Going a bit mad

My nerves are killing me. No matter how many distractions I plan or how hard I work in the garden, I still keep dreaming about rejection letters. My waking moments are filled with worry that the manuscript:

1. has been lost in the post
2. is stuck in the slushpile
3. gets an auto-reject from someone who doesn't realise it was requested
4. isn't what they are looking for

I think this is called going a bit mad.

We also hear back today about the flat sale, which is not helping my state of mind. We're at the point of actually pulling out, and that's not something we thought we'd ever say. When the management company, having met the new buyer, requests that we don't sell and let the place ourselves you know it's not just us who think the buyer's being unreasonable. Before we jump through any more hoops there will need to be a show of good faith on their side. I'm even getting money out of savings in case we do wind up having to redo and let it ourselves.

And all of this blows up at 11:00 today.

Update: Oh who didn't see this coming? The flat buyer has now decided that he wants the electrical survey done after all - and while a neutral electrician works on the place and the owners are at work, he and his plasterer can have a look round to price up the redecoration.

No. Not until he buys the flat. It's been gas-checked, damp-checked, prodded, poked and everything else. We've done more than we needed to or were required to. If he wants to redecorate, he can buy it first.

This week.

If last week was a rollercoaster, this week can be summed up as worry. I find myself second guessing everything I did last week: Did I address it to the right department? Is it sitting lost forever in a slushpile somewhere? Are they going to be interested? Is it really what they are looking for?

It's ridiculous of course, but knowing that does not make it any easier.

I've done the basic housekeeping, putting a promotion plan in black and white in case they ask, getting twitter and other infrastructure ready for a launch, looking into self publishing and distribution. The fact remains all this work doesn't actually achieve anything until I know where I stand with the book.

They said I'd know in four weeks. I'm hoping it's a yes. I'm also hoping they can make it sooner, since my nerves are shot.

An interesting week.

If you'd told me the Monday before last about this week, I'd never have believed you. Try "Rollercoaster" for an example of how I feel right now.

You see my book was let go, not because it got too little interest, but because it got too much. Apparently since the publisher had switched to POD and ebook, they usually do a soft launch and let it build.

Enter me, with experience of marketing my own books, links to distributors, and a lot of media experience, who started gearing up on promo at the start of the week...

There was a bit of a mismatch, to be blunt. On Tuesday my book was released by mutual consent, with the advice that I really needed a print house because of the demand for ARCs and similar.

On Wednesday the manuscript went back out to agents and I got a lead on a publisher. Today I spent getting the whole thing into the publisher's in-house format and submitted it.

Frankly I'm still a bit stunned. Monday morning I was booking promos, now I'm hunting publishers.

But the book, will be coming out, even if I have to self-publish. I've put too much effort into this one to let it sink!

First Novel Nerves

Oh dear. At the moment my brain is working in fits and starts at best. The final version went back to the editor yesterday, and now I am left extremely nervous.

Instead of working on my other novels, I find myself torn between frantic promotion setup and reassuring my cat that he is in fact furry and can purr while trying to relax. I think he thinks I have gone crazy.

The issue is that because I used to write horror, and have a range of non-fiction article out under my name I've used a pen name to avoid confusion. Now I need to consider whether to link all the blogs, videos, twitter etc to a new set of accounts under that name, or whether to add it to my own feeds. Frankly, if I put it solely under my own accounts it will get lost in the traffic very quickly, so I'm currently working on a "best of both worlds" set up.

If my nerves will let me...

Writing presence for now

• Twitter
• Blog
• Lens
  

Also a Youtube, Google site (until the website is set up), and forum are present, although content is limited at this stage.

And back it goes...

Edits done to the manuscript, and back it goes to the publisher. That was a fairly fast turnaround, but to be honest I've had trouble sleeping since it got back to me, so I've had my head down over the word processor (which promptly broke - thanks Word 2003 for corrupting your template file at just the wrong moment).

I can however reccomend Open Office as a good method of bacon-saving with its useful .odt format. Luckily, the publisher uses it too. Here's a hefty plug for OO - it's easy to use, I picked it up in five minutes, and the XP .doc format option actually keeps the comments and track changes correct when opened in Word.

My thanks also go to Gatwick Aviation Museum for a sanity check on some of the details - I'd got them right, so there wasn't the need for an extensive re-write that I had feared, but the confirmation has saved me a lot of worry.

And the manuscript returns

The first set of edits has come back. To my complete surprise and relief it wasn't one huge block of red ink either. Better yet I agree with most of the changes, or at least can see why they were suggested.

The corrections should be easily made. In general it is punctuation, but there are a few places where it seems I have made a few assumptions based on my own knowledge that readers would not know. A little bit more explanation is called for to clarify these issues.

Hopefully I can get them all done this week and get it returned for a new round of edits.

Progress on promos

A very fast response, and I have a demo of a book trailer to review. At 20 seconds it's not long, the concept is very simple, and it's made with stock footage/audio so it's cheap. We've got some time to revise it before the book comes out, but the basics are there. Best of all, it's got the right aircraft in it, and the sounds are close if not completely accurate. (You'd need to be a pedant like me to spot the problem, and after compression it's not going to be audible.)

I'm still investigating review options, and have a few on the table.

Update: Real life gets in the way again, so I'm setting up contacts and listing places at 2am since I can't sleep. Then I'll send them in the morning so that the timestamp shows a more usual hour...

What's really getting to me right now is that I sent off the signed contracts last wek and so far have had no feedback. I know, I'm using Royal Mail, the Atlantic is in the way, volcanic ash has played havoc with airmail, etc. but at the same time until I get either the signed contract back or an email saying they've received it, I don't think I'll quite believe I'm actually going to be published.

Marketing plan

While I wait for the publisher to dot the i's and cross the t's so we can push ahead, I have a few things on the go:

1) Finish another book - manuscript #4, although I have a few ideas drifting around for revisions to manuscript #2.
2) Promotion.

It's a little early to start marketing the book itself, but what I am doing is assessing the best places to send out review copies, gathering media packs and contact details. In general I'm looking less at the book trade and review sites (since the publisher knows what they are doing with those) and more at interest and online groups that would be related to the subject. Since sending out review copies is costly I need to make sure the review copies are carefully targeted.

E-books are easier to send out and remove print and shipping costs, so they do open up other options. Unfortunately they are easily pirated, so it is a case of making sure they go to reputable sites.

Book trailers are useful but costly ($350 for a basic thirty second trailer) so I'm having a word with a few friends in media to see about other options after identifying the best online and offline networks to send it to. There are several media networks and portals I can get banners and buttons onto at low cost, which would also be targeted.

I identified most of these before I submitted the manuscript - now it's just a case of firming up figures and working out which are the best ones to use that will be the most effective with an overseas publisher.

It's worth mentioning that the obvious free promotion areas I have available (forums, websites, personal connections) have already been identified and all I really need is a book to promote on them.

Typical timing

Since the company and publishing contract checks out, I'm taking the deal.

The only problem is that, with typical terrible tirial timing, the printer died right after printing two copies of the contract meaning that I have no cover letter. It will take at least two days to get it fixed, so I'm sending the contracts without one, and dropping an email to let them know.

I'm also starting to get things set up on the marketing side. Until the book's release title is confirmed my options are limited, but I can get blogs and URLs registered for a pen name. I'm also working on a bio, which will be completely accurate to my experience, just with another name on it.

And after having to drop my planned pen name for being too close to another authors, I actually prefer the new one. So far I've counted five aviation shout-outs in it, and I am sure there are more - quite appropriate given what I write.

Better late than never

I had a nicely handwritten note from an agent arrive on my doorstep this morning.

Now before you say that I should not have sent to a publisher until I had heard from all the agents I sent it out to, I will point out I sent the manuscript to this one in August 2009 and they say that if you have not heard from them in three months it's a no.

It was a rejection anyway, so it changes very little. They expressed their regrets that despite "strong writing and a good voice" "they could not see a market for my work."

I'm afraid I'm only human. I cast a glance at the publishing contract I'd been about to sign. I looked back at the note. Then I indulged in a quiet snigger.

On a more serious note, thank you to the agent for your time considering the manuscript, for taking the time to write a personal rejection, and for your kind words about my writing. Very few agents do take the time to do this, and it is this sort of consideration that keeps aspiring writers going despite the increasing piles of "no". Unfortunately it does tend to invite more submissions - guess where my next manuscript is going...

Plants and flat sales and cats - oh my!

Over Worked, Under Paid - Giclee Print
Patterson, Gary
18 in. x 24 in.
Buy at AllPosters.com
Framed   Mounted
(I couldn't find one for busy, but this seemed appropriate)

Part of yesterday was spent retrieving one moggie from a tree. It was her first time climbing one, and typically she got stuck. Even more typically, once the ladder was set up and she knew she could be rescued, she decided this was a good time to explore the rest of the tree.

The property sale proceeds apace, and we are hoping to get it done by the end of the month. If we do, it will make things a lot simpler and get another issue out of the way.

Then there are the plants. Oh dear. Once again, the problem is that I know where to start growing things, but not where to stop. In the flat I was limited to windowsills. Here, thanks to foxes and squirrels, I'm still limited to windowsills, but there are more of them and they are bigger. Unfortunately, between lettuces, cauliflowers, broccoli, onions and carrots (and mustard and cress), all the sunfacing ones are already full. I'm trying to persude the other half that a 4 tier indoor greenhouse to get the rest off the floor would be a good idea. We need an enclosed one because the cats decided to climb the shelves.

I have done somehing wrong with the dwarf beans. I planted six which were supposed to grow 15 inches high. Instead I now have eight plants (was nine until Matilda ate one), and the largest is two feet and still growing.

And the book contract? They've come back and said the changes I requested will not be an issue. The problem is I'm not sure how to proceed next - do they amend the contract and resend it? Is the boilerplate signed with an allowance for agreed changes? Do I sign it with my amendments and return it?

In an IT negotiation the agent would handle it, or the party offering the contract, and you'd swap it back and forth. However, I am not familiar with literary contracts or Canadian law, which leaves me at something of a loss.

While I figure out the next move, I'm now costing the marketing plan. The free components are done, but there are always a few pay channels that are worth going down. The only real issue, as always, is making sure you don't spent more on marketing than you would make from sales.

But before I do anything else, step one is definitely going to be "clear anything else that remains in flat".

Contract update

I heard back about the publishing contract. There are issues that the Society of Authors check flagged up, a few of which I'd already spotted and several of which I hadn't. Now I need to carefully compose a letter to go back to the publisher asking about these and suggesting a few alternatives.

The secondary issue is the pseudonym. They prefer authors to use their actual names. Unfortunately as I've already mentioned, I keep my personal and professional lives very seperate. Market the book? Fine. Market the psuedonym as a brand? Fine. Market me? Not fine. To be honest it would actually hinder booksales since that brand already exists and is in a completely different field.

The real issue for me isn't a standard one. Their contract blocks several avenues of marketing I've already identified (which go directly to the book's target audience), and cuts off two routes to market that I've used before successfully. If I'm not careful, it's going to be a case of choosing between a publishing credit or high sales.

Update:
I just checked several other midlist publishers for their method of publication. What is scary is that in many cases I have higher sales with my self published books. The publisher I am looking at actually is one of the better ones for distribution, which is a genuine shock. It seems that we had better distribution for the self-published book than many of the professional houses managed. Seriously, if my self-published book could get onto shelves at two large book chainstores why can't the midlist publishers?

I've sent a few questions back about the contract, but the problem is hitting the right tone. I don't want to be awkward or hard to work with, but I really don't want to get screwed.

Rather stunned - in a good way

I just got a contract through by email. A publishing contract. For novel no 3.

The publisher's assessment is that it has issues (mainly dialog punctuation and a few typos), but a strong story.

Now the good thing about email is that the publisher can't see your immediate reaction (an embarrassingly girly squeal). The other thing is that it allows me a cooling off period to review the contract once the initial flush has worn off.

However things turn out, I now know that I can write something that is on the level to be professionally published. And that is a damn good feeling.

Another rejection

I have another rejection from an agency. This is a form rejection, so it isn't worth trying to decypher hidden meanings about plot, characterisation etc.

Meanwhile the full manuscript is still across in Canada, with the publisher, hopefully being read and enjoyed. What I really wish I had not read was that it can take three months for editors to get back to authors about manuscripts. I won't have any fingenails left by then!

However novel #3 got a re-edit and a lot of extra writing and is now on 61K. I honestly think it will top out at 90K, but I really am not sure what genre it fits into.

A manuscript request

And finally we seem to have progress on the writing front!

Yesterday I got a request for a full manuscript from the publisher looking at one of my novels. After a few moments of complete shock, I sat down to write back. This proved harder than I thought, since the instinctive response is to agree to anything to get one step further towards publication.

Still after some work I think I had a few lines that did not make me look completely insane, and a copy of the manuscript all ready in their house format. It's gone now, out into the ether, and now I just have to wait to hear. And as many authors already know and I just found out: waiting on a response to a full is actually worse than waiting on a query.

Unfortunately I have to admit, after being told repeatedly by various UK agents that there was no market in the UK for the adventure genre, it seems going outside Britain was the right choice. One thing I would be interested in finding out is whether the decline of young men reading and the decline in publishing adventure books (usually targeted towards them) corralates. After all if it does, would that be cause and effect by one upon the other, or a vicious circle?

Frustrations of writing

There's an issue with novel #3.

• I have a complete manuscript.
• My writing group loved it.
• An editor said that he was having trouble editing it because he kept reading it.
• A fan club and regular article readers who liked the concept and signed up to be notified if it was published.
• I have a marketing plan, distribution conections, and links to areas the publishers usually cannot access to promote it.
• I even have people asking about the one to follow it.

And after six months I have an ever growing stack of form rejections. Two more this morning.

And I really don't get it. I'd say it was the writing, but if a professional editor I paid to tear it apart says there's nothing wrong with it (losing himself more work in the process) then it probably isn't. The concept is old fashioned, but then so are adventure stories/thrillers themselves, and no agents have checked whether there is a spin on it.

I'm probably not going to send this out again to another agent, and just let the remaining no's trickle in.

So am I giving up? Not a chance. An agent and a large publishing house would be nice, but there are always other options, and I need to take some time to prioritise those.

On the good side, we just shipped a pile of my earlier books off to the US, so at least I've still got distribution over there.

Nerves - and a quick update

I cracked - or possibly have cracked. At any rate, after a quick chat online about my latest rejection, and a morning spent feeling rather down I took the plunge. I've sent #3 off to the publisher I mentioned.

Now I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon wondering if I've made a terrible mistake. This is why cats are useful - I just have to wait five minutes and they will do something insane enough, and probably messy enough, to distract me...

Slush piles...

I just got a reminder this morning of another reason not to small-press my book.

Let me state, right here, right now, that I personally never want to deal with a slush pile again as long as I live.

Remember, this was a small press publishing imprint. We didn't just publish what I'd written - we had several authors writing. And this morning, on the vague chance I might possibly restart it, I got my first speculative query. It seems so many people want to get published that even the whiff of a new opportunity and the emails start. I can't blame the writers, (after all I'm doing the same myself) but I also can't accept them. Fortunately, since the company is not currently printing anything, I have a very easy grounds for rejection.

It does make you wonder how many manuscripts some of the big houses receive though.

(And just to make my day better it came just before another form rejection. Just as well it did not come after it - that would have been kicking me while I was down...) 

What was it?

The mysterious package turns out to be not one but two rejections. For some reason the post office had taped them together (!?) so they would not fit through the letterbox. These two were polite, standard form letters with the usual encouragement, but both managed to get name and story title right so that's a step in the right direction.

I did stumble on something in my research which got me thinking. I've seen several blogs where they say that if you get a publishing deal you should go back to one of the agents that rejected you and ask them to handle the contract. Now with some agents I can see doing this, but with others I think I'd rather go to a new agent who hasn't seen it. There are three reasons I would not go back to an agent I can think of:

1) Unprofessional: If they can't get the right rejection slip in the right envelope, for example, are they really likely to be paying the attention to detail that I want from someone working on my book? More importantly, what about the attention to detail for anything involved with a contract review? Working in e-commerce has given me zero tolerance for this type of mistake, since sending the wrong order form or credit card details to a user is an absolute no.

2) Rudeness: "How dare you send your piffling little manuscript to our great and glorious agency?" Personally I haven't run into this one, although there are several online horror stories you can find. Nerves, and total lack of self-confidence, do make me wonder if it's just a matter of time before I get one of these. The problem is you have to wonder who else they've insulted or alienated along the way. If you won't date someone who's rude to a waiter, why work with someone who's rude to aspiring authors?

3) Wrong skillset. One of the most common rejection letters states that the agent doesn't "work in that field" / "handle that type of manuscript". Just because you now have a publishing deal for them to negotiate doesn't change this, or suddenly grant them expertise in a field they've stated they don't know. It would be like hiring a PHP programmer to review Java source code: both programmers know the same logical structures, but the nuances and specifics aren't there.

That said, not going back to one who has rejected you just because they aren't looking for new authors, or aren't taking submissions at this time, would seem rather like cutting off your nose to spite your face. There are a few I'd happily turn round to if I got a publishing deal. Unfortunately the interested publishers are US-based which really narrows my options on UK agents since I'd need one that knew the US market and law.
 
On a side note if I resurrect my own imprint I'm not paying a third party to negotiate between myself and myself - that contract and licence already exists and the publisher and writer are both very happy with it!

Another no? Who knows?

I got back from work today to find a slip through the door stating that the postman had tried to deliver something, but it would not fit and was back at the sorting office. As usual for the local post, it had been delivered after the sorting office had closed for the day, so I can't pick it up until tomorrow.

Now we aren't expecting anything so this looks like it's another one of my packs coming back, probably with a rejection. However it got me thinking: I know what a rejection looks like - the pack I sent out shoved into the envelope I included with either a form slip or a personal letter attached stating their regrets - but I have absolutely no idea what an acceptance or request for a full manuscript looks like. Does the agent still return the full pack, or just drop a single letter back requesting a full printout and keep the query for their records? Do they email? I honestly have no idea, although I'd love to find out!

This is a really odd situation for someone with books in print. Seriously, if anyone out there would like to let me know or drop a comment, my nerves would thank you.

Meanwhile I will go back to going quietly crazy behind my PC screen, biting my nails to the quick and wondering what's at the post office.