Heidi Ruby Miller's Blog, page 77

Submissions: 2010 Submissions and Responses

Here is the annual look back at my submission record for this year and some stats on my total submissions since I started to record them in 2004.

2010 SUBMISSIONS AND RESPONSES:
22 total submissions
*The total is 10 more than 2009 .

6 rejections
*All but one were from literary agents on novel queries.

9 non-responders
*Six of these were from literary agencies, the other three from magazine editors.

7 acceptances
*These are from various sources for a variety of projects.

2010 RESPONSES FROM 2009 SUBMISSIONS:
3 withdrawals - 380/388/390 days
*This was for the MANY GENRES, ONE CRAFT proposal, which Mike and I placed with Headline Books, Inc.

2010 RESPONSES FROM 2008 SUBMISSIONS:
1 acceptance - 321 days
*This was for my poem Starship Stowaways at Beyond Centauri . So this goes against the past two years where I've said that having a sub out longer isn't necessarily a good thing. In this case it was!

1 other - 726 days
*I created the "other" category for circumstances which cannot be covered under the usual headings; in this instance, it was that an editor left the publishing house, and the submission had been lost.

2009 OUTSTANDING SUBMISSIONS
1 novel query (literary agency)

2008 OUTSTANDING SUBMISSIONS
2 articles (magazines)
2 novel queries (editors)
1 essay (online magazine)
1 article (newspaper)
6 novel queries (literary agencies)
2 articles (online magazines)

SUBMISSIONS I'VE OFFICIALLY GIVEN UP ON!
2004
8/19/2004 - novel query (literary agency)
9/22/2004 - novel query (literary agency)
10/20/2004 - book review (magazine)

2006
8/29/2006 - essay (magazine)
10/18/2006 - novel query (literary agency)
11/9/2006 - article (online magazine)

2007
1/21/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
1/27/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
1/29/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
1/29/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
1/29/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
1/29/2007 - novel query literary agency)
1/29/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
1/29/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
4/4/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
4/12/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
4/13/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
4/20/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
5/9/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
5/23/2007 - short story (magazine)
6/3/2007 - novel query (editor)
9/4/2007 - novel query (literary agency)
10/17/2007 - article (online magazine)
10/22/2007 - article (online magazine)
11/5/2007 - poem (magazine)
11/28/2007 - non-fiction book proposal (editor)

Does anyone notice who most of the non-responders were? That's why things are changing. I can't wait five or ten years for an agent to believe in me and the ability for my book to make them money. If I fail, I will fail on my own terms this coming year.

Workshop: Writing with Authority

WRITING WITH AUTHORITY
Online Course

INSTRUCTORS: Jason Jack Miller and Heidi Ruby Miller



DATE: April 1 – May 2, 2011

LIMITED CLASS SIZE. Enroll now.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The easiest way to engage your reader is by using concrete nouns and action verbs. In this one-month online course, Seton Hill University creative writing faculty Jason Jack Miller and Heidi Ruby Miller will show you how to analyze your writing and use easy techniques that will increase the authority of your voice.

Participants will:
* Discover how to spot passive voice
* Scrutinize their writing for generic nouns and indefinite pronouns
* Learn to avoid weak verbs and overuse of “be” in all its forms
* Practice using strong synonyms to find the best action verb
* Apply word cloud research to make their plot come alive

FREE BONUS: Course participants will receive a free excerpt (.pdf) from the new writing guide, MANY GENRES, ONE CRAFT: LESSONS IN WRITING POPULAR FICTION ( Headline Books, Inc. ) edited by Heidi Ruby Miller and Michael A. Arnzen with contributions from Jason Jack Miller et al.

TUITION: $79 ($89 non-Pennwriters members) $89 ($99 non-Pennwriters members)
EARLY-BIRD PRICES END SOON!

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS: Heidi Ruby Miller is the co-editor of the writing guide, Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction . A graduate from Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction Program , she has authored dozens of publications. Before becoming a full-time writer and adjunct faculty at Seton Hill University, Heidi worked as a contract archaeologist, an educational marketing coordinator, a foreign currency exchanger, and a world language teacher. To learn more about Heidi Ruby Miller , visit http://heidirubymiller.blogspot.com or email her at heidirubymiller@gmail.com.

Jason Jack Miller is a writer, photographer and musician whose work has appeared online and in print in newspapers, magazines and literary journals, and as a smart phone travel app. He has co-authored a travel guide with his wife Heidi and served as a photographer-in-residence. Jason is an Authors Guild member who received a Master’s in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University where he is adjunct creative writing faculty. To learn more about Jason Jack Miller , visit http://jasonjackmiller.blogspot.com or email him at jasonjackmiller@gmail.com.

* Subscribe to the Pennwriters Online Courses announcement list for email on our latest workshops:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pennwri...

Website: Many Genres, One Craft

Co-editor Mike Arnzen launched the official website for our new book Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction at http://manygenres.blogspot.com .

Many Genres, One Craft is the equivalent of a graduate program in creative writing captured in the pages of a book...stuffed with great advice, but not stuffy at all.

Gathering the voices of today's top genre writers and their published students from Seton Hill University's acclaimed MFA program -- the country's only graduate program specifically focused on writing popular fiction –- Many Genres, One Craft is an academic instructional guide that aims to be the most entertaining textbook a new author will ever read. It targets those who want to write commercial novels of quality, rather than to publish only in academia. And because it is a multi-authored collection, it is like a writing community, a group of like-minded thinkers and kindred spirits, assembled between its covers, focused on mastering one's skills.

Many Genres, One Craft debuts Spring 2011 from Headline Books, Inc .