TECH: 101 Tips (63)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 2 March 2010

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"Successful freelancers know they have to take the details seriously. Nothing stands out in a query letter more than a glaring error, and respecting AP style is one of those editorial no-brainers." Marnie Engel Hayutin

Another piece of advice about making sure that the details are right -- so that the editors don't trip over them. Spelling, grammar, AP style or whatever style is appropriate, get the little stuff right so that slush readers, editors, and so forth don't pay attention to that. You want them to pay attention to your story, the big picture that you're trying to show them. If they trip over extra apostrophe's, miss spellings, or even, the extra, commas... they might miss a really good show!

It's that notion again of making the frame invisible. Sure, we can do a baroque or rococo style presentation, calling attention to our literary word choices and extravagant use of punctuation, but by and large, that's unlikely to sell a story. So think about polishing those details.