So, Do You Like My Submission Or What?

“Hey, hook’ers! What’s the deal-io? Where’s my review?”

I know, I know. It's like an agent or a publisher all over again. Except this time it's three women who willing accept the title of "hook'er" dangling the unknown over you. What's up with that? 

The three of us were surprised by how many submissions we’ve received. We’re plowing through the stack as fast as we can, I promise, but we are not even close to hitting the end. We’ve sent some rejections and a few requests for more, but we still have even more waiting for us.

Our plan is to have first round submissions dated through 6/7/11 looked at by next weekend (fingers crossed). After that, we are going to focus on getting our first review out, provided we stay hooked.

So what kind of things are we seeing?


*Here's the part where I wing it for the rest of the post because I have no idea what the heck to blog about. 

I’m actually surprised at the variety of genres we’ve received. I thought we’d get flooded with YA, but we have everything from Historical Fiction to Middle Grade with a bunch of Romance and Sci-fi in between.

There have been some submissions that I couldn’t get through the first page and others that I had me happily requesting more. There are some that are hastily published—sorry, but it’s true—and others that could be picked up now if someone would give a newbie a chance. Most could do with another round of edits and a read through from someone besides M-O-M.  

One of the biggest problems I see with several entries is starting the novel in the wrong place. A false start of sorts. Back story, unnecessary or boring prologues, aimless chatter, or scenes that don’t further the story are sitting center stage.

And the other biggie is the lack of sensory details. Sensory details not only plant pictures in our minds, but they help develop characters. We see what they see and how they react to it. One thing I've done to help me with this is to pay attention to the first five things I notice when I walk into a room. Those same five things will probably not be an exact match to everyone. Depending on gender, height, weight, perspective, age, whatever, what is important or catches our eye will be different. How we perceive them, describe them will also vary. It is our experiences, our personalities, our mood that day that shapes those details. Our characters aren't any different. 

So, here's an exercise.


 Look at the picture below. Without looking at anyone else's comments, tell me two things you notice right away. Are they the same things your MC would notice?  If you'd like to describe them using sensory details from either your viewpoint or MC, please share. If not, well, you'll have to wait and see (dot, dot, dot).

If you don't like the first one, try the second.