Submissions Surgery - your preferred time

[AgentPete]

Doing some basic work on this now. My feeling is not to run Submissions Surgery on Sundays, since it will interrupt the weekly flow of Pop-Up Submissions. So what other day is good for folk? Time would be same as Pop-Ups, i.e. 6pm UK. Please let me know.

 

[Barbara]

Personally, I favour keeping it to a Sunday. I can't do work days. I work 10AP-7PM and by the time I get home...

Sundays may interrupt with the pop-ups, but I don't think people would mind. I certainly wouldn't. Sometimes it's nice to have something different. Keeps the interest, breaks the habit.

Also, if you do a different/second day for the surgery i.e. Friday, it means that people would be tuning in twice that week. It's a couple of hours each time minimum, (even to watch it later). They might have to choose one over the other. Would people have/make time for both? Again, I probably wouldn't be able to, especially during those times when own writing flows and I get lost in the words, and work too is a bit of an inconvenience.

Just a thought.

I'd keep it to Sunday. Sunday in the Colony with Pete.

 

[AgentPete]

OK, some thoughts.

I really would prefer to keep to a regular weekly Pop-Ups schedule. Anything less than that fractures your audience. And creates a backlog.

The issue with Submissions Surgery is how to restrict it to Litopians only. It may turn out that this isn’t possible, or at least not without major cost, and we have to use the free services of Facebook and YouTube. In which case, how would people feel about their submissions being analysed in public?

Submissions Surgery will probably be monthly to start with, and may only look in-depth at one or two submissions. Recordings will be available afterwards here in the Colony. I’m currently inclined towards Saturday evening, 6pm.

 

[Rich.]

I have to say, I agree with @Barbara, but I do see your point, @AgentPete. Nevertheless, if pushed to make a choice, I'd have to say Sunday as well. I'm not convinced that missing one Sunday a month would fracture your audience. In fact, I think it would be an opportunity to drive traffic towards Litopia (which opens up other questions about how big you would like Litopia to get – how big can it get while maintaining its identity? – etc).

As for a private livestream, it might be possible with YouTube, though I'm no expert on these things, and it appears you would need the email addresses of the participants.

And in order to distinguish the Surgery from the Pop-Ups – with the added bonus of being a come on to join Litopia – I'd try to keep it private.

 

[Carol Rose]

It's difficult or impossible for me to tune into anything in the middle of the day (6 PM UK time is 1PM here) during the week because I'm working. Saturdays would be doable if it wasn't every week, which I understand it wouldn't be.

Is it possible to do video on Discord? I thought I saw @Amber post in another thread that her son is able to do it.

 

[Marc Joan]

OK, how would people feel about their submissions being analysed in public?.

I just couldn't go with that. I've even become a bit concerned about sharing intellectual property within Litopia, to be honest -- not for any specific reason or concern, just because I am increasingly coming to the point of view that IP ownership is the only thing that gives the author any power whatsoever, and hence one's IP should be held in extreme purdah, as far as possible, until it's married off to a publisher...not sure if that analogy really works, but I'm sure you know what I mean... And yes, I know that the copyright is held by the author as soon as the author creates something, but that principle only gives me cold comfort, I'm afraid.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

OK, some thoughts.

I really would prefer to keep to a regular weekly Pop-Ups schedule. Anything less than that fractures your audience. And creates a backlog.

The issue with Submissions Surgery is how to restrict it to Litopians only. It may turn out that this isn’t possible, or at least not without major cost, and we have to use the free services of Facebook and YouTube. In which case, how would people feel about their submissions being analysed in public?

Submissions Surgery will probably be monthly to start with, and may only look in-depth at one or two submissions. Recordings will be available afterwards here in the Colony. I’m currently inclined towards Saturday evening, 6pm.

Maybe we could create a closed group on FB? Litopians apply to you (Admin) to join.

 

[Carol Rose]

Maybe we could create a closed group on FB? Litopians apply to you (Admin) to join.

I like this idea! Someone else (and forgive me - I can't recall who) suggested this a while back. In a closed FB group, @AgentPete could stream a video and only the people in the group would be able to see it. If it got reported, it would be by someone in the group. You can also make a group secret, meaning no one could even find it. You'd need to be given the link to request to get in, which would in turn make it even more of a Litopians-only thing. Although in a closed group, you can lock down what the public sees and doesn't see.

 

[cgovender]

I'm with @Barbara and @Rich. Sunday evening's with Pete work really well for me, although I realise this wasn't one of the options.

 

[Geoff]

Depending on where I am working, Mon to Thursday 6pm would be fine except for Friday. When I am away from home I am usually travelling on Friday evening. Saturday 6pm okay too, unless I am going out early or am late getting back from football.
No problem airing a submission on weekly Pop Up Submissions, but think a Closed User Group would be preferable if submissions are being closely examined.

 

[AgentPete]

I like this idea! Someone else (and forgive me - I can't recall who) suggested this a while back. In a closed FB group, @AgentPete could stream a video and only the people in the group would be able to see it.

Do you know if that's definitely the case, i.e. you can just live stream to a select group?

And if so, does everyone feel OK about joining a FB closed group?

 

[KateESal]

Do you know if that's definitely the case, i.e. you can just live stream to a select group?

And if so, does everyone feel OK about joining a FB closed group?

I don't know the answer to part 1 of this post.
But in answer to part 2, I'm fine with that. I'm in a couple of other closed groups and they seem to be a good idea if you want to keep things tight.

 

[Geoff]

I have just done a search on my iPhone and it appears you can now live stream to a selected Facebook group. Happy to check further tomorrow, when I am back home.

 

[Carol Rose]

Do you know if that's definitely the case, i.e. you can just live stream to a select group?

And if so, does everyone feel OK about joining a FB closed group?

Let me try in my reader group... I'll let you know.

 

[Carol Rose]

Do you know if that's definitely the case, i.e. you can just live stream to a select group?

And if so, does everyone feel OK about joining a FB closed group?

YES! You can!

 

[Inga Vesper]

I am not on Facebook and only came across Litopia because you started streaming on Youtube...

 

[Tim James]

Do you know if that's definitely the case, i.e. you can just live stream to a select group?

And if so, does everyone feel OK about joining a FB closed group?

If it means having a Facebook account in order to join the group (which i assume would be a prerequisite) then I'm out, I'm afraid. I haven't got a Facebook account and have no wish to create one. This would be a shame as I had wanted to submit a book to this.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I don't know about this on Youtube. Is this feasible?

LiveChatMessages | YouTube Live Streaming API | Google Developers

 

[Amber]

I think having it on Monday is the best way to capitalize on any momentum from PopUps on Sunday.

My son uses Discord to do a video call with people he plays a board game with. I haven’t experimented with it myself. His situation is slightly different. It’s a two party interaction. Which, is significantly different from an x number of people interaction or a broadcast.

You can limit who views a YouTube broadcast.

I don’t have a problem joining a closed Facebook group.

Discord isn’t really closed. People only need the link to be able to join.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

You Tube videos can be kept private, though it does take a little work--I do this with videos of my kids. You can either mark it as private and create a list of e-mail addresses of folks who are allowed to view it, or you can mark it as ... can't remember the term ... basically unfindable unless you know the url.

 

[KateESal]

You Tube videos can be kept private, though it does take a little work--I do this with videos of my kids. You can either mark it as private and create a list of e-mail addresses of folks who are allowed to view it, or you can mark it as ... can't remember the term ... basically unfindable unless you know the url.

Given that a lot of people are, quite reasonably, allergic to the idea of having a FB account, a limited Youtube channel as described above might be a good approach. The relevant link could be put on the Litopia website each month. (Would we take it down again after a certain amount of time has passed...?)

 

[Amber]

Video Broadcast possibilities:

10 Broadcast Tools

 

[David Newrick]

You know you really should look at your 'platform' as Pete has advised many a time in the past. If you are against Facebook and the like personally that is fine, but professionally you should set up an account to pursue a career in writing and to join in things like Pete's on-line sessions! (Just saying...)

 

[AgentPete]

Thanks for all the above advice and suggestions. Mondays at 7pm sounds doable.

My thinking at this point is to have a (mostly) weekly Submissions Surgery, not monthly. There would be times, of course, when I just couldn't fit it in, but generally I think this would work.

And a weekly schedule would allow me to focus on just one writer / submission every week, rather than spread it too thin.

Will experiment with some of the video options above for a closed group.

More anon.

 

[Barbara]

I rather like the idea that you concentrate on one sub per week. I'm assuming this would be in the actual order that the subs come in?

I'm just thinking: I can't do mondays at all, but I have a submission which I would like surgery-ed. I might be able to finish work early as a one off, but would need at least two weeks notice to schedule that. Would you consider having 'appointments', so to speak? (It's a surgery after all ). Consultation by appointments for Litopians only.

 

[Carol Rose]

That counts me out, too. Mondays at 7PM UK time is either 2PM or 1PM US time, depending on when the bi-annual time changes occur. And that's in the middle of a work day for me. Oh well.

 

[AgentPete]

I want to avoid moving it around too much, cos then there's a greater likelihood of cancellations, clashes, etc with my regular appointment diary. Also it could become a scheduling minefield between me and the writer.

How do Saturdays at the same time strike folk?

 

[Barbara]

How do Saturdays at the same time strike folk?

Probably works for many. Or even Sat morning. (Would that be friday eve in the US? I don't have a time thingy to hand.)

 

[Rich.]

Saturday might be easier for those who don't live near the Greenwich meridian -- less chance of clashes with work perhaps.

 

[Geoff]

Saturday is okay for me. Big thank you to Peter for sharing his time.
Probably me being dense, which is not unusual, but is the process to submit a 600 page sample on the Sunday Submissions and then those chosen to be called in, will be scrutinised on the Litopia Eyes only Saturday Submissions Surgery? Or can we submit to the Surgery direct?