The village in my head is rioting...

I'm up for Preditors and Editors' Editor of the Year. Come vote for me and I'll give you a cookie. Dairy, sugar, fat, calorie, gluten free. Full of nutritious bits and bytes. Edit: D'oh! My name is Elizabeth Silver.

Mmm...virtual cookies.

Also! My BFF, Juice-aka-Jenny Urban, is up for Best Romantic Short Story for The Heart is a Stringed Instrument, so while you're over there, maybe give her a shout out?

(they don't abuse your email address)

Now. about those cookies.

I've been hearing and seeing a lot of things about LJ and the direction they're going in, and none of them sound much like a company I want to stick around for. I'm sadface about that, since I've got a permanent account there (not to mention a paid account for my fannish flailing), but just like how you don't have to eat something simply because it's on your plate, I don't have to keep using a site that makes me unhappy.

I'll leave the accounts, but I'm going to lock all LJ content as I import to DW.

(not that very many people care at this point since I'm never here these days, but YOU GET WHAT I MEAN.)

ION, I'm signed up for NaNo again this year. Because it's fun and I've found a Zen state about not finishing my projects. But mostly because I'm farking miserable because I haven't written anything substantial in ages. More on that later.

Tomorrow the Mr and I are heading up to Manhattan for the afternoon because I'm giving a talk about Musa, Erato (my imprint what I run), and what we expect from our kinky manuscripts, and then I'll get to sit with some authors and listen to pitches.

I AM NOT PREPARED FOR THIS "BEING ALL PROFESSIONAL" STUFF.

(also, unrelated: I need Teen Wolf icons. DO NOT MOCK. I spend too much time on Tumblr to be able to resist for long...)

We have a small front room that is known as "The Cat Room." (when we had felines, that was where we stashed their Maine Coone-sized litter box and the spare food). The room also contains a clothes dryer we haven't used since 2008 (when the matching washer bit the dust), an old printer cart, dozens of boxes, and at least three different sets of shelves filled with a random assortment of crap we haven't looked at in years.

My self-appointed mission for the week is to clear out the Cat Room and the shelves as much as possible.

The Mr and I are willing to give high-velocity couponing a go, but we have nowhere to put the stuff we'd buy. This is the problem when you have two packrats living in the same space for over a dozen years. Fortunately, it's really easy to toss things when you have the distance of several years on them. Just, ah, not my Highlander stuff. Sorry, baby. That stays. (Hey, I'm letting him keep his boxes of comic books that have taken over the closet in there!)

But anyway. I'm going to purge the room, and then I'll be able to coupon with the best of them and stockpile. My dream is to save enough to buy a second freezer so I can bulk-buy frozen foods, too.

Oh crap. I'm turning into one of those people.

I just started the process of posting a special call for submissions...

Superheroes. Superhero romances.

Also, I have a cohort for getting our GLBT YA line off the ground now, and we have things rolling at a steady pace already. I'm so happy to be working with this person, because she's just exactly the kind of person you want on your team: smart, independent, communicative, and damn good at her job. Not to mention she's an all around awesome person. This is a most auspicious beginning.

I love my job. \o/

Still seeking work that pays, but it's not looking good for DragonCon this year, alas. I'll have to take the Mr somewhere, though. He deserves a vacation.

And how are you all?

For the record, I was totally wrong and my mom's dog was fine. He tried to get in someone's house and my mom had to pay for damages, but she has him back safe, sound, and stinking to high heaven, and that's all that really matters in the end.

All's well that ends well.

Musa Internship Program

All internships are six months in length. Musa interns will receive hands on training, including professional publishing credits at Penumbra, our speculative fiction magazine or in our books division. Interns will also participate in our master classes program, where industry professionals teach workshops on a variety of subjects, and will work one on one with a member of Musa's senior staff in their area of expertise. These are unpaid positions.

Web Design:

Must have experience in web design including PHP, HTML, XML. Knowledge of code in a text editor a must. We do not use Dreamweaver or any other web design software so you must know how to read and edit raw code. Send inquiries to [email protected].

Promotions/Marketing:

Send inquiries to [email protected].
The Promotions Director of Musa Publishing is seeking an intern for the promotions and marketing department. Experience in marketing not necessary.  A strong working knowledge of social networking and internet usage is required.

Book Design:

Must possess and have experience with Adobe InDesign. Interns will work on interior book design, formatting, layout, and on Penumbra, our ezine. Send inquiries to [email protected].

I probably should have explained a little more in my last post about sending queries and the different kinds of synopses you need to include, so since I'm supposed to be editing right now, I figure now is as good a time as any to do that. :D

The Query:

I'm pretty sure I've yet to meet an author that actually likes writing queries. So if the idea of doing this freaks you the fuck out, don't worry. You're in good company. First, let's start with a blog post I wrote a couple of months ago about writing queries and query summaries:

http://erato-glbt.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-to-write-awesome-query-letter.html

Go on. I'll wait.

Okay. So now we know what a query is, and that the summary should be short, sweet, and to the point. Think 1-2 paragraphs; just enough time to explain primary characters, conflicts, and resolution. That will give an acquiring editor a clear picture of genre, length, and in general reasonable expectations for your work.

BTW, always mention the length and genre at some point in your query. There should be little mystery at this point, because mystery frustrates busy people, and frustrated editors don't often feel generously inclined.

This is just a quick and dirty explanation about queries, but if you have more questions, ask away. Ask ldyghst -- I totally don't bite. (I'd say you should ask juice817, but she might tell you how crazy I am, and that's just counter-productive).

Now, for the rest.

The Summary:

When a publisher requests a summary in addition to your query, what they want is an in-depth summary of your story. 1-3 pages, depending on the length of the manuscript, giving a sketched outline of what you're proposing the publisher buy from you. The same Dos and Don'ts from above apply here as well, and especially don't assume the editor is living in your head. If your story involves inter-planetary travel and your characters go from the City of Joe to the Planet of Bob, please actually indicate which is a city and which is a planet, etc (otherwise, it's like being given driving directions using nothing but landmarks from a town you've never been in).

Not all editors read your complete summary until after they've read your excerpt. I, on the other hand, read the summary first. Why? Because I want to know if you can tell me what your story is about. I want to know if you know what your plot is, because that tells me more about your writing than you'd think.

What you don't want in a summary is any sort of dialogue. At all. A summary tells me who your main characters are (and who is important to them), what they want, why they can't have it, what they do to get it, and if they get it in the end.

Yes. Give away the ending. Again, mystery is a bad thing. The idea behind the summary is to make me go, "I want to see this executed. Gimme."

Summaries are a bitch to write, I know. It's probably one of the most common points of bonding among writers, in fact. But they're a necessary evil. Sorry.

I tried to keep this short, so if I left anything out that you want to know about, let me know. Cool?

I have a few days where I'm not, technically, expected to be working on anything. I will be anyway so I won't run up hard on a deadline later, but this means that I have the luxury of taking my time.

Anyhow. You guys are amazing and I love you and you listen to me whine, so I would like to open up my journal to anyone who might have questions about publishing. That includes writing, submitting manuscripts, agents, editing, print vs. epub, and more.

Who am I to talk? I'm a multi-published author of erotica and erotic romance. I'm the head editor at a rapidly-growing GLBT imprint arm (includes romance, lit, spec fic, YA, etc) for a young but well-respected e-publisher. I'm the lead editor on a shared world paranormal erotic romance series for multiple authors (four authors so far, expecting at least two more by the end of the year). I'm also an incurable fangirl with a quirky Benedict Cumberbatch fixation and a much-abuse AO3 account under my fic pen name. Heh.

Anon is turned on, all comments screened, don't be shy. Come one, come all. I don't even have to know you.

C'mon. You know how much I love getting emails. ;)

I CAN HAS A JUICE SOON!!!!

OMG, you guys, I am so stupidly excited about seeing juice817 for the first time in years. It's only for a short while, but it will be AWESOME. And do you know why?

Because juice817 is the best BFF that ever BFFed. Evar.

And she's going to see this in the airport in a few hours and laugh at me and I don't care. :D