Home
Email Us
About FWC
Membership Benefits
FWC Director
Join FWC
Renew Membership
Critiquing Service
Newsletters
Mentoring Programs
FWC Bookstore
Tip Sheets
Storm Warnings
Email Courses
For Members Only
|
. |
Submission Do's and Dont's
- Do your homework. Know who you are submitting your work to. Request guidelines, sample copies, and/or catalogs.
- Don't send a short story to a magazine that accepts only nonfiction. Don't send a romance novel to an agent who handles everything but romance novels.
- Do send an SASE with all submissions.
- Don't call in a few days to ask the agent if he or she received your manuscript.
- Do submit neatly typed, error-free letters and manuscripts.
- Don't assume an agent or editor will make allowances for your grammar problems or broken printer. They won't.
- Do learn the jargon. For example, know the difference between a multiple submission and a simultaneous submission; know what LMP or PW stand for. (Literary Market Place and Publisher's Weekly.)
- Don't make costly mistakes, such as calling your work a fictional novel. (All novels are fiction--the redundancy shows your amateur status.)
- Do send your work to reputable publishing houses and literary agencies. Know the scams and what to avoid.
- Don't pay reading fees or jump to bite if a contract comes asking you for money.
- Don't plaster the copyright symbol all over your manuscript. Your work is already automatically copyrighted. Agents and editors know that; your copyright sign will show your lack of trust and will again notify them of your amateur status.
- Do show from your correspondence or phone conversations that you are an agreeable, flexible person. Agents take personality into account when deciding whom to represent. An agent/client relationship can last a long time. No one wants to work with someone who is unpleasant.
- Don't burn any bridges. No matter how frustrated or angry you are, it will not do you any good to vent. You don't want to brand yourself as ``difficult."
Fiction Writer's Connection
PO Box 72300
Albuquerque, NM 87195
Phone:(505) 352-9490
Click
here to return to Tip Sheets Home
Click
here to Join FWC
click
here to subscribe to Writer's Digest
|
