Midland Exposure Interview Themselves

Lesley Gleeson & Cari Crook
(This article first appeared in The New Writer)

What is Midland Exposure?

It's an agency, started in 1996, selling short fiction to all the weekly women's magazines.

How did it get started?

Imagine three short story writers on holiday in Robin Hood's Bay in July. Imagine several bottles of wine. Imagine the conversation.
"How can we get our work published?"
"So many magazines don't take unsolicited fiction."
"If only there was an agency specialising in magazine stories."
Get the picture? We can't remember who actually said the words "Let's start our own agency!" But we do remember falling about laughing. Even funnier was that as the week wore on, the idea didn't wear off.
By September we were in business. By Christmas we'd sold several stories. By March one partner had left due to pressure of her other work. By April 1997 we were inviting all and sundry to send us work.

So why on earth is it called Midland Exposure?

Sounds like we run a string of stripograms doesn't it? The majority of the initial conversation about setting up an agency, wasn't about practical details such as capital and working practices, but about what we would call ourselves.
For some reason, best known to Dionysus, we decided the name should be based on one of our favourite television programmes. Aren't you glad we discarded Script Trek, The X Folios and Have We Got Stories For You! Northern Exposure presented the best possibilities, and as we are based in Leicester, it became all too obvious!

Who are the partners?

Lesley Gleeson and Cari Crook.

Who are you, Lesley Gleeson?

I am a working writer of magazine fiction. I have been published in Bella, Best, Chat, Take a Break, Woman, Woman's Own, Woman's Realm and My Weekly. Under my pseudonym of Mary Snow, I've been published in the BBC girls' magazine Girl Talk.
My non-commercial fiction has won several prizes in competitions and been published in Quality Women's Fiction and Peninsular, both excellent small press magazines.

Who are you, Cari Crook?

Sad old anorak, that's what! When I'm not haunting Dr. Who conventions and the like, I write genre fiction, mainly dark fantasy and sci-fi. I have won numerous prizes, including several in Quality Women's Fiction competitions and one in the Asham competition. This resulted in an anthology, published by Serpent's Tail, with my story, The Catch, providing the title. Commercially I have been published in teenage and children's magazines, in particular the BBC's Girl Talk magazine as Katie Bright.

What is the philosophy of Midland Exposure?

We pride ourselves on offering a supportive, encouraging and friendly service. As working writers, we know how hard it is to get honest feedback on your work. We pull no punches - there is no point in raising false hopes. But if we feel a writer has potential, we will work with them very closely, honing their story until it is of an acceptable standard. Being part of Midland Exposure, we are told, is like belonging to a club. We are always available on the phone for bouncing ideas off, for commiserating or celebrating or just for chatting. We produce an informal and informative newsletter every other month to keep everyone abreast of happenings both within the agency and with magazines and Exposure writers. We also organise get-togethers so our writers can meet us and each other.

How does someone become a member of this 'club'?

Pure and simple - study your markets, write a suitable story and send it to us! We charge a £7.50 reading fee per script. For that money, we will give you our honest opinion of the story and your potential as a writer of magazine fiction. If a story shows promise, we will ask you to amend it and re-submit. We do not charge for re-reading these stories. Once a story is of an acceptable standard we take it into the agency and refund the £7.50 for that particular script. At that point, the writer becomes a member of the club!

Then what happens?

We issue an agreement, which basically says the author agrees not to submit the story to any markets while we are trying to sell it for them. We then load the story onto our computers and print it in our own distinctive style. It is then submitted to the most suitable magazine and we cross our fingers! If a story is rejected, we simply re-print it and send it off to the next suitable market. We record on our database any comments given by the fiction editor, and these are reported on the author's monthly statement. Once a story has been sold and paid for by the magazine we deduct our commission and pay the author. Our rates are 25% commission for the first five stories sold, 20% for the next five and 15% thereafter.

How do you manage to keep track of everything?

Midland Exposure is fully computerised! Details of all the writers, all their stories, all the submissions and all financial transactions are logged on our databases. In her pre-children existence, Lesley was a freelance computer consultant for many years.

What is Midland Exposure looking for?

 Committed, enthusiastic and consistent writers (men and women) who are prepared to work hard to get their stories into print
 Writers who have studied their markets
 Original stories written in a magazine style
 Three dimensional characters
 Believable dialogue
 Lively writing

What don't we want?

 Anyone who thinks writing magazine fiction is easy or beneath them
 Writers who have never read a women's magazine, but are convinced their story is just what the fiction editors should be looking for (and believe us we get sackfuls of those!!)
 Hackneyed, recycled, clichéd plots
 Stereotyped characters
 Anecdotes
 Wimpy female characters
 No stories on cannibalism - yes we really did get one!

What tips can we offer?

  Stories should be about women (obvious really isn't it?) and the issues that concern them
 Keep your language simple and straight forward. Sentences short and punchy
 That old chestnut - 'show' don't 'tell'
 Put in loads of dialogue
 Keep the stories cheerful - with an upbeat ending
 Don't send in taboo plots such as dating agency/lonely hearts column, cat went out and brought back a husband, is husband having an affair - no it's a birthday surprise, animal point of view, let's all murder our husbands. Avoid dieting stories and any mention of explicit sex, violence and any form of abuse

What can Midland Exposure offer to the writer?

 Expert advice and guidance to ensure your story is the best fit for the magazines.
 Professional and pristine presentation of your work
 A stress free way of submitting work to all the suitable magazines. You'll never have to open a rejection letter from a magazine again!
 Entry to the market at a level that is built on the success of other Exposure writers
 The benefit of the good relationships we have with all the fiction editors. They have come to trust us and the quality of the work we submit, so when they are actively looking for fiction, they contact us.

Where can I contact Midland Exposure?

Our address is: 4 Victoria Court, Oadby, Leicester, LE2 4AF
Our phone number is: (0116) 271 8332 / 281 2188
Our fax. number is: (0116) 281 2188
Our email address is: partners@midlandexposure.co.uk
Our website is: www.midlandexposure.co.uk

It sounds marvellous - so why are people nervous about contacting us?

Dunno! We're two fairly ordinary, cuddly and extremely friendly women. Don't be afraid to ring or write, how bad could it be?