Withdrawal

It has been just over one week since I sent out the Beta Manuscript.  I promised myself that I would not edit Pack while the beta readers are working.  To that end, I've given myself one month away.  Here's my reasoning:

1. Respect for the readers: if I'm fiddling with the manuscript, then they're not reading the latest version, and their time is wasted.  
2. Fresh eyes: giving myself some time away will let me go back and read with renewed vision.  I'll be able to see the typos and errors better, and gain a new perspective on the story.
3. Distance: when reader input comes back, I'll have a bit of distance from the project.  I won't be as wrapped up in crafting the story, so I'll be able to consider their feedback with an open mind, and not take things personally. 

Unfortunately, taking time off is proving a much more difficult task than anticipated.  I can't stop thinking about it!  Even though I'm not reading the words on the page, I'm still revising things in my head and second guessing certain decisions I made along the way. 

"Is that scene really necessary?  Maybe I should have taken it out before sending to the beta readers." 

OR 

"That transition was too fast, there wasn't enough time between action A and response B." 

I will not go back to edit.  I will not go back and revise. 

The thing is, I was really happy with it when I sent Pack off to be read.  I felt pretty good about it.  Is it perfect?  No, but I thought it was as close as I could get on my own without new insight.  I still think that's true.  Additional edits might have just been changes, and not necessarily for the better.  I need the time away and I need the feedback.  So I will wait, as frustrating as that may seem sometimes!

I'm trying to distract myself with other related projects.  I'm seriously researching the publishing options, reading blogs and books on all aspects of the subject.  I'm revising a short story set in the same world as Pack but 60 years prior.  I'm writing the content for my website and bugging my husband to help me design it.  I'm thinking about the next book and starting on a very rough outline.

All in all, this is still going to be a productive month, but I can't wait to hear what the readers think and get back to finishing Pack!

Quick Update

I apologize for missing my posting earlier this week.  Things have been a little crazy around here.  So I'm just going to give a quick update on where I'm at.

I finished a second (or is it third?) review of the manuscript, tightened up some plot points and rewrote the ending.  The ending still needs some work, but I'll get back to that.

I've decided I need to write-out a character from the original draft.  She felt like a 2D stereotype and didn't add much to the story.  In fact, she wasn't physically in most of the story, usually appearing only through phone conversations.  I figured out a way to replace her, so I'm going to do it.  But that means a lot of revision, and one more pass on the manuscript before Beta. 

The new ending also beefed up another character for me, and added a new dimension to the story that I have to scatter throughout the manuscript.  I think it will be much, much better this way.

All of these changes have really cut down the size of the manuscript.  I'm down to about 60,000 words, which is a little short for a novel.  If I continue to slice and dice, it could go even lower than that (and might be better for it).  I'm considering calling it a novella now instead of a novel.  There are issues with that, of course, including that novella's are often difficult to sell through Traditional Publishing, but I'm thinking I don't want to go that route...much to ponder before fully making that decision, but I'm thinking about it.

I should have a Beta Manuscript by the end of the weekend.  My Beta Readers are lined up and ready to go.  Then it will be a month-long "break" from the novella.  I have a couple of story ideas that I'm going to start working on during the "break" to see if anything sticks.  I also have a short that I want to clean up and post for free online.  And I'm going to put up my own website soon too, so you can look forward to that.

Well, so much for a "quick" update.  There really is a lot going on!

This is a long one today, but I'm feeling prolific. 

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about my goals for my writing career.  The most immediate goal is, of course, to finish writing the novel and perfect it to what I consider a publishable quality.  I’ve been making significant progress on this one, and I think I’m still on track to meet my self-imposed deadline of the end of March.  But once that’s done, I need to decide where I want to go, and what I want to do with it.

I’ve been doing a lot of research into the publishing industry, trying to decide what’s going to be best for my own growth and development, and what makes the most sense in the digital age.  Last summer, I wrote a little about the changes occurring in publishing.  Since that time, I’ve read a lot more on the subject, so I thought I’d share what I’ve learned so far.

Traditional Publishing
When most people think of books, they think of the big publishing houses.  Traditional publishing essentially works like this.

1. Write the Novel: Author locks herself away in a remote cabin somewhere and writes a novel.
2. Get an Agent: Once complete, Author sends out query letters to agents, hoping to find someone to represent the novel and take it to the publishers.  (Query letters include information about the author, a one-paragraph description of the novel, and some other basic information.)  Based on the query letter, the agent will decide if they want to request pages and find out more.  Most agents request anywhere from 1 - 50 pages initially.  If they still like it, they'll ask for a full manuscript.  If they still like it after that, they'll offer representation.  Finding an agent can take months, even years, and perhaps dozens of queries.
3. Get a Publisher: Agent takes the manuscript and shops it around to the publishers.  Why the middle-man?  Publishers usually won't look at 'unsolicited' manuscripts submitted directly by the unknown author.  Why?  Because most of those manuscripts aren't ready for publication and the agent acts as a first screening process.  Plus the agent will know which publishing houses are looking for new authors, represent the genre or similar works, and they have the right connections to get the manuscript in front of the right people.  This process again can take several months or even years.  When Publisher makes an offer, Agent reviews the contract and negotiates the deal for Author, so that Author can, for the most part, continue to write uninterrupted.
4. Publish Books: Once a contract is signed with Publisher, Publisher takes control of the manuscript.  They'll have an editor go through and make additional revisions.  They take care of the cover art, formatting, and printing of the manuscript.  They develop a marketing plan and set up the distribution networks to get the book in stores, on shelves, and nowadays, online.  For the most part, they take care of everything for Author, allowing Author to focus on writing.  By the time the first novel is launched, the second novel should be finished and in production.  Meanwhile, Agent is making sure that the money is taken care of, the accounting is accurate, and everyone is being paid their appropriate share.

Clearly, Traditional Publishing takes a long time and requires jumping through a lot of hoops.  There are some nice benefits to it, though.  Number one, only your best work can make it through that grueling process.  It also allows the writer to do what they do best -- write.  But in this scenario, Author loses a lot of control, and a lot of the profit as well.  On top of that, in today's market, Authors are being asked to do most of their own marketing themselves, and Agents/Editors often want to see that Author has an audience before the book is published.

Self-Publishing
Unless the manuscript is going to sit in a desk-drawer somewhere and crumble into dust, the alternative to Traditional Publishing is to self-publish.  There's a certain stigma to self-publishing, in part because a large majority of self-published books aren't very well written, and in part because it sort of seems like cheating.  Plus, it's hard to sell books as a self-published author because you don't have the connections and distribution networks like the big guys.  In the past, I think a lot of people’s approach self-publishing like this:

1. Write the Novel: Author locks herself away in a remote cabin somewhere and writes a novel
2. Publish Books:  Author finished the novel, and decides to skip the whole Traditional Publishing thing.  She doesn't worry about getting it edited or reviewed, except maybe by Family Member A; it's clearly perfect.  E-Publishing is the new-hotness, so Author, maybe with the help of a technical person, publishes the book as a Kindle or Nook (name your favorite e-reading format).  Yay!  It's published!

Okay, so I'm being a little snarky, but this does seem to be the way many authors have approached self-publishing.  Can't get it published traditionally?  No worries.  Send it out into the ether and it will prove them all wrong.  Instant gratification.

But there is a better way to approach Self-Publishing, that can be worthwhile and still produce a high-quality novel.  It goes like this:

1. Write the Novel: Author writes a novel, but not in isolation, instead connecting with other writers and readers and developing relationships with people interested in similar topics.  They’re called Friends and Colleagues
2. Get Feedback:  Author asks for feedback from Friends and Colleagues, perhaps participating in a critique group.  Ideally, the group of readers should be diverse, including one or two family members (for positive support) but mostly independent readers that don’t have to worry as much about negative reactions.  Some reviewers should be writers themselves, and subject-matter experts are good readers to make sure the facts hold up (e.g. if the novel is science fiction, the science should be based on the actual laws of physics, so it would be helpful to have a scientist review it).
3. Get Help: Author is probably good at writing, but probably not so good at the technical stuff or artwork.  Whatever Author isn’t good at, needs to be outsourced.  However, the Author needs to be the director of the show, making sure that all aspects of the project are completed to a high standard.  What should be considered?  Editing, cover art, website, digital formatting, etc.  
4. Develop a Marketing Plan: Author needs to be in charge of marketing and promoting the novel.  Hiring an expert, in this case, is probably too expensive, though it could be done.  She needs to be a Businessperson.
5. Publish Books: Author needs to choose the best publishing options for their audience.  Digital is probably the easiest and cheapest format, but there are also print-on-demand services, or Author could even choose to print an entire run of books and store them somewhere.  This also ties in to the marketing plan, since if you’re going to print books, you need to have outlets to sell them.
6. Reevaluate Marketing Plan: Since Author is in charge, Author needs to stay vigilant and make tweaks or changes to increase the sales.  There are a lot of variables that can be messed with, everything from price, to promotions, to guest blogging to freebies.  Author is now also Salesman.
7. Stay Connected: Throughout the entire process, Author needs to stay connected and keep developing Friends and Colleagues, and building an Audience.
8. Keep Writing:  While all this is going on, you ALSO have to keep writing, produce the next novel and keep everything moving. 

Quite a few more steps, huh?  Successful self-publishing is a lot of work, and requires the development of a broad, cross-functional skillset.  You can’t just be a writer, you have to be a businessperson, salesperson, director of marketing, project manager, and possibly a website designer or artist as well.  However, there are definite benefits in all that work.  If done correctly, and if the book is good, an author can make a good living in self-publishing, perhaps as good as, or better than with a Traditional Publisher.

So which is better?  I don’t know.  I don’t think there’s an answer to that.  I think there will always be room for Traditional Publishing, because some authors are happy to give up control if it means they don’t have to do anything but write.  But by the same token, I think there’s a broad and expanding market for self-publication, for those authors willing to put in the time and effort to develop the necessary skills and make it work.  And the authors that don't put the time in, will be weeded out by the market

Before I sign off on this ridiculously long post, I wanted to throw out a couple of links for the blogs that have helped me understand the publishing market.

Dan Blank has a fantastic blog (We Grow Media) about digital media with a focus toward the writer.  He’s also offering a course that I’m considering taking called “Build Your Author Platform”.  It’s a bit pricey, which is why I haven’t signed up already, but I took an hour long webinar that gave the overview, and it sounded really fantastic.  If you’re interested in learning more about digital and social media, check him out.

Jane Friedman is another blogger that I follow religiously.  She’s also focused on the publishing industry, with an eye toward the use of social media.  One of her recent posts described how the digital generation is shaping publishing and, really, consumer expectations in general.

A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing is one that I just started following a few days ago, but has some great information.

Finally, Pub Rants, written by literary agent Kristen Nelson, is a fantastic resource to learn more about traditional publishing.

Hiatus is Over

Hello Again World!

I have been a bad, bad blogger.  I could give you a whole bunch of excuses, but really what it came down to is that I didn't want to write blog posts.  Things have settled down a bit now, and several people have asked what's going on, so I'm back to blogging and I'll try really hard not to leave you hanging again.

The Update:

Over the holidays, things got a little bit crazy.  I didn't have much time to write, but I did manage to create the preliminary ending to the novel.  I say "preliminary", because I'm not completely satisfied with the end, but it was good enough to let me go back and start the rewrites. Which I did. 

Over the last several weeks, I have been focusing hard on rewriting and polishing the "shitty first draft" that I threw down on the page.  For those of you who aren't writers, there's a common piece of advice that says you shouldn't worry about whether your first draft is any good.  That's what revisions are for.  Instead, you put your ideas down on the page and keep moving as fast as possible.  In my case, that wasn't very fast, but hey, working for a major accounting firm limits your free-time a bit!

So I'm now revising, editing, polishing and even getting a few reviews from people.  Overall, reactions have been good!  I think I've got a good start, and with some more time and a lot more work, I might actually have something publishable.  In fact, I had a wonderful opportunity to have my first three pages critiqued by Sara Megibow, an agent with the Nelson Literary Agency, and one of my top picks for potential representation.  She gave me some great feedback, which I will be incorporating into all of my edits as I continue forward.

I've set a goal for myself that I will have a finished draft, ready to send to agents, by the end of March.  That's two months from today, for those of you counting.  Which means that I'm going to become a social recluse over the next two months.  So if I don't post as frequently, don't go out as much, avoid your calls and emails...well, I guess you'll know why!

Trouble at the End

I have a problem.  I'm nearing the end of the first draft of my novel, but I'm not exactly sure how to end it. 

My story has become a trilogy in my head, which complicates my writing a bit.  I have an outline of the high points of each book, but I have to find the happy balance between keeping the first book as a stand-alone novel so that it will actually be publishable, and making sure that the second book is appropriately set up to continue the story without becoming boring filler as so many second-in-a-trilogy books tend to be.

So this brings up a good question: what makes a satisfying and complete ending?  When you, the author, know that there will be more than one book and know what's going to happen next, how do you keep the story self-contained, while still leaving the right number of loose-ends to bring people back for the next installment?

One of my first posts was about the book Ariel, by Steve Boyett.  I hated the ending of that novel.  Now, I don't know if he originally intended it to be a multi-book series (a sequel was published just last year, though the original was published in 1983), but regardless, the ending was dissatisfying and now I have no desire to read the sequel.  I want to avoid that if at all possible with my own readers.

I also recently read the first two books in a trilogy by Celine Kiernan, and I thought the ending of her first book was wonderful, but I'm pretty sure she sold the books as a trilogy, so the ending of the first book is left wide-open.  The heroine is literally walking down a road, beginning a new adventure as she searches for the truth.  Unfortunately, I can't really bank on the fact that I can sell all three of my books in one go.  From what I understand, as a debut author, it's often easier to sell the first one, see how it does, and then sell the remaining two books.  I need the ending of my first book to be a little more conclusive, a little more definite, with just a hint that there could be more to come, in case it ends up being the only one that gets published (sad, but possible).

There are people that will argue that writing is an art and I therefore shouldn't be concerned about the market or whether the books will be published.  They will say that I should focus on achieving my own vision, not appeasing "the man".  They're right to an extent.  I should be focusing on the story, and I should be working toward the vision in my head.  I need to make the book as good as it can be before I worry about the business end of things.  That's all true.  However, those of you who know me, know that I'm too darn practical for that.  I was a business major after all.

Writing is a business, whether you like it or not, and I want my books to be published.  Yes, I'm working hard to make my novel the best that it can be.  Yes, I am striving to achieve the vision in my head and tell a fantastic story.  But I want people, beyond my immediate friends and family, to have the opportunity to enjoy that story, and the only way to do that is to get it published.  I'm not cutting corners, I'm not pandering to the market, I'm simply trying to consider the business angle while I polish and progress.

Which brings me back to the original point: how am I supposed to end this thing?  I suppose I'll figure it out eventually.  I'm going to have to.  I just have to keep writing, polishing, and perfecting.  It'll get there.  I promise.  Seriously.

Reader's choice publishing

"Even great books can be overlooked. And authors with great potential often struggle to connect with the larger audience they deserve to reach. We’re fortunate at Amazon.com to have customers who know a good book when they read one, so we've introduced AmazonEncore to help connect authors and their books with more readers."
                 ~Amazon.com

The publishing industry is at a crossroads.  Everyone is talking about it.  It's the new revolution.  Change is in the air.  And it's not just affecting the traditional publishers.  The career path of an author is changing along with the industry, but even more important, the reader experience will change.  They will be able to more easily connect with an author, find the books they want to read, and ultimately participate in the publishing process.

That's right, I believe readers will be participating in the publishing process in the not so distant future.

When Amazon.com opened its metaphorical doors, it changed everything, and now it's poised to do the same again.  Amazon gave readers access to a practically endless supply of books.  With the Kindle, readers can now buy these books for a (usually) lower cost and have them downloaded in 60 seconds, available to read immediately without taking a trip to a physical store.  Then those same readers can post comments and reviews about the book, giving Amazon (and everyone else) a fantastic insight into which books are worth reading (or not). Now Amazon is getting into the publishing business with AmazonEncore, helping under-appreciated authors reach a wider audience.

Traditionally, publishing companies are the gatekeepers.  They decide which books have market value and which don't.  They make guesses about which books will sell, and then count on the fact that the blockbuster novels will make up for those that fizzle out in the market.  In the past this service was necessary because books were expensive to produce.  Publishers helped ensure that only high-quality books were sent out into the world so that readers didn't waste their time, money, and shelf space on books that didn't warrant it.  But with modern technology today, when books can be published quickly and easily in an electronic format, do we still need gatekeepers?  

I believe that modern society craves customization, individualization and connection.  We don't want people telling us what to like or how to do something.  We want to share our ideas, contribute to the wider world.  We want options.

I found this blog post not too long ago that sums up where I think the publishing industry might be moving.  The author (switch11) posits the following:


"New Publishing = More Efficient Publishing

1. In the new model of publishing, anyone can publish, and you can publish as many books as you like.
2. Actual end users vote for books, with their hard earned money, and decide which books succeed.
3. In the new model of publishing, you can scale up the quality of the product, and the number of copies printed, at any time."

This new model for publishing makes a lot of sense when authors and publishers have virtually instant feedback about the book.  Readers suddenly have the power to decide what's worthwhile for themselves and then share that information with their personal network.  With modern technology, this data is easily captured and relatively quickly identifies the popular titles that are going viral online.

Once a title has built up some sales, a publisher may offer to work with the author to distribute the novel through additional book formats and improve the marketing.  At that point, the agent has the ability to negotiate rates and services, giving the author exactly what they need to make their book a real success.  Meanwhile, the publisher also benefits because they have a better understanding of the market and can pretty much guarantee their own profit on each book. 

In this new publishing world, should it come to fruition, readers participate in the decision-making process by voting with their pockets, authors choose how and where their books are published, and publishers provide real value-added while still making plenty of profit.  It's a win-win-win situation.

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Word count on the novel: 38,027