posted
My novel has been complete in one incarnation or another for 7 or 8 years now. The first attempts were quite immature and unpublishable. After a year or two of rewrites, I've finally turned it into something commercially, and (I hope) artistically viable.
I sent it off to the mainstream (non-sci-fi/fantasy) submission editor at Tor/Forge. Now, I just have to sit back and wait 'till Christmastime (litterally) for my rejection letter.
Still, I've always been hesitant to submit something. Not that I'm scared of rejection, I expect that---it's a hard business to break into. No, I never thought it was good enough. It wasn't ready.
Well, I went chapter by chapter cleaning up and rewriting, and I finally got it to the point I don't think it's total crap (all you can hope for as a writer most times), and now it's on it's way to a publisher.
I'm pretty excited. Each step seems like an accomplishment, you know? The first time you finish. The second time you finish. Sending it off. Getting rejected. And eventually getting published.
Anyway, wanted to share my excitement. See you on Oprah when I'm part of herbook club. (as soon as she starts endorsing books about strippers and their drug dealing boyfriends )
JOHN!
PS: A big thank you for all the posters here that told me if the stripper is really an undercover cop and I don’t want it to be revealed until the end, then the story absolutely CANNOT be told from her POV. I resisted for a long time, but the book is better for it.
posted
You have done exactly what I am currnetly working on, so I salute you. I have also chosen Tor to submit my first novel too, but, alas, it is still in the unpublishable form and enduring revisions. Still here's a toast to you.
Posts: 2195 | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
I applaud you for taking this first step! It is nerve-wracking, isn't it?
If I may be so bold as to suggest that while you wait for that rejection, you send queries to agents? There's nothing saying you can't look for an agent while your book sits at Tor and if you hook up with one, the book may get out of that slugh pile faster.
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It's completely nerve-racking. Which is odd. I love people reading my work, and I'm just sending out some of my work to a stranger who I'll probaly never meet. I actually had butterflies. Weird.
Yeah, I'm gonna start quering agents soon.
Actually, the second book is "done." It needs some editing. I've neglected it for the last three years or so.
1.) It was inspired by a girl I'm no longer involved with. At one time this girl was a point of contention for me and my girlfriend at the time. I felt funny working on a book I used another woman as a muse for.
2.) It's a little over 140,000 words!! It needs to be trimmed, but it is a fantasy novel. Still, it's a beast to edit. It's so very, very long.
But I started editing that one today, so we'll see how it goes.
JOHN!
[This message has been edited by JOHN (edited August 15, 2006).]
posted
Well, back in the olden days when I started, I used to [bang!] write out a story, then [bang!] submit it. In many---maybe all---cases, I might've been better off letting them sit, and not submitting them at all. They seem uniformly awful to me now, even though they were the best I could do at the time. I gathered hundreds of rejection slips.
Nowadays (and, really, that's just the last few years), I generally sit on a story after finishing it...even if it's complete enough to send out, I've taken to letting it sit awhile, months, then working on it some more when I've gained perspective on it. In the last year, I've submitted just two stories (one just last week). I've got several in my files that I may polish up and send out later...but I've got a few I probably won't without a thorough rethink.
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I have around ten stories sitting on the line right now. Maybe two or three have a chance. The thing is, I'm on vecation and I know I won't have much time later, so I'm sending things out in a reckless way. I hope I'm not pissing the editors off, at least I read the mags I send things to and try to make sure it's the same style. I should collect five or six rejections in the next two or three weeks. Still... I feel those butterflies every time. Maybe that's why we do it? I don't know.
Posts: 507 | Registered: Jun 2006
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posted
I have around ten stories sitting on the line right now. Maybe two or three have a chance. The thing is, I'm on vecation and I know I won't have much time later, so I'm sending things out in a reckless way. I hope I'm not pissing the editors off, at least I read the mags I send things to and try to make sure it's the same style. I should collect five or six rejections in the next two or three weeks. Still... I feel those butterflies every time. Maybe that's why we do it? I don't know. Good luck with that novel. Please, please let us know when you publish it.
Posts: 507 | Registered: Jun 2006
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