Paula’s Comments (group member since Oct 28, 2015)

Paula’s comments from the Science Fiction Microstory Contest group.

The main issue of copyediting will be to assure consistency of punctuation/spelling etc. within each story and also, except where a given style requires, within normal standards/guidelines of US or UK English (author's choice on these but be consistent). So for copyediting, will have to be gone over by myself and JJ or whoever else will be handling this. Someone suggested can we get Carol Shetler to help with this, and I know she does good work. Carol, are listening? Contact me or Sharon if you wish to do some portion of this, this year!
Proofreading--check with Sharon, Carrie; she may need another proofreader, I'm not sure.

@Carrie, assuming the same as for vol. 2, an "afterword" was a long (optional) piece by a story's author about why/what/etc. the story. It was separate from the author's bio, which was, if I recall, 50 words per author.
Hopefully, should there be any this year, they would go in the back matter, as would the bios, separately.
@Ron, Heather, Carrie, anyone voting for 1000 words per story (total w/ or w/o afterword), I take it you are offering to help with the copyediting and/or proofreading, yes?

--Yes on 3 stories/author plus winning stories (if the author wishes to publish those)
--strict 750 words/story limit. (Remember, I and maybe JJ will have to find time to go over all of these to check the authors' own copyedits and suggest copyedits still needed)
--No on afterwords. Like 2 or 3 others here, I find they add little and are not usual in professionally published anthologies
--50-word bios in the backmatter would be good.

Just sayin', as someone who's done editing for publishers, that sometimes manuscripts come in that are done, in whole or in part, in software the publisher doesn't have--and either the author has to convert or redo those manuscripts into .doc or .rtf or, more recently, .docx or possibly .pdf files, or else when the publisher/editor attempts to convert to its software (usually Word), glitches of many sorts occur.
But yes, back on topic---the anthology.

Heather, the US form puts commas and periods that end a quote INSIDE the end-quote marks, with the placement of ! and ? dependent on whether their function is re the quote or re the whole sentence ("I asked her, 'Why?'"; "Why did you say 'Run!'?"). In normal, sane English-language countries, commas and periods, like ! and ?, are placed inside or outside the close-quote mark depending on whether their function is with the quoted material or with the external sentence.
This doesn't really answer your question of the logic or formal elegance of their usage/s, but it seems pretty standard. As for which--" or '--functions for the inner set of quote marks when a quote happens within another quote, I believe the usage is exactly opposite in US English and Anglo English, but I'm not sure. Then of course there is philosophy, where the whole idea is to use as many sets as possibly at every chance.

Yes, well, I suspect if anyone can do it with a minimum of hassles, Sharon, it's you. Hoping you get to take a break from these projects, this afternoon, and thanks for your assurances to us.

Ah, a good reminder for every one of us (you included, Richard)! Be sure your Goodreads are settings set so you can get private messages. (And no, I've not the slightest idea how. Maybe someone has. Only about half the people in this group can, apparently.)

Sharon wrote: "Hey Authors, I spent the morning researching all the stories posted over the last year and verifying each month's winner. There´s a small glitch I need to speak with Jot about but we should be read..."
Sharon, I am thinking many here would prefer a bit of discussion and feedback re questions about the book--or rather, about any controversial areas--rather than being presented a list of "how it'll be" for us to cooperate on. So far, this group has not worked in the latter fashion without full airing on areas of potential disagreement.

Carrie, I know the feeling--took me a bit, after GR's latest update, to find how to retrieve the full list of the group's discussion threads.
Sharon, a "small glitch"? Did stories get lost--authors disappear--or--? Now you've got us all curious.

Dean, we're waiting on Sharon's decision re the submissions limit.
Also, you're not "only a contributor"---you too can help with the production, p.r./marketing, etc.. . .
Carrie, don't we already have a marketing thread for this anthology? It's called "Promoting the anthology," I think. Or did you mean marketing (sales and distribution) separate from promotion?

OH great, Andy, especially as you are one of the persons here whom, I believe, everyone can agree is able to look at stories' themes and quality free of personal predilections re type of subject, mood, style, etc.
I do not feel authors' reaction against any of their own works should be taken without a second opinion; please email me your 2015 contest stories to read and render said 2nd opinion; can't have an anthology without an Andy L. story. . .lol indeed.
***other point (and only my opinion)---agreeing with Heather and other(s) that it might be cool to have Jack work on the cover design, if Sharon okays this and if Jack and Carrol can work out the who-does-what stuff.

Carrie, I think this is part of what Sharon wants to do final decision on, presumably ff. discussion. Things here don't get decided super-fast, lol. --My personal preference would be 3 stories per author plus the winning stories (thus, a few persons would get more than 3 stories); my reason for this preference is most of us have 3 stories this year we particularly like, but beyond that is a bit pushing it (if the person only wants 1 or 2 of his/her stories in, hey that's cool too).

Not sure but I think we may have "caught up" in the 2nd volume, Andy G.? If so, we could just do Jan through Dec 2015 this time (let's hope). . .

Understood, Sharon! And I was wondering where you'd gone in this incredibly interesting discussion, lol.
Yeah, Andy, I agree on most those points--though, again, not sure re monthly themes or new themes will work best. In terms of editorial team, would you want to be involved working out the sequencing, if new themes?

Thanks, Carrie. Richard, thanks; frankly, I find what you have to say in this group is always important. But yes, maybe time to head on to the next step and get on with the work.
In which regard, have we each some sense of what we consider our three best stories for the 2015 year?

Good, Carrie; I was quite puzzled. Big concern with Goodreads re the anthology is Goodreads seems to be eating up the earlier months' contests we'd posted to it (Nov?, Dec).

Carrie, I'm wondering had you read the suggestions I and a couple others have made, the past couple weeks, on how we might arrange the book. Did you not find them worth considering?
My own were attempts to compromise between the way vol 2 was done and the way vol 1 was done.
To reiterate, there were many of us who felt last year's method--including extra stories if they "made it to the second round" (which normally would mean getting one vote more than the stories that didn't)--was misleading, and extremely bad for morale---which, even for neocons of the present culture may be noticed as a problem since it will cause some persons here to leave the group, and others, though not quite leaving, to no longer help develop or publicize the anthology. It is also misleading given the great variation in literary taste in this group (cf. the above posts to and for "guns blazing" stories) and the enormous spectrum in reading competencies. As you may know, we edited vol 1 with equal numbers of stories per author, which seemed good for morale, non-misleading, and fair.
What seemed and seems a good compromise is to include 2 (or, better, 3) stories per author (his/her choice), and, in addition, each month's winning stories.
As for the "group can vote for exclusion" clause, that was not developed as a redundant way to vote on quality but, rather, to prevent stories that the group found, for some reason, inappropriate. Imho, we really should pre-spell-out such grounds, if we retain the clause.
As for arrangement by month or by more overarching themes---I dunno, Carrie, we arranged vol 1 by larger themes and I'm not sure we gained anything over arranging by monthly themes. Agreed, the readers' interest will be in the content and flow of the book, rather than in the contests. My sense of it is that, because the stories were done to the monthly themes, they fall most naturally into the pattern of those themes, but if some larger/overarching themes can work more strongly, it can make sense to switch them. Either way, a list of the contest themes and winners and what stories were in which contest can be provided at the back of the book, along with a brief statement about the contest and how Jot began it and has run it.

J.J., it'll be great having you help with the editing! We'll be needing to light-copyedit people's stories--no changes that affect style, of course, and mostly will be to correct any grammar/spelling/punction errors not intrinsic to a story or its characters/speech/etc.--that is, only those not intended by the author/s--and with whether US or Brit style left up to the author/s. I'm thinking we should, as with the first volume, do some exemplary copyedits per story so that author can mostly do his/her own copyedits (though I found I mostly did most of them, since each problem usually differed much from the next.
Another editing task that will want work is writing the back cover copy (for ebook formats, an initial 100 words or so), as well as a back-matter preface/afterword about the contest and anthology . . . which may become the Introduction should Sharon or others here not find a good guest intro-writer. You'd be great for any of this. We all THANK you.

Sharon and I have been in touch with Carrol Fix now, Besides the "no royalties," she has also said that we would need, if we design the cover ourselves, to--at the time we send the full manuscript, to send her also a print-ready cover, front and back, with the blurbs, text, and titles in place (she will send us the dimensions that she needs); or if we prefer, she will do the cover (no changes to it once it's done).
Carrol also notes that she "can only do a discount for authors who are willing to take a time-limited 15% discount, on the Lillicat Publishers website only, which uses PayPal."
These are fairly standard publisher terms, btw. I have to check with her re a proof copy, which I think is important--shall get back to you all on this (not today).

Marianne, that is very very kind of you. For the rest, we'll understand that you need to spend your time with your famlies and in dealing with these losses and family illnesses. Warm thoughts to you.
Paula