Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Into the Non-Fiction Market, I Boldly Go
A letter dropped through the letterbox today as I was drinking my morning coffee. It looked official and it grabbed my interest immediately when I saw it had an English postmark on it.
Feeling in a John Barrymore kind of mood, I opened the cutlery door and opened the envelope with a steak knife (it was the best I had). It was a letter from the Press Complaints Commission. The Commission are about to hear my complaint against Ross Clark and The Times. They apologised for the delay but assured me a decision in writing is imminent.
A delay? I was unaware there was one, which must mean, hopefully, that I'm not the only one to complain about the prejudiced, anti-Scottish garbage I read in last month's Times. I wait with baited breath for the final decision.
The front cover selection for Fringe Fantastic is now down from 30 at the start to 20 yesterday and 12 by lunchtime today. There are only two designs, but it's the font that's giving me the most grief. There are a few I like and it's a case of rejecting the ones that are missing that certain something, and keeping the ones that try to say that little bit more. Each round of rejections it is getting harder and harder. I may have to release the book with umpteen different covers!!
I got it down to 3 in the evening having selected which design I want to go for. Then I hit another problem - the DPI might not be enough on the images after I've messed around with them. Time to get in touch with Sarah I think and pick her brain.
In the morning I printed off the two stories I worked on yesterday and gave both Whisky Snatching and What a Waste a final proof-read over my lunch break, picking up the smaller errors and ensuring they read correctly. The former was over the word limit by 200 words, which meant some major decisions having to be made on my part. It took ages to lose the baggage but both are now finished to my satisfaction. Now comes the submission phase; Whisky to a writing competition and Waste I will pitch to some magazines.
I worked on my next article for the Great Scottish Authors series. I'm also going to pitch this one to a separate online publication so I'm not going to reveal who or where this one is for just yet in case it jeopardises my chances. I think once the series is complete I might try and turn them over because it looks like they will never see the light of day at KIC even though the lot were accepted. Such is life.
When I got home I had some marvellous news in my mailbox. My feature article on Robert Louis Stevenson has been accepted by the publication that originally got me delving into the story of his life. I originally intended it to be a short article but the more I read the more it was never going to be a single one-pager. The Literary Traveler will publish the article in three to six months time, possibly with my photographs. This is my first paid non-fiction piece that was specifically targeted to a specialist market, so I am absolutely over the moon.
Feeling in a John Barrymore kind of mood, I opened the cutlery door and opened the envelope with a steak knife (it was the best I had). It was a letter from the Press Complaints Commission. The Commission are about to hear my complaint against Ross Clark and The Times. They apologised for the delay but assured me a decision in writing is imminent.
A delay? I was unaware there was one, which must mean, hopefully, that I'm not the only one to complain about the prejudiced, anti-Scottish garbage I read in last month's Times. I wait with baited breath for the final decision.
The front cover selection for Fringe Fantastic is now down from 30 at the start to 20 yesterday and 12 by lunchtime today. There are only two designs, but it's the font that's giving me the most grief. There are a few I like and it's a case of rejecting the ones that are missing that certain something, and keeping the ones that try to say that little bit more. Each round of rejections it is getting harder and harder. I may have to release the book with umpteen different covers!!
I got it down to 3 in the evening having selected which design I want to go for. Then I hit another problem - the DPI might not be enough on the images after I've messed around with them. Time to get in touch with Sarah I think and pick her brain.
In the morning I printed off the two stories I worked on yesterday and gave both Whisky Snatching and What a Waste a final proof-read over my lunch break, picking up the smaller errors and ensuring they read correctly. The former was over the word limit by 200 words, which meant some major decisions having to be made on my part. It took ages to lose the baggage but both are now finished to my satisfaction. Now comes the submission phase; Whisky to a writing competition and Waste I will pitch to some magazines.
I worked on my next article for the Great Scottish Authors series. I'm also going to pitch this one to a separate online publication so I'm not going to reveal who or where this one is for just yet in case it jeopardises my chances. I think once the series is complete I might try and turn them over because it looks like they will never see the light of day at KIC even though the lot were accepted. Such is life.
When I got home I had some marvellous news in my mailbox. My feature article on Robert Louis Stevenson has been accepted by the publication that originally got me delving into the story of his life. I originally intended it to be a short article but the more I read the more it was never going to be a single one-pager. The Literary Traveler will publish the article in three to six months time, possibly with my photographs. This is my first paid non-fiction piece that was specifically targeted to a specialist market, so I am absolutely over the moon.
Colin 11:41 am