[Attn: Writers who wanna write for Eberron] Plot workshopping?
- Thread starter RangerWickett
- Start date
BiggusGeekus
That's Latin for "cool"
Optihut said:
Um ... that might have also made it into mine.
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
Well, I'm out already it seems.
I sent my proposal USPS on Saturday 8/28, Express Mail for guaranteed delivery by 8/30.
First delivery attempt was made at 8:00 AM on 8/31 (later than guaranteed, but still in time for WOTCs deadline).
Somehow-- don't ask me how, it's a PO Box, right?-- WOTC didn't take delivery.
Second delivery attempt made 9/1, after the deadline, this time it was signed and accepted.
I emailed to ask what happened, and what would happen, and got a form response that said, "If we got it on time, we'll review it; anything received after the deadline will be returned."
Yeah, I'm pretty pissed. I encourage folks with tracking numbers to track.
But hey, at least I get to go back and waste more time filling out claim forms to get my $13.65 back from the Post Office for failing to deliver by the guaranteed time, so that's something.
Wulf
I sent my proposal USPS on Saturday 8/28, Express Mail for guaranteed delivery by 8/30.
First delivery attempt was made at 8:00 AM on 8/31 (later than guaranteed, but still in time for WOTCs deadline).
Somehow-- don't ask me how, it's a PO Box, right?-- WOTC didn't take delivery.
Second delivery attempt made 9/1, after the deadline, this time it was signed and accepted.
I emailed to ask what happened, and what would happen, and got a form response that said, "If we got it on time, we'll review it; anything received after the deadline will be returned."
Yeah, I'm pretty pissed. I encourage folks with tracking numbers to track.
But hey, at least I get to go back and waste more time filling out claim forms to get my $13.65 back from the Post Office for failing to deliver by the guaranteed time, so that's something.
Wulf
Darth Shoju
First Post
Man, that blows.Wulf Ratbane said:
I sent mine courier and it says online (via tracking #) that it was delivered on 08/31/04 at 10:48 am (I think CST). So I know that it at least made it to their street address on time. I just don't know if their street address is a different location than the P.O Box (they have different zip codes) and if it is, I can only hope they forwarded it to the correct location in time. I guess I'll know if they return it, right?
Khur
Sympathy for the Devil
As someone who's a rank but enthusiastic amateur, I’d like to add a couple things to the discussion here—and others may confirm. I submitted to Maiden of Pain, but I didn’t have time to do it well. I still got a letter from Peter Archer (book publishing) that specifically identified one of my characters and the things Mr. Archer liked about that character. I’m pretty sure the process is to read the 10-pager and then the rest. If the 10-pager isn’t good, there’s no reason to read the synopsis. (I’ve read elsewhere that many editors don’t even bother to read your cover letter—they want to know if you can write!) The synopsis may well be a deciding factor, as well as experience revealed by the cover letter. If the synopsis has some holes, but the writing is fantastic, I'm sure the editors would prefer the good writing. Plot holes can be fixed. It doesn’t take very long to read a 10-page, double-spaced narrative, especially if that narrative is compelling. It also doesn’t take long to discard a poor narrative.
One of the first things I did was check on the books already coming out for Eberron. (Sorry I just found this thread today [Sept 2], or I might have posted this to help others.) One series, by Keith Baker, starts in Sharn and focuses on the Dreaming Dark and, one assumes, related subjects (Dol Quor, the Quori, the kalshtar). The other series, by Matt Forbeck, is about the Mark of Death (so I assumed the elves, Blood of Vol, and Emerald Claw are all important in this series). I also tried to avoid anything I found too prominent in published Eberron adventures, too prominent in cliché pulp (fights atop trains, airship crashes, and the like though I acknowledge all of that is very pulp and still cool), and keep my story in line with the campaign setting and everything Keith has posted on the Dragonshards column on the WotC site—from letters of credit to Dhakaani spiked-chain masters.
I found myself wondering, though, if the combatants atop a lightning rail had to avoid the lightning.
Did anyone else find it useful to read their story out loud to a discerning fantasy fanatic?
Good luck all!
One of the first things I did was check on the books already coming out for Eberron. (Sorry I just found this thread today [Sept 2], or I might have posted this to help others.) One series, by Keith Baker, starts in Sharn and focuses on the Dreaming Dark and, one assumes, related subjects (Dol Quor, the Quori, the kalshtar). The other series, by Matt Forbeck, is about the Mark of Death (so I assumed the elves, Blood of Vol, and Emerald Claw are all important in this series). I also tried to avoid anything I found too prominent in published Eberron adventures, too prominent in cliché pulp (fights atop trains, airship crashes, and the like though I acknowledge all of that is very pulp and still cool), and keep my story in line with the campaign setting and everything Keith has posted on the Dragonshards column on the WotC site—from letters of credit to Dhakaani spiked-chain masters.
I found myself wondering, though, if the combatants atop a lightning rail had to avoid the lightning.
Did anyone else find it useful to read their story out loud to a discerning fantasy fanatic?
Good luck all!
Wulf Ratbane said:
Bummer. Sucks to have it come down that way. IIRC, I thought that Express Mail didn't work like normal mail. I thought it had to be delivered like a FedEx package, which meant no PO Boxes... but I could be totally wrong on that. I've gotten burned on a few submissions before, and I pretty much send stuff a week or ten days ahead of time via priority mail (which does PO Boxes without problem) to avoid running into that issue. It only takes one time of having your submission get denied because of deadline to get that ten-day buffer incorporated into the timeline real well...
Nathan Wolf
First Post
Me too, Wulf
I can sympathize Wulf, mine happened the exact same way. I sent it Monday by Express Mail, it got there Tuesday at 8:58 and for some reason couldn't be delivered. They accepted it at 8:15 on the first. I sent an email to Customer Service, and haven't received a reply yet but I'm sure I'm screwed too. *sigh*
Well, at least it got me off my duff and writing again. I've written all my life, but never consistently enough to consider submitting, and this open call made me do it. Now I'm wondering if I should resubmit the sample (maybe with some adjustments) as a run-of-the-mill submission to Wizards for consideration. Has anyone else gone through their normal sample submission process and had any results?
Good luck to everyone,
-- nathan
I can sympathize Wulf, mine happened the exact same way. I sent it Monday by Express Mail, it got there Tuesday at 8:58 and for some reason couldn't be delivered. They accepted it at 8:15 on the first. I sent an email to Customer Service, and haven't received a reply yet but I'm sure I'm screwed too. *sigh*
Well, at least it got me off my duff and writing again. I've written all my life, but never consistently enough to consider submitting, and this open call made me do it. Now I'm wondering if I should resubmit the sample (maybe with some adjustments) as a run-of-the-mill submission to Wizards for consideration. Has anyone else gone through their normal sample submission process and had any results?
Good luck to everyone,
-- nathan
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
Nathan Wolf said:
I believe those are the EXACT same delivery times as mine. Odd?
I'm more than a little frosty about it... Anything you think we can do?
Wulf
Nathan Wolf
First Post
Wish I knew
Wulf,
I wish I knew what the heck to do. I mean, they have a good case, we could've sent it farther ahead of time, the USPS is never a guaranteed thing, blah blah, tough sh$#.
On the other hand, WE GOT IT THERE ON TIME and only Olladra knows why they weren't there to get it!? So I think we've got a valid point as well. We did our part, it's not like we actually sent it a day late and are now trying to weasel our way in.
All I can think to do it wait for their email to arrive and reply to it with as reasonable and polite an argument as I can make. Did your message come from someone you can email back or was it a generic thing?
-- nathan
Wulf,
I wish I knew what the heck to do. I mean, they have a good case, we could've sent it farther ahead of time, the USPS is never a guaranteed thing, blah blah, tough sh$#.
On the other hand, WE GOT IT THERE ON TIME and only Olladra knows why they weren't there to get it!? So I think we've got a valid point as well. We did our part, it's not like we actually sent it a day late and are now trying to weasel our way in.
All I can think to do it wait for their email to arrive and reply to it with as reasonable and polite an argument as I can make. Did your message come from someone you can email back or was it a generic thing?
-- nathan
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
Nathan Wolf said:
I tried to reply to the "form letter" but it bounced back.
Wulf
