David Guymer's Blog - Posts Tagged "black-library"
Black Library Submissions Call
“Attention, servants of the immortal God-Emperor! Charge your mnemo-quills and dust off your data-slates, because Black Library is recruiting once more…”
If those two sentences are enough to electrify your nerves and make your skin tingle then you’re in the right place, because after a lengthy absence the Black Library submissions window is back!
At my count it’s been three years since the last window, and if you’re wondering why I should be counting at all then it’s worth remembering that I too am a submissions window baby. It was 2011 (remember that?) when The Tilean’s Talisman squeaked in under Black Library’s door and became my first published story, so you can understand that I’m thrilled to see Black Library opening up to submissions again.
This time, however, there are rules?
“First of all, we are only looking for short stories featuring the Deathwatch, set in the current Warhammer 40,000 era.”
Got that? Good. Paying attention to submissions guidelines and successfully not submitting a Death Guard or Deathwing story is hurdle number one. It doesn’t matter how excellent your Death Korps of Krieg tale is, it’s not what they want so it won’t get picked up. And will probably elicit a sad sigh from the reading editor too. You’re all nice people, and so obviously wouldn’t want that.
“Secondly, we only need a single paragraph which summarises your idea for a full short story, followed by a sample of your best writing from that story. The sample should be no more than 500 words (and we will be checking!) but should be of sufficiently high quality to engage/excite our editors who will be reading each and every submission.”
Note that ‘best writing’ bit.
I spent a long time perfecting the opening 500 words of the Tilean’s Talisman before deciding to submit what I felt was the best and most exciting bit from the middle. That’s fine. This is a showcase for your writing prowess and doesn’t need to do anything more than that. Will they be rejecting samples of 501 words? I don’t know, but why chance it for the sake of a few extra words? How you actually go about producing 500 words of irresistible 41st millennium action goes some distance beyond my power to explain. If I knew how I did it then I’d spend a lot less of my time in the periodic bouts of self-doubt I currently enjoy.
And then I think I’d write a ‘how to’ book and make lots of money.
Here’s a few tips that spring to mind, largely garnered from advice and writing courses I’ve been on and that have stuck in my mind for one reason or another
• Avoid overuse of adjectives.
• Steer clear of the most well-worn clichés.
• Given a choice of several words with the same meaning, use the one that produces the tone and feeling you want.
• If in a characters head, stay in the character’s head. Describe the world as they see it, as they hear, smell, and feel it. Don’t wander.
• Getting an honest third party to look at your work and edit it is always helpful. The best of us are capable of overlooking the most outrageous contortions of our own prose
Next up is the summary. That’s not too scary either, although there is a practiced art to condensing a 5000 word story into a 200 word (or less) paragraph. Be complete but be succinct. Shorter is always better. I tried to find the summary I wrote for Tilean’s Talisman, but it seems to have been gnawed on by the rats and I can’t find it. As a consolation prize, here instead is the summary to my second story, The Karag Durak Grudge:
The Book of Grudges of Karak Kadrin tells of the fall of the outpost of Karag Durak and of the maiming of the Dwarf Thane, Grimnar Half-handed, as he valiantly battled the rat-kin warlord, Queek. Such was the Thane’s courage that day that the skaven were driven back, allowing many doughty warriors to escape with their lives.
With the Dwarf’s abandonment of the mountain keep, Queek’s mission that day was a great success and much warpstone and glory were showered upon him. But long has the rage within him burned over his defeat in single combat to the Dwarf, Grimnar, and long has he plotted his revenge. After many years, he receives the news he has been waiting for: Grimnar has left the Slayer Keep to reclaim the lost treasures of Karak Varn. Seizing on this golden opportunity, Queek hurriedly assembles a force and races to the seeping ruin of Karak Varn, eager to face his old foe once more to prove once and for all that the dreaded Queek Headtaker suffers no equal.
Now you’ll immediately notice that that’s two paragraphs, instantly failing me on my own advice of reading submissions guidelines and adhering to it. I get away with this kind of anarchism, but be safe and keep your to the regulation one.
“Finally, you should make your submission by email only, to blacklibrarysubmissions@gwplc.com – please attach your submission as a Microsoft Word document (not Works, not OpenOffice, not RTF or any other weird and wacky file formats) and also copy your single paragraph summary into the covering email. Failure to follow those basic requests will result in your submission being rejected.”
That’s my bolding – I figured it was important, and rather neatly emphasises what I’ve been saying all along. It ultimately boils down to: ‘do as your told.’ Also, do read your covering e-mail before sending, and not while so tired after yet another round of editing that you don’t notice that you’re writing about the skaken story your sending them. I remember that typo because it haunted me for weeks. The moral, I suppose, is that good writing (if I do say so…) will always win out, but don’t give an editor an excuse to disfavour you from the start, or even reject your story outright before they so much as read it.
Oh, and think positive and turn off your spam filter. Yahoo was good enough to shunt my acceptance e-mail into my spam folder, and it was only rare good luck that meant I saw it at all. My spam filter remains off, and it’s fine.
And finally: don’t delay!
When I first discovered the submission window three years ago, my first inclination was to give it a miss and wait until next year. There was only two weeks left to it, and I hadn’t started, and I’m pretty lazy really by nature. I figured I’d wait until the next year. But of course as we know there was no window next year, and who knows when the next one will open after this?
I’ve been ridiculously fortunate to have written what I have for Black Library these past few years, and it goes without saying that I wouldn’t have done any of it had I given into my first instinct and sat on my hands. So don’t think, don’t procrastinate; plan your story right now and then write it. Submissions close on 26th January and I hope that a lot of you are going to submit. Partly because I want you all to get the chance to do so, and partly for the very selfish reason that I want to write a Deathwatch story and for that to happen Black Library need enough high quality stories from you guys to justify an anthology.
That’s right; you’re doing this for me.
So go prepare your submissions, and read the rest of the guidance on Black Library’s website:
http://www.blacklibrary.com/Getting-S... And good luck!
Death to the Xenos.
(I first wrote this article for Fifty Shades of Geek - to hear my chitterings early, go to http://www.fiftyshadesofgeek.org/feat...)
If those two sentences are enough to electrify your nerves and make your skin tingle then you’re in the right place, because after a lengthy absence the Black Library submissions window is back!
At my count it’s been three years since the last window, and if you’re wondering why I should be counting at all then it’s worth remembering that I too am a submissions window baby. It was 2011 (remember that?) when The Tilean’s Talisman squeaked in under Black Library’s door and became my first published story, so you can understand that I’m thrilled to see Black Library opening up to submissions again.
This time, however, there are rules?
“First of all, we are only looking for short stories featuring the Deathwatch, set in the current Warhammer 40,000 era.”
Got that? Good. Paying attention to submissions guidelines and successfully not submitting a Death Guard or Deathwing story is hurdle number one. It doesn’t matter how excellent your Death Korps of Krieg tale is, it’s not what they want so it won’t get picked up. And will probably elicit a sad sigh from the reading editor too. You’re all nice people, and so obviously wouldn’t want that.
“Secondly, we only need a single paragraph which summarises your idea for a full short story, followed by a sample of your best writing from that story. The sample should be no more than 500 words (and we will be checking!) but should be of sufficiently high quality to engage/excite our editors who will be reading each and every submission.”
Note that ‘best writing’ bit.
I spent a long time perfecting the opening 500 words of the Tilean’s Talisman before deciding to submit what I felt was the best and most exciting bit from the middle. That’s fine. This is a showcase for your writing prowess and doesn’t need to do anything more than that. Will they be rejecting samples of 501 words? I don’t know, but why chance it for the sake of a few extra words? How you actually go about producing 500 words of irresistible 41st millennium action goes some distance beyond my power to explain. If I knew how I did it then I’d spend a lot less of my time in the periodic bouts of self-doubt I currently enjoy.
And then I think I’d write a ‘how to’ book and make lots of money.
Here’s a few tips that spring to mind, largely garnered from advice and writing courses I’ve been on and that have stuck in my mind for one reason or another
• Avoid overuse of adjectives.
• Steer clear of the most well-worn clichés.
• Given a choice of several words with the same meaning, use the one that produces the tone and feeling you want.
• If in a characters head, stay in the character’s head. Describe the world as they see it, as they hear, smell, and feel it. Don’t wander.
• Getting an honest third party to look at your work and edit it is always helpful. The best of us are capable of overlooking the most outrageous contortions of our own prose
Next up is the summary. That’s not too scary either, although there is a practiced art to condensing a 5000 word story into a 200 word (or less) paragraph. Be complete but be succinct. Shorter is always better. I tried to find the summary I wrote for Tilean’s Talisman, but it seems to have been gnawed on by the rats and I can’t find it. As a consolation prize, here instead is the summary to my second story, The Karag Durak Grudge:
The Book of Grudges of Karak Kadrin tells of the fall of the outpost of Karag Durak and of the maiming of the Dwarf Thane, Grimnar Half-handed, as he valiantly battled the rat-kin warlord, Queek. Such was the Thane’s courage that day that the skaven were driven back, allowing many doughty warriors to escape with their lives.
With the Dwarf’s abandonment of the mountain keep, Queek’s mission that day was a great success and much warpstone and glory were showered upon him. But long has the rage within him burned over his defeat in single combat to the Dwarf, Grimnar, and long has he plotted his revenge. After many years, he receives the news he has been waiting for: Grimnar has left the Slayer Keep to reclaim the lost treasures of Karak Varn. Seizing on this golden opportunity, Queek hurriedly assembles a force and races to the seeping ruin of Karak Varn, eager to face his old foe once more to prove once and for all that the dreaded Queek Headtaker suffers no equal.
Now you’ll immediately notice that that’s two paragraphs, instantly failing me on my own advice of reading submissions guidelines and adhering to it. I get away with this kind of anarchism, but be safe and keep your to the regulation one.
“Finally, you should make your submission by email only, to blacklibrarysubmissions@gwplc.com – please attach your submission as a Microsoft Word document (not Works, not OpenOffice, not RTF or any other weird and wacky file formats) and also copy your single paragraph summary into the covering email. Failure to follow those basic requests will result in your submission being rejected.”
That’s my bolding – I figured it was important, and rather neatly emphasises what I’ve been saying all along. It ultimately boils down to: ‘do as your told.’ Also, do read your covering e-mail before sending, and not while so tired after yet another round of editing that you don’t notice that you’re writing about the skaken story your sending them. I remember that typo because it haunted me for weeks. The moral, I suppose, is that good writing (if I do say so…) will always win out, but don’t give an editor an excuse to disfavour you from the start, or even reject your story outright before they so much as read it.
Oh, and think positive and turn off your spam filter. Yahoo was good enough to shunt my acceptance e-mail into my spam folder, and it was only rare good luck that meant I saw it at all. My spam filter remains off, and it’s fine.
And finally: don’t delay!
When I first discovered the submission window three years ago, my first inclination was to give it a miss and wait until next year. There was only two weeks left to it, and I hadn’t started, and I’m pretty lazy really by nature. I figured I’d wait until the next year. But of course as we know there was no window next year, and who knows when the next one will open after this?
I’ve been ridiculously fortunate to have written what I have for Black Library these past few years, and it goes without saying that I wouldn’t have done any of it had I given into my first instinct and sat on my hands. So don’t think, don’t procrastinate; plan your story right now and then write it. Submissions close on 26th January and I hope that a lot of you are going to submit. Partly because I want you all to get the chance to do so, and partly for the very selfish reason that I want to write a Deathwatch story and for that to happen Black Library need enough high quality stories from you guys to justify an anthology.
That’s right; you’re doing this for me.
So go prepare your submissions, and read the rest of the guidance on Black Library’s website:
http://www.blacklibrary.com/Getting-S... And good luck!
Death to the Xenos.
(I first wrote this article for Fifty Shades of Geek - to hear my chitterings early, go to http://www.fiftyshadesofgeek.org/feat...)
A Week of Firsts
This has been a week of important firsts for me. It’s already seen the release of my story, Plan B, in the anthology, Drainpipes for Strikeposts, featuring eight stories of bone-crushing mayhem from the galaxy’s favourite sport, Dreadball. Published by Mantic Games, this little short has the privilege of being the first story I’ve sold to anyone but Black Library. Strike one to the Veer-myn!
Alas, it doesn't seem to be on Goodreads, but you can get your gloves on it at Mantic Digital here: https://www.manticdigital.com/product...
Fittingly then, this was the week I’ve also managed to do something else that’s escaped me ever since I started writing for money, and that’s write something entirely speculatively and then send it off to a magazine. I haven’t done that since I wrote Tilean’s Talisman for the Black Library open submission window in 2012. I’ve always told people it’s because my schedule is ridiculously slammed and it is (job, toddler, novels with tight deadlines), but a couple of weeks ago I had a bit of a mini-revelation. I managed to write a 5000 word story for Age of Sigmar in one day, because I had to, and it made me realize that the only thing I was lacking to get a story of similar length done was the promise of a pay cheque and a deadline. Of course, there wasn’t a lot I could do about the first part of that, but I tried to address the second as best I could essentially by telling everyone I could (including the editor of the magazine in question, who I’m at least on e-mailing terms with) that I was writing the thing. I figured that if people were expecting a story then I’d feel obliged to produce one, and it seems to have worked.
Strike two!
4000 words of grimdark adventure on the high sea, and set in a world I hope to be able to develop into more shorts and novels one day, was dispatched to Grimdark Magazine this morning. It may pass, it may not, that’s sort of what you have to expect if you want to be a writer, but either way I’m glad I finally wrote it. Hopefully, next time I see a week or two of daylight in my writing schedule with Black Library, I’ll know exactly what to do with it.
Alas, it doesn't seem to be on Goodreads, but you can get your gloves on it at Mantic Digital here: https://www.manticdigital.com/product...
Fittingly then, this was the week I’ve also managed to do something else that’s escaped me ever since I started writing for money, and that’s write something entirely speculatively and then send it off to a magazine. I haven’t done that since I wrote Tilean’s Talisman for the Black Library open submission window in 2012. I’ve always told people it’s because my schedule is ridiculously slammed and it is (job, toddler, novels with tight deadlines), but a couple of weeks ago I had a bit of a mini-revelation. I managed to write a 5000 word story for Age of Sigmar in one day, because I had to, and it made me realize that the only thing I was lacking to get a story of similar length done was the promise of a pay cheque and a deadline. Of course, there wasn’t a lot I could do about the first part of that, but I tried to address the second as best I could essentially by telling everyone I could (including the editor of the magazine in question, who I’m at least on e-mailing terms with) that I was writing the thing. I figured that if people were expecting a story then I’d feel obliged to produce one, and it seems to have worked.
Strike two!
4000 words of grimdark adventure on the high sea, and set in a world I hope to be able to develop into more shorts and novels one day, was dispatched to Grimdark Magazine this morning. It may pass, it may not, that’s sort of what you have to expect if you want to be a writer, but either way I’m glad I finally wrote it. Hopefully, next time I see a week or two of daylight in my writing schedule with Black Library, I’ll know exactly what to do with it.
Ratings from Writers
This month, with a great push from the numberless soldiers of Black Library command, saw the release of Dan Abnett’s I Am Slaughter, the first in a 12 month, 12 book series, The Beast Arises (http://www.blacklibrary.com/the-beast...)
Although only books 1-5 have been officially announced, if you were to pop over to Amazon you’d learn pretty quickly that I’ve written The Beast Arises 6: Echoes of the Long War, and have thus been lucky enough to read books 1-5 quite some time ago. Reading books well ahead of their release is something of a perk of the gig, but not being able to tell anyone about it (except in the most obtuse and annoying of codes) or update my ‘currently reading’ status on Goodreads is a definite downside. As an author, being a functioning social media addict is something of a given.
So, it was with long overdue satisfaction that I finally got to stamp my 5-star seal of approval on the first book and be about my way.
At least until I started to receive a couple of comments on my Facebook profile suggesting that perhaps I should be rating this book, or others like it, at all. Now, there was nothing impolite or inappropriate about these comments, and the guys in question are good fans, and it got me honestly thinking about how I, as a writer, review books.
Here, for instance, is a 4-star review of Guy Haley’s Baneblade left by Gav Thorpe:
“A thoroughly enjoyable read. A great blend of 40k madness with a more traditional sci-fi approach that doesn't feel laboured, in some ways more reminsicent of Rogue Trader days with its bizarre but slightly hard-sci-fi-ish world. The story trots along nicely, the setting is wonderfully evoked and the pay-off whilst not a shocker is nicely done.
One star dropped because there was just a couple of chapters around the midway mark that dragged a bit, particularly with the back story, and the ending was a bit too drawn out for my liking without quite concluding a couple of the sub-plots (felt more like an epilogue than a final chapter). Aside from this, overall really good pacing, cool characterisation and some moments that had me really, really gritting my teeth and hoping things were going to turn out differently...”
Well in favour, then, clearly, but with a few minus points picked out, just the same. It certainly sounds like Gav’s honest opinion.
I’m not in the habit of writing reviews, myself. In fact the first I did was for Blaise Maximillian: Bitter Defeat by Matthew Sylvester. It was self-published and he needed the reviews to boost its profile (bonus plug here).
I’m a geek though, and I like to rate things.
I’ve long had something of an unstated code that if I wasn’t totally taken with a book written by somebody I know, then I just wouldn’t rate it at all. It’s impolite, mainly. You wouldn’t go around giving public two-star ratings on the performance of the people around you. Even if you wanted to. The reviews I do give, however, are always honest. A 5-star is a 5-star. A 4-star is a 4-star. And to be completely honest, I do tend to like more stuff than I dislike.
But I’m still wondering if there’s a way I could or should be doing this better. I still haven’t really adapted to the semi-public status of published author. Should I be rating Black Library works at all? Or at least series like The Beast Arises in which I have a stake? I gave a rating to Gotrek & Felix: the Anthology, for instance, on the basis that there were nine other great stories in it on top of mine – was that wrong?
I don’t know, but I’m hoping for a few comments on what you think is right and what you, as readers, would like to see.
Although only books 1-5 have been officially announced, if you were to pop over to Amazon you’d learn pretty quickly that I’ve written The Beast Arises 6: Echoes of the Long War, and have thus been lucky enough to read books 1-5 quite some time ago. Reading books well ahead of their release is something of a perk of the gig, but not being able to tell anyone about it (except in the most obtuse and annoying of codes) or update my ‘currently reading’ status on Goodreads is a definite downside. As an author, being a functioning social media addict is something of a given.
So, it was with long overdue satisfaction that I finally got to stamp my 5-star seal of approval on the first book and be about my way.
At least until I started to receive a couple of comments on my Facebook profile suggesting that perhaps I should be rating this book, or others like it, at all. Now, there was nothing impolite or inappropriate about these comments, and the guys in question are good fans, and it got me honestly thinking about how I, as a writer, review books.
Here, for instance, is a 4-star review of Guy Haley’s Baneblade left by Gav Thorpe:
“A thoroughly enjoyable read. A great blend of 40k madness with a more traditional sci-fi approach that doesn't feel laboured, in some ways more reminsicent of Rogue Trader days with its bizarre but slightly hard-sci-fi-ish world. The story trots along nicely, the setting is wonderfully evoked and the pay-off whilst not a shocker is nicely done.
One star dropped because there was just a couple of chapters around the midway mark that dragged a bit, particularly with the back story, and the ending was a bit too drawn out for my liking without quite concluding a couple of the sub-plots (felt more like an epilogue than a final chapter). Aside from this, overall really good pacing, cool characterisation and some moments that had me really, really gritting my teeth and hoping things were going to turn out differently...”
Well in favour, then, clearly, but with a few minus points picked out, just the same. It certainly sounds like Gav’s honest opinion.
I’m not in the habit of writing reviews, myself. In fact the first I did was for Blaise Maximillian: Bitter Defeat by Matthew Sylvester. It was self-published and he needed the reviews to boost its profile (bonus plug here).
I’m a geek though, and I like to rate things.
I’ve long had something of an unstated code that if I wasn’t totally taken with a book written by somebody I know, then I just wouldn’t rate it at all. It’s impolite, mainly. You wouldn’t go around giving public two-star ratings on the performance of the people around you. Even if you wanted to. The reviews I do give, however, are always honest. A 5-star is a 5-star. A 4-star is a 4-star. And to be completely honest, I do tend to like more stuff than I dislike.
But I’m still wondering if there’s a way I could or should be doing this better. I still haven’t really adapted to the semi-public status of published author. Should I be rating Black Library works at all? Or at least series like The Beast Arises in which I have a stake? I gave a rating to Gotrek & Felix: the Anthology, for instance, on the basis that there were nine other great stories in it on top of mine – was that wrong?
I don’t know, but I’m hoping for a few comments on what you think is right and what you, as readers, would like to see.
2015 Roundup
It feels as though I've been worked pretty much as hard as I ever have last year, which to think back on it felt pretty good until I realised that I all I had to show for it was Gotrek & Felix: Slayer (which i wrote in 2014 anyway), and the short stories Beneath the Black Thumb, Godless, and Plan B in the Mantic anthology, Drainpipes for Strike Posts
Such is the delayed reward of professional writing, so hopefully 2016 will be a bumper year for releases. One speculative short story still sitting with Grimdark Magazine aside, it's all with Black Library so largely under wraps, but, just for a sense of what's coming...
January will see the release of an Age of Sigmar anthology featuring another short story of mine. I've received my author copies on this one and I'm just hovering over the 'share photo' button on my fun.
In June (I think) my entry into the Beasts Arises series, Echoes of the Long War will hit shelves both real and digital. And I can neither confirm nor deny that I am or am not working on another book in the series as we speak (I have two hands, after all)
I've also written four (count them!) Age of Sigmar audio stories, and according to the great Oracle, Amazon, it looks like I have an anthology of Gotrek & Felix stories coming out. News to me, but I'll take it!
Beasts Arises aside, there are some exciting projects lined up for 2016, but my goal for next year is to try and attend more conventions. If I'm not spotted at York Unleashed and EdgeLit Derby at the very least then you all have permission to slap me. And I still live in hope that someone might nominate Gotrek & Felix: Slayer for the Legend Award and I might get a paid trip to Nineworlds. It'd be a step up from the Magician's Circle in 2014 with Headtaker, awesome fun as that was, and I'll be keeping everything crossed from now until nominations close.
Happy New Year everyone, hears to plenty more bolters and warhammers in 2016
Such is the delayed reward of professional writing, so hopefully 2016 will be a bumper year for releases. One speculative short story still sitting with Grimdark Magazine aside, it's all with Black Library so largely under wraps, but, just for a sense of what's coming...
January will see the release of an Age of Sigmar anthology featuring another short story of mine. I've received my author copies on this one and I'm just hovering over the 'share photo' button on my fun.
In June (I think) my entry into the Beasts Arises series, Echoes of the Long War will hit shelves both real and digital. And I can neither confirm nor deny that I am or am not working on another book in the series as we speak (I have two hands, after all)
I've also written four (count them!) Age of Sigmar audio stories, and according to the great Oracle, Amazon, it looks like I have an anthology of Gotrek & Felix stories coming out. News to me, but I'll take it!
Beasts Arises aside, there are some exciting projects lined up for 2016, but my goal for next year is to try and attend more conventions. If I'm not spotted at York Unleashed and EdgeLit Derby at the very least then you all have permission to slap me. And I still live in hope that someone might nominate Gotrek & Felix: Slayer for the Legend Award and I might get a paid trip to Nineworlds. It'd be a step up from the Magician's Circle in 2014 with Headtaker, awesome fun as that was, and I'll be keeping everything crossed from now until nominations close.
Happy New Year everyone, hears to plenty more bolters and warhammers in 2016
