Arrived yesterday at World Fantasy Con. It's been an excellent convention so far. Stumbled into several editors and agents. Totally blew it with one editor, one agent seemed diffident to begin with, but made a nice connection with Joshua Bilmes and Eddie Schneider from Jabberwocky. They are not actively seeking epic fantasy, but the connection is great, especially because I spent about two hours hanging out with them and some of their signed clients.
Spent much of the time meeting people, going to dinner with Jim Frenkel from Tor (that's the editor I mentioned), and hanging out with some good friends. So far, it's been very successful. I'm learning a ton about interacting with people, polishing my pitch, and learning to relax. At the end of the day, I've realized that editors and agents are just people, like you and me (hey, I'm an editor--shouldn't surprise me), and I can be more relaxed. If my book doesn't sell, I'll just write another one.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Busy Month
Yeah, so my trip to the Marshall Islands and Tonga was fantabulous. Of course, I'm still behind in every conceivable way! Including letting so much time pass between posts. I have some amazing stories to tell about that trip--but that will have to wait for another post.
I've been submitting queries to agents and feeling the pain of rejection. Wondering if my query just isn't up to par, or perhaps my ms, my first chapter, really, starts too slow. Major action takes place about 10 pages in. I had developed a slower point of entry to get the reader acquainted with the world setting and the imminent problems, but that may not be the best approach. I've been toying with starting just a few paragraphs before the major spell is cast--really get to the point where all is set in motion--but haven't been brave enough to make the edits permanent.
And when I was feeling dejected, I had this feeling, a spiritual feeling, that said to just relax and be patient. So I'm taking some time off pushing for agents until I see a little bit further down the road. The ms has been off to Tor for about 3 or 4 weeks now. Still too early to hear their response. I'm hopeful, but not planning on anything great. I do want to submit a short story to Writers of the Future, so perhaps I'll turn writing time to that, or to my next book. But for now, I've got plenty of articles to write for the magazines, and others' works to critique. So perhaps now is the time to focus first on those things. Feels like a good decision.
I've been submitting queries to agents and feeling the pain of rejection. Wondering if my query just isn't up to par, or perhaps my ms, my first chapter, really, starts too slow. Major action takes place about 10 pages in. I had developed a slower point of entry to get the reader acquainted with the world setting and the imminent problems, but that may not be the best approach. I've been toying with starting just a few paragraphs before the major spell is cast--really get to the point where all is set in motion--but haven't been brave enough to make the edits permanent.
And when I was feeling dejected, I had this feeling, a spiritual feeling, that said to just relax and be patient. So I'm taking some time off pushing for agents until I see a little bit further down the road. The ms has been off to Tor for about 3 or 4 weeks now. Still too early to hear their response. I'm hopeful, but not planning on anything great. I do want to submit a short story to Writers of the Future, so perhaps I'll turn writing time to that, or to my next book. But for now, I've got plenty of articles to write for the magazines, and others' works to critique. So perhaps now is the time to focus first on those things. Feels like a good decision.
Monday, June 8, 2009
MS is off!
So, here is an interesting, marvelous story. I met one of the publicists for Deseret Book at Lisa Mangum's book launch about a month ago. After a genial conversation, topics turned to what we each do. I mentioned that I'm a senior editor and writer for an international magazine with a subscription of over 900,000 (Ok, I just said the name of the magazine; some of you know what it is, but I'm trying hard not to use that 'name' as a chip--wouldn't be prudent), which she already knew, and that I write epic fantasy.
So she asked me to pitch my book to her. I did. She was intrigued and asked me to send it in to her to review. When I asked how much, she said the entire thing.
Ok, I was very excited at this point. But, as she was very honest with me that Deseret Book and Shadow Mountain don't have an epic fantasy line or any plans to, I wasn't sure what would happen. She is an avid writer herself and very talented, so I hoped that at least she'd give me good feedback.
It was better than I could have even imagined. This is the part where I convey the facts as related to me, not tooting my own horn, but sharing what was a fantastic and humbling response.
She shared my work with her boss. They both concluded that they couldn't convince the powers that be to go into epic fantasy publishing. They also both agreed that my book was very good and was worthy of more. So she offered for the two of them to send it on to other publishers on my behalf.
This is the point where I'm certain Heavenly Father is involved and I am being blessed. How often does something like this happen? I mean, aside from the fact that my new publishing contact and her boss are just totally awesome, and I hope my work is good (what self-respecting author, aware of all great talent in the world, really feels 100% confident their work is really, really good? Well, maybe you do, but I'm always worried about it and not certain. Some of you have read my work and can comment better than I can.), but they are going beyond the call of duty here.
Perhaps my work speaks for itself. Perhaps they are just really that awesome. Perhaps they were inspired to do this. Perhaps this is one of those once in a lifetime deals that just sort of happen.
Lots of perhaps's. I don't know exactly why it happened, except that I know I'm receiving some extraordinary blessings, and my faith leads me to believe that the big guy upstairs is smiling upon me. It certainly is very unusual, and I certainly don't think I 'deserve' this kind of treatment. But, boy, it feels really good.
Ok, so I'm not published yet, and that is a long road, and a ways away. Still, this is doing wonders for my happiness meter.
So she asked me to pitch my book to her. I did. She was intrigued and asked me to send it in to her to review. When I asked how much, she said the entire thing.
Ok, I was very excited at this point. But, as she was very honest with me that Deseret Book and Shadow Mountain don't have an epic fantasy line or any plans to, I wasn't sure what would happen. She is an avid writer herself and very talented, so I hoped that at least she'd give me good feedback.
It was better than I could have even imagined. This is the part where I convey the facts as related to me, not tooting my own horn, but sharing what was a fantastic and humbling response.
She shared my work with her boss. They both concluded that they couldn't convince the powers that be to go into epic fantasy publishing. They also both agreed that my book was very good and was worthy of more. So she offered for the two of them to send it on to other publishers on my behalf.
This is the point where I'm certain Heavenly Father is involved and I am being blessed. How often does something like this happen? I mean, aside from the fact that my new publishing contact and her boss are just totally awesome, and I hope my work is good (what self-respecting author, aware of all great talent in the world, really feels 100% confident their work is really, really good? Well, maybe you do, but I'm always worried about it and not certain. Some of you have read my work and can comment better than I can.), but they are going beyond the call of duty here.
Perhaps my work speaks for itself. Perhaps they are just really that awesome. Perhaps they were inspired to do this. Perhaps this is one of those once in a lifetime deals that just sort of happen.
Lots of perhaps's. I don't know exactly why it happened, except that I know I'm receiving some extraordinary blessings, and my faith leads me to believe that the big guy upstairs is smiling upon me. It certainly is very unusual, and I certainly don't think I 'deserve' this kind of treatment. But, boy, it feels really good.
Ok, so I'm not published yet, and that is a long road, and a ways away. Still, this is doing wonders for my happiness meter.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Editing whirlwind
So I have this wonderful publicist who believes in my book and wants to promote it to other publishers. I knew it needed some serious proofreading. So how do you proofread 185,000 words in just a few days? Call in your friends, writing buddies, and critique group!
I'm a very, very fortunate man. My alpha readers were busy, and my small critique group was busy. But my other writing friends and critique group were not. So I was able to recruit 13 readers to do a crash proofread from Friday to tomorrow. Now that is amazing. When I think about it, I've had about 25 active readers provide feedback in the last few weeks. I just hope I can sell that many books! I may have tapped out all the possibilities... ;-P
Still, I can't believe the awesomeness of these folks. Really, to pull together like this, at the last minute, when I can see how busy they are. Truth is, I've cashed in a lot of favors, and now am indebted to the gills. They've been extraordinary, and have proven to me that no matter how many times you read something, you can always find something else. So at some point you just have to put the pen down and let go.
So, I finish this tomorrow, off it goes, and then I can concentrate on my trip to the Marshall Islands and Tonga. Come July, I'll have some serious critiquing due for others...
I'm a very, very fortunate man. My alpha readers were busy, and my small critique group was busy. But my other writing friends and critique group were not. So I was able to recruit 13 readers to do a crash proofread from Friday to tomorrow. Now that is amazing. When I think about it, I've had about 25 active readers provide feedback in the last few weeks. I just hope I can sell that many books! I may have tapped out all the possibilities... ;-P
Still, I can't believe the awesomeness of these folks. Really, to pull together like this, at the last minute, when I can see how busy they are. Truth is, I've cashed in a lot of favors, and now am indebted to the gills. They've been extraordinary, and have proven to me that no matter how many times you read something, you can always find something else. So at some point you just have to put the pen down and let go.
So, I finish this tomorrow, off it goes, and then I can concentrate on my trip to the Marshall Islands and Tonga. Come July, I'll have some serious critiquing due for others...
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