To Market, To Market?
I was looking at where to submit my latest story today, and I began thinking, What criteria does a writer use to select which markets to submit to? Is it just payment? Well, no. I’ve known established writers to submit to non-paying markets simply because they liked the look of them. I myself have occasionally seen a market and, becoming obsessed with it, written a story specifically, despite the pay. Of course, professional paying markets matter if you live off your short fiction or you want to apply to the SFWA/HWA, but not if you write simply for the love of it. Is it exposure? This, too, is a difficult one, because a short story magazine with a distribution of 1000 or so doesn’t provide much exposure to someone like Clive Barker. Furthermore, why would he need further exposure anyway? Surely his readers know of him and new readers who’re looking for genre work will know to consider him. Perhaps it’s being ‘part of the club’. If you’re published at a given venue, you become part of a cabal of writers who have all been published there. Appearing alongside writers you admire, or in a beautifully designed and highly selective magazine is always a good thrill, whether or not you need the exposure. So perhaps all writing is selfish and all publishing is vanity, but this probably comes as no news to most writers, who’ve secretly been hiding this info from the rest of the world and making them dependend on us for, well, everything 😀
Website Found: Blade Runner Insight
I’m a Philip K. Dick fan, to say the least, and while I don’t consider Blade Runner to be an entertaining film, I think as far as aesthetic value is concerned, it is top notch. Blade Runner Insight is a website I stumbled onto a while ago and I’ve been meaning to put it up in my Website Found feature. What is it?Blade Runner Insight is a website dedicated to the analysis of the film. It’s not a fan site, per se–certainly not in the sense that you will find gushing fan raves over the latest director’s edition or anything of that sort–but it is a site with a mission to expand upon the already well-rehearsed criticism of the film. Why is it cool?Well, if you’re interested in reading and commenting on deeper discussions of the Blade Runner film, then this site is definitely for you. The site is run partly as a blog (with news and information added into the mix) and partly as a forum (not an actual forum, but as a forum) for the authors to present their arguments and thoughts. The archives are considerably extensive, thus providing, I think, plenty of material to keep you interested during their occasional lulls in posting. Check out this fascinating site and satiate that Blade Runner hunger you have in your lower intestine (because it’s much more interesting to think of hunger in your lower intestine than in your stomach).
Advice on Writing Reviews Part Three
(Read Part One and Part Two)Moving on from all the general stuff, we get to some specifics. Now, since I write “Comprehensive Reviews,” I can’t provide any specific advice for any other form. I assume that the emailer likes the way I review books, so I’ll offer some insight on that front.When writing a review, I immediately place into focus three things: Synopsis/HookThe basic story, the plot, etc. Pros/ConsWhat’s good and what’s bad. Like/Not LikeDid I like it or did I dislike it? Why? Anything that fits around these isn’t necessarily important, because the three things above are what I look for in a review (#3 more so than the others). Ultimately, everything ties into #3, because what a reader of these kinds of reviews generally wants (or I assume they want, because it’s what I want too) is the answer to the question: do I want to read this? There are too many books published every year for any one person to read, and a reader’s time is precious. They have to know whether or not they want to read a book and fast.On top of these elements, however, I tend to toss in some personal reaction. I like to tell the reader my personal reactions to elements within the story. Was a particular scene emotionally gripping? Did I cry? Did I grimace? Did I actually have a visceral reaction to something that a character did? I consider this to be an important aspect of my reviews because I get the sense that readers want books that are engaging on multiple levels. If a book did something for me on an emotional or physical level, that’s something they’d like to know so they don’t go and buy some book that turns out to be emotionally empty. Personal opinion doesn’t have to be specifically in this vein, though. You can fiddle with the imaginary “conventions” of book reviewing all you want. What you do in your reviews, however, is up to you. Don’t let me determine how you write your reviews (or anyone else, for that matter). Sit down and give it a shot. When I started writing reviews, I was horrible (I’ve gone back to look). I don’t consider myself a particularly good reviewer today, but I can see how I have improved. There’s nothing wrong with starting and sucking (just like in writing fiction).What is important is determining what you want to do with your reviews, how you want to present them, and then doing it. Everything else can fall into place one piece at a time.