Poll Future of Pop-Up Submissions...

What shall we call our second show?

  • Cooking The Books

    Votes: 2 9.5%
  • Submission Surgery

    Votes: 11 52.4%
  • Open Book Surgery

    Votes: 4 19.0%
  • Reality Check with Pete

    Votes: 4 19.0%
  • Something else, as my suggestion below...

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    21

35 Years in Publishing

Poll Pop-Ups on Facebook Live and YouTube?

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AgentPete

Capo Famiglia
Guardian
Full Member
May 19, 2014
London UK
Tomorrow’s Pop-Ups will be the last in the present format. It’s been a surprisingly successful experiment in every way. Viewing number ranges (quite unpredictably) from a few hundred to a few thousand. More importantly, I’ve had very positive feedback from many writers, saying how useful they’ve found it. And from my own point of view, I’ve found the chatroom to be a wondrous resource: it’s actually helped me formulate opinions, work out positioning, and conduct realtime research that has often stunned me. Plus, they are a garden of scatological temptations :) Thank you, everyone, who has taken part.

The only drawbacks have been time – it can take 45 mins or more to talk through a submission, meaning that our early shows were running close to, sometimes exceeding, an exhausting three hours. And backlog. The most I can manage at this length is about six submissions per week, so the window is closed more often than it’s open.

As I’ve already outlined to chatroomers (Copacabanistas?) I think now is a good time to bifurcate. To refine the best elements we’ve discovered, while addressing the two issues mentioned above. Here’s my solution.

Our first show will run for three weeks in the month. Submissions will be open to all Litopians and the general public. But they will consist only of the title, the first page (500 words) and the blurb. We will aim to move quickly from one submission to the next, i.e. to cover a good number in each show. As a special feature, I’d like to invite a guest publisher to evaluate submissions along with me. Anything that catches the publisher's eye, or mine, will be called in for a full submission. It should be quite entertaining, but also a pretty good laboratory for writers.. just think - you could conceive a project, write the first few pages, and then get an early reaction to it! Could save you months of work. And if the reaction were positive, how motivational that would be for you to get the thing written!

The other show will be once a month, on the Sunday when the above one doesn’t run. It will be restricted just to Litopians, and will not be visible to outsiders. It will be more similar to what we’re doing at the moment, more in-depth, able to take more time, and give more consideration to a more mature piece of work.

How does that sounds, Litopians?

Now for the hard bit. I think we’ll keep the name POP-UP SUBMISSIONS for the first show. The second one, though – just for Litopians – doesn’t yet have a name. Some were suggested in the chatroom, and they appear above in the poll. Please vote accordingly… or make your own suggestion below...
 
I can only speak for myself--someone who only found this glorious resource earlier this year, but I am very much on board with this new presentation. The new format sounds to be a lot snappier, more likely to keep the chatroom on point when you need it and give us the greatest variety of work to admire, as well as learn from. More than that, two experienced voices in the room is something that will really emphasise the points made and drive home those lessons. I can really see it being something other people will try to emulate.

Excited already.
 
Sounds like a decent approach.

Sub Base
Show – Do Tell
Subs Standards
Submission Mission
Killing Your Darlings



It's possible some of the above suggestions aren't entirely serious. ;)
 
I certainly prefer the idea of a surgery restricted to Litopians. I haven't participated in or listened to Pop-Ups as yet, because I am very nervous about my IP / ideas being made public before they are published; and also a little uncomfortable about hearing the ideas of others, in case they turn out to be close to something I am working on. So a more restricted audience -- and fewer items covered in more depth -- would be preferable, for me.
 
I think the new format sounds great. And having a guest publisher is very exciting.

One question. How will this...
Anything that catches the publisher's eye, or mine, will be called in for a full submission.
...work with this...
you could conceive a project, write the first few pages, and then get an early reaction to it!
?
Won't it be awkward if you call for a full and it hasn't been written?

But the format -- brilliant idea. :)

And the name -- 'Submission Surgery' gets my vote (not a gimmick in sight ;)).
 
I suspect the statistics of those watching are higher than the figures quoted. I have watched every episode, though not always live as various events conspired against me. I am interested to see which way the new format goes, and can only reiterate that in this short time I have learned to *see* what I had missed previously. Based on Pete's analysis of not just my work, but that of others, I have rewritten the first pages of two previous novels and my work in progress.

I do wonder if there should be a certain level of discernment in the new process , however. An absolutely random selection will include those offerings that are embarrassingly bad. Those works that are nearly-but-not-quite good enough would provide a much better learning experience for all, and offer Pete a chance to be critically focused rather than struggling for diplomacy.

I am not being judgmental, my own early writing was dire, and my present writing hasn't sold, but there is clearly a progression of learning involved and if the work of absolute beginners is assessed, those who have been writing a long time will not gain so much from sitting through it. Nor will the beginners.
 
Ooh I like it! Have to start scheduling in Sunday evenings for these. It's been hit and miss for me depending if I'm coincidently online or not when these are on. I hardly use Facebook too anymore which is why I've not made my presence there often.
 
I think the new format sounds great. And having a guest publisher is very exciting.

One question. How will this...
...work with this...
?
Won't it be awkward if you call for a full and it hasn't been written?.

We’ll just have to play that by ear. I certainly won’t mind writers “trying out” ideas & execution at an early stage. Let’s take a hypothetical – say you come up with a good idea and the execution looks promising. And a publisher bites.

Even if it takes some months to produce more material, you’ve still got a direct intro to an interested publisher. Publishers are used to dealing in months or indeed years for authors to deliver the goods, that sort of time scale won’t faze them.
 
Tomorrow’s Pop-Ups will be the last in the present format. It’s been a surprisingly successful experiment in every way. Viewing number ranges (quite unpredictably) from a few hundred to a few thousand. More importantly, I’ve had very positive feedback from many writers, saying how useful they’ve found it. And from my own point of view, I’ve found the chatroom to be a wondrous resource: it’s actually helped me formulate opinions, work out positioning, and conduct realtime research that has often stunned me. Plus, they are a garden of scatological temptations :) Thank you, everyone, who has taken part.

The only drawbacks have been time – it can take 45 mins or more to talk through a submission, meaning that our early shows were running close to, sometimes exceeding, an exhausting three hours. And backlog. The most I can manage at this length is about six submissions per week, so the window is closed more often than it’s open.

As I’ve already outlined to chatroomers (Copacabanistas?) I think now is a good time to bifurcate. To refine the best elements we’ve discovered, while addressing the two issues mentioned above. Here’s my solution.

Our first show will run for three weeks in the month. Submissions will be open to all Litopians and the general public. But they will consist only of the title, the first page (500 words) and the blurb. We will aim to move quickly from one submission to the next, i.e. to cover a good number in each show. As a special feature, I’d like to invite a guest publisher to evaluate submissions along with me. Anything that catches the publisher's eye, or mine, will be called in for a full submission. It should be quite entertaining, but also a pretty good laboratory for writers.. just think - you could conceive a project, write the first few pages, and then get an early reaction to it! Could save you months of work. And if the reaction were positive, how motivational that would be for you to get the thing written!

The other show will be once a month, on the Sunday when the above one doesn’t run. It will be restricted just to Litopians, and will not be visible to outsiders. It will be more similar to what we’re doing at the moment, more in-depth, able to take more time, and give more consideration to a more mature piece of work.

How does that sounds, Litopians?

Now for the hard bit. I think we’ll keep the name POP-UP SUBMISSIONS for the first show. The second one, though – just for Litopians – doesn’t yet have a name. Some were suggested in the chatroom, and they appear above in the poll. Please vote accordingly… or make your own suggestion below...

Sounds good! Looking forward to next Sunday. :)
 
I don’t remember if Submission Surgery was mine ... maybe. I like Cooking the Books.... i think that was Tim’s.
 
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35 Years in Publishing

Poll Pop-Ups on Facebook Live and YouTube?

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