Showing posts with label query. Show all posts

Okay, the truth is there's a little secret about my work that i've been keeping. I was going to explain myself eventually...after I felt like I was really a success at this self publishing thing.

The secret is that I actually did have an agent that was interested in this work. A very big agent (in the YA  fantasy world anyway). Now, he asked for a copy of my manuscript, but I guess I didn't feel the work was ready to send it to him yet. Then by the time I felt it was ready, I had gotten all swept up into the idea of self publishing. Even though a lot of people were telling me I was crazy for it.

And I did feel crazy for doing this up until a few days ago. I mean, who the hell doesn't jump at the chance to work with an agent? Only a moron right?
Imagine if I fail at this self publishing thing. OMIGAWD! I gave up the chance to work with a real AGENT! What a failure!

Except, the more blogs I read, the more I talk to other authors in and out of the industry, the more unspectacular the whole traditionally publishing route sounds to me. And at this point no matter what happens, I know I wouldn't be happy publishing traditionally. Why? Because I know my personality and I am not the type who can tolerate suits telling me what "art" is. There are suits and there ate artist. Suits know marketing, they know distribution channels, they know other suits, but ART? No.

Now, I get it. To be a rich, super successful writer you need marketing, you need suits. So rather then deal with suits I've restructured my goals, career wise, a little. My dream is no longer to be a multi-millionaire. My dream is to be one of the best writers ever. Not "the best that I can be", the best writer, PERIOD.

A suit isn't going to help me accomplish that goal. A suit is going to kick my book into shape so that it sells lots and lots of copies. An editor? Yes, they definately help. An agent? Hmmmm.... Publisher? Not really.

I'm putting this out now rather then when I become a "successful indie writer", because a successful indie writer is someone who sells more then 100 copies of their book. Call me conceited, but I'm pretty sure I can sell more than 100 copies of my awesomeness :) . So, I'm going to say that I'm successful enough to be sure about the path I'm on.



Another thing about the agent that contacted me. He has an author in his stable ("stable" i don't know what else to call them)who is very successful. I see her books everywhere, that's why I got weak in the knees when this particular agent seemed intrested. I went to this authors website and a read an except of her book..hmmm what can i say. I was not impressed. A little chigrined may be better wording for it. But at the time it was cool to me. I mean if he liked her book he would certainly LOVE mine. Better chances for me right? And maybe that was true, maybe it wasn't. But now looking back on that, it just proves my point that suits know marketing. They don't know art. The fact is you can sell ANYTHING if you market it, just right.

So, knowing that fact. I thinks to myself "If a suit can pretend to know art, maybe a writer can pretend to know marketing". Marketing is an ART in a way, isn't it? Yes, there is an art to it. Red paint here, in this portrait, bring out this emotions, expresses this idea. A finely worded ad, placed here, will get me X amount sales. Check stats to see if my message is reaching the public. HAZAH! My bank account will show that my art is relevant! AHAHA!

Everyone always uses the music industry as an example so im going to do it to. Industry music today SUCKS. Everyone knows it. The stuff on the radio is crap and you have to be drugged up to stand to listen to it. That's probably why so many American teenagers are hocked up on anti depressants and ADHD drugs.

Just sayin'.

Industry music sucks butt. And why is that? Because suits don't know shit about art. They'd rather brainwash the public into buying nonsense because it's easier and less risky for them. You can't tell for sure how real art will catch people, because all emotions aren't the type that lead people to buy stuff. And the emotions that lead people to buy stuff are the only emotions suits care about.

The suits jobs just keeps getting easier, they don't have to put any work into an artist anymore. Computerized voices and the artist are already trained to follow orders by the time they reach that level.

Now I will admit, industry books aren't anywhere near as bad as industry music. There are some pretty good industry books out there. But the devil is in the process and how the authors get treated. The writer has already cleaned and polished the book by the time an agent reads it. The writer has done all the hard work, yet gets somewhere between 5-8% of the profits. Is that fair? Doesn't seem it to me. If it seems fair to you then by all means go for it.

But before I sign on with anyone, I want to see if maybe I might be as good at playing a suit as the suits are at playing artist. Gotta be brave, gotta be bold and sometimes do things that are a little crazy.

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!