Introduction & download

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

Publishers and competitions

The Publishing tabs

Publishing has three tabs:

1. Publishers – a full list
2. To publish – final-draft writing that hasn’t been published yet
3. Waiting – writing under consideration by publishers

opens the details for that publisher

View publishers

• Select by category (poem, novel, short story, etc) or by type (magazine, book, competition). This will give you a list of matching publishers.
• Select by name to open that publisher’s details

Publisher lists

• When you select by category or type, a list of publishers is shown – if you choose by type, it also gives category, and vice versa.
• opens the details for that publisher
• Competitions are also shown on the left of the main screen, where the Machine displays any competitions closing in the next 60 days

The Publishing form

Fill in as much information as possible

• Name, address and postcode are used in letters. If you don’t have a name, you can add “The editor” as shown here.
• Website (under Publisher name) gives you instant access to their site
• Type is magazine, book, or competition
• Length lets the Machine match suitable writing to submit
• Categories lets the Machine match writing of the same category. A piece of writing only has one category; a publisher can have as many as you like
• End date means the publisher or competition is no longer relevant. For instance, a magazine that published your work may have closed down – you don’t want to delete it and that publication information, but you won’t submit to it anymore.
• Notes lets you add extra details
• Writing to submit advises you on pieces that match the publisher’s category
• Writing submitted tells you what you’ve already sent them and their response

Buttons

• saves your publisher record
• refreshes your data
• creates a blank letter to the publisher – but only if you’ve added the address
• deletes the publisher record – prompting you twice to confirm

Changes to the form

• When you change Type to “Competition”, a box for competition info will appear in the blank purple space.

Competitions

From the Publishers form

• Competiton details only appears for publishers if you selected Type as “Competition”
• Deadline is the next closing date
• Topic is optional – not all competitions have a topic
• Entered should be ticked once you’ve entered the competition
• Recurrence is how often the competition takes place: annual, monthly, etc. This lets the machine repeat the competition every year / month etc. without you re-entering the details. Each repetition is an “instance”.
• End date is if the competition ends, but you don’t want to delete its details.
• Writing submitted is all the writing you’ve sent to that competition, not just to its current instance

Introduction & download

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