Introduction & download

Manual: Setting up ~~~ Your writing ~~~ Publishers & competitions ~~~ Money ~~~ Progress tracker

Your writing

The Writing tabs

Current work has three screens:

1. work in progress (unfinished)
2. things you’re editing (first draft complete)
3. fragments you’re not working on but may rehash sometime.

• opens the Word document with your writing
• opens the form with details for that writing
• Completed work will appear in the Publishing tabs, ready to be sent out.

View your writing

• Select by category: poem, novel, short story, etc. This will give you a list of matching writing.
• Select by name to open that writing’s details
• Select by publication status: yes = published; no = turned down; waiting = under consideration. (A full list of unpublished pieces, including things never yet sent out, is in the Publishing tab)
• Show all writing brings up your complete works

Writing lists

• When you select by category, by status or show all writing, a list of writing is opened.
• opens the form with details for that writing
• opens the Word document with your writing

The Writing form

Fill in as much information as possible.

• Category helps group your writing and will match it to suitable publishers
• Finished draft moves that piece to the “to edit” screen
• Ready to publish moves that piece to the Publishing tab, to be sent out
• Link means you can open the piece from the database. To find a document’s path, open it in Microsoft Word, and in Word…
  • Select View / Toolbars / Web
  • The path will appear in the toolbar – select it and press Ctrl-C to copy
  • back in the database, press Ctrl-V to paste
• Blurb is used in submission letters: a brief, formal description of the piece
• Segments: each day you work on a piece, add your word-count for the day under “segments” – this will appear in the Progress tab so you know how much you’re doing.

Buttons

• saves your writing record
• refreshes your data
• opens the Word document
• deletes the writing record – prompting you twice to confirm

• When you tick Ready to publish, a list of suitable publishers will appear
• When Accepted is ticked, that list will change to a payments form

Submissions

• Look at the list of suitable publishers to choose one – click to see the Publisher’s details. Competitons closing in the next 60 days are also shown.
• In the black Submissions box, choose a Publisher from the dropdown list. (You can start typing their name and the rest will appear)
• The Machine will ask if you want to create an automatic submission letter – if you choose “Yes”, it will write the letter, leave it open, and save it in the Correspondence folder.
• Date sent is automatically filled in; Outcome is changed to “Waiting”
• When it’s accepted, change Outcome to “Yes”. This automatically ticks the Accepted field.
• Accepted writing no longer shows a list of publishers – that changes to a payment form.

Payment details

• Enter the amount and when it’s due
• When it’s paid, enter the date paid– the amount will go into your tax calculations (see the Money tab)
• Type can be one-off, installment, royalties, or prize: if it’s a prize, you do not pay tax on it.

Introduction & download

Manual: Setting up ~~~ Your writing ~~~ Publishers & competitions ~~~ Money ~~~ Progress tracker