Using Contests as Door Openers

Using Contests as Door Openers In a world where its near impossible to land an agent or publisher, and indie publishing appears to be a monstrosity of complexities, it might be time to consider contests. And dont talk about how most of them are scams, either. There are more publishing scams out there than contests, my friend. Why focus on contests when your goal is publishing? Because contests are a roundabout way to open a door to getting published. And you get to toy around with submitting more than that book youve obsessed over. You can also submit novellas, short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. Suggestions on entering contests to aid your career: 1) Stick to contests that result in publication. Whether its a website, a journal, or a publishing house, getting publication credits in your portfolio matters. You need credibility. 2) Extract from your book-length work and create a short piece or two. There are way more short story competitions than novels contests. Take the gist of your longer piece and turn it into a short submission. The point is to make people realize you can write. If you win, THEN tell them you also write novels. 3) Choose reputable contests, not something cutesy and cheap, so that when you win you are respected, not chuckled at. Show that even when you enter contests, you are a professional. 4) Be willing to pay entry fees. They fund the publishing, the judging, and the prize money. Better to pay $25 to enter and win $1,000 than pay $0 and win $50. The latter doesnt look as good on a resume or pitch letter. 5) Consider those contests that offer feedback. Those critiques might right some wrongs in your work. 6) Choose contests where the judges are agents, publishers, or editors. Even if you dont win, you might catch someones eye. Some authors enter contests regularly while still pursuing publication. Theres no point in passing up this sort of opportunity. Especially during a time that writers are a dime-a-dozen and landing attention is like screaming into the wind. While youre planning your query letters or indie promotion, make time for a contest or two each month. It might be the catalyst to take that stalling writing career to a higher level.

Using Ethnomethodology to Understand Social Order

Using Ethnomethodology to Understand Social Order What Is Ethnomethodology? Ethnomethodology is a theoretical approach in sociology based on the belief that you can discover the normal social order of a society by disrupting it. Ethnomethodologists explore the question of how people account for their behaviors. To answer this question, they may  deliberately disrupt social norms to see how people respond and how they try to restore social order. Ethnomethodology was first developed during the 1960s by a sociologist named  Harold Garfinkel. It is not an especially popular method, but it has become an accepted approach. What Is the Theoretical Basis for Ethnomethodology? One way of thinking about ethnomethodology is built around the belief that human interaction takes place within a consensus and interaction is not possible without this consensus. The consensus is part of what holds society together and is made up of the norms for behavior that people carry around with them. It is assumed that people in a society share the same norms and expectations for behavior and so by breaking these norms, we can study more about that society and how they react to broken normal social behavior. Ethnomethodologists argue that you cannot simply ask a person what norms he or she uses because most people are not able to articulate or describe them. People are generally not wholly conscious of what norms they use and so ethnomethodology is designed to uncover these norms and behaviors. Examples of Ethnomethodology Ethnomethodologists often use ingenious procedures for uncovering social norms by thinking of clever ways to disrupt normal social interaction. In a famous series of ethnomethodology experiments, college students were asked to pretend that they were guests in their own home without telling their families what they were doing. They were instructed to be polite, impersonal, use terms of formal address (Mr. and Mrs.), and to only speak after being spoken to. When the experiment was over, several students reported that their families treated the episode as a joke. One family thought their daughter was being extra nice because she wanted something, while another’s believed their son was hiding something serious. Other parents reacted with anger, shock, and bewilderment, accusing their children of being impolite, mean, and inconsiderate. This experiment allowed the students to see that even the informal norms that govern our behavior inside our own homes are carefully structured. By violating the norms of the household, the norms become clearly visible. What We Can Learn from Ethnomethodology Ethnomethological research teaches us that many people have a hard time recognizing their own social norms.  Usually people go along with what is expected of them and the existence of norms only becomes apparent when they are violated. In the experiment described above, it became clear that normal behavior was well understood and agreed upon despite the fact that it had never been discussed or described.    References Anderson, M.L. and Taylor, H.F. (2009). Sociology: The Essentials. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.