Welcome to The “Dear J” Letters. In this epistolary style collaboration, authors Jill Yoder and Julie Kusma deliver short stories revealed through alternating penned letters their characters exchange. Each series of exchanges shares a title and a featured image. This way, the connected letters are easy to recognize. Since both authors write speculative fiction, including […]
Welcome
So first off, Before I continue with my post I have an announcement…and a reminder. The Announcement is that there was so many wonderful stories submitted for Nightmare Whispers that Cyn and I had to split it into two volumes, and still have the unfortunate task of rejecting some very wonderful pieces. The reminder is that the deadline for both Nightmare Whispers and Fae Dreams is fast approaching. Which is part of why I am doing this post.
Ok, we have all done this…Submitted our writing and then the wait…it is us sitting there wondering what the publisher is doing. How hard is it to just read the submission and send out an email saying Yes or no? What is taking them so long? Well I plan on explaining that here. Each anthology we plan starting with a Title, a theme, and a rough publication date. We will use Fae Dreams as an example. It will be released on October first. We set a date for the Call for submissions deadline : August 31st. That gives us a month to get it edited, organized, and published. That is not a lot of time.
During the time between the idea being had and the announcement of the Call for Submissions I usually work on the Cover design. I personally like to give the Cover Reveal with the Call so that the one’s who are submitting can gather inspiration from the design. That is really just an aesthetic choice. After the Call goes out, but after the submissions start, Cyn and I read what comes in. We decide whether it is a good fit. Our decision is based on three factors…1. Does it fit the theme of the anthology? This is such a hard one because people see differing things as fitting a theme…and we have perhaps a view for the anthology that may not fit the piece we were sent. 2. is the piece any good? this is not always as obvious as you might think. Some pieces can be made better with editing…some cannot. If the plot is not there, or the characters fall flat…or the piece is a giant run-on sentence…well it may be out of mine and Cyndi’s ability to edit. And the last factor is simple, Does it fit with everything else? Most of the time, if it is yes to the first two, it will fit. However, in the Case of Nightmare Whispers, It was tricky. I believe we solved that when we split it.
Nightmare Whispers will be released, both volumes, On October 31. We feel that gives the authors time. We will announce who is in it, and what volume they will be in on Thursday the tenth. We have a Slack channel and a messenger group for the authors to communicate should there be need. Cyndi will take half, and I will of course take the other half. We will “edit” the stories. I put the word edit in parenthesis because in truth we do a suggested edits. We tell the author where we think they should adjust their writing. Then we return the file to the authors and give them a deadline. It is expected that they edit the story themselves and return it to us by the deadline. For NW we will likely have the deadline as October 1st. Then I will take the stories and organize them and format the anthology for publication. I always do the format as it is a part of the process that requires a specific amount of fighting with it. Desktop publishing is not an easy task. We upload the file to Draft2digital, and if needed Amazon. We always set it up at least two weeks to a month ahead so that we can offer a pre-order while we attend to the details. During the pre-order we send out a pdf to the authors involved and ask them to look over the book. This allows for them to catch errors that may have escaped editing and formatting. After all we want our anthologies to be the best we are able to produce. We design, and encourage the authors to do the same. some promo images to promote the book.
Many publishers don’t have the authors to do promos because it makes the promotion images all unique. They want a streamlined promotion. We think that the input from the authors make our promotion more organic, and more real.
We have our Slack set up, and We will be sending a permission to the authors for the Anthology that they are in…but you are welcome to join us in Slack if you are interested. Here is the Invite. There is some rooms for brainstorming and general discussion. The authors will be added to private rooms for discussion of the anthology that they are in. We debated about opening up a Discord server…but decided that slack is more professional. There is an ability to chat, but it allows for a more work based enviroment.
Ok, I was lapse this week. Cyndi usually does other things and leaves the blog up to me…My notes are a mess and she couldn’t do the author spotlight for me. I was not well and ended up being unable to give either blog the attention it needed. I apologize and have decided to try to do some posts ahead so that these go up when they are supposed to, whether I feel good or not.
So here is the schedule for the author spotlights and such: On August 20 We will be featuring Christine Bialczak. On August 27 we will feature K.T. Seto (who was in Through the Sunshine but I am not finding on the blog…probably me being absent minded.) On September 3 We will feature Melissa Ball On September 10 we will be taking a short break from the author spotlights to announce the authors in the two anthologies that we are currently taking submissions for. The deadline is August 31 so the tenth gives us time to sort the incoming submissions to determine who will be in the anthologies.
We will be returning to the author spotlights after that, as I have 3 more on my list (Susan Eaton, Janean McBreaty, & George Latimer). However, I also will be doing author spotlights for the authors in Fae Dreams and Nightmare Whispers.
If you are interested in being featured here then fill out the questionnaire and I will slip you into the queue. Also, remember the deadline for Fae Dreams and Nightmare Whispers is fast approaching. We are rather pleased with the submissions received so far.
When his lips barely moved and her silence said it all,
When the glances were shared, but her veil made him fall…
When the stories were merely for sleeping and daydreaming was at prime,
When the moments weren’t usually captured in photographs, but in the sands of time…
Those were the days of gaiety and those were the days of her bloom,
Holding each other’s hands, they would make promises under the moon…
The splashes of their laughter were innocent, their unmasked-selves were for real,
The proximity of her approaching footsteps was overwhelming and the vivacity of his sparkly eyes was clear…
Into that dream of the surreal past, they wake up alarmed night and day,
Into that memory of the anonymous selves they wish to live, if they can and if they may…
(Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com)
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