The Word Cloud

7 Comments

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  by EmmaD 6 months ago

  That is SUCH a good piece - very clear, fully detailed, and full of common sense and wisdom, sensibly explained. And all from the guys who produce Turkey City Lexicon...
  
  (If you don't know what on earth I'm on about, see here: http://www.sfwa.org/2009/06/turkey-city-lexicon-a-primer-for-sf-workshops/ )
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  by Jill 6 months ago

  EmmaD is quite right - SUCH a good piece and well worth every Clouder reading.
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  by CJ 6 months ago

  Definitely echoing Emma's comment here - and that it's from SWFA (my genres!!), makes it even more poignant for fantasy / sci fi authors. Since so many big publishers are leery of SFF, we tend to be forced into more niche market ventures / smaller ventures, making this doubly useful.
  
  By the way - does anyone know what happened to Leucrota Press? I had them bookmarked as a publisher I might approach, but a couple of months ago, they seemed to vanish off the face of the planet. Has yet another small(ish) SFF publisher gone under? I've tried to research it, but there is surprisingly little out there about what is happening. I am finding this a lot with so many publishing avenues - so many SFF / Horror mags are just not updating their webpages when it comes to short story submissions, and after waiting months to hear any news, I emailed a few, only to be told 'sorry, we've closed / are under new management / our future is uncertain'. This is *very* annoying when you're looking for places to submit short stories - not so much that they're closing (that's a shame, not an annoyance), but that no one is updating websites and keeping people informed about what is going on. It doesn't have to be a lot - just a line - but it's better than just not bothering at all...
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  by Tony 6 months ago

  Yes, a very interesting guide to "small presses", thanks. And, to my mind, an even more useful list of writing pitfalls to aviod in "Turkey City Lexicon". It's supposed to be geared towards SciFi writers, but most of it is just as valid in any genre. It's very extensive - I'm still working my way through it, but I have to go out now.
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  by CJ 6 months ago

  Just to illustrate my point - the only mention of Leucrota Press going out of business when I googled it was a blog by someone who had their first book published by them, but the business folded before it could be released. And that's it. Nothing on their website (it doesn't exist any more), no statement... nothing. I know they probably just want to move on, but why couldn't they just leave a 'we are no longer trading' comment so those of us who were considering submitting to them know not to bother?
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  by Debi 6 months ago

  I'm afraid I don't know anything about Leucrota. Sad though this is, it does illustrate the importance of doing research before approaching publishers, agents, literary consultancies etc etc. Just look at the recent furore round They Who Shall Not Be Named. At first glance, they look great to anyone looking for new and innovative ways to get into print. Google them, as opposed to believing everything they say, and you find a can that's overflowing with worms.
  
  Knowledge is power! Research, research, research.
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  by CJ 6 months ago

  Indeed, Debi - whilst I do not consider myself good at this whole 'keeping up with the times' thing, I am so mortally afraid of offending someone (and therefore buggering up my chances) that I do try to do as much research into prospective agents / publishers as I can. But this is often where I hit brick walls, especially with smaller publishers - they are very keen to crow when they start (understandable), but when they fold? Not a sausage. Very frustrating. Even Weird Tales, which is a very prestigious SFF / Horror magazine is guilty of this - I had to email them to find out what was going on. To their credit, they did get back to me pretty quickly to explain they were going through a take over, but there was nothing on their website to indicate what was going on - just a 'closed for submissions - prospective opening in January 2011' line at the top of their submission page. And considering it was September when I decided to email...