Hatrack River Writers Workshop Hosted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury • Introduction • Enter the Forum Write to Kathleen Dalton Woodbury Former Boot Campers Success Stories • Chris Todd Miller • Jessi Cole Jackson • Brian McClellan • Ty Franck • 2008 Bootcamp • S.D. Smith • John Brown • Brad Beaulieu • Jamie Ford • Judson Roberts • Danielle Friedman • Scott Andrews • Christine Amsden • Patricia Esden • Rick Novy • Aliette de Bodard • Alethea Kontis • Mary Robinette Kowal • Scott Roberts • Mette Harrison • Eric James Stone • James Maxey • Luc Reid • Douglas Cohen Links of Interest • OSC urges writers to look at this LA Times interview with mystery writer Robert Crais Says OSC: "Crais, one of my favorite writers, has come quite independently to many of the same conclusions I've reached - and which I've taught in my writing workshops for years. It's nice to have an independent source for the ideas! Besides, Crais is an outstanding writer who deserves to be listened to for his own sake." • Parker column: A writer teaches writing • Garrison Keillor's Excellent Advice about MFA Programs • Want a critique of your manuscript from a published author? Mette Ivie Harrison has been praised as one of the finest writers of fantasy and YA literature working today - and she has taught writing workshops with OSC • Bernard Cornwell shares OSC's emphasis on story, letting the author's voice take care of itself. (Thanks to Scott Roberts for pointing this out.) • Comments on Uncle Orson’s Literary Boot Camp • Hatrack Utility Belt • Tor Submissions Guidelines • Using invented language in speculative fiction

How do you submit a science fiction or fantasy novel proposal to TOR, one of the top publishers in both genre? This is the link to their submission guidelines, though my editor suggests that instead of addressing it to a particular person, you address it to either SF Editor or Fantasy Editor. Having a person's name on it won't change the way the submission is handled, she assures me, except perhaps to slow it down. They have a regular system for reading submission packages, and if you address it to an individual who happens to be busy or out of town, your submission might languish longer than necessary.

Notice that TOR considers the chapters-and-outline to be a submission. That means you can only send it on an exclusive basis. You can't send it to multiple publishers at once. This is a change from when I was starting out - in those days, the partial-and-outline were considered a query, and you could send it to everybody at the same time, only submitting the whole manuscript when asked for it.

Tor Submissions Guidelines