All-Purpose Writing Thread!

I paid cold hard cash for ads on Facebook. The benefit did not outweigh the cost.

I have about 25 addresses, one of which is an address I own. I have a long way to go. I set something up last year. I put a link to the form everywhere. Itā€™s in all my books, on my blog, and in all my profiles. I say that but then I keep coming across a profile that doesnā€™t have it. I have sent out about 8 emails so far.

Tim, I am very impressed with the classy look of your site. Itā€™s awesome, so professional and crisp. I am doing the taxes this weekend, but I plan to go through your newsletter sign ups, just to see how you did it. You mentioned a few programs I am not familiar with yet, so now Iā€™m curious. I think I started my mailchimp account last year following your advice.

Thank you, good sir!

Beta draft complete of new novel. And off to readers it goesā€¦

Iā€™m trying to post on my blog more regularly, so Iā€™ve decided to start a detailed analysis of the first chapter of a novel.

Hereā€™s the first installment. Feedback welcome. More posts to come!

Iā€™ve not read this book, and didnā€™t even know of the author, but any book with an Ian Miller cover gets my attention.

I do not know of him. It certainly is a distinctive cover.

You know what, I totally didnā€™t get around to reading this, Iā€™m sorry. But I will rectify that as soon as I finish my current book.

Thatā€™s cool, Canuck! Let me know what you think. (Donā€™t worry about a review, Iā€™m not stressed about Goodreads anymore. Just nice that people are giving it a shot.)

Funnily enough, Iā€™m also returning to The Chosen One after awhile. Iā€™m prepping the book for a print release. Just going to go through Lulu, unless anyoneā€™s got strong opinions about a better option. Itā€™s interesting to come back to the book after awhile and start considering it as something thatā€™s going to exist in tangible form. Up till now itā€™s just been something in my head, in my word processor, and on some e-reader screens.

Itā€™s a great book. Put it in print for sure!

Finally got a rejection letter back from Asimovā€™s, after five months pending. Thatā€™s one Iā€™m actually happy to have in handā€”it means I can get on with the submissions.

So do you just submit to one place at a time and wait to hear back from them? What is the reasoning to how you submit yor work?

Thatā€™s how it goesā€”Iā€™m not too familiar with the magazine world, but I canā€™t think of any offhand which take simultaneous submissions.

As for how I decide where to go, Iā€™m mostly just going down the list at the Submission Grinder. Iā€™m pretty much out of places Iā€™ve heard of, so now Iā€™m on to places which both sound cool and pay a so-called professional rate.

Most genre magazines require no simultaneous submissions. Of course you are free to ignore their rule if you like, and many people do. The really evil thing is failing to withdraw a simsub if itā€™s accepted. Editors shrug and accept withdrawals, but they will blackball you if they send an acceptance and you reply with ā€œalready soldā€. They may well have rejected other people they would have accepted in favor of your submission, so this hurts other writers as well as disrupting the publisherā€™s plans.

Personally, I generally honor the editorā€™s rules, but if they fail to respond to a submission in a reasonable time, say 60-90 days, and then fail to respond to queries, I feel like they are granting license to a simsub elsewhere.

Unfortunately Asimovā€™s has dropped the ball this year in terms of responding to submissions. They used to be much better.

Reporting another short fiction sale, Strange Stars, to Third Flatironā€™s ā€œCatā€™s Breakfastā€ Vonnegut-themed anthology, coming out in a couple of months.

This is a gently sardonic 650-word story about sentient stars, stellar harassment, and neutron-to-quark-star nucleonic phase change under conditions of extreme gravity and pressure.

Wow, thatā€™s some tight writing and I might add < half the recommended word length Flatiron suggests as submissions.

Congrats on the sale!

http://www.maa.org/press/books

My book phi, pi, e and i is out!

Congrats. It looks a little beyond me, but there is something beautiful about math. Itā€™s so purely abstract.

Itā€™s written for undergrads who have had the first two calculus courses, and without that knowledge, it would be a hopeless read! But with it ā€“ so much beauty.

Better link: http://www.maa.org/press/books/phi-pi-e-and-i

Congratulations! Looks great!

Thank you! And thanks for pointing to the bookā€™s link. I just wanted everyone to see that it was ā€œfeaturedā€. :P