Dragon & Dungeon Mag Queries

[MoogleEmpMog]

I wouldn't be posting this if I wasn't using a psudonym, but I am really envious. The only ideas of mine they've deemed cool were ones I just tossed in for grins and never really developed. Small wonder they get shot down when they're recieved.

Just a bit of advice to those submitting: elmininate the passive voice in your submission. I got my article back with bunches of yellow, blue, and red all over it and I had to rack my brain coming up with other words for "is".

Also, eliminate passive construction, which is different from the passive voice. Dragon and Dungeon don't like either, and they don't like negatives, such as "don't." The last especially gives me fits.

"The dragon was slain by the PCs" - that's passive voice, and more palatable as "The PCs slew the dragon."

"The dragon is a scaly reptile" - that's passive construction, a much tougher nut to crack. You basically have to omit description of what things are outright to avoid it, and rephrase as much as possible as some type of action.

Sometimes you can sneak description in by ommiting the words, too. For example, "Mighty automatons of steel and sinew, flesh golems pose a significant threat to PCs."

Following the Dragon style guidelines definitely makes a prospective writer more appealing to the magazine.

Also, it helps to write for sections that still exist.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Although the first choice for most people is, obviously, publication in Dragon or Dungeon, how hard would it be to take a developed idea and just publish it as a PDF instead, if Paizo were to reject it?

I ask because I've got several things I'm in different stages of developing that I'm going to run past Paizo and I've thought that PDFs were a good Plan B, should it come to that, as it does with most submissions.

While Eric (or at least someone who's tried this before ) would have to address the legal aspects of this question, I can answer the literary ones.

Print publication, even in a minor mag, is better than PDF to most editors. If your PDF rocketed up the RPGNow sales charts and blew away the Wizards and Malhavoc entries because it was just that cool, then it might be impressive. I don't know about you, but confident as I am in the quality of my work, I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.

It really depends on what you're after.

If you're a professional writer (or aspiring professional writer) who primarily writes for gaming mags because it's your major interest and you'd like to land a paying position with a Mongoose or WotC, who actually pay you enough to live off of, then a PDF is better than nothing but worse than anything else.

If you'd just like to make a quick buck off some cool gaming ideas, PDF is the way to go - it's the only part of publishing that's anything like quick, and you'll probably make a buck.

If you just want to get your ideas out to the gaming public and don't care about payment, you're probably better off submitting to Regdar's Repository on the WotC boards or just posting it there, here and perhaps on RPGNet.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I am assuming, of course, that you have few publications. Given my luck of the past few days, you are secretly Monte Cook and I am coming across as being incredibly condescending.

Heh, no. I'm a professional writer (on my 13th year of making a living from it), but I've never sold any gaming-related writing, although I did get three ideas accepted by Dragon years ago, shortly before some insane upheavals in my personal life torpedoed getting them done. This time, I'll have them much closer to finished prior to query, simply to ensure they get completed in a timely fashion. Hence my question about where else they could go to live should Paizo not be interested.

 

[BOZ]

I wouldn't be posting this if I wasn't using a psudonym, but I am really envious.

i'm sure it was just a fluke. or maybe those were the only 3 good ideas i'll ever have.

 

[Southern Oracle]

The new submission guidelines give a good timeline of contacting the editors to follow up on your queries and submissions, but things do get lost in the cracks. I've had hard copy manuscripts get lost in the mail, contracts get lost in the mail, pay checks go to other authors, and emails get lost in the ether. I've also had queries get accepted by one editor and then rejected by the next. However, it's all worth it in the end. There's nothing quite like walking into your FLGS, casually flipping through the latest issue of Dragon, and pointing out your name to the members of your gaming group. (And it's cool when one of your articles gets used as source material for a hard cover book, like my "Fractious Factions" article was for the Planar Handbook!)

 

[BOZ]

good deal. i just finished collaberating on a mind-flayer monsters article and submitted on sunday - waiting with baited breath to hear back on it. it's my first time.

 

[Mouseferatu]

And to be entirely honest, many of us who have been through the process still find it nerve-wracking. I advise everyone to be patient, but I have almost no patience myself. Three times in the last week, I've had to consciously stop myself from pestering poor Erik about the status of several proposals/articles.

I'd like to say you get used to the waiting, but you don't. What you do, if you want to get anywhere, is learn to tolerate it.

 

[Alzrius]

good deal. i just finished collaberating on a mind-flayer monsters article and submitted on sunday - waiting with baited breath to hear back on it. it's my first time.

Just curious, BOZ, did you ever hear anything about the bugbear article?

 

[d20Dwarf]

I'd like to say you get used to the waiting, but you don't. What you do, if you want to get anywhere, is learn to tolerate it.

Yes.

And to tell you the truth, I don't have to tolerate it, really. I just send in the queries and articles and then forget about them. After all, there's always another project around the corner, and they'll come out eventually. The best part for me is acceptance, seeing them in print is a distant second. I can understand how some people might feel differently, though.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Thanks for all of the replies.

Just a couple of things. I am aware of the Submission Guidelines. I have had an article in Dragon before (the first Player's Advice for the 'new' focus dragon - an article I had to crop from 3,200 words to 800 and in the end made little sense ).

I am more interested in what some of you have sent for queries. As stated I have actually written two articles. They are more Player Advice ones and are written exactly for that format, including word length. What should I have sent to Dragon other than an email stating "here's some ideas I have, would you be interested?".

Would it be better off attaching the docs and just saying 'check them out' first time around rather than sending email as query and then waiting a long time for reply and then 'if' they are accepted sending them in and waiting again? I am worried that a simple query will not portray what is in my articles, as they are not as simple as saying ' hey, what about an ecology on shriekers'?

About the waiting. My first article went through rather quickly This time around it is different and the stuff that got passed onto Dungeon from Dragon during their change of focus is what I sent agan recently. Meaning it was originally sent with the first submission that was published in Dragon 323.

More recently my other queries have taken some time. I am not moaning, just finding out what is going on and what others experience now - as it is far different than my first time around.

But as someone else said it would be good to know, b/c I have these articles I would like to use/put out there somewhere. Without 'knowing' whether Dragon & Dungeon are interested at least the articles do nothing. I am not going to get overly upset if they are rejected, but I could at least put out a PDF or more likely on a website interested.

Have enjoyed the feedback. Now just help me with what exactly a query is. What do you send for article ideas?

Connors