Go ahead and shake your collective heads at us. I can already hear some of you chuckling — the type of chuckle that starts deep in the belly and grows in confidence as it reaches the lips.
And that’s alright. You’re not the first to sit back in disbelief, and you won’t be the last.
Yes, we know we have no idea what we’re doing. Yes, we have been informed that, in these hard economic times, publishers are not picking up new authors, because they want assurance that their efforts will produce profits for them. As first-time authors, we have no wide media access, no history, no literary following, no marketable credentials, and no funds. We are no-bodies to the world of publishing.
Yes. We have HUGE hurdles before us…but, the way we see it, they are only hurdles and not unscalable walls.
Yes. As first-time authors, we have been following the conventional route of reading and learning how to get published; how to write the perfect book proposal; how to identify our target market; how to dispense with our competitors with a slash of a keystroke; and how to select, submit to, and impress literary agents. From what we can tell, we are doing everything right.
How can I say this with a straight face?
Well, because we’ve been receiving the nicest rejection letters that we could possibly receive. Let me rephrase that, because it’s really hard to call them rejections. They are more like encouraging letters of hope from supporters whose hands are tied.
Basically, literary agents don’t get paid unless the book sells; the book can’t sell unless it gets published; the book can’t get published if publishers aren’t willing to take a chance on new authors…and we’re back at square one.
We’re not discouraged. We’re challenged, but not discouraged. The agents’ encouraging letters of hope have re-focused us in a different direction. They made us realize that we needed to explore some unconventional avenues if we’re going to jump those hurdles and get discovered.
AND we have this wonderful book series planned — if only we could get publishers to read what we have so far. If they did, they couldn’t help but believe in the project as much as we do.
But we’ve started you in the middle of our story. Let’s go back to the beginning and get you caught up…
I've used Blogspot and I intend to move to Wordpress. You can increase the font size on Blog spot but it's awkward; Wordpress looks better.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of co-writing a blog is a brilliant one, I'm co-writing a novel. We take it in turns writing a chapter. It isn't easy. I think two chapters have good ideas but need re-writing. I will re-write the chapter I wrote but convincing my co-writer to re-write the chapter she wrote will be more difficult!
I shall bookmark this blog and come back to it. Good luck with it.
Thank you Mike! We need all the luck we can get!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your novel. I can imagine how difficult it is with each person writing sections of a novel. Katherine and I are doing it a
bit different. We discuss the material, and I write most of the prose. This prevents the problems of meshing styles and "voices"
within the book.
As for the blog, it's easier to have several writers working on a blog, since each entry can stand on its own.
Keep us posted on your progress. I'd love to hear more about it!