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[pantryslut]

This is a reminder to myself to write up a short list of Don'ts for the Wiscon Writer's Workshop web page next year.

* Don't single-space your manuscript. No excuses.

* Don't print in anything smaller than a 12-point font.

(Because apparently asking for it in standard manuscript format is not enough.)

* Don't say in your cover letter something like, "My first choice: an editor. Second choice: an agent. Third choice: a writer." Name names or skip it.(The lattermost is partly my fault for not getting the lineup settled earlier [and up on the website]. But that's a different note to self.) I could pen a little rant about how this is supposed to be a critique session, not an impromptu marketing session, but I'll skip it.

Other notes: the huge prevalence of retold fairy tales is mildly depressing. I think I will swear off them as soon as the Snow Queen series is finished. Whenever that is -- years from now, no doubt.

Coming soon (as soon as I can find a certain missing cord, anyway): cute pics of the kitty perched atop the mail bin full of workshop manuscripts. It's very A Day In The Life Of An Editor.

Comments

[dnereverri.livejournal.com]

Heh. You might also make Hugo Gernsback's essay "Authors I Dislike" required reading, if you can find a copy outside the Pulp Fictioneers collection... 70 years old, but every complaint about the stupid things writers do when submitting that make editors reject the work unread is probably still valid. Well, except the one about carbon copies, maybe. :)

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I think that bad writer's habits are exacerbated in this case by the fact that they're asked to make five copies of their submission -- this kicks some people into "save paper" mode, with the resultant single-spacing and point size problems. Nonetheless, it is highly irritating. And I'm not even the one who has to read the damn things.