Showing posts with label query letters. Show all posts

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).

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!