February 2014 – All Writing

As I’ve mentioned in other articles, writing a great story is not enough to sell your story. Among other things, your presentation needs to look professional. If you want to be treated professionally, format your story according to industry standards. You can vary slightly from the standards according to your tastes, but keep close to the standards so as to avoid looking amateurish.

All stories submitted to my blog, or any other publisher, should be in standard manuscript format. That format is different for plays and novels. I’ve been submitting my own stories since the 1980’s and the format has essentially remained the same. Unfortunately, many excellent stories get rejected just because they are poorly formatted. Continue reading “Standard Manuscript Format”

Congratulations! An editor loves your prose. You’ve sold your story. Feel wonderful. You should.

After the euphoria collapses, you wonder when the fan mail and comments will start pouring in. Experienced authors acknowledge, selling the story is only one of many steps necessary when building a fan base.

Selling your story to readers begins before you get the editor hooked. You must write your story for your market—the web skimmer. Most magazines publish or advertise stories on the web, and most users of the web skim. Close to 80% of all people visiting your story or story’s advert will skim the page, rather than read the page.

Gaining readers is the act of converting skimmers into readers through a three step combination of hooking them with a great title, convincing them to read on with an engaging first sentence, and pulling them into the story with a compelling first paragraph. I’ve heard this approach summed up with the words, “Catch, grab, and keep.”

Continue reading “Hook the Skimmers”