Surprises happen
Sometimes a story creeps up on you.
What I should have been doing this week was reading through one of two draft manuscripts and knocking the final touches into shape. I dithered a bit over which one to choose, and next thing I know another story just hit me out of the blue.
A bit like ‘Snow Angel’, the whole idea came from the prologue. I knew how the story should start and went from there. I’ve written around 20,000 words right off. Too much typing for one week, but I wrote the whole thing. I’m stunned. Okay, it’s a draft and it needs work, but it’s a pretty solid story. Even more surprising is it’s a m/m contemporary. My head hasn’t even been considering contemporary stories — not a new one anyway; I’ve been too busy trying to tweak an existing one in a way that will please both me and my publisher. I’ve lots of ideas for romance and non-romantic work in many genres, but I hadn’t ‘chosen’ to write this. It chose me.
So that’s three possible upcoming titles — two m/m contemporary and one m/m sci-fi. I’ve a paranormal idea, but haven’t got past a small bit of research I had to do for that one. In the meantime, I have these three with which to do battle.
Sometimes good things happen when they hit you out of the blue, so I’m grateful. I just hope those who are waiting for another m/m contemporary from me are equally pleased. I have to shelve it for a couple of weeks as that’s how I write. I like my drafts to have ‘shelf’ time. I can look at them with a fresh eye then. This week… Ah, this week I should look at one of those two manuscripts. Another good idea would be nice while I’m dithering over which one to work on, but it really won’t get the job done if it keeps happening. LOL.
9 Comments
Well Sharon this day was coming…LOL. I am so pleased for you (and for myself of course LOL) that I’ll get to read one of my favourite genres by one of my favourite authors.
LOL. Thanks for the compliment. This will be a short work and it does need a tidy but it’s pretty much finished and I’m fairly confident that Changeling will accept it — and I don’t usually say that in advance. Now, just to get the longer work finally sorted in a way another publisher likes — if they don’t, I think I’m going to have rethink the market on that one. It’s hard work sometimes getting the right balance between pleasing oneself and the publisher. This is the first time I’m struggled to give them what they want and remain happy with the book myself.
I agree with the pleasing the publisher, pleasing yourself mantra. I submitted a short story to a publisher, and they rejected it on the basis it didn’t have enough sex. LOL, I remember at the time I was so angry, that all they wanted was a porn-spoof (which is true) but I wouldn’t change my story, because the (one) sex scene I did write was integeral to the story.
Anyway, heh. I’m sure if you went through self-publishing with the longer version, it may help. I’m not sure how complicated it is. But I see J.M. Snyder and Jordan Castillo Price do it, and do it well
I hear you. LOL. I have considered self-publishing. I think the days are numbered where it’s so frowned upon. There are so many reasons why a writer will self-publish these days, and usually not for any reason a reader will assume. No, it doesn’t mean your work is no good. Many of the writers doing it are already published and as some writers have said publishers beware because can you imagine if Stephen King decided to go the self-publishing route? Think of how much more he could make and his publisher would lose. Fine, he probably wouldn’t want to — he’s worth so much his publishers are only too happy to do all his promotion for him. Hell, he doesn’t NEED promotion. Many authors go the self-publishing route because they have to do their own promotion ‘anyway’ — something else many readers don’t realise. I would definitely self-publish any out of contract titles that I couldn’t place to my satisfaction.
And yep, the major problem with my book was no sex scene in the first half even though there’s plenty in the second. LOL. If I don’t have it right this time, I will have to rethink who to sub it to.
I think you’ve made a respectable name for yourself in the industry, and going into self-publishing would be easier. Mainly because you’ve already got a healthy fan base. Same said with Jordan Castillo Price for example, she first published with Torquere Press and whilst her PR was pretty non-existant back then – she’s built a good “franchise” for herself so to speak, and from what I can gather her own business model is doing well for her.
It obviously won’t work for everyone, and self-publishing if done right and seriously can take a lot of work. You’d be handling everything, and sometimes that doesn’t look really tempting. I see no publisher that does promotion at all. Maybe I’m wrong but I’ve never seen Samhain Publishing (for example) go out their way to promote their authors books. They plop the books on their site, offer a few competitions and that’s it. I see mainstream (print) publishers do some much more for their authors i.e. Stephen King as you mentioned, but I have never seen an e-publisher. Maybe I’m wrong, and someone can show me an example of good e-promotion. Other than a book coventions every year. Authors should promote their own books, but going with an e-publisher could hardly be because they offer food promotion
At least you’re willing to look at self-publishing as a means to get your work out there. I rather read an honest book via other means, than a cheap cop-out to satisfy a publisher. When you write stories you: satisfy yourself and satisfy your targeted audience.
See that annoys me to no end. Here you have a story that has plenty of sex when it needs it, but you’re on the fence on whether a publisher will say no or yes BASED on sex scenes alone. And people wonder why e-publishing is not taken seriously.
I’m sorry about my typos LOL. It’s 3:20AM and I should sleep. Heh.
LOL. You want to see some of my typos in my work, which is a good way of saying I can see one problem with self-publishing — a writer needs an editor, or a least a beta reader or two. Even if you can get the story spot-on without help you need to have someone who can check for typos etc. A book cover can cost $300 (more or less) unless you do it yourself, and it all takes time and most of us struggle just to find the time to write. There are drawbacks. Saying that, many writers turn to self-publishing just to have complete artistic control. For example (and I am not having a go — even though it’s a personal annoyance, I understand their reasons) LI are no longer accepting non-US spelling, so no more of my books will have British spellings. I’ve always agreed with an ex-editor of the BBC I know who believes books should be spelt according to character and setting, but I do realise that some publishers (e or print) only take one form of spelling. What WILL drive me crazy is if anything interferes with my language use. Another thing readers don’t realise is every publisher has a ‘house-style’ that can dictate any or all spelling, language, punctuation etc. It makes edits a nightmare.
To be fair, some of the comments on this new as yet uncontracted work were perfectly reasonable — but then that’s what an editor is for, to point those things out and help you improve the work. With the sex…alas, it’s the market and they base what they need mostly on sales. If sexual content results in higher sales then it’s the majority of readers who are dictating. The writer wants to create — the publisher wants to sell. So does the writer, but not at the expense of the work. It’s stressful balancing act for all concerned.
And what are you doing hanging around here at gone 3AM? LOL.
Yup, those are the downsides for sure. Editors and graphic artists.
I find LI ridiculous in asking that, I’m sorry but it is. I find it both insulting and sheer laziness. I understand that they’re an American publisher, but it’s bluntly appalling. To me they’re basically saying their American audience is dumb and that they just can’t be bothered with an extra ‘o’ no offense but “American English” is NOT a language. There is only one: English.
I don’t know how a publisher can have their own language, punctuation, spelling? LOL. Unless I’m missing something.
Again, it’s all about money. How do publishers know this wouldn’t sell. They don’t give niche styles a chance. Sure you may have had problems with your story, but if one of their concerns were the lack of sex – DESPITE the fact you had plenty where it was needed, that just shocks me.
LOL. It’s summer, I have nothing to do.
Firstly, I can understand why you feel that way. However, there’s no point pointing a finger at one specific publisher. I’m sorry to say that many US publishers do not accept ‘non-standard US spelling’ and most publishers have a ‘house-style’. This is to set some sort of formality between books. The house-style can drive a writer more nuts than the spelling. I can’t help wondering if any UK publishers do the same to US writers and insist they use our spellings, which I feel is equally crazy. What I have had to point out in some instances is that I cannot have a British character say ‘ass’ (no more than I would have an American character say arse) — it’s not just a spelling issue but one of language. It’s the equal of someone telling me to write sidewalk instead of pavement, or pants instead of trousers. Unfortunately, some US people (yes even publishers) don’t understand that such words aren’t simply a matter of spelling. Again, I often wonder whether other nationalities writing outside of their countries encounter similar problems; I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
Simply using one lot of spelling and a house-style should in theory speed things up in-house, streamline the editing procedure and save time and money. I’m not sure it does. I think all writers writing outside of their country end up explaining things and the difference only means the publisher ends up explaining the reason for editorial changes to the writer. Either way, there’s still a lot of negotiation and discussion. I hate to mention this, but one of the reasons is that not all writers can spell (spelling is one of my strengths, more so than punctuation) and that means, for example, a US publisher has to trust the writers and then deal with ensuing complaints when a book goes out with an error, which makes them look unprofessional, or educate their staff on UK and even Canadian (who use many UK spellings) grammar. This is why they try to standardise the system, but IF they do it so much that it interferes with an author’s voice then they risk alienating the writer.
The crazy thing is when you talk to US readers most want a UK writer to keep their style and individuality. Even so, I remember the whole scarf/scoff incident. I wrote someone scoffed down their food and the editor hadn’t a clue. The US would say they scarfed down their food. To us a scarf goes around your neck and that’s all it does! A US writer/reader told me she would see scoff as a spelling mistake, but I still put it in because I’m British and that the language I use.
As for sales, they do the market research and follow trends. Certain markets call for certain things and if the writer doesn’t like it they have to look elsewhere. The sex or lack of in any book doesn’t bother me as long as it’s part of the story, but sometimes you just cannot get two people together quickly without making the story a farce, and that only leaves you with a few options for an early sex scene.
I have plenty to do — I shouldn’t be here. LOL.