By Ruth Nestvold and Jay Lake

This article was originally published on IROSF in January 2006.

Recently we talked about some of the things editors in our field care about, how they are looking for the strange, the different, the new — and not in the cover letter.  Now we’re going to talk about some of the things writers care about, the aspiring author in particular.  We’re going to say some things aspiring authors probably don’t want to hear, and we’re going to say some things that they’ve...