Tuesday morning, my beta reader/grammar maven sent GNOME back with her comments and edits. This is the final FINAL edit of this story. It's slow going because I decided to verify my formatting at the same time.
When you take the step to self-pub, you have to do it all yourself (or pay someone). Now, don't let the thought of formatting your work overwhelm you. There are a few tricks of the trade, BUT it is very slow and tedious to check all your sentences to make certain you don't double space, have your quotation marks going the wrong direction, and place only one space AFTER every period, plus I didn't want too many paragraph returns between chapters since this can leave blank pages on e-readers.
I must say when my beta reader returned GNOME, she sent me an email along with the manuscript. The one sentence that stood out was, "I read half the book last night, and frankly, I didn't want to stop, but I was SO exhausted I knew I was starting to read for just pleasure and I wasn't catching edits, so I shut it down for the night."
THIS was why I decided to take the step to self-publish.
THIS was why I started writing middle grade.
I want to share my stories. I want to write stories that pull readers from their reality and immerse them into my fantasy. Editors and agents aren't looking for my type of story. That's my reality. It's too light and not dark end-of-the-world type of story.
Is self-pubbing for everyone? My response is still NO.
This year, I intend to publish ALL my finished Goblin's Apprentice stories. So far, that's three novels in the series and three short stories. I also intend to write three more short stories. Think about it. The stories are written, but need editing, blurbs and covers= time and $$$.
Which means none of them are ready to go up without some work!
At the end of GNOME, I will place a teaser of the next book in the series, The Fast and the FAERIEous, but that doesn't mean FAERIE is ready to publish. It needs edits-slicing and dicing-beta reads to catch the stupid mistakes (missing words, wrong tense, confusing sentences, etc).
*sigh* and the cycle begins again.
I do have one regret by self-publishing.
I don't have any books to sign. I won't get the chance to meet my readers at a book signing, but I'll take that trade off if I get kids to read my quirky stories. And readers are more than welcome to chat with me on Facebook, or email me a note.
Sorry, I went off on a tangent again.
--and now, I need to figure out how to market my stories . . .
No excuse, just tired.
Later, Peeps!
Showing posts with label gnome story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gnome story. Show all posts
2/23/11
2/21/11
GNOME cover!!
Last week, I chopped, diced and julienned GNOME, cutting the word count from 42,000 words to 32,000 words and tightening it until it was squeaky clean. The story is out with two beta readers to catch my stupid mistakes. I hope to fix the little stuff this week, write a back cover copy, add a teaser for FAERIE (Book 2 in the series), and format it to have it up and running March 1.
And here's Rory Leafhopper:
Later, Peeps!
And here's Rory Leafhopper:
2/17/11
Shower Epiphany
I don't know how other writers get their epiphanies *lightbulb*, but there's something about being in the shower that gets my mind churning.
So, to that end, I was in the shower this morning, thinking about my GNOME cover--my cover designer Laura is on the final tweaks--when the lighbulb moment hit me. In the series, a medallion plays a minor role and Laura designed a medallion for me. It will be placed in the O of Goblin logo. Anyhoo, Laura couldn't make it work as I had written it, so she moved the dragon image to the top of the medallion. No biggie, I'll just change it in the story.
This morning I was thinking about the medallion: a dragon with its wings spread on top, while underneath a unicorn and phoenix face each other.
Oh. My. Gosh! *lightbulb* I can't tell you the entirety of my lightbulb moment, but I can tell you that there will be a book or two down the road that will be based on that one thought. OMG! It ties everything together. And no, I'm not telling, but if you read GNOME (Book One of THE GOBLIN'S APPRENTICE) you will probably get an inkling of what I intend to do.
I'm a seat-of-the-pants type of writer. I get an idea and, as I'm writing, the characters reveal themselves to me. Sometimes I'll put something into a story, but don't have the foggiest idea why, until much, much later when it's revealed to me.
That said, I wrote GNOME over two years ago. The medallion emerged in the story and yes, has a place in Books 2 & 3, but I didn't realize the deeper meaning of it until today.
Wow . . . I love the way my mind works things out.
Gotta get to work. I've already chopped roughly 20% of GNOME--yep, about 8000 words, which is a lot of words on a <50,000 word story.
Later, Peeps!
So, to that end, I was in the shower this morning, thinking about my GNOME cover--my cover designer Laura is on the final tweaks--when the lighbulb moment hit me. In the series, a medallion plays a minor role and Laura designed a medallion for me. It will be placed in the O of Goblin logo. Anyhoo, Laura couldn't make it work as I had written it, so she moved the dragon image to the top of the medallion. No biggie, I'll just change it in the story.
This morning I was thinking about the medallion: a dragon with its wings spread on top, while underneath a unicorn and phoenix face each other.
Oh. My. Gosh! *lightbulb* I can't tell you the entirety of my lightbulb moment, but I can tell you that there will be a book or two down the road that will be based on that one thought. OMG! It ties everything together. And no, I'm not telling, but if you read GNOME (Book One of THE GOBLIN'S APPRENTICE) you will probably get an inkling of what I intend to do.
I'm a seat-of-the-pants type of writer. I get an idea and, as I'm writing, the characters reveal themselves to me. Sometimes I'll put something into a story, but don't have the foggiest idea why, until much, much later when it's revealed to me.
That said, I wrote GNOME over two years ago. The medallion emerged in the story and yes, has a place in Books 2 & 3, but I didn't realize the deeper meaning of it until today.
Wow . . . I love the way my mind works things out.
Gotta get to work. I've already chopped roughly 20% of GNOME--yep, about 8000 words, which is a lot of words on a <50,000 word story.
Later, Peeps!
2/11/11
Another Round of Slicing and Dicing
*sigh* Ah, the life of a writer. Inventing all sorts of cool worlds, plots and situations only to have to chop most of the extraneous stuff.
I finished my . . . oh, let's go with . . . 8th round of edits on GNOME and I sent it to my CP. This is a person who had read Lost Leprechaun Loot, but hadn't read any of GNOME. Fresh eyes, yanno.
A-and I get it back within 24 hours, which is a FANTASTIC turnaround time, if I do say so myself, BUT . . .
There's always a BUT. :-) The pacing in the first few chapters was off.
By the time my CP reached a certain point--I don't want to give anything away, so deal with the ambiguity of this statement--she was totally engrossed and couldn't stop reading. This is A GOOD THING.
So roughly the last 3/4 of story works, but not the first 1/4. All she did was confirm what I already suspected. So what to do?
This is where the Ginsu knife comes in handy--it will slice and dice through a tin can!
I'm cutting chapter one and most of chapter two. I'll wave my magic wand and *POOF* it will be fixed . . . yeah, I wish. This is where you see a writer gazing out the window, staring at nothing. Writers think A LOT, so I'm thinking about how I want to weave this new beginning into the story. To have the fantasy element a little quicker off the mark and hopefully engage the reader sooner.
But it won't happen with me blogging about what I need to do. So . . .
Later, Peeps!
I finished my . . . oh, let's go with . . . 8th round of edits on GNOME and I sent it to my CP. This is a person who had read Lost Leprechaun Loot, but hadn't read any of GNOME. Fresh eyes, yanno.
A-and I get it back within 24 hours, which is a FANTASTIC turnaround time, if I do say so myself, BUT . . .
There's always a BUT. :-) The pacing in the first few chapters was off.
By the time my CP reached a certain point--I don't want to give anything away, so deal with the ambiguity of this statement--she was totally engrossed and couldn't stop reading. This is A GOOD THING.
So roughly the last 3/4 of story works, but not the first 1/4. All she did was confirm what I already suspected. So what to do?
This is where the Ginsu knife comes in handy--it will slice and dice through a tin can!
I'm cutting chapter one and most of chapter two. I'll wave my magic wand and *POOF* it will be fixed . . . yeah, I wish. This is where you see a writer gazing out the window, staring at nothing. Writers think A LOT, so I'm thinking about how I want to weave this new beginning into the story. To have the fantasy element a little quicker off the mark and hopefully engage the reader sooner.
But it won't happen with me blogging about what I need to do. So . . .
Later, Peeps!
2/2/11
Plan B
One of my writing friends has a quote at the bottom of her signature line, to paraphrase: "When life hands you lemons, then make margaritas and pass the salt." Or something like that.
Life will always hand you lemons. It's how you deal with them that shows others what you're made of.
So what is my Plan B?
Well, last August I queried Jabberwocky Sourcebooks publishing, sometime in October I received a request for my novel, GNOME (shortened for ease of relating this story), which I promptly sent. And then the waiting started. As of February 1, 2011 (yes, yesterday), I got my response, "blah, blah, blah . . . is an intriguing concept; unfortunately, it doesn' fit the needs of our publishing program at this time. . . Blah, blah, blah" This is a generic rejection. One mark in their favor is that they responded to the full in 3-4 months, whereas, many publishing houses will take six months to a year or more.
So, now what?
When I self-published Lost Leprechaun Loot, I KNEW I wanted to publish the rest of the stories that I had written. I love these stories and wanted to share them, but I had to wait until I received a response from Jabberwocky. Well, I have my response. They don't want it.
Fine. Now, I can move forward with my Plan B: to get more of Kyte's stories out there.
GNOME is the first novel involving this world--it intros characters and reveals some important characters.
FAERIE takes place about six weeks later, about two days into the new school year.
TROLL takes place over Thanksgiving. (Written, but I haven't edited it AT ALL)
TROLL 2 isn't written yet, but TROLL stopped with a serious loose end and it needs to be written, but I think my character needs to grow and learn before she's ready to tackle TROLL 2.
All these above are middle grade NOVELS running about 45-50,000 words
Halloween Monster Mix-Up takes place over Halloween BEFORE TROLL. This is a short story/chapter book @ 5000 words
Sugar Plum Disaster is a Christmas short story/chapter book
Lost Leprechaun Loot is technically last, but the first published because of the holiday timing. It is also a chapter book.
My goal is to get GNOME self published ASAP. I'd love to have it ready to coincide with the release of Gnomeo and Juliet (Feb 11), but I think anytime in February would be good timing.
Then I need to write a short story that involves one of my leprechauns getting some payback against Kyte. Easter comes to mind as a good holiday timing, but how to make leprechauns and Easter work together . . . only my warped mind will figure it out.
When everything hits the skids and your world seems to crumble, I have my Plan B.
Do you have a Plan B, too?
Later, Peeps! I have to edit and format GNOME for my new CP to take a gander at.
Life will always hand you lemons. It's how you deal with them that shows others what you're made of.
So what is my Plan B?
Well, last August I queried Jabberwocky Sourcebooks publishing, sometime in October I received a request for my novel, GNOME (shortened for ease of relating this story), which I promptly sent. And then the waiting started. As of February 1, 2011 (yes, yesterday), I got my response, "blah, blah, blah . . . is an intriguing concept; unfortunately, it doesn' fit the needs of our publishing program at this time. . . Blah, blah, blah" This is a generic rejection. One mark in their favor is that they responded to the full in 3-4 months, whereas, many publishing houses will take six months to a year or more.
So, now what?
When I self-published Lost Leprechaun Loot, I KNEW I wanted to publish the rest of the stories that I had written. I love these stories and wanted to share them, but I had to wait until I received a response from Jabberwocky. Well, I have my response. They don't want it.
Fine. Now, I can move forward with my Plan B: to get more of Kyte's stories out there.
GNOME is the first novel involving this world--it intros characters and reveals some important characters.
FAERIE takes place about six weeks later, about two days into the new school year.
TROLL takes place over Thanksgiving. (Written, but I haven't edited it AT ALL)
TROLL 2 isn't written yet, but TROLL stopped with a serious loose end and it needs to be written, but I think my character needs to grow and learn before she's ready to tackle TROLL 2.
All these above are middle grade NOVELS running about 45-50,000 words
Halloween Monster Mix-Up takes place over Halloween BEFORE TROLL. This is a short story/chapter book @ 5000 words
Sugar Plum Disaster is a Christmas short story/chapter book
Lost Leprechaun Loot is technically last, but the first published because of the holiday timing. It is also a chapter book.
My goal is to get GNOME self published ASAP. I'd love to have it ready to coincide with the release of Gnomeo and Juliet (Feb 11), but I think anytime in February would be good timing.
Then I need to write a short story that involves one of my leprechauns getting some payback against Kyte. Easter comes to mind as a good holiday timing, but how to make leprechauns and Easter work together . . . only my warped mind will figure it out.
When everything hits the skids and your world seems to crumble, I have my Plan B.
Do you have a Plan B, too?
Later, Peeps! I have to edit and format GNOME for my new CP to take a gander at.
5/18/09
BIAW: Book In A Week
Not literally, but I'm sure there are a few diehards willing to try.
One of my cyber GIAM (a goals group) buddies, Barbara White Daille supports a monthly BIAW, and today is the starting day. It runs Monday through Sunday, though I doubt I will be able to write anything from Friday onward. Todd will be home on Friday, so I'll be kissing any productivity out the window. :-) Plus it is Memorial Day weekend and I want to hang by the pool provided it warms up and the rain leaves us alone for awhile.
Back on topic, the goal of BIAW is to write as much a possible each day. Some people have a goal of simply sitting in the writing chair for ten minutes a day, while others intend to write thousands of words each day. Barbara suggests we shut off all communication with the Internet (my personal bete noir), freeze meals for the family, and buckle down--BICHOK (Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard).
I plan to do something in the middle. I'll still have stuff to do around the house, namely working out, laundry, cooking and some gardening, but I'll set the timer to write for 30 minutes at a time without checking email or turning on one of the damn addictive judge shows. Trust me, this is my challange!
In preparation for this, I'm pre-writing my blogs for this week. Yes, I'm writing this on Sunday. I will not blog hop or comment on blogs. I will not check email every 2.5 minutes. And I MUST finish my third wave of revisions on Faerie--DONE! They are marked on the hard copy, but I want to put them in the computer so Todd can read it to Rachel tonight.
I will finish these items even if I have to type while watching the Survivor finale tonight!
Why am I making myself crazy about this?
I really, really need/want to finish my gnome story. Yes, I want to enter it in the Delacorte contest, but primarily I want this rough draft finished before Rachel is out of school. If it's finished, then I can edit/tweak to my heart's content over the summer, provided I have something to tweak!
So my goal is BICHOK.
Write on!
Monday: 2515 words
Tuesday: 3373 words
Wednesday: 3028 words
Thursday: 3408 words
Friday: 1929 words
Saturday: 980 words
Sunday: 336 words
Grand total: 15,487 Words or 53 pages!!
One of my cyber GIAM (a goals group) buddies, Barbara White Daille supports a monthly BIAW, and today is the starting day. It runs Monday through Sunday, though I doubt I will be able to write anything from Friday onward. Todd will be home on Friday, so I'll be kissing any productivity out the window. :-) Plus it is Memorial Day weekend and I want to hang by the pool provided it warms up and the rain leaves us alone for awhile.
Back on topic, the goal of BIAW is to write as much a possible each day. Some people have a goal of simply sitting in the writing chair for ten minutes a day, while others intend to write thousands of words each day. Barbara suggests we shut off all communication with the Internet (my personal bete noir), freeze meals for the family, and buckle down--BICHOK (Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard).
I plan to do something in the middle. I'll still have stuff to do around the house, namely working out, laundry, cooking and some gardening, but I'll set the timer to write for 30 minutes at a time without checking email or turning on one of the damn addictive judge shows. Trust me, this is my challange!
In preparation for this, I'm pre-writing my blogs for this week. Yes, I'm writing this on Sunday. I will not blog hop or comment on blogs. I will not check email every 2.5 minutes. And I MUST finish my third wave of revisions on Faerie--DONE! They are marked on the hard copy, but I want to put them in the computer so Todd can read it to Rachel tonight.
I will finish these items even if I have to type while watching the Survivor finale tonight!
Why am I making myself crazy about this?
I really, really need/want to finish my gnome story. Yes, I want to enter it in the Delacorte contest, but primarily I want this rough draft finished before Rachel is out of school. If it's finished, then I can edit/tweak to my heart's content over the summer, provided I have something to tweak!
So my goal is BICHOK.
Write on!
Monday: 2515 words
Tuesday: 3373 words
Wednesday: 3028 words
Thursday: 3408 words
Friday: 1929 words
Saturday: 980 words
Sunday: 336 words
Grand total: 15,487 Words or 53 pages!!
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