Does anyone know if the Render is still doing workbook submissions? I just submitted my (FIRST!!!) Critical Threat, and it would be awesome if I heard back about it in the next... year. ;)
I believe so Slinky. And Workbooks get looked over much faster in my experience than adventure proposals so you should hear something back sometime before you get to the bottom of the stairs. Speaking of adventures, I just shot off one entitled "The War Eaters."
Good luck Slinky and everyone else (but not too good ;),
GGG
Oh, hey! And welcome to the "Contributor" club!Ah well, I fear the holiday rush and windstorm has put the ka-bosh on everyone's Adventure Submission Meeting Christmas wish.... If only Santa could spare a few editorial elves for the week perhaps then there might be a meeting, but alas I fear, barring a Christmas miracle, it is not to be.
And God bless our submissions; every one.
GGG
Oh, hey just noticed this post. Yeah well I figured this was the time to make the jump, especially with what's coming down the pipe.
GGG
Another week gone by.... I guess it's time to start submitting again. ;)
GGG
OK. Let's give this one a good nudge. begins rolling this bloated thread to the top of the thread mountain.
James, James, Jeremy... what's the word? Is a writer's meeting scheduled for the near future? It's time again to break some hearts, crush the hopes and dreams of a few beginners, and make a select few writers very happy while the rest curse you to the deepest pits of the Nine Hells. In other words, time to have some fun :)
OK. Let's give this one a good nudge. begins rolling this bloated thread to the top of the thread mountain.
"Push Sisyphus! Push!"
G
G
G
OK. Let's give this one a good nudge. begins rolling this bloated thread to the top of the thread mountain.
James, James, Jeremy... what's the word? Is a writer's meeting scheduled for the near future? It's time again to break some hearts, crush the hopes and dreams of a few beginners, and make a select few writers very happy while the rest curse you to the deepest pits of the Nine Hells. In other words, time to have some fun :)
Amen to that!
Creative Director
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Nothing to report yet. Still haven't had a chance to get to the proposals, mostly because this winter's hit us with power outages and icy hills and snowstorms and wind storms and all sorts of bad weather. Combine that with the fact that we would have been behind from the holidays and presto... once again behind schedule.
Will queries that come in over the next few days (or weeks) join the stack to be considered next time a big pow-wow occurs?
Nothing to report yet. Still haven't had a chance to get to the proposals, mostly because this winter's hit us with power outages and icy hills and snowstorms and wind storms and all sorts of bad weather. Combine that with the fact that we would have been behind from the holidays and presto... once again behind schedule.
Thanks, Mr. J.
Great! Thanks!
Here is a question for any Paizo staff that happen to be reading this thread...(or any of the contributors who might be able to answer this)
I got a query past the gatekeeper, and made it to the meeting back last spring. It made it past the meeting, and a manuscript was requested.
I worked up the manuscript, ran my own group through it to playtest, refined it a little... I waited to send in the manuscript until a few days before it was due, as I was still tweaking it, trying to make it the best I could before submitting it.
And then I did something really stupid. My wife and I went away for a vacation starting on the labour day long weekend, and I didn't remember to email in the manuscript until I was already several hours out of town. And it was supposed to be in by September 1st.
As soon as I got back home the next week, I emailed the manuscript in with a big apology for submitting it 5 days late. That was back in early September, and I haven't heard anything from Paizo since.
Q. Should I consider this manuscript to be a write-off? It would be totally understandable if it was rejected out of hand, with it being submitted late.
Or is it something that might still be considered, but I won't hear anything back one way or another until the next submissions meeting? (I'm not really clear what the process is after you submit the manuscript, as this is the first time I've gotten a query this far. And as I haven't had an email back from Paizo about it, I'm not sure if it was rejected, or lost in the slush pile, under consideration still, etc)
Talion,
I sent a manuscript in a little before my Sept. deadline and had not heard anything for a few months. Around Thanksgiving (which was almost three months later) I sent them an e-mail to see if they had even gotten my manuscript and how far along the process was going. They told me that they had gotten it and no decision had been made -- long story short: wait some more.
I can't speak for the Paizo staff but I assume (we all know what I'm making of myself) that 5 days late in a process that may take months to years is not going make them reject your manuscript out of hand.
Good luck!
Hey Talion, I'd send the editor who requested the manuscript a short email simply inquiring about the manuscript's status. I wouldn't even mention the 5-day delay; just say you sent in your manuscript for adventure X in September and you're curious about the status.
I sent in a manuscript on June 1 last summer. I now send an email every three months or so asking about its status. I sent my last "what's up?" email in mid-December. Mr. Sutter wrote back right away saying they will likely need several more months before they reach a determination on my manuscript (and another adventure query I'd offered). The never seem miffed by my prodding emails. But I do spread them out and try to be patient.
Hang in there!
I'm not being critical when I ask, merely curious. Why does it take months or years to get a thumbs up or down on a manuscript?
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Creative Director
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Being a few days late on a manuscript that's requested is far from the end of the world, so have no fears. It probably missed the last cutoff for the last manuscript meeting we had a few months ago, but it's fine for the next one.
As long as you sent it in, we've got it and when we get a chance to sit down and look over what's come in (which hopefully we'll get a chance to do in a month or two), we'll start getting back to people about them.
Can we ask how often manuscripts tank? Do many you receive many untenable, uncorrectable adventures? What percentage of manuscripts you receive make it to publication?
Being a few days late on a manuscript that's requested is far from the end of the world, so have no fears. It probably missed the last cutoff for the last manuscript meeting we had a few months ago, but it's fine for the next one.
As long as you sent it in, we've got it and when we get a chance to sit down and look over what's come in (which hopefully we'll get a chance to do in a month or two), we'll start getting back to people about them.
Thanks James (and everyone else that answered)
Yeah, I'm actually pretty sure it missed the cut-off for the last meeting, since the meeting was actually latter on the same day I sent it in. (Judging by the email I recieved about another query that got axed, and posts here in the black hole thread)
Anyways, I'm glad that it is still under consideration ;-) <fingers crossed>
I'm pretty sure I just sent it in to the dungeon@paizo.com email address, since that is where the manuscript reply originated from. But I don't have access to the old emails at work, so I could be wrong.
Can we ask how often manuscripts tank? Do many you receive many untenable, uncorrectable adventures? What percentage of manuscripts you receive make it to publication?
The percentage has changed over the years, but these days, the vast majority of requested manuscripts eventually see print.
That said, you should always keep in mind that a greenlit proposal is just that, not a guarantee of anything. We can't judge an adventure until we actually see it, and sometimes a great proposal results in a "meh" adventure. I know how hard it can be to write a requested manuscript only to have it rejected, but such is the curse of writing on spec.
Best of luck to you all, and we'll try to get around to proposals and manuscripts soon!
I'm not being critical when I ask, merely curious. Why does it take months or years to get a thumbs up or down on a manuscript?
Honestly, it's because the basic business of putting the magazine out each month takes up 110% of the staff's time. Reading through hundreds of proposals, then meeting and discussing them, is something we have to fit into whatever nooks and crannies present themselves....
As long as you sent it in, we've got it and when we get a chance to sit down and look over what's come in (which hopefully we'll get a chance to do in a month or two), we'll start getting back to people about them.
BTW, how is the treatment of Campaign Workbooks different from adventure queries/manuscripts?
Oh, and if you decide to print an adventure, does it mean that you immediately schedule it some magazine in the near future or merely that you keep it in stock until "the stars are right"?
Yesterday I had the very nice feeling of an acceptance email in my inbox. My Campaign Workbook submission was accepted and will be in issue #145. It's the first, so I'm going to ride this feeling, right up to my next rejection. :D
Congrats! An acceptance is good for at least two rejections. Maybe more. :)
Congratulations! I think one acceptance during each round of the editor's big acceptance/rejection meetings is worth as many rejections as that acceptance takes! Well done!
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Creative Director
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As long as you sent it in, we've got it and when we get a chance to sit down and look over what's come in (which hopefully we'll get a chance to do in a month or two), we'll start getting back to people about them.BTW, how is the treatment of Campaign Workbooks different from adventure queries/manuscripts?
Oh, and if you decide to print an adventure, does it mean that you immediately schedule it some magazine in the near future or merely that you keep it in stock until "the stars are right"?
Once we find a Campaign Workbook we like, it goes into a folder of others we like. When we start work on a new issue of Dungeon, we sift throguh that file and pick out as many as we need (anywhere beteween 2 and 4). When an adventure runs long, Campaign Workbooks are the first elements to get booted to the next issue, so luck is a larger factor there.
As for adventures: When we decide to print an adventure, we pencil it in to the Dungeon schedule, but generally not in the near future. We schedule adventures in Dungeon out to a year (or more) in advance, so once we get a manuscript in that we like it generally isn't scheduled for print quickly. As we decide to shift adventures around and other adventures end up not being as usable as we thought, the schedule can certainly shift about, and an adventure that was scheduled for issue #150 might suddenly find itself getting printed in #146, for example.
Yesterday I had the very nice feeling of an acceptance email in my inbox. My Campaign Workbook submission was accepted and will be in issue #145. It's the first, so I'm going to ride this feeling, right up to my next rejection. :D
Congrats The. Here's to many more!
GGG
Are Campaign Workbooks, Wandering Monsters, and Critical Threats still done by sending in the finished article itself? Or are we now at the point where they can be pitched via a query?
They still want the finished article, rather than a query.
Alrighty. Thanks a bunch.
On a similiar note about Critical Threats...
What is the generally feeling about the level design of the threat?
ie. Do the editors love/hate threats with complicated (some might say munchkin-like) builds? Or does it not matter, as long as the concept is cool?
What do you mean by munchkin-like? Like, immune to nearly everything? That wouldn't be much fun. I think the rule of thumb is that you're trying to pleasantly surprise the players with an encounter that breaks up monotony, rather than bring forward a boss they can't handle.
Nope, what they want is something along the plug and play lines. They want a dreaded assassin etc etc, something you can add to any campaign at any time. Atleast that's what I got from James' post a few months earlier. Around the time that I sent him my munchkin killer of doom (see the critique my query thread).
What do you mean by munchkin-like? Like, immune to nearly everything? That wouldn't be much fun. I think the rule of thumb is that you're trying to pleasantly surprise the players with an encounter that breaks up monotony, rather than bring forward a boss they can't handle.
Sorry, I was at work, and should have been more specific...
I meant a character build that multiclasses with several base classes, and then dips into multiple prestige classes... the kind of more extreme examples of which you can find on the character optimization boards over at wizards.com.
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On another note, I have to dig up those older posts on critical threats, but I'm guessing off the top of my head that since they wanted more "plug and play" iconic critical threats, it would probably be better to stick with generic PRCs & feats, rather than Eberron or FR specific.
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Creative Director
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We do not want Critical Threats who have 5 base classes and 8 prestige classes. Not only have we found that those types of characters generally elicit disdain and mockery from most of our readers, but when you start pulling in classes from half a dozen different sources, the extra large statblock (with all that reprinted material from other sources) takes up too much room.
That's not to say that we don't want templated bad guys or villians who use material from non-core sources—we do. We just don't want it to become a showcase for "look how many different classes I piled on this guy!"
We do not want Critical Threats who have 5 base classes and 8 prestige classes. Not only have we found that those types of characters generally elicit disdain and mockery from most of our readers, but when you start pulling in classes from half a dozen different sources, the extra large statblock (with all that reprinted material from other sources) takes up too much room.
Reminds me the rgr/bbn/sor/ftr/asn fiendish half-orc wendigo I used to play before my DM killed it...
Reminds me the rgr/bbn/sor/ftr/asn fiendish half-orc wendigo I used to play before my DM killed it...
You, sir, have made me cry. I feel for your DM.
Reminds me the rgr/bbn/sor/ftr/asn fiendish half-orc wendigo I used to play before my DM killed it...You, sir, have made me cry. I feel for your DM.
It was a very cool character, it survived for almost five sessions which is a record in this DM's campagin.
I wanted to call it Francois de Munchkin but then I though it would be too obvious...
I wanted to call it Francois de Munchkin but then I though it would be too obvious...
What about Max Twinkitude?
-Tad Peckish
Think I'll go eat
So three more collaborative adventure arcs, and then I think I'm done until after the meeting.... Seriously, do you think the Eds might just cherry pick their top 10 or so adventures and let the rest go even if they thought they were ubercool? In which case more proposal shopping becomes counter productive?
Thoughts?
Gx3
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So three more collaborative adventure arcs, and then I think I'm done until after the meeting.... Seriously, do you think the Eds might just cherry pick their top 10 or so adventures and let the rest go even if they thought they were ubercool? In which case more proposal shopping becomes counter productive?
I've wondered about this too. As an editor, would I just take the best, rejecting lots of good proposals, assuming I'll get just as many good ones in the next pile?
Since the trend line in quality of adventures, and I assume proposals, seems to slope upwards over the past five years, thanks to people like you, Pett, Logue, Vaughan, Hitchcock and the adventure path contributions of the Paizo staff, I'm guessing they feel pretty safe rejecting and counting on the next round.
I've wondered about this too. As an editor, would I just take the best, rejecting lots of good proposals, assuming I'll get just as many good ones in the next pile?
While I'm sure some short-sighted publications work that way, such is not the case with Dungeon. The simple fact is that we need all the good proposals we can get, and if we get more than we expect, it just makes our lives easier. Now for actual manuscripts, there's a bit more cherry-picking... if new, better manuscripts come in, a less-impressive adventure might get bumped back several times before it sees publication. But for proposals, the more, the merrier.
Once upon a time, Dungeon was much more likely to greenlight mediocre queries and rewrite the resulting manuscripts until they were usable. Thanks to changes in the editorial staff and the upward trend in submission quality, those days are pretty well behind us now. While that might not immediately sound encouraging, it should - it means that when you do get greenlit, we've seen real promise in your work, greatly increasing the chances that your manuscript will hold its own and run, rather than getting perpetually bumped.
So in summary: yes and no - while our standards have risen over the years, there's still no such thing as too many awesome submissions.
Gods above I am excited for the next meeting!!! Its gonna be intense as a lot of old standby authors already have a TON of props in the pile from what I hear. I have several irons in the fire I am super excited to hear back about.
As these meetings draw nigh, I get so jazzed up I can't sleep. It's like being a kid at Christmas time. I don't know if I'm just really sick in the head or if the electric anticipation of these meetings is experienced by others as well.
I just love Dungeon, and the prospect of potentially getting a greenlight gets me all hoppin-crazy! Bring on the Funk Sutter! I can't wait any longer!!! :-)
I apologize if this is hasty, but I'm a bit on pins & needles as I hear people are receiving acceptances or rejections from Dungeon-- Are past adventure queries still being reviewed at this moment and, if so, have all rejections and/or acceptances been sent out?
I hope not, I think I can finish my fifth adventure query by early next week, ;)
Meeting?! Has there been a MEETING?!
I apologize if this is hasty, but I'm a bit on pins & needles as I hear people are receiving acceptances or rejections from Dungeon-- Are past adventure queries still being reviewed at this moment and, if so, have all rejections and/or acceptances been sent out?I hope not, I think I can finish my fifth adventure query by early next week, ;)
Awesome! Good luck with the submissions Shroomy!
Meeting?! Has there been a MEETING?!
HA! Look what we all started! Rumormill...Turn turn turn!
Meeting?! Has there been a MEETING?!HA! Look what we all started! Rumormill...Turn turn turn!
Started?! Has there been a STARTING?!
Started?! Has there been a STARTING?!Meeting?! Has there been a MEETING?!HA! Look what we all started! Rumormill...Turn turn turn!
lol!
Awesome!
Also...
Post #1500 is MINE suckas!