that you can now amaze your friends and grandchildren with your arcane knowledge. Just don’t show off too much. No-one likes a clever cloggs.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mervyn Love offers a warm welcome and a stress free zone for all writers at his website: http://www.WritersReign.co.uk Here you can relax and browse pages of advice, resources, competition listing, markets and much more. His free Article Writing Course has proved extremely popular, so why not sign up now while you’re thinking about it? http://www.writersreign.co.uk/WRac.html

Guest Articles and Reprints

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I’m busy busy busy at present – working on new writing projects, reviewing books and surviving the chaos of the last two weeks of a school term.

So, to avoid this blog being neglected (it was starting to collect a few cobwebs), I’ve started posting some reprints of articles I’ve written over the past couple of years. I’m also posting some guest articles and/or guest blogs from other writers. The first little one appears below.

If you are a writer for children with an article you’d like to see reprinted, or would like to be a guest blogger and write something new, drop me a line. Of course, you’ll get full credit for your writing and a link back to your website or your own blog.

Cheers

Sally

Guest Article: Whack a Few Writing Myths, by Joyce Schafer

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A guest article – this one’s a short excerpt.
Enjoy.
Sally

There’s all kinds of advice on how to write including

· You must write every day.

· Write in the same designated spot at the same time every day.

· Write for at least one hour every day.

· Get up early several mornings or every morning to write.

· You must have complete silence.

· You must eat only blue M&Ms or no blue M&Ms, I forget which.

These bits of advice are not etched in stone I’m relieved to tell you. I choose to be intentional and passionate about writing, not monastic. I’ve written at all times of the day and night, and not every day (well, I do count emails which are excellent practice); on my sofa, at my desk, standing up on the subway; for five minutes and for ten hours at a stretch; with jackhammers and leaf-blowers making a racket outside my window (and a neighbor learning to play drums); and I don’t like losing sleep.

One problem with trying to follow a “One Way” rule is that, more than likely, it’s not the most appropriate way for you. If you don’t follow the rule(s), you get into self-judgment. Then you’re so busy thinking and feeling bad about yourself, you’re not taking the action that will create your desired outcome. If you’re committed to writing, nothing and no one will stop you.

If you don’t know how to get started, start anywhere. Seriously. For fiction, if you have the ending, start there. The beginning and middle will come to you. If you’re writing non-fiction, make a list of what you plan to cover. You can write about any item on your list when you feel inspired to do it, or any section or chapter you want to focus on.

Coaching questions:

1. If you haven’t started, what’s stopping you?
2. What might you do to take the first step?
3. What’s the next step after the first? And the next?
4. Would it be nice if you were a published writer or do you intend to become one no matter what?

Exercise: Write a page about anything, even if all you write is, “This is stupid. I don’t know what to write. If I knew what to writeFree Reprint Articles, I’d be writing.” This will ignite your ability to just get going.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Article partially excerpted from, “Write, Get Published, and Promote: An Easy e-Guide for New and Aspiring Writers” by Joyce Shafer (author/freelance services for writers). Get a discount at http://www.freewebs.com/writegetpublishedandpromote.

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