2020 countdown of readers’ favorite posts and blastoff!

DL Hammons annual WRiTE CLUB readers’ choice contest garners attention each spring. I contacted DL (full disclosure – he’s one of my critique partners) and at this time, he’s still planning to a 2021 production. Thankfully, it’s all online! The following post is based on comments of the contests slushpile readers as of April 2020, so things may change in a few months. Also, one of the perks of the contest is a chance for recognition at the annual conference hosted by the DFW Writers Workshop. In 2020, the conference fell victim to the pandemic, and as of this month’s DFWWW board meeting, its fate is still undecided. Here’s hoping the pandemic will have waned by the 2021 conference dates, June 12-13.    

What WRiTE CLUB slushpile readers want to see! 

It’s crunch time for submissions to the 2020 edition (and ninth year!) of DL Hammons WRiTE CLUB contest. Entries for the readers’ choice event are soon. And although one of the winner’s perks – recognition at the DFW Writers Conference – will be missing, a victim of the current pandemic, there’s still plenty to gain. 

The top 30 submissions, as determined by Hammons’ volunteer crew of slushpile readers, will receive feedback from online readers. And the surviving finalists will get eyes on their writing samples from publishing industry pros. 

This year I return as one of those slush readers winnowing the initial entrants. We joined Hammons recently on Twitter to share the secrets of what it takes to win our hearts. I’ll recap while expanding on my own preferences. Pay attention – you may just find yourself in the winner’s circle!

It shouldn't need saying but I will -- contestants must produce a strong writing sample.

Over and over, slushpile readers made statements such as, “Writing quality is my highest weighted category. A really well-written piece can make up for other things I might not like.” 

And, “Give me a STRONG hook! I cannot stress this enough. Grab me before my mind and wander and don’t let me go until the end.” 

Or, “Great writing is my number one criteria. I know that’s subjective, but for me it’s about whether your story draws me in: is your dialogue realistic, do you have the right blend of dialogue, emotions, action, and world building.” 

And with a 500-word limit on entries, every blow – I mean word – has to punch above its weight.

“What’s the key to my vote?” another slushpile reader tweeted. “It’s really, really, simple: tight writing. SUPER tight. No dramatics, no clichés. I don’t even care what genre; a strong premise is only a bonus. I just want to know you can tell a story.” 

So, does a 500-word limit mean the contest is limited to flash fiction? Not at all. Flash is perfectly OK, but those of the 30 original contestants who make it through the early rounds of reader feedback will be expected to produce additional – and longer – writing samples. This probably explains why most of the entries I’ve seen so far appear to be excerpts from longer works. 

But as I’ve told my own critique group, the writing sample doesn’t have to be verbatim from a longer piece. Choosing which elements are essential and which can be temporarily dispensed with is an art. What I’ve seen a little too much of, both this year and last, when I also read slush, is the lack of arc. There may be lyrical writing or great character sketches, but even with only a fragment of scene, the sample has to show a potential to go somewhere, to have legs.

As a fellow slushie tweeted, “A gripping first sentence does a lot for me, but something has to actually happen in the story. It can’t just be all exposition.” 

Other tweets – “I was glued to the story. . .” 

“The writer managed to get into my head. . .” 

“Make me forget about #COVID-19. Even if only for a few minutes. Give me a story that will consume my mind and emotions with something else.” 

So, you’ve got a strong opening, a gripping middle. . . how about that ending? Remembering it’s not necessarily the ending of the entire story, only of this 500-word fragment. 

Slushies say, “Bonus points for a surprise ending. . . I really LOVE surprise endings.” And, “One of my favorites so far had a fantastic twist at the end. I want to know what happens!” And, “If it’s not a short (story) with closure, I need at least a signpost or tip of the hat as to where the author is taking me.” 

A slushpile reader quoted earlier not caring about genre, but some do pine for more variation in genres. Admittedly, with most entries expected in this final week, it’s still surprising that I’ve counted fewer than a half-dozen YA submissions. 

Other slushies tweeted, “I’d love to see some nonfiction and memoirs,” and “I wouldn’t mind seeing more horror entries. . . hint, hint.” (Although as another noted, “I like my horror IMPLIED, not graphic or gory!” Slushpile readers also like humor, either as a stand-alone genre or sprinkled into other genres. And speaking personally, I’m a sucker for mysteries, historicals, and thrillers. 

And although great writing is tops on we slushies’ lists of must-haves, we’re not immune to pickier issues. “Suck me in, trap me, make me care,” one tweeted. “I’m more lax on grammar. I’ll even skip over it if I’m engrossed but if it comes down to a submission with good grammar vs. one with not-go-good. . .” 

And, “If I’m debating between two great pieces, proper grammar can tip the scales.” And another, “I’m not a huge stickler for grammar mistakes, but it if keeps pulling out of the story? It will affect my vote at that point.” 

So, there you have it, writers! Great writing, strong beginning, a story arc with strong ending. And don’t ignore your word processor’s grammar suggestions. 

*** 

Another popular post of 2020 was the following, dealing with the Twitter-based #10Queries online contest. I haven’t seen a date for 2021 yet, but most likely it will occur this coming February. 

What can we learn from #10Queries feedback? 

Why is hearing takes on other writers’ queries so much less painful than writing our own? Thank dog the editors’ posts from Revise & Resub’s recent #10Queries competition were anonymous! And though it sometimes seemed as if, for every 10 editors in a room there were 20 answers on how to write a perfect query, some issues in the submitted query letters appeared often enough to generate consensus. 

Issues such as: conflict – whether it’s a fistfight or a galactic war. And stakes – what will be gained or lost by the conflict. Conflict and stakes are the heart of stories, but one editor after another posted comments like: “conflict is unclear. What’s at stake?” Or, “motivation and stakes for the main character need to be upped. What are the personal stakes if they don’t succeed?” Or, “focus on conflict and stakes and what makes them unique.” 

But can’t a writer just narrate to the reader – agent or editor – what happens in the novel? Won’t that cover the issues of conflict and stakes? 

Sorry, as any reader of this blog – or attendee at the Dallas-Fort Worth Writers Conference’s infamous query gong shows knows -- spending significant query real estate on plot still may not make clear why the characters are running around like Energizer bunnies. 

#10Queries editors weren’t as brutal as agents at the gong show contest about saying that what they read was sometimes too darn long. Instead, they used more diplomatic language such as “heavy on setup and introducing characters but. . .” And “too many details about the story but at the same time is too vague on the important points.” Or, “feels more like narrative than tight, concise query.” Or the just plain, “simplify.” 

So far, it may sound as if the editors were focused on the what than the who of authors’ queries. Not so. Remember those “personal stakes” mentioned earlier? So, editors also included such comments as, “give us more of (the main characters’) motivation,” and “tell us why they care about the particular event in the query.” Or, “Clear goals but no motive. . . goals are nothing if the character doesn’t have a reason for the goal.” 

Editors also wanted to meet the characters who have those goals right away. One gave a “hm” to a writer who didn’t mention the main character until the second paragraph (but recovered with sharp voice and wit). 

And while editors loved characters who “feel so authentic,” they could also say, “make it clearer who the main character is.” 

And on the issue of the unlikable character one editor noted, “the woe-is-me character right from the get-go makes him a bit unlikable. . . I want an emotional connection before I can agree that him dying would be a bad idea.” 

One editor also posted a “random thought” about two issues that have always bothered me – “the importance of hooks and comp titles.” 

Image: Pixabay

Obviously, a hook is something that will immediately catch a reader’s attention, but what does it take to do that? As someone who’s tried starting with action only to receive a “meh” response, I dug further and found this answer (of a sort) at the site Literary Devices: “. . . not all hooks are based in action. They can also present a character, or group of characters with interesting traits, a thematic opening statement, or a mysterious and intriguing setting.” 

Beware though – in a query letter, that hook had better be short! 

And comp – that is, comparison – titles? Editors at #10Queries could say that a writer’s comps were “amazing!” as well as note that they were “a bit unfamiliar.” 

Probably like most writers, I feel that my stories are unique. What can we possibly find to compare them to? The Reedsy blog, among other resources, makes suggestions, including dos and don’ts for comp titles. 

My personal suggestions are to check our Goodreads follow-ups of the “you finished X, now what” variety, and Amazon’s listing of books bought by those who read the books we loved to read. And then, of course, to actually look at the suggested books. 

I’ll close with the easy stuff from the #10Queries editors, but not so easy that I didn’t have fails in this area. Remember that it’s the writing that counts, not the clothes it wears. Don’t make the query, as one editor noted, “difficult on the eye,” with small fonts and chunks of italics. Don’t forget to include age group, genre, word count and title – the last in all capitals. 

But wait -- here’s the real closer – the submissions window for #RevPit, Revise & Resub’s annual contest on Twitter (usually open in April). Put what we’ve learned into practice and save the date! 

What WRiTE CLUB slushpile readers want to see!

It’s crunch time for submissions to the 2020 edition (and ninth year!) of DL Hammons WRiTE CLUB contest. Entries for the readers’ choice event are due this coming Sunday, April 19. And although one of the winner’s perks – recognition at the DFW Writers Conference – will be missing, a victim of the current pandemic, there’s still plenty to gain.

The top 30 submissions, as determined by Hammons’ volunteer crew of slushpile readers, will receive feedback from online readers. And the surviving finalists will get eyes on their writing samples from publishing industry pros. 

This year I return as one of those slush readers winnowing the initial entrants. We joined Hammons recently on Twitter to share the secrets of what it takes to win our hearts. I’ll recap while expanding on my own preferences. Pay attention – you may just find yourself in the winner’s circle!

It should not need saying but I will -- contestants need to produce a strong writing sample. 

image: pixabay

Over and over, slushpile readers made statements such as, “Writing quality is my highest weighted category. A really well-written piece can make up for other things I might not like.” 

And, “Give me a STRONG hook! I cannot stress this enough. Grab me before my mind and wander and don’t let me go until the end.”

Or, “Great writing is my number one criteria. I know that’s subjective, but for me it’s about whether your story draws me in: is your dialogue realistic, do you have the right blend of dialogue, emotions, action, and world building.”

And with a 500-word limit on entries, every blow – I mean word – has to punch above its weight. 

“What’s the key to my vote?” another slushpile reader tweeted. “It’s really, really, simple: tight writing. SUPER tight. No dramatics, no clichés. I don’t even care what genre; a strong premise is only a bonus. I just want to know you can tell a story.”

So, does a 500-word limit mean the contest is limited to flash fiction? Not at all. Flash is perfectly OK, but those of the 30 original contestants who make it through the early rounds of reader feedback will be expected to produce additional – and longer – writing samples. This probably explains why most of the entries I’ve seen so far appear to be excerpts from longer works. 

But as I’ve told my own critique group, the writing sample doesn’t have to be verbatim from a longer piece. Choosing which elements are essential and which can be temporarily dispensed with is an art. What I’ve seen a little too much of, both this year and last, when I also read slush, is the lack of arc. There may be lyrical writing or great character sketches, but even with only a fragment of scene, the sample has to show a potential to go somewhere, to have legs.

As a fellow slushie tweeted, “A gripping first sentence does a lot for me, but something has to actually happen in the story. It can’t just be all exposition.”

Other tweets – “I was glued to the story. . .”

“The writer managed to get into my head. . .” 

And, “Make me forget about #COVID-19. Even if only for a few minutes. Give me a story that will consume my mind and emotions with something else.”

So, you’ve got a strong opening, a gripping middle. . . how about that ending? Remembering it’s not necessarily the ending of the entire story, only of this 500-word fragment. 

Slushies say, “Bonus points for a surprise ending. . . I really LOVE surprise endings.” And, “One of my favorites so far had a fantastic twist at the end. I want to know what happens!” And, “If it’s not a short (story) with closure, I need at least a signpost or tip of the hat as to where the author is taking me.”

A slushpile reader quoted earlier not caring about genre, but some do pine for more variation in genres. Admittedly, with most entries expected in this final week, it’s still surprising that I’ve counted fewer than a half-dozen YA submissions. 

Other slushies tweeted, “I’d love to see some nonfiction and memoirs,” and “I wouldn’t mind seeing more horror entries. . . hint, hint.” (Although another noted, “I like my horror IMPLIED, not graphic or gory!” Slushpile readers also like humor, either as a stand-alone genre or sprinkled into other genres. And speaking personally, I’m a sucker for mysteries, historicals, and thrillers.

And although great writing is tops on we slushies’ lists of must-haves, we’re not immune to pickier issues. “Suck me in, trap me, make me care,” one tweeted. “I’m more lax on grammar. I’ll even skip over it if I’m engrossed but if it comes down to a submission with good grammar vs. one with not-go-good. . .”

And, “If I’m debating between two great pieces, proper grammar can tip the scales.” And another, “I’m not a huge stickler for grammar mistakes, but it if keeps pulling out of the story? It will affect my vote at that point.”

So, there you have it, writers! Great writing, strong beginning, a story arc with strong ending. And don’t ignore your word processor’s grammar suggestions. Now hie thee to the WRiTE CLUB site and enter!

What can we learn from #10Queries feedback?

Why is hearing takes on other writers’ queries so much less painful than writing our own? Thank dog the editors’ posts from Revise & Resub’s recent #10Queries Twitter competition were anonymous! And though it sometimes seemed as if, for every 10 editors in a room there were 20 answers on how to write a perfect query, some issues in the submitted query letters appeared often enough to generate consensus.  

Issues such as: conflict – whether it’s a fistfight or a galactic war. And stakes – what will be gained or lost by the conflict. Conflict and stakes are the heart of stories, but one editor after another posted comments like: “conflict is unclear. What’s at stake?” Or, “motivation and stakes for the main character need to be upped. What are the personal stakes if they don’t succeed?” Or, “focus on conflict and stakes and what makes them unique.” 

But can’t a writer just narrate to the reader – agent or editor – what happens in the novel? Won’t that cover the issues of conflict and stakes?

Sorry, as any reader of this blog – or attendee at the Dallas-Fort Worth Writers Conference’s  infamous query gong shows knows -- spending significant query real estate on plot still may not make clear why the characters are running around like Energizer bunnies.

Gerd Altmann for Pixabay

#10Queries editors weren’t as brutal as agents at the gong show contest about saying that what they read was sometimes too darn long. Instead, they used more diplomatic language such as “heavy on setup and introducing characters but. . .” And “too many details about the story but at the same time is too vague on the important points.” Or, “feels more like narrative than tight, concise query.” Or the just plain, “simplify.” 

So far, it may sound as if the editors were focused on the what than the who of authors’ queries. Not so. Remember those “personal stakes” mentioned earlier? So, editors also included such comments as, “give us more of (the main characters’) motivation,” and “tell us why they care about the particular event in the query.” Or, “Clear goals but no motive. . . goals are nothing if the character doesn’t have a reason for the goal.”

Editors also wanted to meet the characters who have those goals right away. One gave a “hm” to a writer who didn’t mention the main character until the second paragraph (but recovered with sharp voice and wit). 

And while editors loved characters who “feel so authentic,” they could also say, “make it clearer who the main character is.”

And on the issue of the unlikable character one editor noted, “the woe-is-me character right from the get-go makes him a bit unlikable. . . I want an emotional connection before I can agree that him dying would be a bad idea.”

One editor also posted a “random thought” about two issues that have always bothered me – “the importance of hooks and comp titles.”

Obviously, a hook is something that will immediately catch a reader’s attention, but what does it take to do that? As someone who’s tried starting with action only to receive a “meh” response, I dug further and found this answer (of a sort) at the site Literary Devices: “. . . not all hooks are based in action. They can also present a character, or group of characters with interesting traits, a thematic opening statement, or a mysterious and intriguing setting.”

Beware though – in a query letter, that hook had better be short!

And comp – that is, comparative – titles? Editors at #10Queries could say that a writer’s comps were “amazing!” as well as note that they were “a bit unfamiliar.” 

Probably like most writers, I feel that my stories are unique. What can we possibly find to compare them to? The Reedsy blogs – among other resources – make suggestions, including dos and don’ts for comp titles. 

My personal suggestions are to check our Goodreads followups of the “you finished X, now what” variety, and Amazon’s listing of books also bought by those who read the books we loved to read. And then, to actually look at the suggested books.

I’ll close with the easy stuff from the #10Queries editors, but not so easy that I didn’t have fails in this area. Remember that it’s the writing that counts, not the clothes it wears. Don’t make the query, as one editor noted, “difficult on the eye,” with small fonts and chunks of italics. Don’t forget to include age group, genre, word count and title – the last in all capitals. 

Spreading our writer's marketing wings with Twitter

Last Tuesday, and still full of revivalist fervor following a pep talk from Fred Campos, who could sell sand in the Sahara, I posted about doing more with social media. Specifically, with Twitter.

Right. Because, obviously I already blog. (Although blogging may or may not be a bit dated, but it’s gotten me free passage into literary events I otherwise might have been outclassed at. Plus, it’s actually kind of fun.) I’m also on Facebook and even Pinterest, because I LOVE pictures! 

So why have I resisted Twitter so long? I remember attending a sci-fi convention years ago at which a speaker said sniffily that Twitter was doomed because the average age of its users was 40. Vultures were practically circling our corpses – an excuse for the cute v-birds image on this post. 

Although to misquote the ever-quotable Mark Twain, reports of death by Twitter were obviously exaggerated, my qualms were not assuaged by news reports about how fast lies travel on the T. Or by the disdain of my younger family members, whose classmates break up with each other (and possibly even date each other) on Snapchat.

image: pixabay

Still, and with trembling, I dipped my toe – or pen -- into the Twitter waters. It wasn’t bad. It even seemed like a good way to connect with people (#1 on Campos’s list of reasons to commit to social media). Maybe even a way to learn from other people (the second of Campos’s reasons to commit). But ultimately (to quote both Campos and my family members) was it a way to market? 

Remember, dear readers and writers, social media is only a tool, not an end in itself. (Except perhaps for the terminally sociable.) It’s a way to get your message across. Like the beer guy at a football game, whose message of cold beer for sale is ignored by sports fans until – they down the last drop of their cup of cold beverage.

And readers won’t know we’ve got something to assuage their thirst until they have a thirst that needs quenching. So, here’s Campos’s plan: first, pre-market to let people know you’re a person they can trust to provide that quencher. Then, let ‘em know you’ve got the goods they thirst for.

Still not convinced Twitter is the medium for your message?

That’s OK. “Just pick one piece of social media and do it regularly,” Campos assured his audience at the local Mystery Writers of America meeting.

Treat each medium as a search engine. Even sometimes-despised Facebook is now a search engine, Campos noted. “Stephen King promotes his books only on his writing fan page.” (Full disclosure: I have not verified that statement. But hey, it sounds cool, right?)

Do the pre-marketing stuff first, allowing if possible up to a year before gearing up to a full marketing campaign. Humans have such limited attention spans we don’t want to ask people to commit to something until we actually have the goods, i.e., books, to offer. It’s no use telling people we’ll have a book for them to read in two years. Who will remember that?

Who to market to? “The demographics are your potential buyers,” Campos said. “Not your fellow writers.”

His suggestion was, if using Twitter, to search for the genre we write in. Since I write thrillers, I obligingly typed “Thrillers” in my Twitter search, only to get a list of people who write thrillers. And who wanted me to buy their books. Not that I’m immune to buying other writers’ books, but then there were things like the poor writer tweeted that she was only allowed to pitch her book every three days. It was depressing. (A word that makes serious inroads on my 270-character tweeting allowance.)

The search term “who reads thrillers” turned up scads of book bloggers and reviewers. Better. These people actually read. I followed several. (Campos’s rule: “About 20-30 percent of these will follow you back. . . but do it in little bitty pieces.” If you’re not getting significant return following, back off until your percentage of followers picks up.)

I’ll also add, follow the social media etiquette rules of commenting, liking, and sharing (in Twitter parlance, “retweeting”) If somebody isn’t posting stuff you’re proud to retweet, consider whether you really want to follow that person.

So say, you’re hooked. Ready to get serious? Next up, I’ll post the nitty-gritty specifics about Campos’s pre-marketing as well as his grab-‘em by the throat marking campaigns. What to post. How often to do it. And how to do it. In the meantime, keep writing! Because nobody can market a book that hasn’t been written.

Wordcraft -- Raising your book above the crowd

The bad news, Dallas Morning News writer Joy Tipping told this month’s meeting of the local Mystery Writers of America, is that a writer’s chances of getting publicity for her novel through reviews is vanishingly small.

The good news is that there is a far better method than reviews for raising awareness about our books. Last week I wrote about the many ways of getting reviews. This week it’s how to get the word out without reviews. And it doesn’t require bundles of bucks for full page ads in the New York Times Review of Books.

In preparation for the day my Great American Novel (currently in version about 4.0) gets published, heaven only knows how many books, blogs, websites, you name its, I’ve read or had recommended to me about how to promote a book. I hate them. I hate the gimmicks. Just reading about them makes me tired.

Gimmicks, in Tipping’s opinion, aren’t the point. The way of attracting readers to our books is through simple word of mouth, the most ancient form of networking.

Last Monday I wrote that Tipping told writers not to pin their hopes on getting reviewed in big newspapers. Today I’ll tell you she says, “don’t pin your hopes on reviews in any publication.” Instead, get the word out about your writing in social media. “I want you to get rid of the word ‘reviews’. . . Get people to comment on Facebook posts. Or ask them to write min-reviews on Facebook. It really is all about knowing people.”

And if socializing by introverts sounds contradictory, the answer, thanks to the Internet is that it doesn’t have to be.

“In high school I was really shy,” Tipping says. “If you’d told me my career would be
networking with people, I’d have crawled under the table.” (She says she’s now gotten over her shyness.)

“Social media is where it’s at,” Tipping says. “I send two to three hours of every day blogging, on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and so on.” (She also uses Google + and Pinterest). “It’s so important that you have those accounts--that’s your platform.”

Don’t have a book to offer yet? “Start putting your opinions on Twitter when you start writing your novel, and when you finish your book, you can tweet about it.”

For those of us still feeing too private to put opinions out on the Internet for the whole world to see, let me just say I’m always amazed by the number of writers who show up in workshops proclaiming themselves too shy to divulge their writing to outsiders. Yet they yearn to become bestselling authors. It’s as if we don’t understand that selling books means displaying our opinions for the whole world.

Oh, and give back. In her discussion of reviews (yes, I know you’re still interested in them), she told us one of the best ways to get reviewed was to write reviews of others. The same degree of support for others, I believe, applies to networking. I see more
“likes” on Facebook for writer friends who promote other friends’ writings than for those who only promote themselves.

Although Tipping advocates treating social media as our personal cable channel, she cautions that we need to treat it as we would a broadcast.  "Don’t tweet anything you wouldn’t want to see on the CNN news crawl.”

And no matter what your Facebook privacy settings are, there is nothing, she warns, that her twenty-something year old son couldn’t hack in minutes. “There is nothing on social media that is private.”

She also cautions users to consider the differences between various social media audiences. “Don’t set your Facebook settings to send everything to Twitter. They’re completely different platforms, completely different readers.”

And for more about Tipping, her books (yes, she’s written travel books), and opinions, see twitter.com/JoyTipping/.