So, is there any news on how the new submission meeting process is going?The news is nothing has gone forward on this yet. We've been in panic-mode since getting back from Gen Con, getting issue 128 of Dungeon out the door. At this point, I'm not sure when we'll be able to get back on dealing with submissions, but it certainly won't be until next week at the earliest.
Again, thanks for being patient with the process. Just keep in mind that editing the magazine generally takes 3 weeks a month, leaving about 1 week for everything else we need to do (including submission meetings). We'll get there... eventually.
Hey, I still bet you have better turn times for getting back to would-be contributers than any other internationally distributed magazine. Thanks for the hard work guys.
GGG
Shade and I have four submissions to Dragon sent in between the two of us (and a fifth one nearly complete), eagerly awaiting to hear on them! :)
I'm up to five queries now, including a "revise and resubmit" from June. Got a few others I plan to send in when I get a chance but I'm hoping to stop at ten this time :)
So, is there any news on how the new submission meeting process is going?The news is nothing has gone forward on this yet. We've been in panic-mode since getting back from Gen Con, getting issue 128 of Dungeon out the door. At this point, I'm not sure when we'll be able to get back on dealing with submissions, but it certainly won't be until next week at the earliest.
Again, thanks for being patient with the process. Just keep in mind that editing the magazine generally takes 3 weeks a month, leaving about 1 week for everything else we need to do (including submission meetings). We'll get there... eventually.
One thing that would really help us newcomers would be an update to the Submission Guidelines. Even if you don't have the new meeting process plan finalized, just changing that document to say that it could take up to six months to get a response covers the bases and eliminates the biggest reason for someone to get worried. Heck, the only reason I posted anything about my concerns on these messageboards was because I thought the response I should be getting was almost one month overdue - http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/dungeon/generalDiscussion/whoToContact AboutAnOverdueResponseToAnArticleProposal
I'd also have to agree with whomever it was suggested the implementation of an email auto-responder that would let submitters know their submission was actually received by the incoming Paizo mailbox. Just one more way to aleviate some concerns of both new and old authors alike.
Anyway, just thought I'd throw my two copper pieces into the fray.
-Jenni
(who is still holding her fingers crossed for her adventure submission of June 30th)
Just a quick update. The submissions process has begun once again. The cutoff date for this meeting was last Thursday (September 8). We got about halfway through the stack on Friday, and we hope to finish later this week. Good luck everyone!
Awesome! Now I can bite my nails down to stubs for the next couple of days. Good luck everyone!
Is it just me, or is waiting for the results of a sub meeting more exciting (and definately more nerve wracking) than Christmas Eve. No sleep for me. ;-)
Awesome! Now I can bite my nails down to stubs for the next couple of days. Good luck everyone!
Is it just me, or is waiting for the results of a sub meeting more exciting (and definately more nerve wracking) than Christmas Eve. No sleep for me. ;-)
Nicolas -
Good luck! I'm not a nail-biter myself. I'm more of the butterfly in the stomach kind of guy. The result though is much the same. Thankfully it is allergy season, and my medications will keep me sleeping.
- Ashavan
oooh - I get to crank up my anxiety level a few notches now. :D
Good luck! I'm not a nail-biter myself. I'm more of the butterfly in the stomach kind of guy.
I'm both. :/
All 3 of my submissions made the cutoff date, so this is a very bad time for the Writers Block to set in. Time to get cracking I guess. Good luck everyone!
No nail biting...well, not after I bite them down to the pink areas. And no butterflies in the stomach, either. Sleeping patterns go out the window though.
Most of my anxiety goes into checking, checking, and rechecking my email acct about every half hour after Mr Walker makes the announcement...even at 2 in the morning...just in case.
So, again, good luck to everyone in this round of submissions and I'll see you on the other side.
Ah, yes. The endless running to the PC to check e-mails. Good times :)
For some reason I feel much more relaxed this time around. Every night is potentially "The Night" that my wife and I dash to the hospital to have our baby girl, so I guess I have that to thank.
Good luck to everybody and LEAVE YOUR FINGERNAILS ALONE! That's just gross ;)
**Has anybody noticed how good Jeremy is at "working the room" with these anouncements? Must have put a lot of ranks in Perform.**
Hi all!
Anyone heard anything yet? I am all ajitters. :-)
I have four submissions in the pile and haven't heard anything. All I can ask is be gentle....:)
My guess is that they haven't hit the second half of the pile yet.... usually Jeremy will post letting us know about how many got the green light out of how many total proposals reviewed, and then either Erik or James will post letting us know what was conspicuously lacking from the pile and what they have way too much of.
I know, the waiting sucks, but the notices probably won't even start going out until they've finished reviewing the second half of that pile.
- Ashavan
That doesn't keep me from checking my e-mail a little more often lately. :D My first proposal to Dungeon is in this batch.
* gnaws on his fingernails some more *
I haven't heard anything for this batch yet, either. I thought there was one more step in the submissions shuffle...The last couple of times, I have recieved an email with the ones that weren't even close and then some time later got an email for the ones that missed it by ''.
I still have that massive stereo system with "Party all the Time" and the Zamfir tunes ready to blast the Paizo compound if we are going to set siege to Renton...oh, and I just uncovered a Hanson cassette... mmm-bop!
So, anybody hear anything yet? I have not.
So, anybody hear anything yet? I have not.
No responses have gone out yet. Despite our efforts, we did not finish the pile last week. We are almost done though, so hopefully soon.
Thanks for the update, it is much appreciated.
Man - I'm not gonna have any fingernails left at this pace. ;)
Argh, the suspense of it all ...
Well, it's done; at least the adventure proposals anyway. For the curious we green lit 18 proposals, which is more than in any of the previous three meetings. I don't have an exact count of the number of proposals that were submitted, but I would put it at about the 130 mark (give or take a dozen).
Unfortunately, I am about to head home for the weekend, so replies will have to wait until at least Monday, but I will say that in general the people who were asked to resubmit their proposal with modifications did an extremely good job of addressing our concerns.
ACK! I'm running out of fingernails to chew on!
13.8% acceptance rate? interesting.
Contributor
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Well, it's done; at least the adventure proposals anyway. For the curious we green lit 18 proposals, which is more than in any of the previous three meetings. I don't have an exact count of the number of proposals that were submitted, but I would put it at about the 130 mark (give or take a dozen).
Yay! I got a personally delivered "here's where you need improvement" talk from Jeremy for my adventures (all four rejected). That makes me happy! (The personalized help, not necessarily the rejections.) I was anticipating a clean sweep of rejections, so that didn't bother me at all. I hope that the next batch of proposals I send in are a little closer to what the guys like. :)
Mike's Getting Into Dungeon Batting Average: .000
Unfortunately, I am about to head home for the weekend, so replies will have to wait until at least Monday
Three more days...Three more days...Three more days...
Good luck everyone!
Creative Director
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One thing to keep in mind also is that us asking to see a manuscript is not the same as us saying we're going to print the adventure. I'd say that of all the manuscripts we actually request, about 25% of them get rejected. SO, once you get to the manuscript stage, your chances of seeing print vastly improve. There's still a chance to mess it up though. So do your best!
Unfortunately, I am about to head home for the weekend, so replies will have to wait until at least MondayThree more days...Three more days...Three more days...
Good luck everyone!
I think Mr. Walker would stress the at least bit, but good luck all the same.
;)
GGG
Thanks for the info Jeremy. You guys are great about filling us in on this stuff and I (we) really appreciate it.
Yay! I got a personally delivered "here's where you need improvement" talk from Jeremy for my adventures (all four rejected). That makes me happy! (The personalized help, not necessarily the rejections.) I was anticipating a clean sweep of rejections, so that didn't bother me at all. I hope that the next batch of proposals I send in are a little closer to what the guys like. :)
Mike's Getting Into Dungeon Batting Average: .000
But it's still early innings :)
I remember I was once at this writer's workshop and the facilitator said something to the effect that you have to be able to embrace two contradictory thoughts with all your heart and soul.
(1) "My submissions are the greatest works ever conceived of by mortal man" (meaning you should stop tinkering and send them off)
(2) "My submissions are the most worthless dreck ever the shame an editor's eyes with their very presence" (meaning you shouldn't become discouraged when they get rejected)
Thus far, I've found achieving the first thought much easier then the second... :)
Well, it's done; at least the adventure proposals anyway. For the curious we green lit 18 proposals, which is more than in any of the previous three meetings. I don't have an exact count of the number of proposals that were submitted, but I would put it at about the 130 mark (give or take a dozen).
Unfortunately, I am about to head home for the weekend, so replies will have to wait until at least Monday, but I will say that in general the people who were asked to resubmit their proposal with modifications did an extremely good job of addressing our concerns.
Looking at the above quote and rereading earlier parts of this thread, I am guessing that at least 2-3 of the 18 spots are going to be taken up by the Las Vegas Assassin and Mr Maclean and other writers and their 'revise and resubmits' from last go-around. Though that still leaves 15-16 or so spots still open....
Apparently this was a 'low numbers' meeting. Somewhere it was said that the editors get 10 or so proposals a day (about 800-900 for a three month time frame), and this time there were about 130, give or take, for this slush meeting. Was everybody slacking?
I sent a Dungeon Quiry into the magazine on July the 12th. Should I be getting worried at this point? I would have believed that I would have heard some news, good or bad, by this stage but I could be wrong.
Maybe I sent it to the wrong address. Could someone tell me the address so I can be sure?
Delvesdeep
I sent a Dungeon Quiry into the magazine on July the 12th. Should I be getting worried at this point? I would have believed that I would have heard some news, good or bad, by this stage but I could be wrong.
Maybe I sent it to the wrong address. Could someone tell me the address so I can be sure?
Delvesdeep
Delvesdeep, if you sent your query to dungeon@paizo.com or gatekeeper@paizo.com , then you sent it to the correct address. Those are the 2 most used addresses I know for queries. Any others, I assume are personal addresses for the staff.
To my knowledge, nobody has received any word about their individual proposals yet. Perhaps some of us will know this week. Don't hold your breath, though. It could be next week or the week after when Jeremy and gang finally contact everyone.
Apparently this was a 'low numbers' meeting. Somewhere it was said that the editors get 10 or so proposals a day (about 800-900 for a three month time frame), and this time there were about 130, give or take, for this slush meeting. Was everybody slacking?
I'm not sure who said 10 a day was normal...mabye for Dragon?
Say 10 a week and you wouldn't be far off though...
I'm not sure who said 10 a day was normal...mabye for Dragon?Say 10 a week and you wouldn't be far off though...
Whoops! heh...I think that was on the Dragon threads. Nice catch.
PS. What are you doing up this late? You gotta get into Paizo headquarters in a few hours and start sending out those acceptance emails! Get some sleep!
So, Senor Jacobs. What is the new 'big no-no' from this latest batch? What did you and the guys see too many of in the subs? Last time, apparently, there were too many 'borg'-type plots. Howzabout this time? Gorgonzola Pizza Golems? Rugby playing dryads? Monkeys? Give up the goods.
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Creative Director
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So, Senor Jacobs. What is the new 'big no-no' from this latest batch? What did you and the guys see too many of in the subs? Last time, apparently, there were too many 'borg'-type plots. Howzabout this time? Gorgonzola Pizza Golems? Rugby playing dryads? Monkeys? Give up the goods.
The main thing that went on the LIST this time was druids. Specifically, the "party fights an evil/misunderstood druid of the forest." It seems that every time a druid is used in a proposal, it's the same druid. Some guy who lives in a forest who takes offense at some external influence and overreacts by slaughtering a village. Usually, the adventure has the PCs having to choose between allying between the druid and the bad guys who riled him up in the first place. This adventure is now an auto-reject.
If you still want to write an adventure about a druid (and I hope to see some cause druids ARE cool)... remember that not all druids are humanoids. And there are plenty of places in nature for druids to hail from that aren't temperate forests.
Awakened animals are also kinda off the list.
Hmmm... there was something else too. What was it?
<wracks brain to remember>
We still want urban adventures. Even more, we want wilderness adventures. We could do with a break from the murder mysteries though, especially murder mysteries set in Sharn. In fact, adventures set in Sharn have pretty much outlived their welcome. Let's see some Eberron adventures set in other places!
OH! No more lycanthrope adventures for a while.
Also: You can come up with the most awesome backstory ever for your adventure, but we won't care if the actual adventure isn't as good. We certainly won't care if we can't figure out what the PCs actually DO on the adventure.
I'll have to talk to Jeremy tomorrow to remember what that other thing was that went on the list, I guess.
We could do with a break from the murder mysteries though, especially murder mysteries set in Sharn. In fact, adventures set in Sharn have pretty much outlived their welcome. Let's see some Eberron adventures set in other places!
So much for my first foray into Eberron pitches :)
We certainly won't care if we can't figure out what the PCs actually DO on the adventure.
Heh. Rereading some of my proposals in this batch, I just realized that I had a couple of these in the pile. One in particular actually has zero adventure in it, and I had to cheat on the font size just to fit it into the required two pages.
Strangely, somewhere on the second page I made an offer to provide more information about the adventure itself, if the magazine had any interest. . . WTF? Even *I* am shaking my head at that one.
After it's inevitable rejection, I may post it as a model of what NOT to do in an adventure proposal.
Two steps forward, one back, and all that. . .
After reading James's comments, I went back and re-read my submission queries. Thankfully, while there was a lot of backstory in all four of my queries, I did manage to describe what the PCs would actually do in the adventure. Also, no druids, no awakened animals, no lycanthropes, and no murder mysteries set in Sharn.
Btw, I haven't heard anything yet. I know that the Messageboard folks have heard back regarding their proposal, but I was wondering when the replies would be sent backs. The IT Department at work here is probably wondering why I'm checking my personal email so much. :) Thanks
Also: You can come up with the most awesome backstory ever for your adventure, but we won't care if the actual adventure isn't as good. We certainly won't care if we can't figure out what the PCs actually DO on the adventure.
I am going to admit that this is where I will probably stumble in the 500 meter high hurdle section of the Submission Olympics. I do not have druids or animals (though I was boiling up one about an awakened animal in this next batch). I have a couple in this time that are urban...and one of those also goes into wilderness...so, maybe...
But I also have a couple with lycanthopes..grrrrrrr.
Thank you Mr Jacobs for being so pleasant on these boards and answering to the random whims of a subscriber so quickly.
And no, I haven't heard anything either. Did the folks who did the 'Adventure From Us All' hear about their acceptance for this go-around (ending on the 8th Sep)? Or was that just a special deal because it was such a large undertaking and answered all by itself?
OH! No more lycanthrope adventures for a while.
I hope this doesn't apply to certain proposals based on certain GenCon seminars where a certain wererat guildmaster came into being and a certain editor said he'd like to see said certain proposal.
:-D
-Amber S.
Drunk Dude, I think we may have made such an impression with our unique submission (the circumstance surrounding it not the adventure itself) that the folks at Paizo decided to get back to us right away. Maybe. Yeah. That's the ticket.
None of us have received word back about our individual proposals yet either. So don't feel bad. Perhaps we'll all hear something by Friday afternoon when they try to wrap things up somewhat for the week.
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Creative Director
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One thing to remember about my list above of what we've seen enough of is that list starts NOW. There may have been (and were!) adventures in this last batch of proposals that used druds or lycanthropes or murder mysteries set in Sharn that we may have green lit. From this point onward, though... the list is active.
One thing to remember about my list above of what we've seen enough of is that list starts NOW. There may have been (and were!) adventures in this last batch of proposals that used druds or lycanthropes or murder mysteries set in Sharn that we may have green lit. From this point onward, though... the list is active.
I knew I should have sent in my murder-solving, awakened animal druid with a lycanthrope nemesis themed adventure sooner!!!
I hope this doesn't apply to certain proposals based on certain GenCon seminars where a certain wererat guildmaster came into being and a certain editor said he'd like to see said certain proposal.
I have to admit, ever since that seminar, I've been wondering if anyone would put together a proposal and submit it. There were some good ideas going there (plus a fair number of very strange ideas). Do we get to see a certain wererat ranger, perhaps?
One thing to remember about my list above of what we've seen enough of is that list starts NOW. There may have been (and were!) adventures in this last batch of proposals that used druids or lycanthropes or murder mysteries set in Sharn that we may have green lit. From this point onward, though... the list is active.
Cool, then Ghost (my monstrous humanoid druid) might still be in the running. If only he had commited a murder in Sharn with a were-platypus.
GGG
Drunk Dude, I think we may have made such an impression with our unique submission (the circumstance surrounding it not the adventure itself) that the folks at Paizo decided to get back to us right away. Maybe. Yeah. That's the ticket.
None of us have received word back about our individual proposals yet either. So don't feel bad. Perhaps we'll all hear something by Friday afternoon when they try to wrap things up somewhat for the week.
You are correct sir, I have not thus far recieved anything beyond the 1, 3 or 4 adventure slots of 18 that were greenlit. Interesting point how many did that count for?
Still pending for me are: "A Time for War" (for Eberron, I'm such a sell out), "Abandoned" (for which I am guilty of sin number five), "Briar Patch" (go Ghost!), "Dance with the Devil", "Garden of Wonders" (resubmit), "Pilgrimage", "The Feast", "The Nest" (formerly, House of Strands), and "We're Sunk". Spiders, drow, demons, constructs, and undead each play a significant roll in at least two of the above stories. Bosses include: the afore mentioned Ghost, a would-be demon lord, a diabolist, an insane military commander, a greedy elemental and an advanced aberration.
I'll let you try to put the pieces together.
GGG
Cool, then Ghost (my monstrous humanoid druid) might still be in the running. If only he had commited a murder in Sharn with a were-platypus.GGG
Ghost? That hack? He never even made it to my throne room . . . my minons mentioned off-hand that they may have dropped his bones somewhere in lower Dura. Honestly, I haven't thought of him since.
If you wanna off me in my own lair, you better send some better minions, ya stinkin' dragon. . .
Cool, then Ghost (my monstrous humanoid druid) might still be in the running. If only he had commited a murder in Sharn with a were-platypus.GGG
Ghost? That hack? He never even made it to my throne room . . . my minons mentioned off-hand that they may have dropped his bones somewhere in lower Dura. Honestly, I haven't thought of him since.
If you wanna off me in my own lair, you better send some better minions, ya stinkin' dragon. . .
WITH. With a were-platypus. You know like with a lead pipe, in the library.
;)
GGG