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RichardB replied to the topic My failure in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
I’m rather good at that too. Though how would I Know? In concrete terms I haven’t actually had any writing successes.
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John S Alty replied to the topic Getting an Agent. in the forum Blogs 7 years, 7 months ago
@daedalus The law in the USA is basically the same, copyright rests with the creator as soon as the creation is in a tangible form. The difference is litigation, America’s national sport. To defend, or attack, is far less complex and expensive if you’ve registered the copyright. But, an important point, just putting the C-mark on your work,…[Read more]
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Debi Alper replied to the topic Getting an Agent. in the forum Blogs 7 years, 7 months ago
You called, ma’am? Yes, no ‘c’ required for the reasons already given on this thread. It sends out a signal that you don’t really know how this stuff works, which is less-than professional.
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Woolleybeans replied to the topic A Room with a View in the forum Blogs 7 years, 7 months ago
Go to ‘Groups’
Go to ‘A Room with a View’
Go to ‘Forum’
The different topics are all in the ‘A Room with a View’ group forum. You will find ‘Chit Chat’ and explanations of what the competition is there.
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Athelstone posted an update 7 years, 7 months ago
5 days to enter A Room with a View
If you don’t get in this challenge, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
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Daedalus replied to the topic My failure in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
A failure of mine is to take each failure to heart while not believing that successes are real or worthy
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Squidge replied to the topic My failure in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
Oh goodness, yes – we are our own worst critics!!
On the cloud, we often talked about ‘failure’ and ‘success’ and how differently people perceived the definitions of them. So I completely understand that you view not being placed as failure – it was one of a whole range of responses we used to get.
Me – I enter very few comps because I hated…[Read more]
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GippsGirl replied to the topic Guidance on writing about mental health topics in the forum Marketplace 7 years, 7 months ago
On the How to get an Agent thread, page 3. In any event, here is the course:
https://www.faberacademy.co.uk/creative-writing-courses/who-do-you-think-they-are-character-creative-writing-course-gic2.htmlThe course is horrendously expensive, and the course info is a little misleading in that the tutoring is only in the morning. Nevertheless, I,…[Read more]
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Squidge replied to the topic My failure in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
Definitely not failure if you’ve tried some comps – you had to write the bloomin’ entry first! And from experience, competitions can be a matter of luck as well as great writing – does the judge like your particular genre? Your style? I know from peer-judging comps on the cloud, my own preference for reading material comes through in the kind of…[Read more]
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John S Alty replied to the topic Den monthly competition September 2018 in the forum Competitions, Open calls and Writing Opportunities 7 years, 7 months ago
A New Dawn
A blood red sun rose through the smoke from a thousand cooking fires, smoke that hung like mist over distant Alexandra township. A typical African morning on the highveld, but this was not a typical day. Daniel and his mother stepped from the bus onto the dusty road and followed the other passengers. Daniel wished his father could be…[Read more]
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Jonathan posted an update 7 years, 7 months ago
Quick question: has anyone here ever paid for the services of an editor, and if so, how much was it?
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I had a detailed editorial report a few years back from Writers’ Workshop. 85,000 words cost £457. Today, Jericho writers will charge you about £547 for the same work. (I say ‘about’ because they quote $720 – which is odd for a UK based firm)
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If you go to their site, there’s a drop-down table of charges for a range or word counts.
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I did the same as Ath – several times over. Price is often based on the length of your manuscript, and varies from editor to editor/company to company.
But a good editor is definitely worth paying for – just be absolutely certain that your MS is as polished as you can get it before you send it (use trusted beta readers for eg) to save doing it…[Read more]-
I paid ~£600 for a 109K ms via the Cloud, but have since learned it is cheaper, by ~30% to approach an editor direct.
You may find that authors in the genre you write in are willing to edit – there’s certainly loads on the crime circuit.
I have to say I got far more help from beta readers.
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Ah yep, thanks. There I am looking at £782. Was yours a copy edit or developmental, or something else?
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Not sure who you are asking, but mine was development, ‘does this have legs?’ (In hindsight, I think I might’ve been robbed.)
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I’d also recommend that before submitting to an editor, you have someone proofread it properly – get the punctuation right (if that’s not your strength) and typos sorted.
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Mine covered the structure, story, development etc. in some depth with recommendations and critique and an assessment of good and bad features and marketability. There was copy-editing but this was not the primary purpose.
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Is this for an editorial report, or to actually edit the text?
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Mine? I’m looking at a developmental edit rather than copyediting.
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Ah, right. I do the latter, but not really the former
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I have, Jonathan, a couple of times. Mine was for an editorial report, but included a general text edit. I went directly to a book doctor/editor rather than through Cloud. As I have already seen mentioned, they tend to be more competitively priced and thorough, though it depends what you’re after.
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When I’ve looked into developmental editing, the cost seems to come to a couple of thousand at least, for a 140,000 word MS. The JW one is about £780 which is a bit more do-able. Who have people used?
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I always ask for Debi, cos she is editrix supreme. It meant I had to wait sometimes, but it was always worth it. Not sure who else they have on the books for editing…
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Philippa East replied to the topic My failure in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
@alanr, commiseration on the “failures”, but it’s never a failure to put your work out there and to try. Glad you got some useful feedback at your one–to-one and you’ve found a way to implement it
@bellam I am excited about the new computer. I do agree that we remain writers even when not physically writing. It’s nice that you can see that your…[Read more]
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Philippa East replied to the topic Getting an Agent. in the forum Blogs 7 years, 7 months ago
Hi @alanr. My hair IS kind of chestnut, but I wouldn’t call it vivid! So don’t think that was me…. Hope we will cross paths another time.
Yes @daedalus – I suspect there is a US / UK split. The writer I knew who kept putting “c”s on things was from the States.
I think I recall @Debi weighing in on the discussion previously to say no “c”…[Read more]
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Philippa East posted an update 7 years, 7 months ago
Thank-you for the bum-kicks everyone! They were great, and it was idea of tea that did it in the end (surprise!). I have rewritten the scene. It’s not perfect, but it’s done. Phew.
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Which would be handy if he had hiccups.