Moving onto the next stage.

[dragonjournal]

So, I've written a novel. I have a title for it: Knights of Orion. I like the characters, the plot, the setting, and how well the eventual novel comes about. I've edited, I've revised, I've listened to thoughts and advice.

However, there's a next stage. As any writer will tell you, especially published ones, writing the book, editing it, and even completely scrapping a good portion of it, is only the first part.

The next stage? Farming it out. Will someone publish it? Will an agent go "Sure, I'd represent that!"? Will I have a stack of rejection papers so high that I get buried under them?

These are the things currently plaguing my mind. Not only that, but I have no printer, currently. Meaning that I might need to get that before I start this little venture.

However, I'm going to see what I can do, even without a printer. If nothing else, I can write up several of them, and then take them to the library and print them out.

But, I just want to say: I'm hauling you guys along this journey with me. Aren't you lucky? Tomorrow, I'm going to write a query letter. See what I can come up with. I'll be posting thoughts, and under f-lock, I'll be keeping a running tally of who I will be submitting to, and my own notes about them.

Before I start it though... Anyone have any advice? I know the standard: look at P&E, tailor the letter to each individual person, do your research, keep things professional, spellcheck/grammar check/edit your letter. Anything else you can think of? People I should submit it to? Small presses? Agents? Anything?

Right, now time to go deal with some RL stuff.

Comments

[clare_dragonfly]

My advice--or rather, the advice of Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch--is this: don't bother with an agent. Publishers use them as excuses when they don't want to buy a submission, and there are a lot of comments, especially at DWS's blog, with agent horror stories. (Actually, I think there are some in one of the recent editions of KKR's Business Rusch.) Plus, with so many agents turning to digital publishing, there's not much of a guarantee that an agent will send your manuscript to as many editors as possible before deciding it's unsaleable and offering to publish it themselves, for a big cut, of course.

Naturally, you don't have to listen to me, but I encourage you to read those blogs and form your own opinions! They're valuable in many ways besides the agent issue.

[jehanne1431]

A good resource: http://www.duotrope.com/

It's a fantastic database for publication. Also,

http://www.hipiers.com/publishing.html

[kay_brooke]

No advice, because I probably know less than you do, but I just want to say good luck! And I'd love to read about your experiences, because someday I'll probably have a novel to shop around.