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Snippets – yay or nay?

September 7, 2010 by Nicole 20 Comments

As I work through my MS again (yes again) I’m wondering if I should post ‘snippets’ from it.  Would you be interested?  I know I enjoy reading some but often get put off by the length of them.  What’s an appropriate length do you think? Hmmmm.  Well maybe I’ll post one later this week and we’ll just see what your response is and go from there *grin*.
I received a parcel today!  Who doesn’t love random parcels, really?  It was from the lovely Sharon at Random Thoughts blog.  I responded to a post and won!  Look at these cute little things : ) Makes me soooo envious that NZ’s postage isn’t cheaper, it would probably cost me around $10 to send that, which is why I’m excited and terrified bout someone winning the 500 followers prize.  Still it’ll be worth it – then I can tell you my secret! *grin* I hate keeping secrets (at least good ones that is) so looking forward to spilling. 

Anyway back to the pressie from Sharon.  It includes gum (real gum from USA!!), lip gloss (always in need of – yummy orange flavour), two highlighters – perfect timing or what! A selection of adorable plasters, two with cool looking girls and four of puppies and kittens, so very cute.  The last item is what I’m guessing is a fortune stick?  Correct me if I’m wrong.  This made me gasp.  Why?  Because literally two days ago my horoscope said the same thing.  Weird huh!  Here’s what it said.
‘Accept an opportunity that is offered to you’
Hellllloooo!?! Mr/Mrs opportunity where are you?? I’m waiting *grin* Well I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
This parcel has given me an idea of another thing to add to the 500 followers prize.  So it now consists of.


1.   Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents 2010

2.   A t-shirt of my own design following the theme of my blog (three designs to choose from and several colours)

3.   A piece of jewelry designed by moi for the winner with their input.  I can make a variety of styles not just what you saw in the picture the other week.

4.   My absolute favourite lip balm/salve from Kereru.  Kereru is a New Zealand brand which makes everything from natural materials they grow and source.  They don’t send over seas so this is pretty special.  It’s made with calendula and tea tree and lemon essential oils and you can use it for so many things!  Like scratches or cuts, eczema even the dreaded zit.  I have three or four of these floating around the house in constant use – but don’t worry the winner gets a brand new one *grin*  Here’s their website if you want a nosy, I think a testimonial I sent through is still on there ;p 

5.   A note pad for scribbling thoughts, ideas, perhaps future plots??  And of course a nice pen.

    So it’s looking like a pretty awesome parcel all in all!  Anyone who is one of my first 500 followers is in the draw and if you add my blog button (and link it  to my blog!  Most important) to your blog you get an extra chance.  I will also add your button to mine – make sure you let me know *grin*

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    Filed Under: Pre 2016 posts Tagged With: parcel, Uncategorized

    Comments

    1. B.E.T. says

      September 7, 2010 at 10:50 am

      Definitely put up snipets! I'm sure everybody would be intrigued and/or eager to give feedback/undying praise and adoration. 🙂

      Reply
    2. Vicki Rocho says

      September 7, 2010 at 11:10 am

      What a gift pack…By the time you're done adding to it, it'll probably be cheaper for you to buy a plane ticket to hand-deliver the parcel! (Now THAT would be cool….)

      Reply
    3. Diane says

      September 7, 2010 at 11:41 am

      So fun to get packages in the mail! Love it :O)

      Reply
    4. Sharon K. Mayhew says

      September 7, 2010 at 12:14 pm

      How did I not have you on my blog roll already??? Hmmm…I'll have to blame it on our summer money, I mean homeowner fun…

      I'm glad you got a kick out of the quirky random prizes package and that it finally made it to you.

      I take it you made it through the earth quake okay…

      You're giving away some very cool prizes for your celebration!

      Reply
    5. Mason Canyon says

      September 7, 2010 at 12:56 pm

      It's always fun to get (good) surprise packages in the mail. Makes us feel like kids again I guess. Do put up a snippet of your MS, looking forward to reading it.

      Mason
      Thoughts in Progress

      Reply
    6. Sangu says

      September 7, 2010 at 1:13 pm

      Definitely put snippets up! They're lots of fun to read, and it's always nice to get different kinds of feedback!

      Probably under 1000 words? More than that and a lot of people won't have the patience to read it 🙂

      Reply
    7. AlexOngNYC says

      September 7, 2010 at 1:18 pm

      You know, I've debated the snippet thing too, I'm still more pro than con for it!

      Alex
      Breakfast Every Hour

      Reply
    8. Clarissa Draper says

      September 7, 2010 at 1:40 pm

      I don't like reading long snippets because I don't really have context. Short snippets with intriguing or funny parts are fine.

      CD

      Reply
    9. Thomas Taylor says

      September 7, 2010 at 1:51 pm

      I hate to be boring, but there's one real problem with posting snippets, and that's the potential for future conflict concerning e-publishing rights. This is because some publishers consider posting online to be genuine publishing and some don't. If your book gets interest from a publisher but you have already aired significant chunks of it here, then they could consider the work to be already published. Just something gloomy to think about:)

      One option is to keep track of your snippet posts and then delete them when you start approaching agents, editors etc.

      Reply
    10. Bossy Betty says

      September 7, 2010 at 2:44 pm

      Love getting packages like this in the mail.

      Snippets? I don't know. I like to see the whole thing and have a hard time with snippets.

      Reply
    11. Bekah says

      September 7, 2010 at 4:44 pm

      I love getting mail like that!! And snippets..I have wondered the same thing. How about the first page to start off with? It's actually A LOT of text for a blog. Then see how totally hooked we are : ) You can get tons of feed back on your hook, characters etc. and then each day of the week post another page until you have the first five????

      Reply
    12. Laura Pauling says

      September 7, 2010 at 5:38 pm

      I love the title of your blog! Cute! Good luck getting to 500 followers!

      Reply
    13. Jolene Perry says

      September 7, 2010 at 6:02 pm

      Yes on the snippets. I think less than 250 words doesn't give us much sense of the story, but more than 350 and you've probably lost my attention. My attention span is a lot shorter when reading blogs 😉
      Now you just have to figure out what you'll want to share with us…

      Reply
    14. Nicole MacDonald says

      September 7, 2010 at 6:48 pm

      @ Vicki – yeah that thought has occurred to me…

      @ B.E.T, Mason, Sangu, Alex, Clarissa & Jolene – I think I'll do it, I'll just have a good look over which ones are more concise…

      @ Thomas – I wasn't planning on anything too huge *grin* cause the same thoughts have occurred to me before, though Diana Gabaldon does it..

      @ Bossy Betty – yeah, that's one of the thoughts I had

      @ Laura – thanks!

      Reply
    15. Shellie says

      September 7, 2010 at 8:24 pm

      I agree, be careful how much of your story you publish on the web. After a certain percentage, it's considered published by some editors and contests. Instead, maybe consider beta readers for your stories.

      Reply
    16. Rowenna says

      September 8, 2010 at 2:03 am

      Would love snippets! I tend to really like eesny, brief windows–I figure a couple paragraphs doesn't put you at much risk of plagairism, but gives us a taste of what you're working on. Plus, so intriguing!

      Reply
    17. Krispy says

      September 8, 2010 at 4:48 am

      Snippets – yay! But like you said, keep them short-ish since longer ones can be a bit daunting. In general though, I like to see snippets. I mean, we know we're fellow writers, but sometimes, I don't really know what the actual writing is like, you know? 🙂 I just tried the snippets thing out too.

      Reply
    18. Simon Kewin says

      September 8, 2010 at 10:22 am

      Snippets would be lovely – but I share Thomas's concerns. You can delete them, but they'll still all be there somewhere, archived on the internet. But maybe brief snippets as opposed to whole chapters would work. It's tricky isn't it? These are unknown waters for all of us …

      Reply
    19. LTM says

      September 8, 2010 at 10:21 pm

      How nice! And I've often thought of posting snippets… Maybe I'll see how it works for you. 😀

      Reply
    20. Carolina Valdez Miller says

      September 9, 2010 at 7:03 am

      When I lived in the UK, getting a parcel from the US was extremely exciting! Congrats on your win from Sharon's blog (she's a sweetheart!). and what a great contest you have going. Love love love the idea of getting something from New Zealand. it's the one place in the world I want to go to most.

      Reply

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