I'm toying with the idea of
a) Just asking for ten pages. You can tell an awful lot from the first 10 pages or so... maybe with a brief plot synopis. Would allow me to cover more ground.
b) Leaving the video up for about 3 months.
The latter may be controversial. The whole idea of pulling the recording down after 24 hours was to give a large measure of privacy to the writer. This would mean that a very small amount of their work (two to three %?) would be on public view for longer. However, the author would only be identified by their first name (or pseudonym, even).
The whole point of doing submissions in public is for you (and other writers) to see what goes on, and to think along with me as I evaluate submissions. A longer window would allow more writers to do exactly that.
Give me your thoughts.
I figure I can give thoughts now that I've had experiences.
I listened to the popup submissions every week because I wanted to get a feel for the whole thing. The entire process has been informative. One of the things I'm surprised by each time I meet or speak to someone who is an agent or a publisher is that ... they like stories... they like books ... I believe they're on our side. I haven't submitted to anyone but so much of the vibe among writers is, "Why won't an agent or a publisher just give me a chance?" I don't think we're doing ourselves any favors by nurturing that feeling.
You have a precise and direct manner of providing feedback which I appreciate. When writers or even readers read something, they don't always have a way of articulating what is wrong with something.
But I doubt you were wanting a critique of pop up submissions. I only wanted to reiterate, it was 100% worth it and everyone should do it.
I think it would be good to shorten the number of pages. At first I was going to say, "Most people can write ten pages of good stuff and so ten pages won't be enough of an example." But then, I suppose the possibility of the story falling apart on the next page is almost always there.
I would be okay with the video being left up but I understand some people have concerns about copyright. I almost think posting something in your name is a sort of poor man's copyright and I always think stealing someone else's words is about the stupidest and silliest thing anyone could do ... but what do I know ... I've ghostwritten things which is essentially the same thing ... (yeah ... still don't understand ghostwriting).
AND .. I thought of one more thing ... the video can be saved and downloaded ... so you might as well leave it up longer... it's out there.
I suppose a synopses is a good idea. I didn't turn one in because I didn't know we could. That was unclear.
Thanks again for all the time and effort you've donated to helping writers understand how the whole submission thing works.