Like many writers, I write every single day. I usually work on something in my current WIP, either editing or adding, but usually something. Today, I did nothing. I did not work on my current WIP, and I did not edit my current shopper. I guess sometimes we all have to step back and take a day off. Thanks to things like blogs and chat forums, we can still write these days even when we don't write.
Sometimes you just need to unplug from everything technology, at least I do. Maybe my age is showing. My niece is 23, and she has not been "unplugged" a single day in the past decade from what I can tell. Some piece of technology has been fused to her hand as long as I can recall... That reminds me of a book by my friend Kari Lee Townsend.
My point is (do I have a point here?) that today was not one of those days I needed to unplug from technology, I just needed to unplug from the intensity of crafting a story. Sometimes my brain needs to get out of character and back to me. I guess sometimes all that head-hopping should lead back to your own head.
So today I did just that. I hopped in my own head for a while, just long enough to remember why I'm a writer. I forget how exhausting it is to be in my own head. Because in your own head the real world comes screaming back. All the insanity that faces us daily on the news can be overwhelming, escaping into the written word is hard work but it's also fun. Which makes it even harder to understand why I wasted the day.
I guess the brain wants what it wants, and today it wanted mindless anti-stimulation. I guess I'll just have to make up for it this weekend.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Everyone can write. Right? Alright.
Writing is a hard thing to do well, we all know that. Some of us were just born with the gift, some of us worked hard to develop it, and some of us have done both. But the one common denominator is hard work. Talent will only get you so far, as is the case with anything you choose to tackle in life. Even the most talented among us have to work hard to craft a novel.
What makes writing unique, is that when you tell people you are a writer, many of them will blurt out how they themselves want to write a book. When I tell people I'm a musician, that I play guitar and sing, they never say "Oh I'm going to write a song and sell it." Why is that?
I guess the reason is that with writing, we all learn it growing up. We don't all learn how to play music or sing. The barrier to entry is far lower with writing because essentially, everyone can write to some extent. Telling stories on the other hand, that is not something everyone can do.
Writing a novel of 60,000 or 80,000 words is far more complex than whim writers want to believe. Of all the "non writer" people I've run into over the years who said "I want to write a book" not a single one of them has done it. A few have tried and quit after about 30,000 words but most never get that far. I used to know a guy who claimed to be a hardcore Sci-Fi writer. He wrote a 120,000 word story, sent it out to two agents, got an unflattering rejection from one, and that was the end of it. I don't know where that writer is today but he's never published anything. I don't even know if he's still writing.
I'm working on my seventh novel length story and that's nothing compared to some writers. Of those seven, only two have ever been shopped to agents. One of those is The Sweet Sixteenth that ended up as my pilot eBook program, the other is being rewritten. The rest of them are junk, practice, good old trunk novels. The point is writing one book is not even enough in most cases. You have to write many before you finally "get it" and rejection is going to come along the way.
Thick skin and determination are just as important as talent in this game. Rejection does suck, no two ways about it. But if you don't get back on the bike, you will never learn to ride. You have to be able to crash, get up, wipe off the blood and/or push your brains back into your skull cavity, and move on. You also might want to leave your teeth on the ground after the first crash, because they will get kicked in again. Just be like a professional hockey player and get your teeth fixed after you retire.
What makes writing unique, is that when you tell people you are a writer, many of them will blurt out how they themselves want to write a book. When I tell people I'm a musician, that I play guitar and sing, they never say "Oh I'm going to write a song and sell it." Why is that?
I guess the reason is that with writing, we all learn it growing up. We don't all learn how to play music or sing. The barrier to entry is far lower with writing because essentially, everyone can write to some extent. Telling stories on the other hand, that is not something everyone can do.
Writing a novel of 60,000 or 80,000 words is far more complex than whim writers want to believe. Of all the "non writer" people I've run into over the years who said "I want to write a book" not a single one of them has done it. A few have tried and quit after about 30,000 words but most never get that far. I used to know a guy who claimed to be a hardcore Sci-Fi writer. He wrote a 120,000 word story, sent it out to two agents, got an unflattering rejection from one, and that was the end of it. I don't know where that writer is today but he's never published anything. I don't even know if he's still writing.
I'm working on my seventh novel length story and that's nothing compared to some writers. Of those seven, only two have ever been shopped to agents. One of those is The Sweet Sixteenth that ended up as my pilot eBook program, the other is being rewritten. The rest of them are junk, practice, good old trunk novels. The point is writing one book is not even enough in most cases. You have to write many before you finally "get it" and rejection is going to come along the way.
Thick skin and determination are just as important as talent in this game. Rejection does suck, no two ways about it. But if you don't get back on the bike, you will never learn to ride. You have to be able to crash, get up, wipe off the blood and/or push your brains back into your skull cavity, and move on. You also might want to leave your teeth on the ground after the first crash, because they will get kicked in again. Just be like a professional hockey player and get your teeth fixed after you retire.
Monday, April 25, 2011
ePub - what I've learned so far
I debated a lot before deciding to ePub The Sweet Sixteenth. I spent many hours trying to make the story the best it could be. Among those 70,000 words there is probably a mistake or two, but it happens. I've even seen mistakes in professionally printed books by top authors. The nice thing about an eBook, is that if a mistake is found it can be corrected. For instance, someone who bought my book pointed out a mistake/typo in chapter 7, I fixed it and uploaded a new version. So anyone who buys it from here on out will get a new version without that mistake. That's the good part because sometimes uploading can jumble things.
I'm now two weeks into my eBook experience, and so far it has been very good. For me, it was not about making money, so anything I make is just extra. It seems that a lot of first time ePubbers are looking for a quick score. I guess maybe I'm not among that group. I'm under no illusions that I'm going to sell 100,000 copies, I'm shooting for 90 copies, one for each agent that rejected my query on The Sweet Sixteenth, not to make any sort of point just for the heck of it. It just seemed like a good number.
The main reason I decided to go eBookin' was because I could. Five years ago, The Sweet Sixteenth would be just another "trunk novel" sitting on my hard drive, or burned to a CD (remember those?) or sitting on a flash drive. Obviously, I like the story, but I can admit it's not anything so Earth shaking or original. Even though I shopped the book at 85,000 words, and it's now at 70,000, it would still be likely be rejected based on the fact that serial killers chasing a woman for odd reasons has been done...to death...
With the option of eBookin' now, I just cannot see any point to letting a story rot on my hard drive. Unless I think it sucks. I have a lot of trunk novels that will never make it to eBook, but The Sweet Sixteenth was not one of them. There is something fun and quirky about the characters and their story, and I wanted people to enjoy it. I'm still debating dropping the price, I really resisted the $0.99 cent deal, maybe I'll meet in the middle and drop it to $1.99.
Overall, so far I can't complain. The feedback has been positive, and I'm working on my next eBook. What I've learned so far is that eBookin' is a controversial topic among writers and agents. It seems like no one can really make up their minds about how it's all going to effect the future of writing. When I first asked an agent if ePub was a good idea, I was told "no way" because then no agent or publisher will ever touch that title again, even if in the future it becomes a viable sale. But now that stance has totally changed, and they are willing to consider ePub works that have sold, and/or titles that have been professionally presented.
No one seems to know exactly what to expect from all this. Which was my main reason for getting involved. At this point I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained. I can't learn things from the outside, I must dig in and get my hands dirty. So I am... how much money I make is irrelevant to how much I learn from this experience.
I'm now two weeks into my eBook experience, and so far it has been very good. For me, it was not about making money, so anything I make is just extra. It seems that a lot of first time ePubbers are looking for a quick score. I guess maybe I'm not among that group. I'm under no illusions that I'm going to sell 100,000 copies, I'm shooting for 90 copies, one for each agent that rejected my query on The Sweet Sixteenth, not to make any sort of point just for the heck of it. It just seemed like a good number.
The main reason I decided to go eBookin' was because I could. Five years ago, The Sweet Sixteenth would be just another "trunk novel" sitting on my hard drive, or burned to a CD (remember those?) or sitting on a flash drive. Obviously, I like the story, but I can admit it's not anything so Earth shaking or original. Even though I shopped the book at 85,000 words, and it's now at 70,000, it would still be likely be rejected based on the fact that serial killers chasing a woman for odd reasons has been done...to death...
With the option of eBookin' now, I just cannot see any point to letting a story rot on my hard drive. Unless I think it sucks. I have a lot of trunk novels that will never make it to eBook, but The Sweet Sixteenth was not one of them. There is something fun and quirky about the characters and their story, and I wanted people to enjoy it. I'm still debating dropping the price, I really resisted the $0.99 cent deal, maybe I'll meet in the middle and drop it to $1.99.
Overall, so far I can't complain. The feedback has been positive, and I'm working on my next eBook. What I've learned so far is that eBookin' is a controversial topic among writers and agents. It seems like no one can really make up their minds about how it's all going to effect the future of writing. When I first asked an agent if ePub was a good idea, I was told "no way" because then no agent or publisher will ever touch that title again, even if in the future it becomes a viable sale. But now that stance has totally changed, and they are willing to consider ePub works that have sold, and/or titles that have been professionally presented.
No one seems to know exactly what to expect from all this. Which was my main reason for getting involved. At this point I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained. I can't learn things from the outside, I must dig in and get my hands dirty. So I am... how much money I make is irrelevant to how much I learn from this experience.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
eBook not a Free book
The publishing world is changing so fast, that people's heads are spinning right off their shoulders and rocketing into the clouds. One of the major complaints and controversy points seems to be pricing. I talked to a lot of writers and did a ton of research when it came to pricing my new eBook The Sweet Sixteenth. What I learned is that this is a touchy subject for many writers, especially those who are already established.
When I first decided to go all eBook, I did not do it for any other reason than to get into the game. The way the eReader revolution is taking off, you'd have to be silly not to embrace it on some level. My mother is an avid reader, for Christmas she got a Kindle, and she assured me she will never buy another print book again. That was enough for me, I decided not to waste another second. So I went through my old manuscripts and picked one that I felt good about being my pilot program.
My initial plan, was to make The Sweet Sixteenth lean and mean and offer it for $0.99 cents. After all, that's what most unknown writers were doing. But then I started hearing from other writers how the $0.99 books are not good, and in fact, are bad for the future of ePublishing. Many established writers were complaining that they were losing sales to unknown authors because in this economy, cheap sells...simple as that. There is no doubt that .99-cent books are almost double selling those priced higher. Which is great for someone like me who is trying to get their name out there. But, there is also that old adage that you get what you pay for, and anyone willing to sell their hard work for only $0.99 cents is selling their work short.
I don't want to get into a whole economics rant, but the whole supply versus demand does not really exist in the ePub world. A print book costs money to print, ship, store and sell, so there is always a finite supply in some instance. In ePub, once the book is uploaded, it's always there, probably forever. There is no loss of supply, so their is no elasticity in demand. Also there is almost no overhead for the publisher. It costs Amazon KDP pennies a year to host your eBook, so anything they sell is profit. With that in mind the cost can be lower.
There is, however, a point on the economic scale where you can be priced too cheap. And for any full length novel, $0.99 cents is too cheap. We as writers cannot make our intellectual property so cheap that it becomes worthless. For a 20,000 word novella, perhaps $0.99 cents is something to consider, but when you reach novel length you have to resist the urge to treat your work like a flier stapled to a phone pole. I understand the urge to "get your name out there", trust me I do. I would love nothing more than everyone to have a copy of The Sweet Sixteenth because that would raise my odds of reaching people who love the story and my writing. But I can't give it away for free, I just can't. So I did what any writer would do, I looked at what the real pros were asking, and I cut it in half. $2.99 is the most popular price on several digital publishing mediums for unknown authors. I don't want to undercut those other authors and I won't.
The reality is that people will pay $2.99 if they want to read the book. Sure maybe once you get above the $5.00 mark, people will pass by the unknown author and pay the $5.99 or $7.99 that an established author can get for their eBook. But don't sell yourself short in trying to get your name out there. If you want to sell it cheaper, offer coupons or rebates, but don't set the initial price so low that people will think it's junk. Your novel should not be sold on par with a dollar store back scratching device.
When I first decided to go all eBook, I did not do it for any other reason than to get into the game. The way the eReader revolution is taking off, you'd have to be silly not to embrace it on some level. My mother is an avid reader, for Christmas she got a Kindle, and she assured me she will never buy another print book again. That was enough for me, I decided not to waste another second. So I went through my old manuscripts and picked one that I felt good about being my pilot program.
My initial plan, was to make The Sweet Sixteenth lean and mean and offer it for $0.99 cents. After all, that's what most unknown writers were doing. But then I started hearing from other writers how the $0.99 books are not good, and in fact, are bad for the future of ePublishing. Many established writers were complaining that they were losing sales to unknown authors because in this economy, cheap sells...simple as that. There is no doubt that .99-cent books are almost double selling those priced higher. Which is great for someone like me who is trying to get their name out there. But, there is also that old adage that you get what you pay for, and anyone willing to sell their hard work for only $0.99 cents is selling their work short.
I don't want to get into a whole economics rant, but the whole supply versus demand does not really exist in the ePub world. A print book costs money to print, ship, store and sell, so there is always a finite supply in some instance. In ePub, once the book is uploaded, it's always there, probably forever. There is no loss of supply, so their is no elasticity in demand. Also there is almost no overhead for the publisher. It costs Amazon KDP pennies a year to host your eBook, so anything they sell is profit. With that in mind the cost can be lower.
There is, however, a point on the economic scale where you can be priced too cheap. And for any full length novel, $0.99 cents is too cheap. We as writers cannot make our intellectual property so cheap that it becomes worthless. For a 20,000 word novella, perhaps $0.99 cents is something to consider, but when you reach novel length you have to resist the urge to treat your work like a flier stapled to a phone pole. I understand the urge to "get your name out there", trust me I do. I would love nothing more than everyone to have a copy of The Sweet Sixteenth because that would raise my odds of reaching people who love the story and my writing. But I can't give it away for free, I just can't. So I did what any writer would do, I looked at what the real pros were asking, and I cut it in half. $2.99 is the most popular price on several digital publishing mediums for unknown authors. I don't want to undercut those other authors and I won't.
The reality is that people will pay $2.99 if they want to read the book. Sure maybe once you get above the $5.00 mark, people will pass by the unknown author and pay the $5.99 or $7.99 that an established author can get for their eBook. But don't sell yourself short in trying to get your name out there. If you want to sell it cheaper, offer coupons or rebates, but don't set the initial price so low that people will think it's junk. Your novel should not be sold on par with a dollar store back scratching device.
Friday, April 15, 2011
eBook on the loose
After a few days of wrestling with formatting issues and such, I finally got The Sweet Sixteenth up on Smashwords for sale. The Amazon version is still being worked out, but it should be available in a few more days. In comparison, so far, Smashwords seems to be the faster service, but it also requires a bit more formatting.
For Smashwords, the less formatting you have the better. They offer your book in so many different formats including Nook, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, PDF, HTML and even Java. For me it was not such a huge problem because I write in very basic formatting. I don't use different paragraph setting, I like everything uniform. The only real problem I had, was that I had page numbers on my document, and they are no good for Smashwords. For some reason removing them did not work, as Smashwords was still reading the page numbers as text boxes, so I had to go nuclear and blow out all formatting.
Smashwords and Amazon both require you to use page breaks, and not multiple returns to set paragraph spacing. So if you are doing that five returns after a paragraph deal, get out of the habit and use page breaks for Word.
The cover art is another animal... but it is the more simple process because you can upload another image easily enough. If you don't have any graphic arts experience it might bode well to hire someone, even if it's just a college kid. It will make a difference to have a good cover that catches the eye, just like in print books.
All in all, it's been a fun experience so far. If I actually sell anything that will be another story...err...blog post.
For Smashwords, the less formatting you have the better. They offer your book in so many different formats including Nook, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, PDF, HTML and even Java. For me it was not such a huge problem because I write in very basic formatting. I don't use different paragraph setting, I like everything uniform. The only real problem I had, was that I had page numbers on my document, and they are no good for Smashwords. For some reason removing them did not work, as Smashwords was still reading the page numbers as text boxes, so I had to go nuclear and blow out all formatting.
Smashwords and Amazon both require you to use page breaks, and not multiple returns to set paragraph spacing. So if you are doing that five returns after a paragraph deal, get out of the habit and use page breaks for Word.
The cover art is another animal... but it is the more simple process because you can upload another image easily enough. If you don't have any graphic arts experience it might bode well to hire someone, even if it's just a college kid. It will make a difference to have a good cover that catches the eye, just like in print books.
All in all, it's been a fun experience so far. If I actually sell anything that will be another story...err...blog post.
Monday, March 28, 2011
eBooks - The time is now...or...maybe not.
It seems that everyone is publishing their own book these days. It is a golden opportunity for authors to make money and become the master of their own material. Something just taking space on your laptop can help introduce people to your work. You don't need to be validated by an agent or a publisher, you can write your own ticket. Sure, that sounds wonderful...perhaps...too wonderful. There is a reason we need agents.
If you're already a published novelist, publishing your own eBook is fairly risk free. And many great authors are doing it right now with great success. They already know what it takes to get a book ready for the public. But those of us looking to jump into the fray and not unravel, had better be careful. So far most of the books and excerpts I've read from those who are self publishing their first novel...well...not good. In almost every case the writing was either poor, or the story was confusing and incomprehensible at times. It was almost shocking how bad some of the writing was. It was not even "blog worthy" writing.
If you are going to self publish, make sure the writing is not filled with mistakes that Microsoft Word would strike. You need a great story of course, but more important than that, you need to eliminate basic mistakes. Here are a few of the big things I've noticed in the few works I've read.
Passive Voice
Go through your work and weed out all the passive voice. Once in a while sure, but you cannot have every sentence filled with passive voice. If you have it more than ten times in the entire novel, it's probably too much. Passive voice does not drive the story and can lead to choppy writing.
Watch your POV
If the reader cannot follow your point of view, it's a problem. Don't get me wrong, I love to head-hop. I get bored writing from the POV of the same character all the time, so I will often head-hop right in scene. But you have to be aware you are doing it, and you have to give the reader the tools to follow along. You have to distinguish that you are now writing from another character's head. If you can't do it well (and it can be tricky) don't do it at all, stick to one POV per scene.
When in doubt, take it out
You have to be brutal, you have to chop words and scenes. You have to ask yourself, "does this advance the story?" and if the answer is "no" you need to dump it. There is nothing worse than a story filled with useless details that neither develop character nor push the story along. These are things an agent, publisher or professional editor would catch. But I've noticed that self publishers leave a lot of it in. Probably because they like it, and hey, I understand. But you since you are acting as writer, agent, editor, and publisher, you need to put on those other hats and be brutally honest with your work. Don't keep things you like, just because you like them. If the story does not need it, cut it out.
Edit - Edit - Edit
You have to edit your work really strictly. Turn on every rule in MS_Word and listen to them. They are not the be-all-end-all and there are times you have to override. But the reality is that you are not going to catch everything yourself, it's hard to catch everything among 60,000 or 80,000 words. But the extended rules in most word processing software will get you more than 80% of the way there. I was shocked to see such basic grammar mistakes in the self published eBooks I read. Poor spelling and incomplete sentences, no commas where one should etc... Those things will turn off the reader quickly. A good story and developed characters are essential yes, but amateur mistakes will kill all of that. It's too easy to delete an eBook. There is no recycling involved.
The story has to make sense. The stakes have to make sense, even if you stretch reality. Some of the things I've read seem to be tossed together just to try and sell something on Amazon. If you are serious about being a writer, don't treat your work like something you are putting up on Facebook or You Tube. Treat it like something that you would want to see on a book shelf in printed form. Just because it's an eBook does not mean people will forgive mistakes.
That takes time, a lot of time and effort. Writing is hard work, it's not meant to be easy. We writers are at a disadvantage compared to other creative endeavors. As a musician, I know what it takes to make good music, and that's hard work too. The difference is that you can throw up a "rough" version of a song on You Tube and have people fall in love with it. They call it "raw" or "earthy" and they forgive small mistakes because the energy of a live performance can carry through. But you cannot put a "rough" version of your manuscript for sale on Amazon or Smashwords, and hope people are going to fall in love with it because it's "raw"... they are going to delete it from their Kindle and never tell anyone about it.
If you're already a published novelist, publishing your own eBook is fairly risk free. And many great authors are doing it right now with great success. They already know what it takes to get a book ready for the public. But those of us looking to jump into the fray and not unravel, had better be careful. So far most of the books and excerpts I've read from those who are self publishing their first novel...well...not good. In almost every case the writing was either poor, or the story was confusing and incomprehensible at times. It was almost shocking how bad some of the writing was. It was not even "blog worthy" writing.
If you are going to self publish, make sure the writing is not filled with mistakes that Microsoft Word would strike. You need a great story of course, but more important than that, you need to eliminate basic mistakes. Here are a few of the big things I've noticed in the few works I've read.
Passive Voice
Go through your work and weed out all the passive voice. Once in a while sure, but you cannot have every sentence filled with passive voice. If you have it more than ten times in the entire novel, it's probably too much. Passive voice does not drive the story and can lead to choppy writing.
Watch your POV
If the reader cannot follow your point of view, it's a problem. Don't get me wrong, I love to head-hop. I get bored writing from the POV of the same character all the time, so I will often head-hop right in scene. But you have to be aware you are doing it, and you have to give the reader the tools to follow along. You have to distinguish that you are now writing from another character's head. If you can't do it well (and it can be tricky) don't do it at all, stick to one POV per scene.
When in doubt, take it out
You have to be brutal, you have to chop words and scenes. You have to ask yourself, "does this advance the story?" and if the answer is "no" you need to dump it. There is nothing worse than a story filled with useless details that neither develop character nor push the story along. These are things an agent, publisher or professional editor would catch. But I've noticed that self publishers leave a lot of it in. Probably because they like it, and hey, I understand. But you since you are acting as writer, agent, editor, and publisher, you need to put on those other hats and be brutally honest with your work. Don't keep things you like, just because you like them. If the story does not need it, cut it out.
Edit - Edit - Edit
You have to edit your work really strictly. Turn on every rule in MS_Word and listen to them. They are not the be-all-end-all and there are times you have to override. But the reality is that you are not going to catch everything yourself, it's hard to catch everything among 60,000 or 80,000 words. But the extended rules in most word processing software will get you more than 80% of the way there. I was shocked to see such basic grammar mistakes in the self published eBooks I read. Poor spelling and incomplete sentences, no commas where one should etc... Those things will turn off the reader quickly. A good story and developed characters are essential yes, but amateur mistakes will kill all of that. It's too easy to delete an eBook. There is no recycling involved.
The story has to make sense. The stakes have to make sense, even if you stretch reality. Some of the things I've read seem to be tossed together just to try and sell something on Amazon. If you are serious about being a writer, don't treat your work like something you are putting up on Facebook or You Tube. Treat it like something that you would want to see on a book shelf in printed form. Just because it's an eBook does not mean people will forgive mistakes.
That takes time, a lot of time and effort. Writing is hard work, it's not meant to be easy. We writers are at a disadvantage compared to other creative endeavors. As a musician, I know what it takes to make good music, and that's hard work too. The difference is that you can throw up a "rough" version of a song on You Tube and have people fall in love with it. They call it "raw" or "earthy" and they forgive small mistakes because the energy of a live performance can carry through. But you cannot put a "rough" version of your manuscript for sale on Amazon or Smashwords, and hope people are going to fall in love with it because it's "raw"... they are going to delete it from their Kindle and never tell anyone about it.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
The Final Rejection?
Yesterday THE SWEET SIXTEENTH took its final hit of rejection from another agent. It was the final query that was out there with any hope left. It would seem that this final nail is going to lock down the lid on the coffin of TSS, but it's not.
In this modern age of media sharing, the word "dead" when it comes to works of fiction never really applies anymore. In the old days of writing, a trunk novel was just that... a book that would be put in a trunk to never see the light of day again. Trust me, I have four of them. But those four books were really nothing but practice, along with the countless short stories I have in the two dozen or so notebooks stuffed into the closet of my music room. None of those stories are worth time or effort. That is not the case with TSS. I believe this novel should be read by those who are so inclined. Those few that have already read it liked it enough to make me not trunk it.
Exactly what I'm going to do with it, I'm still in the process of deciding, but I'm leaning towards publishing it as an eBook for the Kindle with Amazon. I have been communicating with other authors who've done this, and for the most part the process is painless. Some of the writers I've spoken to have had really good luck with sales, others have said it ends up like a vanity press effort where only their friends and families bothered to buy.
My only concern, is that if I put it for sale on Amazon, in a way it does kill the book. That is the irony in all this. Most publishers seem to indicate that they will never be interested in a self-published eBook for future publication. So you take a risk in doing an eBook if you feel a publisher might take a chance in the future. But that's the thing with novels. Just because an agent rejects it, does not mean that he or she would reject it every time. Most of the rejections I got for TSS were positive, and indicated that they were just not in the market for that story, at that time. But I've heard many stories of writers selling books two years later that were rejected by everyone the first time around. So it's not impossible to imagine that some agent down the road might be interested... then again maybe not... but either way I don't have to decide now.
In this modern age of media sharing, the word "dead" when it comes to works of fiction never really applies anymore. In the old days of writing, a trunk novel was just that... a book that would be put in a trunk to never see the light of day again. Trust me, I have four of them. But those four books were really nothing but practice, along with the countless short stories I have in the two dozen or so notebooks stuffed into the closet of my music room. None of those stories are worth time or effort. That is not the case with TSS. I believe this novel should be read by those who are so inclined. Those few that have already read it liked it enough to make me not trunk it.
Exactly what I'm going to do with it, I'm still in the process of deciding, but I'm leaning towards publishing it as an eBook for the Kindle with Amazon. I have been communicating with other authors who've done this, and for the most part the process is painless. Some of the writers I've spoken to have had really good luck with sales, others have said it ends up like a vanity press effort where only their friends and families bothered to buy.
My only concern, is that if I put it for sale on Amazon, in a way it does kill the book. That is the irony in all this. Most publishers seem to indicate that they will never be interested in a self-published eBook for future publication. So you take a risk in doing an eBook if you feel a publisher might take a chance in the future. But that's the thing with novels. Just because an agent rejects it, does not mean that he or she would reject it every time. Most of the rejections I got for TSS were positive, and indicated that they were just not in the market for that story, at that time. But I've heard many stories of writers selling books two years later that were rejected by everyone the first time around. So it's not impossible to imagine that some agent down the road might be interested... then again maybe not... but either way I don't have to decide now.
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