So, by this point, some of you might be interested in what the book is actually about.
Or not, but I feel like writing about it, so I will.
Really though, this is practice for something important to either the query letter, the sales pitch, or the back jacket if I self publish, because, no matter how brilliant the book is, no one will buy it if they don't know what it's about.
So... what's it about? Like most writers I'm sitting here with a manuscript and it's got a lot of things going on in it and trying to get that down to one paragraph (Yes, that's what we're aiming for in Query letter land.) is daunting.
I can condense the entire series down into one question: What if Job fought back? Unfortunately that's not much relevant to the first book. Because the first book is actually the middle of the series.
So, what is it? It's a love story. It's about wrapping up loose ends. It's about free will and fate. It's about forgiveness, and about the things that cannot be forgiven. Most importantly it's about how good people can do some really bad things, and how no matter how good your intentions may be, you can still get burned, and burn everyone you love, in the end.
If you liked Harry Potter but wanted something more engaging to a grown-up mind, you'll probably like Sylvianna. If you liked Twilight, but wanted to smack some sense into Bella and Edward (or wanted some decent sex scenes), you'll probably like Sylvianna. If you liked the Magician but wanted engaging characters who actually did things, you'll probably like Sylvianna. Most of all, if you want a book that starts a series that will deal with complex moral issues without preaching at you, and without pulling punches, then you'll like this series.
Well, there are the themes of the book, and who it's marketed to. Now let's take a whack at the plot.
Sarah Metz just got to college. She went in search of a biology degree. She found a group of wizards on the run from their past. They remember her, she doesn't remember them. Over the next year she'll help them fight off the creatures trying to kill them, fall back into love with the man who used to be her husband, break the heart of her best friend by doing so, and maybe, if they're lucky, not remember who she used to be.
Still needs work, but it's a good first shot.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Say Hello to Mr. Hill
Now, I know traditional publisher/writer types will tell you to never, ever hire your own editor. The publishing company will have it done for you if they like the book. As we've proven in the last column, editing is expensive.
I understand why this advice is given. There are lots of editing scams out there, and even for people who aren't scammers, they might just not know what the book world really wants. (Quick example: Does this editor usually work with technical manuals? He might not really know what to do with a novel in that case.) If you wait for the publisher to provide the editor, then the publisher knows the output will be the sort of thing they can sell.
At the same time, every third person and his mom are now writing books. Which means you've got a whole lot of competition to see who is going to get an Agent, and then the Agent competes against all the books other Agents are shopping around.
I saw the statistic that the average Agent would get close to 10,000 queries a year, and the average Agent would pick up four or five new clients. I don't know if that number is true or not, but I do know that if I've got to deal with that sort of competition, I will make sure my book is as good as it can possibly be, so I'll be hiring an editor.
The other reason for getting professionally edited is this: I'm still not sure if I'll go the agent/traditional publisher route. If I go the self publish route I have to hire someone to edit this thing because I do not want to be another of the self published authors out there who produces a work that doesn't look like it was spell checked, let alone ever had another set of eyes go over it.
So, the lovely Thomas Hill of Launchpad Press will be retained for the job.
Here's how the deal works: I had him edit a sample of my work and send me a price quote. That quote came in at .01 cent a word, and he'd be done in a month. The sample he sent back to me looked good. The turn around time was faster than anyone else who bid. We corresponded by email, and he seems very pleasant and professional. I Googled him and didn't find any complaints or scam reports on him. The terms are professional as well, half at the beginning of the project, half at the half way point. The contract he sent is simple to read but covers everything. No wading through pages of dense legaleese and wondering after you signed if you just gave away the rights to the family farm. Finally the invoice is through Paypal, which is nice because both Paypal and the credit card I'm using to pay for this have buyer protection on them.
So, by Monday Mr. Hill will have Sylvianna in hand, and the editing will begin. I'll continue to post how the editing experience goes.
I understand why this advice is given. There are lots of editing scams out there, and even for people who aren't scammers, they might just not know what the book world really wants. (Quick example: Does this editor usually work with technical manuals? He might not really know what to do with a novel in that case.) If you wait for the publisher to provide the editor, then the publisher knows the output will be the sort of thing they can sell.
At the same time, every third person and his mom are now writing books. Which means you've got a whole lot of competition to see who is going to get an Agent, and then the Agent competes against all the books other Agents are shopping around.
I saw the statistic that the average Agent would get close to 10,000 queries a year, and the average Agent would pick up four or five new clients. I don't know if that number is true or not, but I do know that if I've got to deal with that sort of competition, I will make sure my book is as good as it can possibly be, so I'll be hiring an editor.
The other reason for getting professionally edited is this: I'm still not sure if I'll go the agent/traditional publisher route. If I go the self publish route I have to hire someone to edit this thing because I do not want to be another of the self published authors out there who produces a work that doesn't look like it was spell checked, let alone ever had another set of eyes go over it.
So, the lovely Thomas Hill of Launchpad Press will be retained for the job.
Here's how the deal works: I had him edit a sample of my work and send me a price quote. That quote came in at .01 cent a word, and he'd be done in a month. The sample he sent back to me looked good. The turn around time was faster than anyone else who bid. We corresponded by email, and he seems very pleasant and professional. I Googled him and didn't find any complaints or scam reports on him. The terms are professional as well, half at the beginning of the project, half at the half way point. The contract he sent is simple to read but covers everything. No wading through pages of dense legaleese and wondering after you signed if you just gave away the rights to the family farm. Finally the invoice is through Paypal, which is nice because both Paypal and the credit card I'm using to pay for this have buyer protection on them.
So, by Monday Mr. Hill will have Sylvianna in hand, and the editing will begin. I'll continue to post how the editing experience goes.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Editors II
Holy Yog's Law Batman! Editing is expensive!
So, after taking the time to look into this whole editing thing, I got some quotes. Here's what editing may run, one to five cents a word. I got rates back at .01, .03, and .05 a word. (One outlier was charging $.18 a word.) Now, that doesn't sound bad, until I look at my little word count on Sylvianna and see it comes in at 262,130 words. So, at best, I'm looking at $2621.30 and at worst a bit over $13,000.
The sound you hear in the background is my husband telling me to write a shorter book.
To make matters even more fun, this is apparently an area rife with scams.
Now what? Besides encouraging my buddy who is good with grammar to stop teaching writing 101 at the local community college and start life as a book editor.
First off, really read the samples I got sent back. They are good. All the editors have indicated they think the bits of the books they looked at were strong, and wouldn't require massive intervention to make better. However, they are trying to sell me a service, and saying the book sucks and will have to be entirely re-written is not a good way to sell me said service.
.05 a word told me he could have it done in a few months, remarked about how it needed work on making the tale more visually intense, and varying the word choice a bit. The bit he worked on looked good, but he only marked up two pages, so it's a tad hard to tell how much he can add to the project. He's an author with six SF books of his own on the market, so obviously he knows how to write a book that sells. His terms are half up front, half on delivery.
Two main concerns with him. First off, I can't afford to pay for $13,000.00 in editing. (And, if self publishing, I really don't hope to make that much back!) Secondly, his comments were dead on about the weaknesses of my prose, but his fixes don't sound much like me. How much my voice would become his by the time the book was done is an open question. Now, since he's got published, selling books out, whether that would be a bad thing is also an open question.
.03 did a decent mark up as well. This one focused more on grammar and flow than on word choice. No comments about what bits of the writing needed to be improved. He told me he could have it done by August 2011, if I paid for the entire thing up front. Mr. .03 may be a lovely person. He may be a legitimate editor. He's also not getting my business.
.01 focused on grammar and making the story clearer. Things that make sense to me do not necessarily make sense to the reader. He can get it done in a month, and also wants half now half later. Mr. .01 charges extra for something called a story review, in which he and his crew read the thing and go over it with a fine tooth comb to see if it's salable. Mr. .01 also has a list of books he's edited on his website.
Right now I'm leaning towards Mr. .01. Before he gets engaged for the deal, I'm going to see about how well the books he's edited sold, and hopefully track down their authors and see what they thought of his skills.
In the meantime, a decision needs to be made: Pay for editing, or start the agent hunt?
So, after taking the time to look into this whole editing thing, I got some quotes. Here's what editing may run, one to five cents a word. I got rates back at .01, .03, and .05 a word. (One outlier was charging $.18 a word.) Now, that doesn't sound bad, until I look at my little word count on Sylvianna and see it comes in at 262,130 words. So, at best, I'm looking at $2621.30 and at worst a bit over $13,000.
The sound you hear in the background is my husband telling me to write a shorter book.
To make matters even more fun, this is apparently an area rife with scams.
Now what? Besides encouraging my buddy who is good with grammar to stop teaching writing 101 at the local community college and start life as a book editor.
First off, really read the samples I got sent back. They are good. All the editors have indicated they think the bits of the books they looked at were strong, and wouldn't require massive intervention to make better. However, they are trying to sell me a service, and saying the book sucks and will have to be entirely re-written is not a good way to sell me said service.
.05 a word told me he could have it done in a few months, remarked about how it needed work on making the tale more visually intense, and varying the word choice a bit. The bit he worked on looked good, but he only marked up two pages, so it's a tad hard to tell how much he can add to the project. He's an author with six SF books of his own on the market, so obviously he knows how to write a book that sells. His terms are half up front, half on delivery.
Two main concerns with him. First off, I can't afford to pay for $13,000.00 in editing. (And, if self publishing, I really don't hope to make that much back!) Secondly, his comments were dead on about the weaknesses of my prose, but his fixes don't sound much like me. How much my voice would become his by the time the book was done is an open question. Now, since he's got published, selling books out, whether that would be a bad thing is also an open question.
.03 did a decent mark up as well. This one focused more on grammar and flow than on word choice. No comments about what bits of the writing needed to be improved. He told me he could have it done by August 2011, if I paid for the entire thing up front. Mr. .03 may be a lovely person. He may be a legitimate editor. He's also not getting my business.
.01 focused on grammar and making the story clearer. Things that make sense to me do not necessarily make sense to the reader. He can get it done in a month, and also wants half now half later. Mr. .01 charges extra for something called a story review, in which he and his crew read the thing and go over it with a fine tooth comb to see if it's salable. Mr. .01 also has a list of books he's edited on his website.
Right now I'm leaning towards Mr. .01. Before he gets engaged for the deal, I'm going to see about how well the books he's edited sold, and hopefully track down their authors and see what they thought of his skills.
In the meantime, a decision needs to be made: Pay for editing, or start the agent hunt?
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Yog's Law: Editors
Now, by going the self publish route I don't have to shell out as much as $750 dollars in the quest for an agent.
No, by self publishing I can shell out money in the quest for an editor.
Some people have noticed that self published, especially in the not too distant past, was code for, "No one in their right mind would publish this!" Bad writing, insipid plots, grammatical errors, and cardboard characters have been the hallmarks of self published fiction. (This is not necessarily true for non-fiction.) This is often because people who publish their own work don't bother to hire a professional editor.
Want to have an idea of the value of a real professional editor. Read any of the first four Harry Potter books. Then read Deathly Hallows. How much do you want to bet a copy editor got anywhere near Deathly Hallows? Not much? Me either.
I know I can spin a good plot. I write decent, occasionally brilliant, dialogue. I'm not a grammarian. I don't process information visually, so my prose is weak on the what do things look like front. (Actual comment from a beta reader: "Can you make this more visual?" My response: "Probably.") I need an editor. By going the agent/publisher route, they'll pay for an editor for me.
By going on my own, I need to hire one on my own. Fortunately this is the internet age, so editors are easy to find. I've got two professionals who specialize in sci-fi fantasy work, and one who I know through a board I hang out on. All three will get bits of the book to work up, and then they'll send me what they can do with it, and how much it'll cost to do the whole thing.
Keep in mind writer friends, they are doing the first bit for free to show me what they can do, then I pick the best match based on what they send me. Once again, if they want money upfront, it's time to go find a new option.
So, stay tuned for the next Yog's Law Update: Editors II.
No, by self publishing I can shell out money in the quest for an editor.
Some people have noticed that self published, especially in the not too distant past, was code for, "No one in their right mind would publish this!" Bad writing, insipid plots, grammatical errors, and cardboard characters have been the hallmarks of self published fiction. (This is not necessarily true for non-fiction.) This is often because people who publish their own work don't bother to hire a professional editor.
Want to have an idea of the value of a real professional editor. Read any of the first four Harry Potter books. Then read Deathly Hallows. How much do you want to bet a copy editor got anywhere near Deathly Hallows? Not much? Me either.
I know I can spin a good plot. I write decent, occasionally brilliant, dialogue. I'm not a grammarian. I don't process information visually, so my prose is weak on the what do things look like front. (Actual comment from a beta reader: "Can you make this more visual?" My response: "Probably.") I need an editor. By going the agent/publisher route, they'll pay for an editor for me.
By going on my own, I need to hire one on my own. Fortunately this is the internet age, so editors are easy to find. I've got two professionals who specialize in sci-fi fantasy work, and one who I know through a board I hang out on. All three will get bits of the book to work up, and then they'll send me what they can do with it, and how much it'll cost to do the whole thing.
Keep in mind writer friends, they are doing the first bit for free to show me what they can do, then I pick the best match based on what they send me. Once again, if they want money upfront, it's time to go find a new option.
So, stay tuned for the next Yog's Law Update: Editors II.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Yog's Law
The first rule of the professional writer, so wonderfully encapsulated by James MacDonald as Yog's Law is this: The money flows to the writer.
Wonderful. Simple. Ummm... also impossible for the time being.
And by this I do not mean the "Sign up with me, pay me X dollars, and I'll get you a publishing contract scams." (The agent pays you. The publisher pays you. If they want you to pay them, it's time to find a new agent/publisher.)
No, by this I mean that in order to get an agent, I need to shell out some dough. Research shows me that agents seem to like certain things, like actual physical letters sent in the actual physical mail. So, paper, ink, envelopes, postage. Not too bad, after all how many of these query letter things am I looking at writing anyway? (Sound of Elise researching away...)
You've got to be kidding me? Yeah, some people are lucky and get an agent on letter number one, or number five, but I've got one source telling me that it might be letter number 100. So, if I actually have to write 100 of these things, I'm looking at almost $100.00. And that doesn't attempt to put a price on my time for finding 100 possible good agent matches.
Then comes the whole: How do I find agents to query? Well, some agents are nice enough to keep up blogs about their lives and projects. Some writer's are kind enough to mention them in the acknowledgments of their books. I can google them. I can spend some more money and sign up with Publisher's Marketplace, or a similar service where Agents list their services, contact information, and what sort of things they want to represent. I can spend more money and start heading to writing conferences and meet Agents in the flesh. I can hang out online at AbsoluteWrite and chat with other writers and see who they've got representing them.
Lots of options. They all take time or money.
So, once the list of agents to query has been drawn up, and the letters sent out comes the next step, waiting.
Okay, yeah. But after that comes the important bit, getting responses. Now, with any luck some of them won't be "Dear Elise, Thank you for your query, alas as of this time we are not..."
With any luck some of them will ask for a manuscript. Great! Happy Dance time!
Wait a minute. A manuscript is an actual paper document. A very specifically formatted paper document. And... yep... let me reformat a bit here... Bloody Hell! My manuscript is 920 pages long! (In the background I hear my hubby say, "Write a shorter book!")
So, obviously this isn't something I'm going to just whip off a copy of on my home printer. Time to check out FedEx printing. Enter this... download that... and, oh wow! One manuscript is $68.85. Hmmmm.... how's the bulk discount? After all I may have to send out a bunch of these things. Fifteen manuscripts is $481.95.
Ouch.
And I still have to mail it to an agent? At least it fits in the USPS $12 Priority Mail box. So, if I end up sending out all 15 of them it'll cost me, $661.95.
Hmmm... Well, Mr. Yog, now what?
Wonderful. Simple. Ummm... also impossible for the time being.
And by this I do not mean the "Sign up with me, pay me X dollars, and I'll get you a publishing contract scams." (The agent pays you. The publisher pays you. If they want you to pay them, it's time to find a new agent/publisher.)
No, by this I mean that in order to get an agent, I need to shell out some dough. Research shows me that agents seem to like certain things, like actual physical letters sent in the actual physical mail. So, paper, ink, envelopes, postage. Not too bad, after all how many of these query letter things am I looking at writing anyway? (Sound of Elise researching away...)
You've got to be kidding me? Yeah, some people are lucky and get an agent on letter number one, or number five, but I've got one source telling me that it might be letter number 100. So, if I actually have to write 100 of these things, I'm looking at almost $100.00. And that doesn't attempt to put a price on my time for finding 100 possible good agent matches.
Then comes the whole: How do I find agents to query? Well, some agents are nice enough to keep up blogs about their lives and projects. Some writer's are kind enough to mention them in the acknowledgments of their books. I can google them. I can spend some more money and sign up with Publisher's Marketplace, or a similar service where Agents list their services, contact information, and what sort of things they want to represent. I can spend more money and start heading to writing conferences and meet Agents in the flesh. I can hang out online at AbsoluteWrite and chat with other writers and see who they've got representing them.
Lots of options. They all take time or money.
So, once the list of agents to query has been drawn up, and the letters sent out comes the next step, waiting.
Okay, yeah. But after that comes the important bit, getting responses. Now, with any luck some of them won't be "Dear Elise, Thank you for your query, alas as of this time we are not..."
With any luck some of them will ask for a manuscript. Great! Happy Dance time!
Wait a minute. A manuscript is an actual paper document. A very specifically formatted paper document. And... yep... let me reformat a bit here... Bloody Hell! My manuscript is 920 pages long! (In the background I hear my hubby say, "Write a shorter book!")
So, obviously this isn't something I'm going to just whip off a copy of on my home printer. Time to check out FedEx printing. Enter this... download that... and, oh wow! One manuscript is $68.85. Hmmmm.... how's the bulk discount? After all I may have to send out a bunch of these things. Fifteen manuscripts is $481.95.
Ouch.
And I still have to mail it to an agent? At least it fits in the USPS $12 Priority Mail box. So, if I end up sending out all 15 of them it'll cost me, $661.95.
Hmmm... Well, Mr. Yog, now what?
Sunday, June 27, 2010
The First Step
So, what is step one on this great adventure? I mean, besides write the book? The great publisher or self publish debate? Agent hunting? Looking for what publisher I want? Dreaming about how to spend the advance?
No on all of those, except the dreaming bit. (Mexico here we come!)
First up: Get a business license. Writers are artists. While writing is all you’re up to, you don’t need a business license. Published, selling authors are business people. They have a product they are trying to sell. Furthermore Authors are not employees. J.K. Rowling is not an employee of Bloomsbury. You will not be an employee of your publisher. Which means you need a business license, and you need to figure out how to organize your company. The days of you get a check, you deposit the check, and then round about April you fill out a basic 1040 are over.
I'm going for a sole proprietorship. I don't have partners, so there's no reason to do a partnership. I'm writing a book, not selling chainsaws, so my liability is already pretty limited. An LLC won't do much for me. Right now the amount of money we're talking about is so small that any sort of corporation isn't worth the effort. All of these things may be different for you, and it's worth your time to figure out what will work best for you. Quick example, if your book is about how horrendously cool it is for young adults to get high and have unprotected sex while driving stolen cars, it's just possible that an LLC might be a good idea.
You might wonder why you need a business license before you've sold the book. The easy answer is this: As a business you can write off your expenses. The paper, ink, envelopes and stamps that'll be used in the Agent hunt, you can write them off. All those manuscript copies, write off. Or, if you go the self publish route, the money you spend to get your book online can be written off.
Why do you want to get write offs? It works like this. If you sell fifty copies of your book, and you make $200.00 at it, you pay taxes on all $200.00 if you don't have any write offs. If you're set up as a business, you can deduct the money you spent on stamps ($25.00) the money you spent on manuscripts ($65.00) and the money you spent on shipping ($12.00). Now you only pay taxes on $98.00 of the $200.00 you made. $200.00 is little enough money without you having to pay taxes on all of it.
So, for me the next step is to go to my local county government and sign up as Elise Hecht, Writer. Come Tuesday I’ll once again have my own business, and this time it’ll be writing.
No on all of those, except the dreaming bit. (Mexico here we come!)
First up: Get a business license. Writers are artists. While writing is all you’re up to, you don’t need a business license. Published, selling authors are business people. They have a product they are trying to sell. Furthermore Authors are not employees. J.K. Rowling is not an employee of Bloomsbury. You will not be an employee of your publisher. Which means you need a business license, and you need to figure out how to organize your company. The days of you get a check, you deposit the check, and then round about April you fill out a basic 1040 are over.
I'm going for a sole proprietorship. I don't have partners, so there's no reason to do a partnership. I'm writing a book, not selling chainsaws, so my liability is already pretty limited. An LLC won't do much for me. Right now the amount of money we're talking about is so small that any sort of corporation isn't worth the effort. All of these things may be different for you, and it's worth your time to figure out what will work best for you. Quick example, if your book is about how horrendously cool it is for young adults to get high and have unprotected sex while driving stolen cars, it's just possible that an LLC might be a good idea.
You might wonder why you need a business license before you've sold the book. The easy answer is this: As a business you can write off your expenses. The paper, ink, envelopes and stamps that'll be used in the Agent hunt, you can write them off. All those manuscript copies, write off. Or, if you go the self publish route, the money you spend to get your book online can be written off.
Why do you want to get write offs? It works like this. If you sell fifty copies of your book, and you make $200.00 at it, you pay taxes on all $200.00 if you don't have any write offs. If you're set up as a business, you can deduct the money you spent on stamps ($25.00) the money you spent on manuscripts ($65.00) and the money you spent on shipping ($12.00). Now you only pay taxes on $98.00 of the $200.00 you made. $200.00 is little enough money without you having to pay taxes on all of it.
So, for me the next step is to go to my local county government and sign up as Elise Hecht, Writer. Come Tuesday I’ll once again have my own business, and this time it’ll be writing.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
In the Beginning
So, I wrote a book. Or an epic fantasy spanning multiple dimensions, with a deeply layered plot, sympathetic characters, a magical system that makes sense, and smoking hot romance. Whatever...
Anyway, the book, version six (yes, six) has just finished it's final proof read, and then I'll be sending it off to the gamma readers. Gamma readers would be beta readers who actually read the whole thing, gave me comments, and now I want to see what they have to say about the fixes I made.
Which means I'm on the verge of the next step, figuring out how to get my book into readers' hands.
Here's the deal. I love telling stories, but I also want to make money at it. I do not want to be the starving writer who crafts a masterpiece, slogs through eons of work carefully crafting each sentence and then sells nine copies of the book.
Me, I want to make at least enough to cover the cost of writing the book, and preferably enough to vacation in Mexico. And now a days there are lots of ways to do that. That's what this blog will be about, working my way through the ins and outs of the publishing world, eventually deciding on trying to find an agent, or on self publishing, and then what happens when I go down either path.
I'm obviously not an expert on this. But my guess is if you're reading this you're also looking at your finished book and trying to figure out what to do with it, and maybe you'll find the adventures of someone else who did it helpful.
Anyway, the book, version six (yes, six) has just finished it's final proof read, and then I'll be sending it off to the gamma readers. Gamma readers would be beta readers who actually read the whole thing, gave me comments, and now I want to see what they have to say about the fixes I made.
Which means I'm on the verge of the next step, figuring out how to get my book into readers' hands.
Here's the deal. I love telling stories, but I also want to make money at it. I do not want to be the starving writer who crafts a masterpiece, slogs through eons of work carefully crafting each sentence and then sells nine copies of the book.
Me, I want to make at least enough to cover the cost of writing the book, and preferably enough to vacation in Mexico. And now a days there are lots of ways to do that. That's what this blog will be about, working my way through the ins and outs of the publishing world, eventually deciding on trying to find an agent, or on self publishing, and then what happens when I go down either path.
I'm obviously not an expert on this. But my guess is if you're reading this you're also looking at your finished book and trying to figure out what to do with it, and maybe you'll find the adventures of someone else who did it helpful.
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