Worth pursuing publication?

[John Page]

This is a little off topic, but I have been mulling this over for a while and don't quite know what to do. I've been writing regularly for a few years, and before that for a few more. For similar reasons why I love the craft of Bladesmithing, and more generally using my knowledge and hands to create something, I will likely continue to write even if I never publish anything. Over the past two and a half years, I have written just short of a million words, broken into two novels and part of a third of which I am still working.

 

I originally created the premise for the story, or at least parts of it, when I was between 14 and 15. Around the same time, I wrote the first scene which I rewrote a few years later. Expanding on that scene, I began the project that led me to where I am now, and I am uncertain how to continue. In 2010, I made a new year's resolution to write a book, and I closed the year at just over 300k words (about 900 pages of standard print size & format). I did the same in 2011, and again for 2012, which is where this has led me.

 

What I am uncertain of is whether there is any merit to what I have written, and if anyone would genuinely want to read it. I have never read any of Christopher Paolini's books (the Inheritance Cycle), but I am weary of something similar happening. Most of the positive reception was due to his age when he wrote them, and most of the criticisms were about the quality of his story and prose. So, I wonder whether it would ever be worth the effort of trying to get what I have written published. The time of which I write (fiction) is really a culmination of my personality and the times of old where mystery and legend had not yet broken to technology. I rally have mixed feelings about my work, and would greatly appreciate any advice. Hearing from honest people like you, people who share similar interests, is in many ways more important than from my close friends from my youth. I can post a few excerpts, if that would help.

 

Thank you for your wisdom, I value it very highly.

 

 

John

[Petr Florianek]

Hello!

Post a page here, more opinions will come!

 

My advice is to post some action and some dialog

 

looking forward to it

[Alan Longmire]

I agree with Petr. Many of us here are Fantasy nerds of some sort anyway...

[Bret]

Hey John. I have a few things to say on this subject. Firstly I can't write worth a damn but wish I could. I do however read avidly and have all my life. When I can't read (like driving or on the job) I listen to audiobooks. If you write the only way to know how you are doing is to have your work read. I have 2 sisters-in-law that are both published authors, so I hear about this crap all the damn time whether I want to or not. They took different paths to publication and in doing so have shown there is indeed more than one way to skin that proverbial feline. One self-published her first book and gained a little recognition and that made it easier to get her other works taken seriously. The other badgered every publisher she could find with samples and didn’t let up until she got a freakin movie deal to go with the book. All this is just to say it can be done. Both women are well over 50 btw.

 

As to criticism, well I wouldn't worry too much about critics. Stephen King is one of the most critically despised writers ever... and arguably the most successful. Tell your stories the way you would like to read them, or hear them. There is an audience for almost any tale. The only real piece of advice I can give is to write for you. If you like it, its good.

 

Do like Petr said though, and give us a taste. Take the criticism you receive, and either use it, or not as you see fit. Just cause someone has an opinion doesn’t make it a good one no matter who they are.

[John Page]

Thanks for the interest, all. Bret, what you say is very encouraging. I began writing simply because I had an idea and wondered if I could, and it has evolved into not knowing what to do if I stopped. A page a day, albeit larger than a normal page. A page a day, every day, no matter what I have going on or if I have time, and if for some reason I cannot, I make up for it the days before or after.

If you want an excerpt, well, here goes... This is the opening that begins it all, rewritten in '10.

 

Let me know what you think, if it's awful, worth continuing, needs loads of work. I'll only post the first few pages of the chapter, and if after that you want the rest of it, I'll add to it.

 

 

Thank you all very much

 

John

 

**** MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES ****

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1

Beginnings

 

Rain spattered against the windows of a frozen carriage as it travelled down a long since deserted alley. The time was nearing two thirty in the morning, and the elongated shadows from a full moon cast a spectral scene. What grey would have hung over the city was gone, replaced by a pale white light that scattered in the falling rain.

Iron banded axels rattled uneasily as the stagecoach came to a halt, inches before a large stone wall. Mud from the rear wheels splattered across the buildings on either side as they skidded over uneven paving stones, which, until tonight, had seen neither foot nor hoof for months. And it was in the shadows of the alley that the sounds of falling rain pounded like a pulsing heart. Yet there was still an unnatural stillness to the night. The horses that pulled the coach were restless, and the cool, shifting air sent shivers down the spine of the driver, hidden beneath a thin and dripping canvas cloak. The iron point of his dagger, concealed beneath the layers of wet fabric, seemed to burn his flesh as it pressed against the bare of his leg.

Dismounting from the driver's platform, he collected himself, straightening his back and taking on a posture of elegance and grace, as though her were a stately gentleman. Tethering the horses' reigns to a rusting ring set in the wall, he donned a pair of new black gloves and draped around his neck a ghastly crimson noose. Coiling one end of the rope around his arm, he slid it to his neck beside the knot and moved silently out of the alley.

The moon had nearly set and the stars all faded as the man walked through a white flagstone courtyard some distance from the alley. Streaks of black flashed across the sky as a carrion murder ascended into the night at a bell's third toll. The man smiled to himself. The witching hour.

Stifling his footsteps as to muffle them behind the drumming gale, reduced to but a whisper of an echo as he passed beneath a pavilion, the man knew that he was at last nearing his destination. No candles passed through plated glass windows and no voices were heard in the square. Although this was by no means the first time the man had travelled alone, he was not at ease. In fact, most times he preferred to act in solitude; but not tonight. Tonight was different. He could tell by the way the earth moved, ominous winds creaking in the branches of leafless trees, shadows disturbed by the mysticism the darkness held.

Edging ever forward, the man approached a large wooden door with ornate brass hinges and more than one lock. He smirked; it was amusing how people felt safety behind walls of stone and bands of iron. He knew quite well that locks and gates were but a façade, a ward to keep friends at bay, and if someone wanted to breach a house, there would be found a way inside.

The rain had intensified since last the man had noticed, turning from a hum to a roar. He was soaked to the bone, but it was no matter; it would all be over in a short time. Casually leaning against the stone wall adjoining the door, although he doubted that anyone would be watching at such an early hour, he pulled back his cloak and withdrew a small parcel wrapped in a black oiled cloth. The thing had cost him a near fortune, but he knew that the tools of a master's trade always came at a steep price.

Gingerly unwrapping the cloth to reveal an array of gleaming instruments, he leaned forward to protect them from the rain. Drawing one as if procuring a key, he firmly inserted it into one of the door's four locks. Shifting it slightly to the left and right, he felt a faint click and replaced the tool with another. The first of the four, the one that he had chosen, seemed to be the primary lock, for it was larger and more intricate than the others. But it was no challenge. He had picked a hundred locks before this.

Producing a new instrument, he slid it into the second lock. The inner workings were far different than the first, but no more difficult. Locks came in as many makes as there were makers, but the principle was always the same. Shaking the tool up and down until it caught, he drew a third device. It was shorter than and more slender than the second, but only just, and bent at a sharper angle. The man lifted the end of the one already resting in the lock and inserted the next beneath it. More quickly, he moved the pick sharply to his left and jammed the one resting above it upward. Feeling the pins of the lock fall into place rather than hearing them, he turned and pulled. Two locks remained.

Sensing that he had prolonged his stay a bit too long, the man hastily disabled the latter half and withdrew his picks. Carefully wrapping them back in the black cloth from whence they had come, he slid the tools back into his pocket and hid them beneath the folds of his cloak. Still no movement caught his eye, but not every watcher could be seen.

Pulling gently at the catch, as to lessen his chances of making a ruckus, the man pushed the door ajar. He was afraid of the noise many a good door made in the dead of night, and the rain only increased the chances, not lessened them. It had happened far too often, but this time, he was prepared. Applying a downward pressure on the door to prevent the hinges from scraping and screeching horribly, he forced the weight to fall upwards, opposing where it naturally fell. He slipped through as it opened a hair's width farther, when it as open just far enough, and reversed it back into place. Waiting until the lever fell to keep it shut, he listened as intently as he could manage with the rain outside. Nothing. As he turned to face the room, he stopped short at the sea of disarray that met him.

Papers had been strewn across the landing, piled high enough in places that he might have been able to sit upon them. Moulded bread and other scraps of half eaten food littered the surface of a singular table, next to the ends of burnt candles and uncleaned dishes. Various shelves housed still more, things that he could not tell precisely what they were, amidst boxes and sacks, mismatched silverware and more roughly carved plates and bowls. Most of the chairs that were left in the room were overturned or broken or both, benches piled with papers and the like, in little better condition. The housekeepers had let it fall into steep neglect, but it was not his concern. Groping around in the flickering light cast from a lamp on the streetside, the man crept to the foot of the stair, on the far side of the room. He edged his way to the top stepping as far inward as he could manage, to reduce the chances of it creaking, cautious of what a wrong footing might yield, and started whenever a stair would rasp despite his precautions.

The landing branched off in two directions, forward and to the left. It was of peculiar design, the house was, but he knew that it contained more than the visible rooms. The house had many secrets, and he hoped to reveal more than one. As old as the eldest that lived there and half again their age, it was a marvel that more did not know about its past. However, it was not his concern. It was not his job for it to be his concern.

To the left, the hallway opened to five rooms; one at the end, one to the left, and three to the right. Equal in size based on the side that housed them, the trick was to know which was the right one before entering. He could come across anyone if he was not careful, any one of eleven. The couple that lived there had seven children, as well as accommodations for the woman's sickly parents. The end tonight was with the house's owner, who, he had been told, would be sleeping alone tonight.

Carefully slipping past the solitary door on the left, the man came to stop at the second door on the right. He remembered that the eldest, the mother's parents, lived in a separate hallway on the same floor. That would make the other their own, since the majority of the floor was devoted to the one he was standing in. He knew nothing more than that, which was more than an inconvenience. Nothing of use, anyway. Having discarded the other hall as an improbability, as it was far smaller, the man reached out to the third door on the right; a complete guess.

Gripping the handle and drawing a deep and silent breath, he opened the door. To his horror, it gave a horrible and piercing screech as it swung ajar. A figure in the bed awoke with a jolt and looked around blindly. Wrapping himself in his dark but sodden cloak, he willed for the shadows to conceal him, at least long enough to leave unseen. The figure in the bed, not at all to his surprise, seemed to notice the open door, yet if he himself was seen, he could not say.

"Who's there?" It demanded, scared beyond belief. The man did not answer, and immediately hoped that voice had not woken anyone in the neighbouring rooms. "Who's there?" The voice asked again, and if it was possible, it sounded more hesitant, if a bit louder. Whoever it was, they were young, a girl about thirteen, he would have said.

In his best imitation the man could forge, although without any real idea of what he was imitating, he spoke quietly as her father might do. "Hush, darling. No need to fear. Go back to sleep, now. Get some rest."

Whether the charade had worked, heeding the man's words, or merely exhausted, the girl rolled over and laid in silence and stillness. Acting as though he had left, the man moved around the edge of the door and shut himself inside the room. He slid briskly to the bedside, as if gliding on the air around him, making no more a sound than the rains could hide.

A hoarse whisper suddenly shattered the silence. "You are no father of mine." The girl said, a resigned terror in her voice.

"No," replied the man calmly, "I am not."

[Luke_Sorensen]

I like it. A lot.

[Art Lawrence]

There is an award winning author that is a memeber of this forum and it isn't me!

 

I am a want-a-be writer but I don't seem to have the follow through to finish a book, (much like my bladesmithing so far). However, my favorite author extant, John Dunning, has some great advice on his website; Old Algonquin Books. If you look there under the sub heading "writers forum" you will find he suggests getting an agent. He also lists his favorite 4 books on the art of writing,

 

Here is an excerpt from those gems of wisdom;

 

"Don’t give up. This may be the most important point in this column. If you believe in your book, don’t give up. Churchill said in the darkest days of WWII, NEVER give up, and look how that turned out. The publishing world is full of stories of writers who have made the rounds and hit it big on the 20th, 30th, 50th submission. You have spent at least a year or two writing this thing. Now have the courage to keep it going. Send it till the type wears off the page.

 

Start another book. Don’t wait for this one to run its course.

 

Don’t ask other writers to read your stuff. What does it matter what any of us thinks? Get it in the hands of an agent who will tell you straight-up what she thinks."

 

*****

 

Should you attempt to get published? If you have the passion to write and the desire to be published then by all means, yes. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

Good luck, Art

Edited May 8, 2012 by Art Lawrence

[John Page]

Thanks for the feedback. Art, I looked over the website, and read the post on the writer's forum a few times. All of it makes sense, more sense than I would have had thinking about it on my own. The thing is, I wonder if I would be wasting an agent's time. I have many a delusion about my own work, and no firm basis for its real quality. I will probably not stop writing for a while yet, a few years until this story comes to a close, and whether I continue on after that or not really depends if I can make something of what I have already written. And thus the internal dilemma continues on...

Thanks again.

 

John

[vihalvor]

Thanks for the feedback. Art, I looked over the website, and read the post on the writer's forum a few times. All of it makes sense, more sense than I would have had thinking about it on my own. The thing is, I wonder if I would be wasting an agent's time. I have many a delusion about my own work, and no firm basis for its real quality. I will probably not stop writing for a while yet, a few years until this story comes to a close, and whether I continue on after that or not really depends if I can make something of what I have already written. And thus the internal dilemma continues on...

Thanks again.

 

John

 

John .. i am no writer or agetn.. BUT .. i AM a marketer and a strategist....

Where you see obstacles, i see opportunities.. you mention " what is you would be wasting the agents time" ? ..

my question is ... what if you are wasting your TALENT by NOT sending your book out ?

What if your book is actually so good, that SEVERAL publising houses would want it ? ... but WOULDNT, because youre afraid to " waste their time" ?

 

Where would Harry Potter be if J.K Rowlings had thought the same ? :P

 

the WORST you can lose, is the P&P of sending the book out to the publishing houses.. and im SURE youve made worse investments over the years ...

 

-vidar-

[Art Lawrence]

Speaking of J.K. Rowlings, here is a quote of an excert of one the many examples of famous author book rejections;

 

"6. J.K. Rowling

 

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s (later Sorceror’s) Stone was rejected by a dozen publishers, including biggies like Penguin and HarperCollins. Bloomsbury, a small London publisher, only took it on at the behest of the CEO’s eight-year old daughter, who begged her father to print the book. God bless you, sweetheart."

 

*****

 

If you don't believe in yourself why should anyone else? As writers we put our heart and soul out there for the world to see. Expect to be gutted like a fish. This is the hardest part for me to get over. I hate rejection! But it's part of the experience. An agents time is spent pouring over manuscripts, most of them they reject. Is that wasting their time? Perhaps. When I come to the end of my life and take that last long look back I would rather regret the things that I have done and shouldn't, than the things I could have done and didn't.

 

Here is a quote that I pulled from Dave Stephens' profile, it just happens to be one of my favorites.

 

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly." -- Theodore Roosevelt

 

I think that sums it up admirably.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Art Lawrence

[John Page]

This has been weighing heavily on me for a while, and hearing your advice makes it a lot more realistic to cope with. It sounds like the only time where hope is lost is when it is me that does the rejecting. Daunting though it is to go through potentially 50, 100 different avenues, it is with the prospect of what awaits at the end that will encourage me to keep looking when I begin that long search.

 

That being said, the number of people who have read anything of what I have written can be counted on a single hand. I have no basis for whether anyone would want to read it. The way I see it, writing is nothing more than the telling of a story, and although I will continue to tell it, if no one wants to listen, why shout when you can whisper? As Alan put it, there is a little bit of Fantasy nerd in some (most) of us. It would mean a lot to me to hear what you think. If you like it, that's great, but if you do not, that would be good to hear and perhaps more helpful.

 

And now I'm going to stare at the rain and ponder the ways of the world...

 

 

John

[Alan Longmire]

I like what I see so far.

[John Page]

Thanks Alan!

[John Page]

I should have asked earlier, but is it worth continuing?

[Russell]

Writing for money is more than a skill, talent or even a craft. How many beautiful turns of phrase have you read on these boards? Plenty I'll bet, but making money at it is a different task entirely. It's a profession, one in which you have to pay your dues. A paragraph is like a knife, it's finished when you give up on making it any better, and if you're trying to nake money at it you have to use your time productively. I met one of my oldest friends almost 30 years ago when he had just started saying to himself " A writer writes for a living" And he suffered for it for a few years, but it's a job and now he makes his living as a novelist and screenwriter. Personally I don't have the thick skin required to take the 50-1 rejections to acceptance ratio, but that's a big part of it.

Writing every day - a thousand words is his norm, is a great start.

 

Is it worth pursuing getting paid for something you'd do anyway, that you love to do and continually try to improve?

I think hell yes, regardless of what anyone else thinks of your writing samples. With determination, the market will tell you the value of your work.

--

Russell

[John Page]

Thanks Russell, what you say makes me think of it in a different way. I'm not sure if I would be writing so much for money as for being heard. As the saying goes, Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. I write for the pleasure of it, and it has come to the point where I wonder if I should do something with it. The correlation you made to the work seen here is very well put. A big part of it is continually improving, and that may be the most important aspect of publication. That, and just getting it out there.

As for writing every day, I'm right there on the thousand words

 

John

[CEmory]

I say go for it! Just outline all the way through however many books you want this to run, send out LOTS of query letters and follow each AGENT'S formats and you will be better for it. I didn't do the first suggestion for my first book and suffered for it. Still am. But with proper outlining all you have to do is 'fill in the fluff' so-to-say. I copy and paste each chapter and just fill in the blanks. As of right now I have a general idea of where I want things to end with major events in between, but I kinda work better on the fly. I grab a smoke and a good cold Dr. Pepper and the keyboard has a hard time keeping up!

 

I'm doing the same myself, a book for those folks in my generation that are tired of the Twilight bs,its Tolkien-like, but more adult oriented and more realistic. I have read the Inheritance cycle all the way through, classic example a poorly outlined book that had good promise but was rushed because his folks owned a publishing house and he COULD. Sorry if thats harsh fans, but its true. You can't say your going to do it in three books and make it four because you fill the second and third ones with a bunch of 'character building' that only bored the hell out of people. I'm shooting to do five MINIMUM, but thats just me. He had an idea that fell flat on its face because he wanted to make a name for himself. A MOVIE before the series is even finished? WTF is that?? And if anyone watched it and LIKED it they probably didn't read the book. Was rushed, poorly transferred into the media, and it was obvious that the DIRECTOR hadn't read the book. Poor judgment all around if you ask me.

[John Page]

You raise an interesting point I would not have thought of. So far, everything I have written has been stream of conscious (although it does not really read that way). As a consequence, I don't know what I'll be writing next month, next week, or even later today, until it is on the page. I write with an ultimate end goal in mind, and a rough idea of the major events leading up to it, but even those come on the spur of a moment. I tried to do some serious plot outlining once, and it didn't get very far. One of my close friends, the only one that has actually read a majority of what I have written, pushed me to do this more often, and I really should have listened. Hearing your experiences, I suppose I really do need to do this if I want to pursue publication, and the idea is daunting.

 

Another dilemma I am having is the prospect of 'trimming down' what I have already written. Over half of everything is completely raw, and I have never even read through the most recent chapters (ever). I know that it will inevitably be reduced severely from its present state, but it also disheartens me to know that a lot will be cut. A professor once told me that a work will be cut down by over 10% (at minimum), and that is a considerable portion when the total is around 950 pages. However, I have a feeling that the more I edit it, the longer it would become, as I have already experienced to some degree. In the beginning chapters, I did not focus on character description as much as I should have, which made it feel awkward later. Going back to the initial chapters, defining personalities and physical qualities would probably add a dozen pages by the end. Similarly, I feel that cutting pieces would make too many gaps in the storyline, even when they feel unimportant.

 

Anyway, I digress. Thanks for the advice, I'll sit down in the coming weeks and really put my mind to figuring out what I am doing and where it is all headed.

 

 

John

[CEmory]

 

Another dilemma I am having is the prospect of 'trimming down' what I have already written. Over half of everything is completely raw, and I have never even read through the most recent chapters (ever). I know that it will inevitably be reduced severely from its present state, but it also disheartens me to know that a lot will be cut. A professor once told me that a work will be cut down by over 10% (at minimum), and that is a considerable portion when the total is around 950 pages. However, I have a feeling that the more I edit it, the longer it would become, as I have already experienced to some degree. In the beginning chapters, I did not focus on character description as much as I should have, which made it feel awkward later. Going back to the initial chapters, defining personalities and physical qualities would probably add a dozen pages by the end. Similarly, I feel that cutting pieces would make too many gaps in the storyline, even when they feel unimportant.

 

Anyway, I digress. Thanks for the advice, I'll sit down in the coming weeks and really put my mind to figuring out what I am doing and where it is all headed.

 

 

John

 

Dont take away, ADD, refine, but don't really take anything away UNLESS it just doesn't make sense and in that case I copy and paste to see if a scene can be wedge in elsewhere or otherwise salvaged. ESPECIALLY if I liked it alot, but I have just hit the delete key with a tear in my eye Write from the heart, RE-write with your head (Finding Forester, good movie lol) and all will be well. Often the best would put a piece away for months before looking over it again. My book 1 is @ 400,000 + words, sounds like alot, 700+ pages, but the Wheel of Time ( My FAVORITE series and R.I.P to the master Robert Jordan, I HIGHLY reccomend it!) regularly reaches and exceeds this. I'll have to post up chapter one, would be the first time ANYONE not a professional has read it, lol. It's muh baby and she's been turned down a time or two. BUT Dr. Suess got rejected like 98 times before he was published. Look where HE went. All it takes is one yes and it will likely be the perfect partnership.

 

And DONT just write when your 'in the mood' cuz it don't matter. You will write what you will write either way it just takes longer to get there. I spent three days on a single chapter, slugging through technical crap then flew through the next six because it was just so fun. I think through scenes all the time, making new ones mainly, but write down what you can in a notebook or on a Word file labled NOTES (Just like that now) and cram everthing in there into little segments divided by character, place, idea, whatever. I have like 2o pages of just bs like this.

 

And NAMES, man the friggin' names! I have SEVERAL lists of names, male/female, for different races/locations/just cuz I feel like someone should be different. Its great to just open a file when I make something up and scroll down a list to pluck out a name I thought of a year ago and thought would be cool. I do the take letters out of words thing too, to pull one right out of my pages, HOUSTON became HOUSON by taking out a T. Named a city that way as a little homage to a place oft cruised in my youth.

I carried a little notepad around for awhile, but found that I filled em up too quick. lol. Had like 50 laying around at one time.

 

One last thing and I'll shut up. Make yourself FEEL it otherwise your audience won't. I WANTED to tear up ONCE, but damnit it was sad! It may sound pretty damn corny but I just put myself in there and rearrange my emotions to the view of the character I am writing for, be it male, female, elf, whatever I got alot of stuff in there lol. My faves come early and I'll just go ahead and give ya'll the first few chapters a day at a time until ol' Jimmy Gamble (see what I did there?) comes in and ya'll will love him too!

 

Good luck in your travels! It'll be fun.

 

C

[vihalvor]

This has been weighing heavily on me for a while, and hearing your advice makes it a lot more realistic to cope with. It sounds like the only time where hope is lost is when it is me that does the rejecting. Daunting though it is to go through potentially 50, 100 different avenues, it is with the prospect of what awaits at the end that will encourage me to keep looking when I begin that long search.

 

That being said, the number of people who have read anything of what I have written can be counted on a single hand. I have no basis for whether anyone would want to read it. The way I see it, writing is nothing more than the telling of a story, and although I will continue to tell it, if no one wants to listen, why shout when you can whisper? As Alan put it, there is a little bit of Fantasy nerd in some (most) of us. It would mean a lot to me to hear what you think. If you like it, that's great, but if you do not, that would be good to hear and perhaps more helpful.

 

And now I'm going to stare at the rain and ponder the ways of the world...

 

 

John

 

it just occurred to me ..... maybe you should , when sending out the first chapter of the book as a teaser to agents..... write a ONE pager story, about a woman with a dream, sitting in a cafe while writing about characters she sees in her mind, as vividly as if they were for real .... She sits there for a year, with her infant child by her side, because her home is too cold, and she can only afford one cuppa coffe per day.....

After sending out her script to hundreds of publishers....she gets a reply " Dear J.K Rowling ... initially i wass about to decline your proposal for publishing... but my daughter simply wouldnt stop bugging me " ...

... and end with .... " read this, let your teenager children ( or neighbours' ones) read it .... who knows .. you might NOT be doing the same mistake scores of publishers did with J.K Rowling....."

 

All you would lose would be the time it takes to write the shortstory, the copying costs of the first chapter, and the P&P ....GO FOR IT ! ... imagine how many masterpieces have dusted away through the ages...... dont let yours become one of them..

 

 

Lastly ... let me tell you a thing about myself... among those who know me, im known as "simon the 2nd" ... from idol ... if someone suck, they sure as h*** will hear it and f someone does well ... they will sure as h*** hear it... i believe in brutal honesty, and i live it... i have many friends who does well, and many ppl who dislike me ( who ARENT doing that well, as they force through with a total lack of talents) ....

YOU ... have talent!!! .. and should pursue it

 

-vidar-

[CEmory]

LMAO that came in when I was writing my bs above, made my day vihaldor and you have a point too. Make 'em smile, get personal in that query letter though TRY to keep it short and DON'T do what I did and forget to double space when you sed your sample in. Thats a biggy aparently

Edited May 14, 2012 by CEmory

[John Page]

Thank you both, a great thought to start out the day with. Vidar, your words are kind and I will certainly get at writing a short story to go along with anything I send in, that is interesting and good to know. I would never have considered doing that.

 

C, The Wheel of Time is my favourite series of all time, and I'm reading it again right now I'm no stranger to length; while I write, I sometimes compare the word count to other long books, and hearing what you have to say about the additions instead of trimming makes me feel a whole lot better. I suppose I figured it was inevitable that many pages would be cut out, but if I can really make it grow instead...

Every day I force myself to write, and I sometimes sit there for an hour or two, sometimes fifteen minutes, but I get in the ~1000 words or more without fail. I think the dedication I have given it is the only reason I can actually sort of write (my attempts when I first started are scary to look at). And I don't know where all the names I have come up with came from, but there are so many that I wouldn't recognize half of em if you showed them to me Kidding aside, I do try to jot down ideas and notes, although I do need to get better at that. Sometimes they just slip away into nothing...

 

Thanks again to you both, I'm starting to get a better idea of what it would take to get published.

 

 

John

 

 

 

ps. I had no idea about the double spacing, good to know.

[Art Lawrence]

Perhaps you should consider visiting a writers forum. I did a quick search of the net and came up with this one; Writers Forum. Or this one; Writerscafe.org.

 

There are also writers clubs in some areas. Writers are able to share their manuscripts with other writers and get input from active and/or published writers.

 

I learned a lot from a creative writing class I took at my local Community College.

 

Good luck

Edited May 14, 2012 by Art Lawrence

[CEmory]

Glad I could help a bit John, like the Way, this path is full of excitement! I too plan of taking courses when I financially can, but barring that I suggest Terry Brooks' short autobio (Another of my influences) it is quite helpful. I use some of the ideas he suggested, like keeping a notebook and lists. Sounds like you've got the want-to and skill, now its just getting your work out there.

[John Page]

Art, excellent suggestion. I just checked out those two you linked, and quite a few questions have already been answered just be reading through the first couple of pages. I'll look into them a little farther this week. Thanks again!

C, I'll see if I can find a copy of the autobio. Every step is another step closer.

 

John

Edited May 14, 2012 by John Page