Showing posts with label fiction. Show all posts

This has to be a quick one because I'm going nuts trying to get all this work done. My to-do list has the ability to regenerate itself; as soon as I cross one task off, two more task appear in it's place like a demonic alien hydra! eeeek!!! -_-;;.

Updates?--Okay, I figured out why it's so expensive to POD my book. My book was too long. I just butchered the thing in half o_O;; WTF?! That act nearly made me quit life. After all the blood, sweat and tears (okay, no actual blood... but definitely tears demmit) to get my story to work and get it where it made sense, I had to DELETE nearly half the book, which means I practically have to rework the entire thing over again. ARRRGGHH *smoke shoots out of ears*!!!

Also, typing my book up innocently in Microsoft word I had no idea that 360 in whatever setting I was using (the "I-think-I'm-a-real-writer-setting?") translated to 466 pages in the ready for print template. At about $0.015 a page, my book would have been waaaaay too expensive.

Kill your darlings, Kill your darlings. Isn't that what Stephen King was talking about in "On writing"?
Well, my darling is dead and hopefully it will be born again, better and stronger. Actually it is...once you hit the delete button on about 10 chapters and realize that there is still a good story there...a more focused one...Yeah, you really didn't need that 10 chapters anyway and it was just mindless--though entertaining--filler.

I got the Lightning Source Application. **EXCITING**

It's long. I'm about halfway done with it. I'm at the part where they are asking me for banking info and I figure now was the best time for me to go open that business checking account so I can use that.

I've been struggling for a while deciding whether or not to use a pen name and I finally decided to go with a pen name. Why not? Having a secret identity is sexy :)


So my small business account will be opened under my pen name (if I can.. well see)
What else? Editing insanity. Lightning Source. Pen Name. Business Account. Oh and I still have the husband/son/life/and work thing. YESH! Better to be busy then bored though and I'm definitely not bored.

Alright, enough out of me for now...I got work to do!

In my case, the caption should read "If father Christmas was an agent" because I haven't even got to the publishers yet. Yep, 3 more rejection letters. I know, I know, Everyone gets rejection letters you just have to keep with it. Yes, yes, I know. I still have two more agents out of my list that I haven't heard from yet. Amazingly, it's the two agents I wanted the most, including the one who had asked for sample chapters. So I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

And I've already started looking into self publishing. Honestly, it seems like the thing to do now and it is kind of exciting. The only thing holding me back is A) I'm still editing my book B)I'm trying to decide if it's really worth it. C) I'm still querying agents while I study Self-publishing.

Now there's places like CreateSpace.com which is a great POD site that has a pretty good reputation and a message board where you can learn a lot about marketing and self publishing a book. The only problem I have with createspace is their Expanded Distribution Channel option...which doesn't make a lot of sense to me when I think about it.

There's three distribution options you can get with createspace. 1) Their regular plan (it's called something else but I can't think of it right now) which means they will sell your book only on THEIR stores. While I'm sure createspace gets a lot of traffic I don't think that's enough to make a living off of and I do plan on making a living as a writer.
Option 2) Is their Pro-Plan-- which means you'll be in their stores and amazon dot com. You make about 60% of your royalties, minus the fees for creating the book and all that. Not bad for a book priced at like 10.99, I would make 2-3 dollars royalty. Amazon is pretty big, so that's good. Still not sure if you'd be able to make a living off of that. You almost definitely wouldn't be able to make a living with just one book...but most writers who go through a traditional publisher aren't making a living off of one book either and they are almost definitely not getting 2-3 dollars per book in royalties.  So far the pro-plan is cool...but...

Option 3) Is the Expanded Distribution Channel, which create space claims will widen our books distribution network and even get our book into Barnes and Nobles and Borders book stores. That's cool, and it should definitely put more $$$ in pockets. Except first of all I'm hearing claims from people on the createspace message board that Borders and Barnes and Nobles do NOT carry self published books from createspace. I didn't know who to believe, so the other day I emailed Barnes and Nobles customer service to find out. I'm still waiting on a response, but I will keep you posted as soon as I have more info from them.

*Update: I got a response letter that said they will respond to me with a response letter in a few days. Whomp, whomp, whomp!

Another thing that I'm finding not cool about the EDC. Okay, they take 60% of your earnings right off the bat. That's fine. 40% is still a LOT better then the 8-5% I would probably get through a traditional publisher. But after they take out all these extra FEE'S, i swear you end up with like 2-3%. Depending on how many pages you have (and my book is book length, so we're talking royalties in the 2-3% percent range).

Lulu is another self publishing place but with them it's almost like the opposite. You can choose how much royalties you'll make but they'll price the books ridiculously high... A YA paperback for 17.99 is just ridiculous. My book is great but that is still way too expensive.

So even if I do self publish...and I'm getting swept up into the revolution...I'm still trying to find the best route in which to go about things (P.S. I know about Lightning Source, yes I want to use them TOO, but I like CS and LL's store fronts and communities).

Well, I was warned this phase was going to come. REJECTION. When I started sending out queries I started bracing myself and got myself ready for the almighty list of rejections to start piling up.

It's still a blow to the ego, no matter how much you set yourself up and know that it's gonna happen. But seriously, my book is like my baby, you work so hard on it to polish it and get it perfect, only for someone to glance at the query letter and dismiss it. Like *POOF*.

But you know what, fuck it. I know my work is good.  So I'll just keep pressing forward until I find an agent that believes in me as much as I believe in me. And if that doesn't work? I do have my plan B's and C's.

Omg! Look who's becoming miss organized? Don't let my Microsoft Excel agent/Query list fool you. I still have no idea what I'm doing. :)



Don't laugh at my whack excel skills, i'm still a beginner. Here is a list of all the agents I queried in 2009 and now in 2010. I know it isn't very much...about 15 in all (and one agent I queried twice, once last year and once this year). My responses so far are pretty good. I had one request for the full manuscript, one resquest for sample chapters, a lot of rejections and I'm still waiting on 3.

I kid you not when I tell you that I'm pretty unorganized, but I'm glad I sat down and did this. First of all, I realized that I hadn't heard from two agents I queried in 2009; that adds two more places I can query when I send out my next batch of query letters.

Also, I now can see where I've sent my letters so I don't requery the same agency...again! Yes, I accidently queried the same agency twice! I didn't even realize it until I created the excel chart and face palmed myself for sending two queries to two people at the same agency. Funny thing is though, one of the agents from this company is the same agent who requested some samples out of me. My ineptitude didn't get the door totally slammed in my face this time :)

(And I am not saying to do this, EVER, when you send out your query letters. This was a mistake and one that should have cost me a nice, blunt, rejection letter. )



Here is the list showing who gave me the boot, who gave me a hoot and who I'm still waiting for. I made the chart in bright pretty colors because if I don't, I may forget that I exist and start to fade away; like Marty Mcfly's parents in "Back to the future".

(Wow, I'm a dinosaur for remembering that...)

Also, a tip for those of you who haven't queried yet. I send my queries out in little batches. Maybe 6 or so at a time. This is something I do not regret. As I read more blogs and discover new information, I find things that make me want to change my query around. I read something on places like http://queryshark.blogspot.com that make me want to redo my query to make it better. This is great. Once a query is out there is no way you can take it back to make another first impression. But luckily, there are a lot of agents out there, and a lot of chances to make a good first impressions.

I know other writers who do the same thing and so far, they seem to pretty much agree with me. Sending 50 queries to 50 agents might seem like a good idea---but imagine getting 50 no's! It can and has happened to even FANTASTIC writers. Better to send out 6 or 15 or even 20 at a time. If you get 15 no's then you know it's time to go back to the drawing board and can do so knowing you still have a lot of agents left to query.

I haven't dropped a post in a while, so I figured I'd better leave one, even if it's really short.

I started sending out the queries last week. I haven't heard back from any of them yet. That's a good thing! The last time I sent out queries (about 6 or 7) the rejections came immediately. Some of them were the very next day, if i remember correctly. It was the positive feedback ones that took weeks to get. So when I check my mailbox and find it empty, there's a weird sense of relief there.

My son is in St.Martin with his grandmother for the entire week. Great opportunity to sweep over my work and tighten it up for when I get request for the full manuscript. I'm having a great time reading over my own story, so I have to take that as a positive. I mean, I've read my own book only about eighty-seven thousand times. The fact that I can do it one more time and enjoy it says a lot, I think.

Anyway, my sleep patterns haven't gotten any better. Got pretty much no sleep last night so I'm going to clean up and take another crack at it. Hope all is well with anyone finding this.

-Cheers

Haha! Kind of a big let down after my last post I know. But I have good reason for hesitating this time...



I took someones wonderful advice and joined a writing group online. HOORAY FOR THE INTERNET!!

Yesterday afternoon I posted the first five pages of my story---which is part of my submission packet BTW---to writingforums.com (my username is Balistic, LOOK ME UP, YO!)

Ahem. Anyway, so for I only got one critique of my work but it was good advice. Also re-reading my own except at like 5 am in the morning (I'm having really horrible sleep patterns lately, I go to sleep anytime, wake up whenever and usually don't end up getting more then 4 hours a sleep a day) I found a ton of mistakes!! Okay, not a ton, but enough to make me glad I didn't send in my submission to agents yet!

The mistakes were little and I know my overall writing is good, but I can't afford any errors. Has to be PERFECT! So for any other writers out their going bitch cakes over their work, I suggest you have it looked at by a critique group, even an online one. Competition is stiff ya'll! Everyone one and their baby mama is trying to be the next "Stephanie Meyer". How good her writing is I'll let the individual decide...but my way of thinking? I can't write a book as good as "Twilight" I have to try to make something better. That's just what it takes to succeed now-a-days because honestly, the publishing hustle has become a dog race. Which is cool with me, I'm ready for battle!




*By the way I didn't draw the picture located on the top. I found it here: http://bloodylilies.livejournal.com/profile




It's gorgeous though, isn't it? People are so talented!

Yeah. Eventually.

Not really. Let's just do it. Let's send out those query letters.

This book we've been working on forever. We've twisted it and changed it and re-arranged it. I'm gonna go glowing BaTShIT!  Seems everyday were getting a new idea for it. Maybe it's time to just send the thing out and hope for the best? If we get rejected then we alter it, but stop altering it before we can even get the queries out.

Yeah sounds good. I'm gonna do it. Really. I'm gonna do it. Okay. I'm doing it. Oh yeah. Seriously. Here i go...

Cheers! Wish me luck!