|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
WRITERS' WORKSHOP |
|
|
|
|
|
Welcome to the Year 2001 BayCon Writers' Workshop. If you're ready to get off your aspirations and start selling, we're here to help.
Who we are: a dedicated team of professional writers, editors, and publishers, each of whom wants nothing more than to see your name in print.
What we do: right around Tax Day, April 15th, we'll pull together four to eight workshop sections based on type of manuscript and genre. This is hit-or-miss, but we usually manage to at least separate the novelists from the short story writers. Three pieces of fiction--including yours--go into each section; three professionals and one moderator join the authors to make up a total of seven people in each room. Big fat envelopes go out to everybody--authors, pros, and moderators--by May 1st.
At the end of May, BayCon rolls around and we're ready to rock. Our scheduling is perfect, the rooms are ready, and everybody in each section has read each story and is ready to say in three minutes those critical words which will help this work out of its chrysalis and onto the shelves of a bookstore near you.
Administrivia:
You must be a registered member of Baycon 2001 to attend the writers' workshop. (We won't critique your work in absentia; if you don't show up, it's your loss.)
If you're not already a member, please send your completed BayCon 2001 membership form and fee in the same envelope with your manuscript and we'll take care of it.
If you are a member and you know your membership number, please tell us what it is.
Finally, if you're a member but you don't have your number handy--or have sent your membership form and fee in a separate envelope--please let us know and we'll do our best to straighten it out. This is where we run into trouble every year, so please help us out by sending everything to the workshop address if at all possible.
Your manuscript must arrive at the workshop address by the deadline, April 1st, 2001. No, this is not an April Fool's Day joke; every year we get a bunch of manuscripts after the deadline and have to kick 'em back. Last year we even went so far as to extend the deadline to April 15th, and guess what happened?
Yep, that's right. Nothing showed up until May 1st.
So we'll say it again: your manuscript must arrive at the workshop address by the deadline, April 1st, 2001.
One more time: your manuscript must arrive at the workshop address by April 1st, 2001.
Got it?
You must send a $25 fee for each manuscript to cover the costs of copying and postage. If you send more than one manuscript, please send separate checks in case we need to return one of your manuscripts due to space limitations. Oh, and please tell us which one is the one you most want critiqued, in case we need to pick one over the others.
Collaborations are fine, as long as both authors--if they both wish to attend, that is--are members of BayCon. We'll only send you one set of workshop manuscripts, however, because we're only charging you one $25 entry fee.
About Your Story:
Your story must be science fiction, fantasy, horror, or have a fantastic element of some kind. It's a science fiction convention, so the professionals will be expecting to critique along those lines.
Your story must be one that you really care about. Please don't send in a "trunk story," listen to your critique, and then tell us that this was just an old piece of junk you didn't know what to do with. While we may be able to pinpoint something that might be preventing a particular story from selling, we strongly recommend you write something new for the workshop.
About Your Manuscript:
Your manuscript should contain no more than 7500 words. This will present a problem for you novelists in the audience; if you're submitting a novel, please send the first chapter or two and a synopsis of what happens in the rest of the book. Yes, the total word count for the chapters plus synopsis should be no greater than the aforementioned 7500.
Your manuscript should have your phone number and e-mail address (if available) on the front page, in case we lose your cover letter and need to contact you.
Your manuscript should be typed or computer-generated in 12-point Courier, double-spaced, with one-inch margins all around. (Please go look up "standard manuscript formatting" if anything in the preceding sentence doesn't make sense to you.) While we'll ask our pros to refrain from bitching too much about formatting errors, this is something they dearly love to harp on ... and wouldn't you rather hear about your story?
About You:
You must read and critique the other two works in your section. You are a very important part of the process; very often a fresh pair of eyes is just what a story needs.
You must show up on time for your section. If you're late (or miss it entirely) the rest of your section will suffer. No critiques will be provided after the fact.
Finally, if you are not yet an adult--chronologically or emotionally--please be very certain that what you really want is critique. This isn't therapy or a support group; we're here to read stories, not authors. We will do our best to provide a supportive environment, but what it all boils down to is this: you will receive honest feedback about your work, and if you're not ready for that, the BayCon Writers' Workshop is not for you.
Hope to see you there,
Kent Brewster
Writers' Workshop Co-Ordinator, BayCon 2001
Ye Workshop Address:
BayCon 2001 Writers' Workshop
2152 Santa Cruz Ave
Santa Clara, CA 95051
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
For further information, e-mail writers@baycon.org
|
