Today I've managed to read another four stories. To let the cat out of the bag: I'm slushing for Aurealis (the link is to the guidelines page for a reason).
People, please read the guidelines for any publication you are intending on submitting to. Also have others check over your work before submission and check your grammar and spelling for typos and wrongly placed words.
I had one today where "favourite colours" was in a sentence, except favourite was spelled without a 'u' and colours was spelt with one. I don't know of any country where that is acceptable.
Biggest problem found today - way too much exposition. Show don't tell, people.
A little later today, I'll be commenting on stories for two other writers and sending them back. I'm hoping to find some time tonight to write a little more on Newland. I'll be woefully short of my goal this week, but that's due to a sudden increase in actual work at my day job. Nothing I can do about that.
I finished reading the latest issue of Aurealis so my reading credits this month stand at one novel and one publication. Not great. I have three PDF's sitting in my inbox for reading as well and new books for review due soon.
Then there's assignments to get done.
busy, busy, busy
Speak soon.
The Time Machine Australia Bound
2 weeks ago
I'm guessing whoever submitted was Canadian : )
ReplyDeleteI often have to stop myself from using "grey" instead of "gray."
Surely it's not difficult to write your piece in your own language - even if that's Canadian - then check the country your target market is set in, and then change the spell checker in your word processor program to check for you.
ReplyDeleteIf a writer's chosen software is incapable of a rudimentary check like this, then perhaps they had better invest in better tools of the trade.
I know some editors who simply refuse to move on with a piece if it's full of typos or hasn't followed the guidelines. They say if it looks unprofessional, then it probably is, so why bother - there's plenty of other submissions to go through.