Information
The Editing Process at Tantalizing Tales
From submission to publication of your story
Since I’ve been on Medium my experiences of submitting work to publications has shown me that each has its own approach. Some don’t offer any edits, what you submit is what gets published, others have very stringent rules about formatting and font styles and such like, but you’re on your own with the structure/grammar etc.
About the publication
When May More and I discussed the idea of hosting Tantalizing Tales, we always intended to encourage new writers. Mindful of any help we received in the course of our writing journey, offering an editing service was a key element we wanted to include. We are proud of the publication, and the stable of writers who’ve joined us under its banner, so our pledge is that we will never put out a story that has not been checked over by at least one of our editors.
Tantalizing Tales is a voluntary run publication. We do it for the love of fiction. Being the chief editor means I often work with new writers, which is a passion of mine. May More edits too, but also curates the publication — therefore having the final say on scheduling the tales that are submitted to us.
As the amount of submissions we received grew, our original in-house writers, Liz Black and Mrs. K, began to help May and me with the editing. In recent months Marie A. Rebelle came on board Liz dropped back & Marsha Adams also does ad hoc edits.
Writers offer us their stories in draft and May has the unenviable task of juggling a suitable editing schedule, which accommodates MicroMondays, any prompt stories and ongoing serials.
Our submission guidelines are here, please be sure to read them before submitting your finished piece of fiction to Tantalizing Tales.
The Right Fit for Us
At Tantalizing Tales we encourage Fiction (flash and longer) that engages the reader in an intriguing tantalizing manner.
We don’t want plots that are predictable or tired, our readers expect to be surprised, they’re prepared to suspend belief or feel chilled by our content. Stories can be told in first, second or third person. We need them to be fictional rather than personal experience, there are other great publications on Medium which host non-fiction, and we don’t intend to step on their toes.
Practice Makes Perfect
Creating fiction is the surest way for writers to hone their skills on the basic elements and structure of a story.
Everyone has to begin somewhere, and it is only by writing, pushing themselves and getting both editorial and reader feedback that a writer can improve their style while flexing their creativity.
New writers, who have not written creatively (maybe since their school days) can, with direction, encouragement and practice see improvements faster than by working in private without audience or feedback. This is where Medium is such a boost to the writing community.
The wrong fit for Ttales:
- Non-fiction
- Poetry
- Reviews
- Un-checked stories: Please use an on-line grammar checker to make your story error free before the Editors offer advice
- Unintelligible fiction submissions: We only have a certain time frame to work on submissions and some may be too much of an undertaking for us, but more than one editor’s opinion will be sought to come to this conclusion.
- Bland fiction with a predictable plot or which is too long: Again, more than one editor will be consulted before making this decision.
- AI generated fiction: We encourage originality in the writing style and inventiveness in the plot. If you have used AI to generate any part of your story, please declare it.
We Will Give Writers:
- Evaluation: An honest read of your story and help with your idea, formatting, and appropriateness to the fit at Tantalizing Tales
- Edits: Suggestions on how to improve will come as private notes within the narrative of your story. We do not wish to adapt your writing ‘voice’ so you’re free to ignore editorial suggestions. We’ll advise on grammar, plot, storytelling improvements, elements which need expanding (or trimming), avoidance of repetition and other common pitfalls.
- Encouragement: We will praise and hi-light what you do well; marvellous metaphors, heartfelt emotional literacy, intriguing plot devices and deftly drawn characters. In addition to cheerleading, if you hit a bump in the road, we can suggest ways round it.
- Guides: We have created documents to help you with Medium friendly layout and image sizing / positioning our guides
- More than one round of edits: depending on the needs of the story and the editor’s time (for us this is non-paid volunteer work, done out of our passion for nurturing new talent).
- A timely response to your submission: If you are a new writer, we will read your draft submission and respond within three days. We always notify you of the date your piece is scheduled for publication, then an editor will be assigned to work with you. Keep in mind weekends, life happens and time-zones: May and Posy are (GMT), Liz is (GMT +1) and Mrs K is (Toronto, GMT -5).
- A second opinion: If we’re uncertain about the suitability of your story we’ll consult another editor before rejecting it. A rejection requires two votes.
- Occasional prompts: Such as our call for submissions in December 2021 to fit with the festivities
- One or two posts featured a day: Submissions won’t be published immediately. We limit the number of posts we publish, a strategy which allows meaningful exposure for all stories. But it also means you will have to be patient regarding the progress of your story… We can’t promise views, but we do share and promote via Twitter and within our Tantalizing Tales Community. Those who subscribe to our publication get a weekly round-up of links.
What we would like from Our Writers:
- Creative Collaborators who take on-board feedback and try to incorporate it. Our edits are intended to help you grow, we don’t want ‘cookie cutter’ T.Tales writers. Thinking outside the box is encouraged.
- Community Involvement. Please engage with your fellow T.Tales writers’ and editors’ stories. Do this by following the publication and some of our editors/ writers. By reading & commenting on others’ work, you can expect them to return the favour. Here’s where learning and friendships begin. We don’t expect you to limit yourself to writing for T.Tales — all the editors write for other publications because it’s healthy for creative growth, so feel free to find additional publications with whom to share your work.
- Self belief: Believe in yourself, because over time you’ll progress, and we’re committed to helping fledgling writers. We took this project on because it’s fun, it helps us improve, and it gives back.
- Kindness: T.Tales has no room for anything offensive or hateful. Writers that harass or are mean-spirited will be dropped from our listings. We may remove writers from the publication if they have asked to join us but have not submitted anything within the first 6 months.
Lastly, the team at Tantalizing Tale wants to thank you for your interest in our publication.
Some of our writers need 100 followers to be able to join the Medium Partner program…
