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Musa Publishing

Prophetsnake

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I don't remember if you were looking to submit a short story or what (I"m at school and the internet's wonky, so scrolling up will probably freeze the internet or something), but for me Online is great for shorts. Heck, the Harvard Review is all online now! Lol


Yes, i agree! I love getting shorts online. I just bought an anthology of some very good stories online for only a buck twenty-two!

I'm interested in submitting a novel, though, and I'd really like to see it in print as well.
 

LaneHeymont

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Yes, i agree! I love getting shorts online. I just bought an anthology of some very good stories online for only a buck twenty-two!

I'm interested in submitting a novel, though, and I'd really like to see it in print as well.

Getting a novel into print = print-on-demand or going the traditional route.
For me the traditional route is the way. I had an offer with small nice advance, but it would've been print-on-demand. They used Lightning Source and I only knew it thanks to Pricless! :)
 

LaneHeymont

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Celina, this is daft of me to ask, I know. For a short around 5120 words, do you want a synopsis in the query letter, or should I just put the story in the body of the email?

I queried and received a request for the full, so I think just the query works.
 

Filigree

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Color me confused. I haven't queried a short story in, oh, 20 years.
Usually, I just send the story and a cover letter with the title, word count, genre, and a short paragraph of my writing credits.

I have enough difficulty coming up with queries for my longer mms.
 

Prophetsnake

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Getting a novel into print = print-on-demand or going the traditional route.
For me the traditional route is the way. I had an offer with small nice advance, but it would've been print-on-demand. They used Lightning Source and I only knew it thanks to Pricless! :)

Well, traditional would be my first choice, naturally! I have been trying to get an agent, but no luck so far. I am holding off a little until I am sure I have the book perfect, and that my Query letter is also as good as it can be.
What's Pricless? (priceless?)
If I have to go with one of the POD houses, I will, but I would prefer to exhaust my other options first.
I wish someone would just do this for me! :D
 

LaneHeymont

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Well, traditional would be my first choice, naturally! I have been trying to get an agent, but no luck so far. I am holding off a little until I am sure I have the book perfect, and that my Query letter is also as good as it can be.
What's Pricless? (priceless?)
If I have to go with one of the POD houses, I will, but I would prefer to exhaust my other options first.
I wish someone would just do this for me! :D

Hate to say this, but there are services that will write your query/synopsis for you. No idea if any of these companies are credible or not. I have no experience with that.

And Priceless1 is Lynn Price who's the acquisitions editor (I think) for Behler Press and great member here at AW. I'm sure at some point she'll pop in.
 

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Color me confused. I haven't queried a short story in, oh, 20 years.
Usually, I just send the story and a cover letter with the title, word count, genre, and a short paragraph of my writing credits.

I have enough difficulty coming up with queries for my longer mms.

Usually a cover letter is the query letter. Depending on the publisher, they may ask for the first X number of pages of your short story, or the full short story, or just the cover letter / query. Musa, I believe, asks for the first 20 pages (regardless of story length) embedded into the email.
 

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Prophetsnake

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Hate to say this, but there are services that will write your query/synopsis for you. No idea if any of these companies are credible or not. I have no experience with that.

And Priceless1 is Lynn Price who's the acquisitions editor (I think) for Behler Press and great member here at AW. I'm sure at some point she'll pop in.

Yes, I've seen the crowds who will do that for you. I'm very reluctant to do that, but on the other hand if it got my foot in the door-.
I've been tweaking the query and I did get a reply from a fairly high-powered agent based on it. She asked for the whole book, but didn't take it on,, but it was encouraging. ( I think)
I've had offers from several POD publishers, some of them better than others, but I think I'd rather not publish than to watch it settle into a situation where it was selling a dozen copies a year for a couple of years before settling into oblivion. Musa looks to be considerably more switched on than any of those I have had offers from so far. Also, they have short listed one of my short stories for publication in Penumbra, so they obviously have refined tastes!
 

Prophetsnake

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I heard from them pretty quickly, something like ten days, to tell me it was going to the next round of selection. Still waiting on that and I suppose I will hear some time after the submissions window for that call close.
 

mscelina

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Okay--regardless of whether the story is short or long, our submission guidelines are absolutely what I want to see: I want a query letter, a short synopsis, and the first twenty pages of the story embedded into the email. No attachments. I won't open them and will insta-reject. If your story is twenty-five pages, put the whole thing in. I promise, I won't hold those extra five pages against you. :)

Length of time depends on where in Musa you submit. You should hear from the submissions editor within a couple of weeks if you've been rejected. If we want to see more, we'll request a full. Anywhere in Musa, you should get a response within a month.

At Penumbra, we run our stories through multiple readings. If your story is passed on to the next round of evaluation, you'll hear back on that within a couple of weeks. But if your story continues to pass down the line and makes it to the final cut, your submission might be there for months. I prefer to set the issues 6-8 weeks before publication, so if you submit, say, a story for the Poe issue in October, the earliest you would hear that we're publishing your story would be August. We *try* to send rejections to every story that doesn't make it, but I know a few have slipped through the cracks--which kind of annoys me, but with hundreds of submissions each month to Penumbra a few mistakes are almost guaranteed to happen. I do not have form rejections at Penumbra, and as stories make it further down the line I tend to write personal rejections. Out of each theme submission call, we also select one author as a 'Rising Talent' -- an unpublished or newly published author who we publish on our website with their story, bio and an nonfiction essay as a free story for our readers.

The main thing to keep in mind when submitting to Musa is that our submission guidelines are there for a reason--and we mean exactly what we say. Just like every other publisher out there, we have our system set up the way it is for a reason. We do our best to stay on top of submissions and faster than most of our peers, and we'll continue to do so as long as we can.

Oh yes--and PLEASE do not PM me on Absolute Write about your submissions or story ideas or what have you. I come to AW to play, and not to field PMs. Any email to Musa submissions can be forwarded directly to me by my staff, and general questions are best answered here.

Thanks!
 

LaneHeymont

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Yes, I've seen the crowds who will do that for you. I'm very reluctant to do that, but on the other hand if it got my foot in the door-.
I've been tweaking the query and I did get a reply from a fairly high-powered agent based on it. She asked for the whole book, but didn't take it on,, but it was encouraging. ( I think)
I've had offers from several POD publishers, some of them better than others, but I think I'd rather not publish than to watch it settle into a situation where it was selling a dozen copies a year for a couple of years before settling into oblivion. Musa looks to be considerably more switched on than any of those I have had offers from so far. Also, they have short listed one of my short stories for publication in Penumbra, so they obviously have refined tastes!

Agreed. Like I said I've never looked into them, but the thought crossed my mind once or twice when I had to write the dreaded synopsis! LOL

I think Musa's great! I've read some of the fantasy books, and I'm a book snob—I know, I hate it—but anyway.

Okay--regardless of whether the story is short or long, our submission guidelines are absolutely what I want to see: I want a query letter, a short synopsis, and the first twenty pages of the story embedded into the email.

There you go! My erring (is that a word? lol) was unnecessary!

Oh yes--and PLEASE do not PM me on Absolute Write about your submissions or story ideas or what have you. I come to AW to play, and not to field PMs. Any email to Musa submissions can be forwarded directly to me by my staff, and general questions are best answered here.

I hope that doesn't happen...:Jaw:
 

LaneHeymont

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JUst received an offer of publication for a short story from a online magazine, but I have a full out with Musa. Replied to the submissions email from Musa I had originally received the request on (from Melissa). I hope to hear back from them soon since I'd prefer to publish with them! Fingers crossed! :)
 
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Mustafa

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Just a quick question. Is this press affiliated with AW somehow? I've been wandering through the threads and it seems a disproportionate number of members have books coming, or forthcoming through this press. It looks like a lot of people on AW have Musa contracts. Curious.
 

Filigree

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It's just that the principals have been around AW for a long time, and we've seen Celina & Co weather a truly awful publisher meltdown. If you read back along the Musa thread, you'll see that Musa representatives have been through the same questions that every new publisher faces here. And for the most part, been well-vetted.
 

LaneHeymont

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I have to agree with Filigree. I think "disproportionate" number comes from the fact that so many of us are comfortable and excited to submit to Musa. There's been plenty of rejections sent out to AW members. Go through this entire thread and you'll see those that have been reported as rejections.

A "disproportionate" number of AW members have agents compared to (said made up group), because this is a forum for that very purpose/discussion/help, etc.

Just my $.02