Captain's Blog
Ahoy, Critterfolk!
New entry May 03
Critter Notices
New Book from a Critter Member
Awesome new book,
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SPECULATIVE FICTION OPENINGS,
from a Critter member whose unearthed a shard of The Secret
to becoming a pro writer. Really good piece of work.
"...if you're at all concerned about story openings, you'd be nuts not to read what Qualkinbush has to say." —Wil McCarthy, author of BLOOM and THE COLLAPSIUM
Stayin' Alive
If you want to make a career of SF writing, STAYING ALIVE - A WRITER'S GUIDE by three-time SFWA President Norman Spinrad, published by your Critter Captain's ReAnimus Press, is an indispensable guide to the SF publishing industry by an expert.How to Write SF
Hot off the presses from ReAnimus Press! The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells by Ben Bova, best-selling author and six-time Hugo Award winner for Best Editor. (This is one of the books your ol' Critter Captain learned from himself, and I highly recommend it.)
Book Recommendation
It's like discovering a new Heinlein book:
POINT ULTIMATE
by Star Trek writer Jerry Sohl.
Announcing ReAnimus Press
If you need help making ebooks from manuscripts or print copies—or finding great stuff to read—look no further! An ebook publisher started by your very own Critter Captain. (And with a 12% Affiliate program.) [More]
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FEATURED BOOK
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Advertising and Critters
This page describes both critter members advertising their work on the site and Critter members advertising for Critters on their own sites.
Advertising on Critters
Critter members in good standing may now advertise their own work on the site. This is a free service, to help Critter members get the word out about their new stories, products of interest, etc.
To have an ad on the site, you must be a member in good standing (75% participation ratio) and must have been an active member for at least eight weeks (from time of joining or last ratio reset). Aburt reserves the right to deny any ad content he feels inappropriate. Visit the ad server page to add or manage your ads.
You can also put your digital products directly in the Critter Members' Store, in which case we all win. (You could even point the link for your free ad to your item in the store :) but you don't have to. To get the store link for your product, /c/store/uplaod.cgi add it to the store, then click on your item in the store, which will give you a URL for your page. It'll be something like http://critique.org/c/store/?item=25741 , with your item# in there.)
Other opportunities to announce your work are via the Woohoo!s (for writing sales or publications) and via the NewNewForum.com, also operated by your Critter Captain, Andrew Burt. The NewNewForum encourages announcements of anything new, in any realm.
Advertising anything inside critiques is strictly prohibited. Likewise for soliciting members to do something (visit a site, etc.). A generic one-line (80 byte) "product" reference in your email signature (not the body of the email, only the signature) is permitted if and only if the critique is long enough for full critique credit (200+ words of , non-quoted critique material, unique to that manuscript — nothing generic or copy&pasted). This is to prevent people from doing short non-creditworthy critiques just to spam members, as has occurred in the past.
I'm trying to help members by allowing reasonable promotion without spamming and without making advertising the purpose of anyone's membership in Critters (the purpose being, first, foremost, and always about improving your writing), and I think the above exceeds what most sites allow, so please don't push the envelope. In other words, violating these ad guidelines is grounds for immediate removal from the workshop.
Advertise for Critters
If you'd like to advertise for Critters, we'd appreciate it. We have the following ads you can use.
For conventions: a flyer you can print copies of to distribute. (There's usually a table for flyers. Also helpful for panels on writing, critiquing, etc.)
For your web site, Facebook, etc.: Below are several web ads in various sizes. (Some may be below the sidebar so scroll down.)
Please have the images link to http://Critique.org.
The URL for the image itself is below each ad, and HTML you can copy&paste. Please change the YOURSITENAME to the name of your site so I can know where the traffic is coming from.
If you need other sizes please contact me.
468x60 banner - http://critters.org/critters_ad1-468x60.jpg
160x600 skyscraper - http://critters.org/critters_ad1-160x600.jpg
Quarter page 288x378 - http://critters.org/critters_ad1-4x5.jpg
