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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Khur" data-source="post: 1737078" data-attributes="member: 5583">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!</blockquote>

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