A different perspective

I went over to peruse the ABNA boards today, because it's March 22, and that means that the next round of finalists went up this morning. (They are getting much better at doing that early in the day, even for us East Coasters)!

Amazingly enough, it was kind of nice to not be all stressed out about what I'd find. I didn't even feel compelled to check the lists - because, since I got cut in the first round, obviously my name wasn't going to be on it. (Ok, I'll admit, I did check the YA list... just on the off chance that there was some kind of mistake on the first one). But I wasn't worried about it.

Would I have loved to get the feedback that comes from making it to the second round? Of course. Can I get that feedback anyway? Well, I do have a friend who made it to "Vine Reviewer" status on amazon... she didn't get asked to be an ABNA judge... but she's as qualified as they are. And she'll give me a nice review, because she thinks my book is awesome. :)

Moving on... I'm sure I'll enter next year, because it's fun. But if I never make it past round two... it doesn't really matter. It's not a REAL fantastic method for measuring whether or not your book will succeed. I know enough people who have read and enjoyed my books, and there are people I DON'T know who have read and enjoyed my books, and most importantly I enjoy my books... so I'll stick with them. However, I'm beginning to see the up-side to sticking with self-publishing... mostly because my family is setting up a marketing/media company, and I'm thinking that using that company to promote/sell my books while retaining all rights to them might be what I would most enjoy doing. Besides, form rejection letters are depressing. ;) I'm thinking about submitting my ms to DAW though, they still accept unsolicited/unagented submissions... shot in the dark, but it might be fun... just to see.

Progress Report

I am ready to submit my book to the ABNA contest, a full week early! Hoorah. :)

I have sold 15 books this month!

I do intend to continue with some polishing and I look forward to getting feedback from my editor(s), but I feel confident that my manuscript, excerpt, and pitch are as ready as they can be.

So, what next? A lot of waiting :)

Meanwhile, (while I wait for my editor to get through all the pages and send me his notes, while I wait for the contest to open, and then while I begin the waiting that is the majority of being IN the ABNA contest), I intend to take a break from Tellurae Aquaous, and start writing about Aelon Ere - my new world and entirely new set of characters. I also may start looking at ideas for the idea my brother gave me for The Mirror, and trying to flesh out an outline for that story as well. I'm also going to return to writing query letters to various agents and publishers.

That should all keep me quite busy! :) In addition to this, I have a house to run, a 2 year old to keep up with, as well as the potential for a couple (hopefully!) of large-scale changes to our lives in the coming year. I will keep you posted on all of this as it happens... of course, if it doesn't, I suppose you'll never know what it was...

A response

I have so far sent queries to two agencies. I have heard back from both of them. The first one just sent me an email that said they had stopped responding to queries they are uninterested in, and so if I haven't heard from them again in 30 days to assume they don't like me. Ok, it actually said to assume that they weren't currently interested in my manuscript. However, this morning I heard back from the second agent I queried and she asked for the first 5 pages of my book. Now, either she was intrigued by my query, or she asks EVERYONE for their first 5 pages. I don't know which it is. Either way, it's exciting to be asked for pages.

I have been editing and polishing The Dragon's Eye out of existence er, until it shines. Based on the reviews I got from the ABNA contest (you can read what they had to say here), I have rearranged the first three chapters, cut entire paragraphs, and added a few bits of dialogue here and there. I am amazed at how much my writing style has changed in just a few short years! I am excited to get The Dragon's Eye up to snuff. As I have been chopping my manuscript into sawdust sanding the rough edges off my first book (well, technically my third book... but the first in this series), it has been fun to be able to be brutally honest with myself about where it is obvious I simply had no idea what I was doing when I wrote this book.

I have never enjoyed editing this much before. It's fantastic! This is probably because instead of focusing on the tiny errors such as commas and semi-colons and spelling mishaps... (although, I'm not ignoring those mistakes either, don't worry), I am re-writing a lot of plot and dialogue and straight-up story. It's like going through my book with a machete.

Stay tuned! I'll let you know if I hear anything more from the agent.