To Enter or Not to Enter

Recently I’ve been getting a lot of emails from authors and editors I know. All of them contain information about anthologies. I’ve known several of these talented writers have been published in anthologies and trust their judgement. Until recently, I’d not given much thought to entering into the opportunity to be selected as a contributor.

According to http://www.merriam-webster.com/, ANTHOLOGY means… ‘a collection of selected literary pieces or passages or works of art or music’.

Well, I’ve never considered myself ‘literary’. I weave plain, simple words together in hopes of forming a story someone wants to read and can enjoy or relate to in some way. The anthologies I’ve been directed to recently seem to fit more my style.

So why get published in a collection, in the company of other authors? Why not just put together a collection of my own works? Though I’ve won awards for several of my short stories, I don’t believe there are publishers out there waiting with anticipation to print the ‘Great Works of Angela Drake”. So are anthologies a way to market those stories? Or would I be better off marketing them individually to print aka paying markets?

One thing I have learned over the years is if you don’t know something, find someone you know who’s been there, done that. So I contacted long-time acquaintance and multi-talented author, Laurie Wagner-Buyer. I thought she would be the perfect person to give me the ins and outs of anthologies, benefits or pros and cons of submitting and being included in an anthology. She’s been in several.

Here’s what Laurie had to say…

“I believe any kind of exposure, any opportunity to get your work and your name out into the world is a plus. Of course there is a selection process involved, sometimes a rigorous choosing war as the editors try to decide which authors fit the style and theme of the anthology the best. An author should never be discouraged if their work isn't chosen because most often the editors have a very keen sense of the type of writing (including voice, topic, and length) they are looking for.

However, does being part of an anthology really do much for a writing career? I'm not sure there is an answer to that because each situation is different. I know that it really helped me flesh out my resume in the beginning, before I had any books published. If you want to submit work to an anthology you should follow the same basic rules that you would submitting your writing anywhere else. Choose only your best work. Make sure it has been professionally edited (not only by you but by someone else who has strong credentials). Make certain you follow the submission guidelines for formatting, etc... Once your work is submitted and chosen to be included do not ask for the chance to change your work in any big way. Most editors will send you a galley or proof copy of your work to make certain that you agree with any final editing that has occurred. In most cases, as well, those editors know what they are doing so a writer shouldn't be resistant to making changes which will enhance their work or take it to a higher level. I've never had an editor lead me wrong.

I have never been paid for work of mine that has appeared in anthologies, but I have received complimentary copies (usually one or two). Then I try to support the publisher and the other writers by purchasing a number of the anthologies at an author's discount to sell at my performances and events. What benefits you also benefits everyone else involved.”

I want to thank Laurie for giving us the voice of experience. Please take time to stop by her website… Laurie Wagner-Buyer

Choosing A Pseudonym

Deciding what name to publish under is something a writer takes very seriously. There are two things to keep in mind. 1)Where alphabetically it will sit on the store shelf 2)Something that will stick with the reader.

For me, the first name was easy. I’ve always wanted to use some form of Angelica, but it sounded too prissy for my tastes. Anyone who knows me understands ‘prissy’ isn’t even on the list of characteristics to describe me. So I shortened it to Angela.

For the last name, I turned to one of my favorite writer resources – The Character Naming Sourcebook - Writers Digest Books . I needed something that paired well with ‘Angela’. Drake means Dragon in English. My husband (never mind he is of German heritage) collects dragon figurines and is my MSP – Most Supportive Person. Drake seemed a perfect fit.

But wait. Is another author already using the name? I pulled up GOOGLE to find out. At the time, the only Angela Drake I could find was the victim of a cold case murder. No author’s in sight.

And so I began building my platform as Angela Drake.

Oh oh.. this past week it was brought to my attention there IS another author out there. As it turns out, there is a U.K. romance author. She has titles from 1997-2007 listed on Amazon.com through a publisher called severnhouse. A cruise through their site didn’t bring her up as one of their authors. I did find an article about her posted on a blog back in May of 2009 - historicalromanceuk. Nowhere did I find a personal blog or website for the U.K. Angela Drake.

So my decision is to continue building my platform as Angela Drake. There isn’t a US Angela Drake and for whatever reason, Angela Drake UK isn’t an active author. Is there room for two of us? I'm not sure. I understand she came to this party first and I’m willing to make a subtle change if it becomes an issue.

Until then, I thank you for following this Angela Drake :-)

Monday Musings

Happy Monday everyone!

It's going to be a busy week around the house but I hope to still be in frequently to throw some new things your way.

Contest entries are coming slow. There are days I think I should have named the blog Writing Through Life.. or not. It seems like since I cleared everything out of the living room and ripped up the carpet in here in prep for the remodel, I've lost the urge to work on fiction. I'm doing plenty of non-fiction but the desire to work on contest entries just isn't there. I HAVE to find it - and FAST!

My husband will be home on Wednesday night and then the huge remodel of the living room begins, disrupting my 'routine' yet again.

But there is good news on the horizon. I've finally made the jump and am having Hughes Net installed on May 2nd. Anything has to be faster than this dial-up. Every day is a struggle to get everything done in a timely manner. If it will help me cut my non-fiction aka freelance writing time by one third, I might have time to do ALL the writing I want to do.

I guess today's post is a good example of how the writers life really works. Life gets in our way, we have days where writing just isn't what we want to do. Although we are lucky enough to have a job that allows us to do what we love, it is a job and a business.

So I guess I need to quit taking sick days and get back to business.

Happy Writing & Reading

Angela

Awesome Read Recommendation

A while back, Western author Jodi Thomas was kind enough to stop by for a chat about her contemporary Harmony series.

Last week I received a note from Jodi telling me Love Western Romances is featuring her as Spotlight Author of the Month, due in part to her most recent release, Texas Blue

If you've not picked up a copy of this book, I highly

recommend it. A comfortable read with characters you'll fall in love with... just like we do all of her characters.

I hope you'll go by the Love Western Romances blog and check out some great writing tips!

Happy Reading!

Angela

Back in the swing!

I made it!

And I’m healthy again. Kind of hard to believe considering we’re moving into allergy season. I can always tell because our local weatherman always reports the pollen/ mold index as directed by the Green County Health Dept. I’m waiting for the mold spores index to go up, signaling it’s time to go hunting mushrooms 

In the mean time, I’m keeping busy writing a little of everything. For those of you who don’t know, when I’m not writing fiction and entering short story competitions I am a freelance journalist for the Texas Music community. We’re at the heighth of awards season with the Texas Music Association so I’ve been busy doing interviews and writing about the roots of Texas Music.

For the fiction venue, I have contest entries do for the Arkansas Writers Conference due to be postmarked by April 30th. There are 10 categories out of the 20+ available to me I’d like to enter. A couple are for Haiku poetry, which I haven’t written since middle school. But one of those categories is sponsored by a dear lady by the name of Peggy Vining . Peggy is the Arkansas Poet Laureate and one of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet in the writing community. I first met Peggy fifteen years ago at the Ozark Creative Writers Conference in Eureka Springs Arkansas. She is a true southern gentle lady on the outside but full of spunk for all of her petite size. I’m not concerned with whether I place in her category or not but it would be nice. I just want to play in Peggy’s world for a little while.

Today I’m researching for an essay on The War Years from 1941-1945. I’d hoped this would be a short story category and was already playing with a paranormal idea when I reread and was reminded it was for an essay. I’ll do the research and see what jumps out at me.

I haven’t forgotten about Death By Design. The novel work comes in the evening. I’ll fix me a Cowgirl Quencher and curl up with the critique comments my sister sent back.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting Conference news so stay tuned!

I’m also going to be guest blogging at Chris Redding's blog tomorrow. I’ll be speaking on Pitching at a Conference. Come by and say hello!

Happy Writing!

Angela

Changed GOAL

Yes, you read that right. I'm in the middle of the second week with our granddaughter. And has always been the case with me, if I get around a child for any period of time you can bet I'm going to catch a cold. Factor in it is Spring cold season and you guessed it, I have a doozy of a cold. Needless to say I've not written 250 words in the last eleven days. And at this point, I'm not even interested in doing anything above updated a blog now and then. I just want the cold to go away so I can enjoy the remaining three days with my precious granddaughter.

Okay, that's part of the Changed GOAL.

The week before my granddaughter was to arrive, The Knight Agency posted their 2nd Annual Lottery for a chance to be one of 3 finalists to submit a completed manuscript to them. They started by having you post to their blog in a 1-hour time span. From over 500 posts, they used Random.org to select 125 people to begin the elimination process. In anticipation of being one of those 125, I decided my best 'sell' would be Death By Design. Erotica sells. That simple. Throw in a serial killer and you have something they will look seriously at. My best critique partner to get the manuscript ready should I be selected would be my older sister. It's her genre and she's currently job searching so has time to devote to edits.

I didn't make the 125 but still want to take advantage of my sister's eye since I don't know how long I'll have her semi-undivided attention. I'm still battling this cold and can't figure math right now so I'll post the Target Deadline in a few days.

For now, I just want to get over this cold and enjoy the few remaining days with my granddaughter.

Until then,

Keep Writing! Keep Submitting!

Starting with the Top 5

Last week I told you we'd talk about prioritizing the GOALS and breaking them down into manageable units. The Top Five were:

1 - Finish rough draft of Winter's Peace

2 - Finish rough draft of Autumn's Healing

3 - Finish rough draft of Death By Design

4 - Finish rough draft of Gangster's Lady

5 - Enter/ place in Arkansas Writers competition (multiple categories)

I'm going to reverse #1 and #2... putting Autumn's Healing first.

Autumn’s Healing was my Nano 2010 Novel (see pretty button to the right). It has a ways to go from being finished, but it’s closer so I want to do it first.

Before I go any farther let me explain something I learned by trial and error last year. Some writers can write all day, some early morning and others late into the night. Me, I’m an Evening Writer. I can work on shorter pieces throughout the day, but my novel-length comes later in the day. I don’t know if it’s because I have to get the daily stuff out of the way so I can focus on the other world or what.

I word sprint with a group of writers on Yahoo Instant Message. That means we meet in a conference room, someone is in charge of the timer and we write for a set period of time. We take a health/ stretch/ food break at the end of the period and then go again. You can find out more about how this works at Endurance Writing.com. Most recently our time sprints have run in 45-minute increments with 15-minute breaks. When we would do these all day on Friday – beginning at 9 a.m. CST and ending twelve hours later (with a lunch/ dinner break somewhere in there), I documented my word count for each sprint. The later the day, the higher the word count would climb.

So I work on short pieces like blog entries and short stories for contest entries during the day. Then about 4 p.m., my brain switches to longer length mode. I pull up the manuscript file and will sprint from about 4 p.m. if I’m home alone (6 p.m. if Bob is home) until 9 or 10 o’clock. Sometimes I sprint with the group. Other times I just bury myself in alone. I do know that I get a much higher word count during sprints. Sprinting is like Nanoing in minutes. You don’t take time to puzzle things out… you just write. The puzzling things out comes later.

So this will be my process for the Top 5. Short stuff like those contest entries during the day and noveling at night.

Now the big thing. I said we’d talk about a Time Line. Time Line’s are important. If you don’t set a deadline for something you’re more apt than not to do one of two things. Either you’re going to drag it out, thinking it still needs ‘something’. Or you’re going to keep putting it off, never finishing it so you can move on to something else. But how do you set a deadline?

For editors, this is easy. They know when things have to go to print. With that date in mind, they know when they must have it in their hands. Setting SELF-IMPOSED DEADLINES are great practice for when you have to meet that editor’s deadline. If you don’t train yourself to meet a deadline, it is my opinion you’ll never see publication. That simple.

Autumn’s Healing needs approximately another 15,000 words. If I make myself pull up the file and work five nights a week, at a minimum of 1,000 words per night, that’s only 3 weeks. Less than 1 month to finish the rough draft of Autumn’s Healing.

But, I already know I’m having my granddaughter for two weeks in March. Grandpa can occupy her part of the time in the evening, but she likes her TV time with grandma before bed –and we’re sleeping together on the hide a bed. So my nights will be cut short.

Because Bob will be home he can help sometimes, but we’re also going to be going/ doing stuff with her so my daytime writing will be hindered too.

So I’m going to say Six Weeks to finish Autumn’s Healing. That takes me to April 2nd.

See how I did that. Don’t groan but it was all MATH. I knew how many words I needed to finish, how many words I average in an evening AND knew ahead of time of an obstacle I’d have to over come. I entered everything into the equation and came to a solution I can work within.

But what if you don’t know about an obstacle? One that drops into your path like a reindeer on a bad test flight?

Unless it’s something critical, you can count on something coming down based on how your life usually runs. Factor in a cushion. Tack on an extra week if you think you might need it… but try to stay to the original configuration. Remember; short of a death in the family, editors don’t have time for whiney excuses. Practice now how to work around obstacles and still meet your SELF-IMPOSED deadline.

So here I am.

Autumn’s Healing by April 2nd

Arkansas Writers Entries due postal April 30th

I’m hoping to enter 9 categories. That gives me 1 week per entry INCLUDING polishing.

Stay tuned for my progress. On April 4th, I’ll set the new deadline for Winter’s Peace.

Until then….

Keep Writing! Keep Submitting!