My first writers' conference

Because I have a wonderful and supporting wife, I will be spending the weekend of April 10 and 11 in Grapevine at the DFW Writers' Conference. It's put on by a larger writers group in the Dallas area and, I'll admit, I am excited. They just recently posted a partial list of classes and there are several that interest me.

I let Gina know a week or so ago about it and that I would like to attend. She said she'd do anything to support me in this whole writing thing, and if I thought this would be beneficial then she'd be OK with me going despite the cost. It's not cheap, at least not to us, but I think it will be good to get some actual instruction in the craft of writing and to get a chance to network with other writers, especially those who have been where I am and have found success.

I don't know exactly what to expect, but I am excited. And I am grateful to have a wife who'll support my writing pursuit.

Paying market versus non-paying market.

There was a bit of a debate on some writerly websites on what writers should get paid for their work. I won't go into it in detail, but here is a link to a rather lengthy post with comments that gives you a good idea of both sides. If that really gets you going there's another post here with more.

If you don't have the time or desire to read either/both of those I'll boil it down. One side says writers deserve to be paid a decent wage for their work. The other says, I'll take publication where I can get it -- even if that means getting paid nothing or next to nothing for their work.

This is the internal debate I am dealing with right now. I am having trouble finding a market for the summer story. The one paying market I'd found didn't pay much but I liked what they published. A good mix of well-written stories. Well, I posted the other day that in the time I had decided on them and the time I was ready to send them my story they had closed to submissions. They don't have the money to pay writers right now so they were taking a hiatus until their financial situation could clear up. I respect that so I am not upset at them. It happens.

So I started the search again, and I can't find a paying market for this story. I can find some non-paying markets that I like. I like the stories they publish. They are well-written and by authors that have multiple publishing credits. But in the end they don't pay. And I'd like to get paid. Gina talks about making our millions and that can't start by giving away my writing for free.

On the other hand, and there is always an other hand, this story is one that I spent all of an hour on. The rewrites took about another hour total. It's only about 1,200 words long. It's not like I have a lot of time invested in this story. And it would be great to get a publishing credit. Of course, that assumes these free markets have an interest in my story.

So that's my little internal debate right now. I'd appreciate advice anyone has.

Welcome to the world, iPad.

I have been thinking about the future of publishing seeing how the future of what I do for a living now and what I want to do for a living in the future is in the middle of a massive change. I am going to work up a post on that later. For now, though, I wanted to post this on the day Apple unveiled it's iPad. There are many who are saying it will revolutionize the publishing world.

Honestly, I can see that. But it doesn't make this any less funny.

Workhorses

In the mood to flog yourself over lack of production? Read these. (A tip of the hat to Duane Swierczynski and his Secret Dead Blog.)

Change of plans

I had done my research. I had found my markets. And tonight I was putting the polish on my cover letter for the summer story, getting ready to hit send on the email. I figured I'd check the submission guidelines one last time to make sure that I hadn't missed anything. Click through the links to get to the details and what do I find?

Closed to submissions.

So it's moving down the list to the next market, but it's frustrating. I was excited about finally getting this piece out and read.

Weekend goals

First an update on how yesterday went. One and a half out of three ain't bad. Made the final edit on the summer piece, so that's done. Did nothing with the story I found the other day. I also looked more into places to submit and may have found another one or two.

So, since I didn't get the other piece edited or the markets finalized those goals are going to move to one and two for the weekend. And, because I like to do things in threes, I'll add one more.

3. Write. How is that for general? I have been so focused the last week or more on editing and submitting that I have barely written anything. Hope I can change that this weekend. I have a few things to do around the house but I think I can find a few minutes to squeeze out a few words. I am not going to be shooting for a certain number of words. I'll be happy with anything.

Goals for today/tonight

I am going to try and make daily goals and post them here. Hoping that will keep me moving forward. Having them in a public place, even if not a lot of people see them, may help. So here are the goals for today.

1. Do the final-final edit on the short piece I wrote this summer. I did one more quick one on it last night and tweaked only a couple of things. That was edit four on the piece. I want to go through it one more time tonight just to make sure nothing jumps out at me.

2. Do an initial edit on the piece I came across the other day. I think I did an edit on it right after I wrote it, but it could still use some work. Reading it the other night I came across some places that were confusing and could use a bit of polish.

3. Finish the search for markets for the piece from this summer. After looking a little deeper at one of the markets I had identified, I am not sure it's going to work now. The piece I have doesn't quite fit with others they have published in the past. I may still submit to them because it's close, but it may not be at the top of my target list.

I'll try and update this at the end of the day, hopefully checking all three things off this list.

Thousands of books being tossed in Waldenbooks closings

Tobias Buckell, who I link to on the right, has an interesting post on what's going to happen to all of the unsold books when Waldenbooks closes its stores at the end of the month. In short, tossed in the trash.

Read the post, though, because it's an interesting look at how the publishing industry works. Read the comments too. Lots of smart people leave their two cents. And for those of you who don't speak Acronym, MMPB stands for mass-market paperback.

A little direction and a little help

Driving to work today it occurred to me how I need to write one of these stories I want to complete by July. It's a story that is best told in self-contained scenes, so I think I am going to do it as diary entries. The main character is a preacher and it's his diary we'll be following. I have been thinking a lot about him lately and getting a chance to write him excites me. He should be fun. And the story will be interesting coming from his point of view. It's not a story that would typically have a man of God telling it. At least I don't think it would. There could be a dozen of them out there collected in an anthology. Wouldn't surprise me since my research for places to submit stories has revealed there is an anthology for every possible theme.

Here's where I need help. I know that a story told through a series of letters or diary entries has a name. What is it? I used to know this, but the answer is escaping me right now.

Thanks in advance.

Another piece for submission

Working tonight on some editing I took a minute to look at another older piece sitting on my hard drive. I think with just a bit of work it may be ready to go out for submissions. It's short, just under 1,000 words, so it fits nicely into the category of flash fiction that I am seeing most places (under 1,000 words).

It's a piece that I finished years ago and it's written in the form of a letter to a former love. Not a love of mine, but of the main character. It's a story of the entire relationship told in brief paragraphs. I liked it when I wrote it. I like it now. I did submit it to a contest once on a whim but didn't win. That's OK. I think I can polish it up and then send it out.

So, potentially I could have two pieces out for submission within the next week. I think I may have even found a market for this one. It's not a paying market and I don't like that. But, from what I can find in a quick search on the Internet the publication seems to be respected. I need to do some more searching to confirm those thoughts, but it's what I could find before hitting the sack tonight.