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New entry May 28

Critter Notices

Books from Critters!

Check out Books by Critters for books by your fellow Critterfolk, as well as my list of recommended books for writers.

How to Write SF

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.) (Also via Amazon)

New Book from a Critter Member

**NOW IN PRINT EDITION TOO!** Awesome new book, HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SPECULATIVE FICTION OPENINGS, from a Critter member who's 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

Interviewed!

I was interviewed live on public radio for Critters' birthday, for those who want to listen.

Free Web Sites

Free web sites for authors (and others) are available at www.nyx.net.

ReAnimus Acquires Advent!

ReAnimus Press is pleased to announce the acquisition of the legendary Advent Publishers! Advent is now a subsidiary of ReAnimus Press, and we will continue to publish Advent's titles under the Advent name. Advent was founded in 1956 by Earl Kemp and others, and has published the likes of James Blish, Hal Clement, Robert Heinlein, Damon Knight, E.E. "Doc" Smith, and many others. Advent's high quality titles have won and been finalists for several Hugo Awards, such as The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy and Heinlein's Children. Watch this space for ebook and print editions of all of Advent's current titles!

Book Recommendation

THE SIGIL TRILOGY: The universe is dying from within... "Great stuff... Really enjoyed it." — SFWA Grandmaster Michael Moorcock

Announcing ReAnimus Press

If you're looking for great stuff to read from bestselling and award-winning authors—look no further! ReAnimus Press was founded by your very own Critter Captain. (And with a 12% Affiliate program.) [More]

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MORE NEWS & NOTICES >>

CRITTERS STORE >>

 

FEATURED BOOK

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CRITTERS STORE >>

Submit an Entry to the Critters Workshop

This page is for submitting an entry to the queue.

Note for text-based files: Before you go to all the trouble of filling in the form here, for text manuscripts, you might want to check the format of your document before you submit it, to make sure it conforms to Critique.org Standard Format. Non-text file formats are explained below (as is conversion from Word .doc format).

Workshop: Critters - Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror
(If this is the wrong workshop, Click here to switch)

Your E-mail address (If this is wrong, you won't get any critiques!):

Your Name (Mixed caps & lower case, please, as in "John R. R. Tolkien"): (Real Life name please, no pseudonyms. Allowed characters are letters, numbers, and ,-_':/.;!#$%&+=. Particulary note ()[]{} or double quotes are not allowed, as these confuse the system.)

Submission Title (Mixed caps, as in "The Return of the King, Chapters 1-5"): (No version info like "revised", "rewrite", "ver 2.0" etc., just the title as the piece will be published. Chapter #s are ok, nothing else. Allowed characters are letters, numbers, and ,-_':/.;!#$%&+=. Particulary note ()[]{} or double quotes are not allowed, as these confuse the system.)

Genre: Science Fiction    Fantasy    Horror   

Form: What you want critiqued is a ...
Short Story/Novelette (self-contained prose fiction under 20,000 words)
Novel/Novella (chapters or RFDR -- prose fiction over 20,000 words or part thereof)
Poetry
Script/Screenplay/Stageplay
Query letter/pitch/synopsis
Other

Length (approx.):
(use minutes for audio/video submissions, word count for text, or number of pages for a web site; for a novel "RFDR", put the length of the section you're submitting here, and include the total length of the book inside your submission as part of comments for readers)

Is this a REsubmission (revision) of something CURRENTLY in the queue (but not already sent out in this week's batch to reviewers):

Yes (it's a resubmission)-- This is a new file for an item already in the queue (or already submitted to Aburt to be added to the queue but for which you haven't yet received a confirmation from Aburt; i.e., no additional entry in the queue needs to be added, just use this file instead -- note that the submission title above must be exactly the same as it is currently in the queue (or as already submitted) or you will incur the wrath of Aburt.)

No (it's a new submission)-- 		This is a brand new submission neither currently in the queue nor recently sent in to be added to the queue; a new entry in the queue definitely needs to be added for it

NOTE: If the work has already been sent out for review in the current batch there's no way to replace it. (Can't pull email back, etc. If it has massively urgent problems that absolutely require fixing, you can email Aburt a plain text edition with a request to replace, but no guarantees.)

Is this a large work that you want marked as a Request For Dedicated Reviewers:

Yes-- This is for a large sized work I want marked as a Request For Dedicated Reviewers
No-- This is an ordinary short story, article, chapters of a book, short audio/video or small web site for which I don't want dedicated reviewers

If you're a pro member and want to use the jump-to-the-head-of-the-queue pro benefit, check here:
(Only works if Aburt has you in the database as a pro; otherwise the minions will come and taunt you. Also note that it may not happen right away if Aburt is out of town, as pro jumps are still done manually.)

Text submission (Plain text!) filename to send:
MSWord file - (try to) convert to text for me, please.

For text documents, this is your manuscript itself. For photo/comics/audio/video/etc., this should be a short text description of what you've got, to entice reviewers to check it out.

We use plain text files since they're 100% universal.

If you check the MSWord box it will try to make a plain text file out of your Word file — HOWEVER the software I have only works for MS Word "version 8" files (Word97 or later). And not always at that. Try it and see how it goes. :)

If you have trouble with .docx files from Word2007 or later, or other software, you can do a save-as into Word97 format and try it. Or see this Word2007 conversion site.) Note that "RTF" (Rich Text Format) type of Word files may or may not work; there is an attempt at converting them, but it may fail badly, in which case try save-as to a regular Word .DOC file.

Short non-text submission (e.g., graphic novel, photo, art — as JPG or PDF) filename to send:

For non-text submissions, this is a file that you upload to the critique.org site for reviewers to see. (Don't use this box for text manuscript submissions, use the box above.)

For photos, art, or comics/graphic novels etc., this should be the file that shows what you want critiqued (small - max 10 Mb file).

For audio/video/whole novels or anything in a file over 10 Mb, see the next box.

For large non-text submissions (audio, video, web sites, RFDRs, etc.): URL to what you want critiqued:

For a web site, this is the URL of the site you want reviewed.

For photos, art, or comics/graphic novels etc., this should be the file that shows what you want critiqued (small - max 10 Mb file).

For audio/video or anything in a file over 10 Mb, upload your piece to a hosting service where others can get to it, such as youtube etc. If you can mark it as private, do so. You can include any needed password in the text description above. Note that a document with some unguessably complicated URL that isn't publicly searchable or listed on a hosting site's "newest" list is pretty close to private.

You can also go the RFDR route for a larger item, and share the files/information directly with the reviewers who'll contact you by email.

Creator notes to reviewers (will go at end of manuscript; this is where most notes belong):

URGENT reviewer notes (placed at top of manuscript; use to indicate e.g. mature content or other content warnings (and please read this FAQ page first about content warnings, and also this article about mature content), British spellings, synopsis of prior chapters, or other URGENT things reviewers need to know before reviewing -- 99% of notes should go at the end, though, and not here [trust me!]. FYI, assume that reviewers understand things like _underlines mean italic_ or *stars means emphasis* etc. and don't bother mentioning those. Beware, I will relocate comments to the end that I don't feel are urgent!):

Any important comments to aburt (these will not be in the manuscript file):



(FYI, if you won an MPC and want to use it, go here after you submit your piece.)

DONATIONS

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Happy minion   Happy minion — last donation was recent. A big Thank You! to Philip Lindeman, David Beavers, Rachel Messinger, and lots of other Critterfolk for their contributions!

Critters is entirely funded by donations from Critterfolk like you, so yours is most appreciated. Click here to make the minions happy. Every dollar helps. Thanks for your support!

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LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO READ?

(Or want to collect money for other people reading your stories?) Check out Aburt's ReAnimus Press.

CRITTERS DIPLOMACY

Fundamental to Critters' success is how people deliver criticisms. Start by reading Critiquing the Wild Writer: It's Not What You Say, But How You Say It. and The Diplomatic Critiquer.

NOVELS

Critters has a special program to get whole novels critiqued. Read about it here.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Please follow these guidelines for formatting and submitting manuscripts to Critters.

WHAT'S IN THE QUEUE

Critters keeps a queue of manuscripts out or to be sent. See the Queue.

WEEKLY MPC AWARD

Want to jump to the head of the Critters queue? The Most Productive Critter or MPC is Awarded weekly to encourage mo' better critting. How to win...

AVOID SCAMS

General Guidelines & Tips on Avoiding Publishing Scams

FAQ

Critters has an extensive FAQ to answer your every question.

CHECK OUT ABURT'S OTHER PROJECTS

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