Captain's Blog
Ahoy, Critterfolk!
New entry May 03
Critter Notices
New Book from a Critter Member
Awesome new book,
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SPECULATIVE FICTION OPENINGS,
from a Critter member whose unearthed a shard of The Secret
to becoming a pro writer. Really good piece of work.
"...if you're at all concerned about story openings, you'd be nuts not to read what Qualkinbush has to say." —Wil McCarthy, author of BLOOM and THE COLLAPSIUM
Stayin' Alive
If you want to make a career of SF writing, STAYING ALIVE - A WRITER'S GUIDE by three-time SFWA President Norman Spinrad, published by your Critter Captain's ReAnimus Press, is an indispensable guide to the SF publishing industry by an expert.How to Write SF
Hot off the presses from ReAnimus Press! The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells by Ben Bova, best-selling author and six-time Hugo Award winner for Best Editor. (This is one of the books your ol' Critter Captain learned from himself, and I highly recommend it.)
Book Recommendation
It's like discovering a new Heinlein book:
POINT ULTIMATE
by Star Trek writer Jerry Sohl.
Announcing ReAnimus Press
If you need help making ebooks from manuscripts or print copies—or finding great stuff to read—look no further! An ebook publisher started by your very own Critter Captain. (And with a 12% Affiliate program.) [More]
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FEATURED BOOK
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Critters Workshop Admin Functions
Join: Drop in here to join.
Submit: Submit a ms. for the queue by going here.
Rules: Rules of the workshop are here.
Ratio check: Check your participation ratio (the 75% thing) here.
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Reset: If you want to reset your Critter-counter (used to determine if you're over/under 75%), stop in here. Use this if, for example, you're so far behind you feel you'll never catch up. This resets you to zero critiques in zero weeks, as if you quit and rejoined. (Note that if you're already at zero currently, you'll be asked to do one critique for the privilege, so you'll get a "-1" critique credit.)
Crit count: A count of how many crits this week's mss. have so far (updated hourly) is here.
Receipts: A list of what critiques have been filed recently (in case you wonder if yours was received) is here.
RFDR: Info on doing an RFDR is here.
RFDR completion: To report when a dedicated reader is done, and award credit, go here.
Late/too short credit: To give credit to a critter whose critique of your piece was marked as late or too short, go here.
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Change Manuscript Title: If you absolutely have to change your manuscript title, go here.
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Quit or go Inactive: If you want to go inactive (stop receiving manuscripts but stay on the weekly notes mailing list), or if you want to quit Critters for good, stop in here. Note that if you're only going on hiatus for a short time, you need not quit -- you should simply set your preferences to receive no emailed mss. or critiques. But read the quitting/inactivation page for more guidelines on whether it's best to quit or suspend email.
Web Ads: If you'd like to help spread the word, there are several web ads you can put on your site, Facebook, etc.
Flyer: If you're going to a con, and would like to place some Critters flyers on the literature table (almost all cons have these, where folks pick up flyers for other cons, magazines, special interest groups, etc.), there's a Critters flyer here. It's a PDF file. It has two flyers per page, so you should cut the sheets in half. I usually print up 50-100 for the first day (25-50 sheets, that is) -- more if it's a big con, e.g., a worldcon (if you know the con organizers, ask how many attendees they expect; I'd print about one flyer for every 4-5 attendees -- many con folk think themselves writers and/or take one of every piece of paper). If they fly off the table, I bring more the 2nd day. For maximum exposure, I usually print them on a variety of colored papers, and place two stacks on the table at opposite ends.
