Making the Cut in Writing Competitions

I've recently had the delightful task of coming up with a shortlist of 8 stories from over 80 entries in a short story competition.

It was fun as well as hard work. Some absolutely enthralling stories.

Two things surprised me. The standard of many of the entries was very high indeed. I guess that shouldn't cause eyebrows to hit hairlines, but when I've been judging this competition in previous years there's never been more than a quarter of the total entries that gave my colleagues and me serious pause when it came to shortlisting. This time, the initial longlist was around half. The second longlist was about 30 and the final one pre-shortlist, 15. All those 15 stories deserve competition success or publication, and I shall be writing and telling their authors so even while I commiserate on their not quite making the final cut. It was fantastic to know there are so many excellent writers out there, and reassuring when we keep being told that, because more people are taking up writing, standards are dropping. Not my recent experience.

The second thing that surprised me was the lack of care when it came to typos, poor punctuation, misspelling, dodgy grammar and unprofessional layout. And that wasn't limited to the stories that didn't make a longlist, it was right up until that final 15. Even some of them had mistakes - which in a story of around 2,000 words is reprehensible, at least in my book. Self-editing is key to making a good impression these days whether it's on agents, publishers, readers or professional reviewers like Fiction Feedback. Do whatever's necessary: print it out, read it aloud, view it in a different typeface and size, give it to a friend who's a whiz at English - but do something. Read, read and read again. And if you're unsure about the best layout, or punctuation around dialogue, or a grammar question, look on the web. Lots of good advice out there and in a huge choice of books too.

Some beginner writers genuinely believe that their prose doesn't matter and that if the story shines an agent or publisher will pick it up anyway. Wrong. The quality of the prose is the first thing they can judge about a piece of writing and it takes professionals seconds to come to that judgement: if the prose is poor the manuscript is rejected; if it's good they'll stick with it.

The same is true of the reader of self-published work. OK, they might have already bought the novel, but they won't buy another by the same author and they might well leave a negative review.

Another piece of advice about writing competitions; if you're submitting an entry by email and paying by cheque in the post, do enclose your contact details with that cheque. That way, if the email entry goes astray, the organisers can contact you to ask you to re-submit the story.

Good luck entering your next competition.

The Editor Experience -- Words from the Edited

Blowing your own trumpet sometimes has to be done – but how nice it is when other people sing your praises instead. This is a fascinating blog post from a Fiction Feedback customer, David Rashleigh, whose work we recently edited.

The Value of a Good Editor

I have to admit it: I was dreading it. The return of my latest work from the editor was not something I was looking forward to. At best, it heralded weeks of re-work; at worst the possibility of a complete re-write just so that the whole thing makes sense.

A good editor does not come cheap. Not unreasonably, they expect to be paid for the time and effort that they put into your work. For that reason, as much as anything, indie authors often don’t bother. Boy, does it show sometimes. I try to do my bit for other indies; if their book piques my interest I’ll happily download a copy (especially if they’re giving it away) but there are times when the lack of an editor has ruined what would otherwise be an excellent book.

Chief among the sins are spelling, grammar and punctuation. There’s only one letter difference between “affluent” and “effluent” yet the meanings are somewhat different. Aberrant apostrophes abound. Some can’t tell the difference between “there”, “their” and “they’re”, but an editor can remove silly errors such as these, making your work look professional.

But there’s more to it than that. A male author, like myself, should employ a female editor if the book is intended for general readership. What a man thinks is sexy, or exciting, might just be a complete turn-off for the ladies and getting that alternative viewpoint is absolutely essential. Any editor is reading your story for the first time and can point out flaws in the plot that you haven’t spotted, because you already know how the story turns out and can make the mental leaps required to reach the conclusion.

My own experience has been instructive. I hadn’t realised, but I tend to lapse into the day job style of writing. My novel ends up sounding like a report. I’m also fond of repeating certain phrases. There were inconsistencies in the plot, and I learned about a whole new tense. Pluperfect, anybody?

Now is my opportunity to plug my editor. Dea Parkin of Fiction Feedback has done sterling work on Mindblower: Assassin. There is no doubt that the book is vastly improved as a result of her efforts. What’s more, she made many of the changes to the manuscript herself; using the review facility in MS Word allows her to make the corrections whilst pointing them out. By doing it this way, I’m already more than half way through the basic rework, with the plot issues to tackle next.

In summary, if you want to be a published author, get yourself a good editor. If you can’t afford a professional, at least find a fellow indie and offer to edit each other’s work.

In a few weeks, you’ll be able to judge for yourself the quality of my work, and Dea’s. I would like to think that you’ll be impressed.

Thanks, Dea.

 http://www.davidrashleigh.com/?p=364

Better Blog in Brief Than Not Blog All

Right, we have a new resolution. I do tend to go on in my blog posts and I know full well that I don’t blog half often enough, so there’s the answer, I think. Briefer blogs, more often. Let’s see if it works!

Huge sales for customers’ books

First of all, mega congratulations to our customer DJ Harrison who has achieved impressive ebook sales with his debut novel, Due Diligence, and the follow-up, Proceeds of Crime, both of which we edited here at Fiction Feedback. They’re published by Open Circle, a company to which Fiction Feedback lends a little hand with editorial-cum-enthusiasm. Storyline? Jenny Parker, a Manchester accountant, finds both the city and the career more menacing than she could ever have dreamt, and also discovers she has rather unusual resources which help her to cope. Due Diligence reached no. 8 in the Amazon ebook thriller charts and sold over a thousand downloads in the first week of May alone. Way to go, Dave. Check out the books here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_13?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=due+diligence+d+j+harrison&sprefix=Due+Diligence%2Cdigital-text%2C272 and read about Dave here: http://djharrison99.blogspot.com/

We also offer congratulations to another long-term customer, Austin Hernon. His impressive fictional biography of Robert Curthose, William the Conqueror’s eldest son, called The Wayward Prince, has finally crossed our editorial desk for the last time after many a careful draft and is now on its way to being produced as an ebook. More details to follow shortly.

Finally, another customer, Richard Dee, has published his exciting sci-fi ebook, Freefall, to Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freefall-ebook/dp/B00CMTBZ5G/  We were pleased to provide critiques of his first 15,000 words and are intrigued to see how he gets on.

Best of luck to all Fiction Feedback authors.