Blog
Welcome to the Busybird blog, where you can find helpful articles, updates, industry news and more. Make sure you stay up to date by signing up to our newsletter below.
Being an Editor
October 9, 2014
And thus so far is my experience: the publisher of this enterprise, Blaise, has a smiley nature and reads books to publish and relax. The illustrator, Kev, is a self-taught guitarist and can juggle like a trained circus employee who draws very well on the side. The chief editor, Les, does not believe he is a nerd (which is not a bad name to be branded), yet speaks very fondly of the name Hobbits, and they all consume a number of cups of tea and chocolate biscuits daily.
There are many various stages of editing to consider, but the general gist of it appears to be this: stories are marvellous. They create images and characters and allow people to explore ideas and thoughts in their heads. But stories are only effective if the person you communicate them to can understand what you are saying. Lavishly draped sentences do not make an impact on a person; writing needs to be accessible. This is what an editor does. They will correct your punctuation and grammar and tell you how to spell words you butcher, but they will also praise a story and help you create a version that people can see and respond to accordingly.
Music plays in the background, and lunch at Busybird publishing is break time, walking being quite good to break up long segments of reading and recognise you still have legs. There do appear to be many monkeys that eye you whilst working, but they are so far harmless, and sum up the publishing house quite nicely.
The perception of a publisher’s life at Busybird publishing is very charming. It is one of editing and publishing others’ works, and is not at all a bad way to spend a week of one’s holiday.
Jessica Ridgeway
Work Experience student.
P17 Issue 11 Reflections – Geraldine Borella and Kristin Martin
October 7, 2014
Another week, another small offering of insight on what went into the content of the upcoming Issue 11 of page seventeen.
Don’t forget to promote these authors if you know them or are admirers of their previous work. And if their stories stand out for you after reading P17 #11, let us (and everyone else) know about it loud and clear! P17 would be the shortest anthology in existence without its contributors, so please join us in celebrating their efforts.
* * *
Geraldine Borella on ‘Achilles and the maple leaf’
‘Achilles and the maple leaf’ started from the trigger word, leaf. The word was suggested by one of my fellow writing group members, and the general brief was to come up with 350–500 words. Of course, ‘Achilles’ grew from the 500 word start into a much longer story, but it was the trigger that provided the spark in the first place. My writing group buddies gave me the confidence to continue on as they unanimously loved the characters and enjoyed the tone. So I took my 500 words and expanded on them, exploring Christa and Achilles in much more depth.
I’m not Achilles and I’m not Christa, but I’ve resembled both at different times in my life. There have been times where I’ve taken left-hand turns that have appeared nonsensical to others, just like Achilles; and times where, like Christa, I’ve dwelled upon tragedy and wallowed in self-pity, thinking I was of little use to anybody. So I guess in writing this story I was trying to make sense of life while discussing ordinariness, extraordinariness, chance meetings, and the importance of friendship. And I also wanted to remind myself of the importance of taking a lighter view and choosing to live in the moment. Despite the ending, this story makes me feel good – is that an exceedingly immodest thing to say? Perhaps so, but I’m sure Achilles would have gotten away with it.
Geraldine Borella is a 42 year old married mother of two living in tropical Far North Queensland. She writes, sings, and has a professional career in healthcare. She is currently writing a young adult novel.
* * *
Kristin Martin on ‘Mixed feelings’
While sitting comfortably with friends and a glass of wine on a cold Tuesday evening at the ultimate Spineless Wonders Presents at the Wheaty in suburban Adelaide I heard the brilliant Craig Behenna read the equally brilliant John Steiner’s short story, ‘Poioumenon’ − an inspiring, rambling, run-on-sentence style piece that is inspired by David Foster Wallace (whose stories I have never read but who I may also have found inspiring) and after obtaining a copy of ‘Poioumenon’ and returning home and reading it and feeling even more inspired I went to check on my sleeping children and their pet huntsman spider. As I looked at the spider I thought about how I had mixed feelings about it living in my house, even though it was safely contained in a cheap plastic terrarium with a red plastic mesh lid, and still feeling inspired I jotted down some notes for a rambling story based on my feelings towards this spider and on the following evening I made time to write the story, throwing in a touch of a friend’s spider phobia to make it more interesting, who incidentally is one of the friends I was sitting with at the Wheaty on that cold Tuesday evening. When my friend bravely read the story, which is called ‘Mixed feelings’, she claimed it was a horror story while I don’t think there is any horror about it whatsoever, so you can read it in page seventeen Issue 11 and see what you think.
Kristin Martin lives near the sea with her family, five spiny leaf insects, one canary, two turtles, five fish and numerous baby huntsman spiders. Her poems and short stories can be found in various magazines and anthologies, including Tadpoles in the Torrens (Wakefield Press, 2013), and on her website: kristinmartin.net.
Being a Busybird – Chocolate Biscuits Included
October 2, 2014
For several weeks now I have been interning at Busybird Publishing, a small publishing house run by husband and wife super duo, Blaise van Hecke and Kev Howlett.
This place has a big heart and lots of chocolate biscuits. The experience here so far has just been fantastic. I’ve been able to address a lot of my weaknesses since starting here at the beginning of August. These include improving my limited editing, proofreading and copyediting skills, under the nurturing guidance of Blaise. I’ve also been doing some really fun, hands-on duties: reading submissions for their genre fiction anthology, [untitled], reading chapters from manuscripts, meeting authors and other interns, and giving general feedback on projects.
Another area I’ve been able to explore is illustration. Kev is also Busybird’s in-house illustrator. He took me under his wing and gave me helpful advice on things like storyboarding (something I’ve been looking at in class at school), and explaining his process of turning his wonderful hand drawn sketches into vibrant, eye-catching illustrations for Busybird’s children’s books.
One of the more important things that has stuck out for me is Busybird’s community spirit in the creative industry. As well as book publishing, Busybird run open mic nights once a month, welcoming emerging and established writers, musicians, poetry enthusiasts and anyone who enjoys the pleasure of hearing spoken word. The building the business runs from has a gallery element, with exhibitions running for roughly a month at a time for different artists. Then you have your writers retreats, workshops in writing and Photoshop (to name a couple), competitions, self-publishing opportunities for authors, manuscript assessments and more! *Leans against a wall and takes a breath*
In fact, I’m learning so much here, I’m already bugging Blaise and Les – Busybird’s Publications Manager – if I can stay on a bit longer when my course is finished. Les might think that’s because of the chocolate biscuits he constantly brings in, but I honestly feel like I’m just scratching the surface of what I can learn about this industry. The biscuits don’t hurt either.
I think it might be time for another coffee and a choc-chip biscuit. I better get back to editing too, I suppose.
Melissa Cleeman
Editorial Intern.
P17 Issue 11 Reflections – Vanessa Page, Beverley Lello and David Goodwin
September 30, 2014
It’s still a little while before Issue 11 is released and available. So in the meantime, until November 19 we can do two things:
1) Shamelessly plug back issues available online here. Some editions are currently out of stock but the most recent issues are still readily available.
2) Promote/tease the upcoming issue.
Let’s devote a little time to that second point. Many of the P17 contributors for 2014 have kindly provided some insight into their submissions and what went into the work that you’ll be reading come mid-November. We’ll publish these reflections in a steady stream between now and the Issue 11 launch. Be sure to check them out in anticipation of the new issue – and many of these authors have an online presence so be sure to look them up.
Without further adieu, the first three reflections from the P17 #11 alumni. More reflections will follow in the coming weeks.
* * *
Vanessa Page on ‘Bellarine machines’
In ‘Bellarine machines’ the timeless imagery of a beachside caravan park is designed to draw the reader into the space – that safe haven or escape bubble we exist in on holiday. The title is drawn from the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, where I experienced a number of caravan park holidays as a child. This kind of holiday escape is an experience that’s familiar to most readers and this poem uses observation and descriptive layering to create that sense of familiarity. I think a lot of the things that truly define us are exposed in these scenarios; when layers are scraped away, life is simpler and there’s more time for reflection. This is a gentle poem that immerses the reader in that space and those ideas.
Vanessa Page is a Brisbane poet. She has published two collections of poetry: Feeding Paper Tigers (ALS Press) and Confessional Box (Walleah Press). She was the winner of the 2013 Anne Elder Award and has twice been named runner-up in the Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Prize.
* * *
Beverley Lello on ‘Protest’
I was involved in the Vietnam Moratoriums in the early 70s and remember clearly the conflict which often arose in families between the older and younger generations. I’ve always wanted to explore that time in a story but ‘Protest’ only came to life for me when I was able to put it in a modern context. Seeing televised news reports of more current demonstrations gave me a way of connecting my protagonist, Susan, with those earlier demonstrations of the early seventies.
Protest marches are also a means people have of speaking out about an issue when the normal channels of communication fail. In my story conflict occurs between the mother and daughter over the daughter’s sexuality but it’s really about the failure of two adults from different generations to communicate and speak openly. This echoes an earlier mother/daughter conflict in the protagonist’s life.
I like writing stories about family relationships because they are so complex and conflict often involves other family members. In this case the husband/father is caught in the middle but it’s his steadfastness – and love for his women – that has the power to provide a solution.
Inspiration for stories usually comes from my own life: travel, observations of the natural world and watching how people interact. Also, many years of reading for pleasure.
Beverley Lello is a writer living in north-east Victoria. Her short stories have been published in Country Style Magazine, page seventeen, fourW (23 and 24), Award Winning Australian Writing (2012, 2013 and 2014) and several anthologies. Beverley has also received a number of awards for her short fiction.
* * *
David Goodwin on ‘Hurling truth’
The star of this poem exists – or, at least, he did three months ago – spewing out surprisingly eloquent brimstone at the cold Melbourne night. My small group was armed only with souvlaki and the beginnings of a hangover as we were beset.
He brought to mind Nick Nolte’s infamous mug shot: straggly swords of hair pointing down in diagonals and parallel universes sloshing in his irises – along with all the typecast hobos trudging around South Central from the terrible movies of my youth – food scraps clinging to impressive beards and sandwich-board screeds commanding repentance before the approaching Big Dance.
But this man possessed considerable élan. We watched him for twenty minutes as we scoffed down our lamb and his material was always fresh, rhapsodic, freestyled, almost as if he understood the demographics of his target market – many passing with addled, arts-and-craft store-eyes of their own, several of them twisting and jerking around him in an impromptu rave as street sweepers hissed at approaching morning.
David Goodwin is a young Melbourne poet and writer currently seeking publication for his memoir detailing six chaotic years working nights in petrol stations. He enjoys psychedelic trance, semicolons and several indicator lights blinking in unison.
Writing a Cover Letter
September 25, 2014
Cover letters – eventually, we all have to write them if we’re to submit to a publisher or an agent.
But is there a trick? A good cover letter shows professionalism, eloquence, and the ability to sell yourself and your book in a limited space.
So, firstly, how long should a cover letter be? One page. That’s it. Don’t spend pages rambling about how great your book is, how great you are, and/or how you’ve been published in 921 other journals – at most, that’s just going to show you babble, and if a publisher or an agent think that of you, they’re going to carry that preconception in when they read your submission.
Open with a paragraph that surmises your story. When we looked at Writing a Synopsis back in May, we used The Hobbit as a template for our examples. So let’s do that here also.
- Bilbo Baggins is a Hobbit who is happy to live his quiet, peaceful, and dull life in Hobbiton. He has no time for adventures, but when the Wizard Gandalf visits him, and introduces him to Thorin Oakenshield, the King of the Dwarves, and a party of twelve other dwarves, Bilbo is thrown headlong into an adventure to rescue Dwarven treasure and liberate the ancestral Dwarven homeland from the terrible dragon Smaug.
Obviously, we’re working in broad strokes. We can’t summarise every detail of the story in a single paragraph. What we want is just an overview, and – in this case – an introduction to the protagonist, and possibly a couple of the supporting characters, as well as the plot. But we get the gist: Bilbo, a Wizard, the Dwarf King, a quest, Dragon, treasure, and freeing the homelands. That’s the story in a nutshell.
What we need to do next is summarise the book as a product:
- more and more publishers are accepting email submissions. If so, you’re just going to be copying and pasting your cover letter into an email, so an extra line will be negligible. Keep in mind that an email doesn’t give you carte blanche to ramble just because there are no visible page breaks. Stick to the one-page template.
- change the font. If you’re using a big font, like Palatino Linotype or Georgia, change to a smaller Serif font, like Times New Roman, or Garamond. One page of Palatino Linotype translates to about three/quarters of a page in Times New Roman.
Here’s a basic comparison – the same sentence in different fonts:
- The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. (Palatino Linotype)
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. (Georgia)
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. (Times New Roman)
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. (Garamond) - drop the font down .5 in size. Yes, you can do that in Word. The standard size is 12. But you can type in 11.5.
- tweak the margins. Unless you’ve set your margins to something uniform (e.g. 3cm all around), by default Word has them at 2.54cm top and bottom, and 3.17cm left and right. All you have to do is shave those margins a fraction, and often it gives you enough room for your entire cover letter to fit.
- tweak the line spacing. If you highlight the text, click Format, then click Paragraph; a window will come up. Underneath the Line Spacing heading, will be your line spacing. To the right will be a window, and above it the word At. You can change 1.5 line spacing to 1.4 line spacing by typing it in here – a tiny adjustment, but over the course of the page it adds up.
- The Hobbit is a 95,000-word YA quest-based fantasy novel I have completed, a story of magic, wondrous lands, and coming of age, where an unlikely hero is compelled to take charge and lead the way, much in a similar vein to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
This gives whoever you’re submitting to an idea of a number of things: the length of the book, the genre, where it sits in the market, and existing books that are comparable. Something you need to accept is that you can write the best story in the world, but if a publisher or agent don’t feel they can sell it, well, in all likelihood you’re screwed, so it’s important to show them the commercial relevance of your story.
Something else you might add to this paragraph are any endorsements the book might’ve received. Did it place in some competition? Or perhaps it received a glowing appraisal from a manuscript assessor known to the publisher? For example:
- The Hobbit was also shortlisted for 2013 Best Unpublished Manuscript Award.
In the end, your book’s going to have to stand on its own, but any information that shows the calibre of the material is worth conveying. If it’s placing in competitions or getting glowing recommendation from assessors known in the industry, it shows your writing is strong.
Something else you can include is if you have any (personal or professional) experience relevant to the writing of the book. Let’s say you wrote a crime thriller, and you’ve been a cop for ten years, that would be worth mentioning. In this case, The Hobbit’s actual author, JRR Tolkien, was an English Professor. Extrapolating, I might add:
- I’m a Professor of English at Victoria University, where I’ve studied languages and mythology, which has helped me create The Hobbit’s canon, and adds to the texture of the story’s history.
If you don’t have a selling point in this regard, don’t worry about it. It’s not the end of the world. But if you do, again, it’s worth sticking it in.
Next, let’s sell ourselves. Had other publications? Won or placed in competitions? Have a blog? Mention them. If you’ve had a litany of publications, don’t list them all. They’re not interested in a complete biography. Name a few. (And if you’ve included a bit about yourself – as demonstrated above – add this to that section; otherwise, start a new paragraph).
- I’ve had stories and articles published in various print and digital journals, such as Overland, Meanjin, [untitled], page seventeen, and others, and my short story, ‘The Long Road’, was highly recommended in the Alan Marshall Short Story Award. I also blog weekly at http://www.leszig.com/
The publications and placings show that you’re writing stuff of a publishable quality, which is an endorsement in itself. It might also demonstrate that you have an existing readership. Of course, there’s a chance you mightn’t have been published, though. Not to worry.
Something else you might consider mentioning is what else you’ve worked on, or what you’re working on next. Another commercial reality is that publishers/agents want to see whether you’re a dabbler as a writer, or whether you’re – potentially – a career author in whom they can invest.
- My previous book, The Silmarillion, explored the foundation of Middle-earth, the conception of the Gods, and the wars which tore apart the kingdoms of Men, Elves, and Dwarves. Currently, I’m working on a new book, The Fellowship of the Ring, which involves the war for a magical ring that Bilbo brings back from his adventures in The Hobbit, and the rise of a dark and ancient enemy.
From my own personal experience, an agent rejected the book I was pitching in my cover letter, but requested to see something else I’d mentioned. You have their attention at this point, so it’s worth selling yourself and your writing (but without overdoing it).
Then simply sign-off with something as basic as:
- Please find enclosed [or attached, if it’s an email] the material stipulated in your submission guidelines.
And, yes, adhere to submission guidelines – and precisely to guidelines. If they ask for three chapters, don’t give them five because your story really doesn’t get rollicking until chapter three and four. If they specifically request Times New Roman as a font, don’t give them Arial, because you like it best of all the fonts.
If you want to finish with a real flourish, you might look at a denouement:
- The Hobbit is a grand adventure that I’m sure will resonate with young adults and adults alike.
But you don’t want to oversell it.
There’s a chance after you’ve done all this, your cover letter is going to be longer than a page. If it is, revise. Go over this thing until it’s as tight as you can make it. Ensure there are no errors on the page – if there’s errors in your cover letter, it’s not going to be the healthiest representative of your writing. So revise, revise, revise. If your cover letter is just over a page, there’s tricks to get around it. But before employing them? Revise. That’s the first and best counter to whittling it down to size.
Otherwise, here are some, um, cheats to get everything fitted on one page:
Keep in mind these tweaks are intended to buy you only a handful of extra lines at most. The best option is always revision.
Finally, personalise who you’re addressing your cover letter to, rather than the generic, ‘To Whom it May Concern’. Ring up the publisher, if need be. Many publishers will have different fiction and nonfiction editors. Personalising the cover letter is not only a nice touch, but it shows you’ve been industrious enough to research them.
Don’t skimp on the cover letter. The cover letter is the first impression you’ll make on a publisher or an agent. Make sure it’s a good one!
LZ.