Stephen is a member of our local U3A writing group.
He is an excellent writer. His stories are well written articulate and above all entertaining. Most of Stephen’s work is within the Science Fantasy genre it is always a good read.
Some of his short stories are published by Whittlesey Wordsmiths in their anthologies, Where the Wild Winds Blow and A Following Wind.
Here are Stephen’s thought on Submissions:
Submissions
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about submissions to agents and publishers, given that I’m sending out three different books and a whole bunch of short stories to them. I have come to several conclusions about how much work is involved, what information you need to know, and how much preparation you need to undertake.
I’ll call the agents and publishers AP’s to shorten the article.
I now have around a dozen different versions of my manuscripts on the computer. Some AP’s want double-spaced, others 1.5 lines spacing. Some want Times New Roman, others Courier New. Some want indented paragraphs, others require no indentation, but want an extra 6 point space at the end of the paragraph. And so it goes.
Then comes the file formats: .txt, .doc, .docx, .rtf., .pdf. Attached to email, embedded within it, or uploaded via the submissions page. In the latter case there are often length limits on the number of words or characters in the upload space, often not stated.
How much do the AP’s want? 5 pages? 10 pages? 30 pages? 3 chapters? 50 pages or 3 chapters, whichever is the shorter? The whole manuscript? (Hurrah, but don’t count your chickens yet; I’ve been rejected at this point, too.)
The bios: short, long, one-liners. How much do they want to know?
Publishing histories; what have you already go out there? Short stories or books? Self-published or traditional?
Social media links. Are you on Facebook? Pinterest? Twitter? Instagram? Are there any interviews available? If so, where? What are the links?
To read the rest of his blog Click on the link:
Fenlandphil's Blog 