As of this morning, we had 106 chapter submissions on our list to read, and guess what, my little beasties? Our focus this morning and for the next 5 hours is to read as many as we can. Gonna be a lot of unhappy writers out there today, me thinks.

While I loathe sending general rejection letters, it has become an absolute necessity to getting other things (client edits, submissions to editors, follow ups, etc.) completed.

So, it's 11 am now, 3 hours into the reading, and we've e-mailed 37 rejections. Nope, none of these were read through all the way, which leads me to the first rule when subbing--

#1 Write something that grabs the reader's attention.

One could argue that literary works might not be as attention-getting. True, but, as with any genre, a writer can pen a start where the main character is picking his nose and still make it great enough to draw me into the story. Even literary carries tension, just with more of a focus on the characters and their surroundings. Which brings me to rule #2--

#2 You have approximately two minutes to convince me I want to spend any more time on your writing. Make good use of those 2 minutes.

We have a ton of great writers already, each with their own new projects for us to read (projects we know are going to be great), so it's up to you to show us why we should put down their latest in favor of reading yours. You don't necessarily need to start with a bang, but your style should grab my undivided attention (a tough thing to do), your writing should be pleasant and enjoyable to read, and--

#3 You should be subbing something I actually want to read.

Which can lead to another important rule--

#4 Do your research on us. Best place is to read the blog, pay attention to what we're looking for.


To be continued...