In the past three months, we here at Brascoe Publishing have had a lot of requests for work. A lot of really bad ones. So many, in fact, that we thought it was high time to post a blog about it. Here is how you avoid getting a job with a publisher.

1. Forget that emailing from a website means that the recipient can see that you emailed from the website

One of the quickest ways to ruin your chances of getting a job with a publisher is to forget that when you email them from their website that you have no control over the subject line (usually). By not doing the yards and becoming familiar with the target company by researching the remainder of its website, and writing your email accordingly, you’ve taken the first step towards remaining unemployed.

2. Assume things – preferably as many as you can

The second step is to make assumptions. There is no point in reading through pages and pages of company information – or even one page, an About page (most websites have them) – because if you’ve done a course in editing or publishing, then you know how these places work. There is an Editing or Editorial Department; the company is run by men, and those men prefer to be addressed ‘Sirs’; and if the company is online, active, and appears successful, then clearly there are jobs aplenty.

3. Talk about your qualifications as much as possible

Don’t forget to assume things about yourself too: your huge lists of qualifications are mightily impressive; if you find them that way, no doubt the person at the other end (who works in the field, and probably has done for quite some time) will find them so too. Go your hardest. By the way, if you have done a degree in publishing or editing – yes, a whole degree – remember to only talk about how useful just one subject was. It’s even better if that is the only subject in which you actually did any good. The context of a highly focused, vocational-style degree is all just fluff and should be left out.

4. Believe, wholeheartedly, that as a published writer you would make a good editor or proofreader

Even if you don’t have experience in the area, and cannot provide solid examples of your work that back up your claims, you can always rest on the knowledge that you are a published writer. After all, publishers know how hard it is to become published, and they are aware of how much hard work goes into writing a book, let alone scoring a publishing deal. This should automatically make you a preferred candidate, right?

5. If applying for proofreading or editing work, don’t bother to check your spelling. It’s bound to be perfect!

As a person who has done proofreading and editing work before, don’t bother to check your spelling. You’re an editor and a proofreader, so it is bound to be absolutely perfect all the time. If you work on computers a lot, then your typing accuracy is of course going to be ace as well. So – go forth and email! Remember to hit send before you check for errors.

6. Talk about how much knowledge you have, and get the title of your roles incorrect

All of your qualifications and experience are so fantastic – who could deny them – but to make sure you absolutely do not get the job, you might want to consider getting the title of your role incorrect. For example, substantive editors, commissioning editors, copyeditors, etc work in publishing; but subeditors work in newspapers. It’s a subtle difference, very small, but it will take you that extra step over the line to the trash. One can’t be too careful!

7. Don’t end your letter properly

The final step towards not getting a job is to have a poor ending on your letter. Don’t ask the recipient to get back to you, tell them you will call them, tell them you’d like to send a full resume (actually, it’s preferable if you don’t even have a resume), or anything. Just end your letter with ‘yours sincerely’ and your name. Remember, too, to leave out your phone number because if they can reach you then you just might – even after all your effort above – get a phone call.

And you’re done!

Whew! It’s a lot to remember, but these seven steps are the key elements in avoiding employment with a publisher. If you can do this, then it will free you up to move in another direction and find something else. Have fun!

One of the changes in the punctuation used by many people that I have come across in recent years is the rise of the dash. Increasingly, instead of using commas, people tend to use dashes; whether this is because the dash gives a more immediate sense of a break, or whether it is because of some other reason, I don’t know. What I do know is that the wrong dash is almost always used.

You may not realise it but there are actually three different types of dash that one can use. If you can touch type, and you use a dash in Microsoft Word, you may have noticed that the program automatically changes the dash so that it is slightly longer. But this is still incorrect, too.

Using the right dash isn’t difficult. It’s simply a matter of knowing which one to use where.

Now, because WordPress is not strong on typography (if it is, someone please let me know how to improve my installation!) the dashes here, especially the en dashes, may not be accurately represented. If you run typographical software like InDesign and want to know how to find these dashes, please drop a comment and I’ll let you know.

The Hyphen
You might be surprised, but the hyphen is not a dash. To stick to the topic at hand, it won’t be covered here, but perhaps in a later article.

The Em Dash
The first type of dash is the em dash, so called because it is usually defined as the same length as an ‘m’ in whatever type you are using. This typically measures the full width of the capital M. In Australian usage, the em dash is used ‘closed up’: meaning that it should appear without a space to either side.

The em dash has three uses. These are:

• to signify an abrupt change: This is all very interesting—but it isn’t the point.
• to introduce amplification or explanation: Rainfall has been decreasing for years—a reason for this might be that climate change is affecting rainfall patterns.
• to indicate parenthetical information, in a similar manner to parentheses or brackets: ‘So I told him that I don’t like his dog—I really don’t, you know—and he just slammed the door on me.’

The 2-Em Rule
You can use the 2-em rule to indicate breaks and omissions, or in reference lists and bibliographies to eliminate repetition. The most common uses you would see would be in abrupt breaks in written speech:

‘You get out of here or I’ll ——.’

and to indicate missing words, such as in censored material:
The patient, Mrs M—— came in with a bronchial cough.

The En Dash
The second type of dash is the en dash, and unlike the em dash that indicates separate material, the en dash links things. This dash typically measures approximately half the width of an em dash, or about the width of the letter e. In Australian usage, the en dash is used ‘closed up’, meaning that it should appear without a space to either side, unless there is more than one linking word on each side of the dash.

Its primary uses include:

• to show a span of figures, time and distance: pages 100–105, 10–24 Wimmer Street, January–March
• to show an association between words that retain their separate identities: a Wakefield Press – Borders Books agreement.
• to link prefixes with what follows, in specific circumstances: non–refundable, ex–boyfriend
• to join some types of compound adjectives: HIV–positive, goggle–eyed

It can also be used for the minus symbol in mathematical strings—but this is outside of the scope of this article.

Recommended Reading
AGPS. 2002. Style manual for authors, editors and printers. 6th Edn. John Wiley & Sons: Australia.

If you’re a writer, then no doubt you have been at the mercy of your that dreaded feeling that you can’t write a word. You know that you can. In fact, there are six thousand words in your MS Word document to prove it. The problem is that you’ve been feeling slightly guilty about not writing anything for a few days, especially since your last outpouring of furiously paced inspiration, so you decided that you need to sit and write some more. You even have a sense of what to write. The problem is, it just isn’t happening. This blog will help spur you past this point.

A tentative prod with a word here and there fails to light your fire, and as you sit in front of your computer, utterly despondent, you wonder if you were kidding yourself about your writing. You have no idea what to do next. Not a clue. It is even an absence of motivation, of confidence. Suddenly the thought occurs to you that perhaps you can’t write. The evidence, at this very moment, is that you can’t: you can’t even write a word.

Truly, all is not lost! There is a way to get past this.

 
First: realise that inspiration can work against you

There are many writers, often those who are most badly affected by Writer’s Block, that work best when they are struck by that Certain Something. It may be an idea, it may not, but it is a drive to write. Now. The writer gets stuck into his or her work, and flies through pages and pages and pages of material. At the end of it, utterly exhausted, the writer feels as though he or she has done an enormous amount of satisfying work. The computer is turned off, and the writer goes on to do something else.

Inspiration is a great thing, and there are many projects that would never be started if the artist had not been struck by the desire to create something as soon as possible. However, it can work against the artist because in the in-between times, wherein no work occurs, guilt can grow.

This is a truth in much art: a started project + no work = guilt. It is even more difficult when you are writing. If you have created characters you want to spend time with, then you might find that your guilt is less about your lack of work, and more about the fact youíve left your characters to ‘fend for themselves’, as absurd and illogical as this may be.

The second thing about inspiration is that it creates a feeling that you need inspiration in order to write well.

 
Second: know that your writing is of a certain standard

A second truth in writing is that whether you write when you feel like, or write when you don’t feel like it, it is a rare thing that you could read over what you’d written and be able to tell what you had written on what day.

Sometimes it is more difficult to write, and sometimes you might find yourself being more picky about the way in which you express yourself in writing. You might find yourself exhausted after three lines because none of it ‘feels’ right. BUT your writing will always be of your usual standard, whether you write in the thrall of inspiration or not. It is important to realise this, and to work with yourself in all weathers.

Think of writing as an Olympic sport. You need to train if you want to perform at your peak consistently. Part of that is just to work at the skill over and over again.

 
Third: write, even if you don’t want to

It is a difficult thing to do, but it is important if you are afflicted with Writer’s Block: you need to write something every day. It doesnít matter whether this is a blog, or a journal, or some notes to yourself. It doesnít matter if your writing is done in five minute blocks when you are on the Brascoe, or waiting in line at the supermarket. If it helps, analyze someone else’s writing: this can often set your brain thinking in a different direction.

Or, set yourself a timer and a limit if you have to: it is amazing what you can do in a short space of time, if you know you have a deadline.

One of the hardest things about writing when you don’t want to is the feeling of being physically unable to work. It is a struggle getting to the computer and turning it on. Staring at your work you might experience a feeling of hopelessness; you might even feel, physically, a sense of being unable to ‘reach’. Happily, this is largely something that you create for yourself. Writer’s Block is notorious for causing a depressed mindset, and it sometimes helps to realise that it is largely self-perpetuating.

Once you actively sit down and write, as hard and as painful as it is, this feeling starts to go away.

 
Battle the Block

If you are finding it difficult to write, but you feel that you must, here are some suggestions for climbing the (apparently blank) wall:

• set a timer for fifteen minutes or less – even five minute – and start writing until the timer goes off. Then turn off what youíve done without reading it.
• go for a walk and let your mind go off on its own tangent. The Tao teaches that ideas come from Nothing. There is a lesson in this.
• write something every day: a blog, a letter, a diary, character sketches, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is to engage in something creatively, even if it is incredibly hard for you.
• analyse another writer’s work, comment on someone’s blog. Read and react intelligently. This can often be the spark that lights a fire.
• if you have a project on the go, be realistic about it. Don’t think that you’ll finish it within a certain timeframe: the best thing about art is that it can be unpredictable. The worst thing is to expect art to be something that it doesn’t want to be.
• embrace your inspiration when it happens, but don’t rely on it. Writing is a sport, and you need to train yourself to perform in all sorts of conditions, including when your inspiration has abandoned you.

Recommended reading

On Writer’s Block, by Cybele May.
Beat Writer’s Block by Reading and Commenting More, by Ben Yoskovitz

 

Brascoe Publishing Resources and How-to articles series by Brascoe Publishing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License