Publishing, Redux
Dec. 3rd, 2023 04:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spryngOn an unrelated note, I emailed City of Wraiths (and a synopsis [and a query]) to my agent on Friday. This is a weird one, an old story that I had a sudden thunder-bolt of understanding on how to fix and rewrite earlier in the summer (or maybe it was NaNo last year, time is so squishy), so I did. It's more like my published work than the WIP I threw at her last spring, which was an attempt at both stretching my craft and going in a different direction. CoW is cozier, shorter (108k and probably gonna be trimmed to 100k vs 130k and counting), much more tightly focused and therefore easier to explain.
I'm still not sure where I even went wrong with the other WIP, except that because it was more ambitious I was less confident in it and because it was a much bigger story, it was harder for me to explain. But that's the thing with publishing -- you've got to be able to stand up for your story and explain it. That's what a query is, that's what a synopsis is... that's why they're both so important for selling a book, even though they're at odds to the skills used for writing an actual book.
I still hope I can find a way to fix the 130k+ WIP. It's got some good bones in there, somewhere, if I can just figure out which. But for now, I need to work on something different from both, something entirely new. I've started and stopped several Entirely New things, but am 10k into one that might actually have more words in it. I need a solid few morning runs, maybe a hike or two, to get things going again.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about CoW, and that if it gets an equally dismissive reaction, I'm... I don't know. A writer friend pointed out that I've had 0 self-confidence since the spring, so I don't know how that can get any worse. But then, I've given up at least 5 times this year, officially accepted Now Isn't the Time, and yet I keep writing. So, who knows?
I'm still not sure where I even went wrong with the other WIP, except that because it was more ambitious I was less confident in it and because it was a much bigger story, it was harder for me to explain. But that's the thing with publishing -- you've got to be able to stand up for your story and explain it. That's what a query is, that's what a synopsis is... that's why they're both so important for selling a book, even though they're at odds to the skills used for writing an actual book.
I still hope I can find a way to fix the 130k+ WIP. It's got some good bones in there, somewhere, if I can just figure out which. But for now, I need to work on something different from both, something entirely new. I've started and stopped several Entirely New things, but am 10k into one that might actually have more words in it. I need a solid few morning runs, maybe a hike or two, to get things going again.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about CoW, and that if it gets an equally dismissive reaction, I'm... I don't know. A writer friend pointed out that I've had 0 self-confidence since the spring, so I don't know how that can get any worse. But then, I've given up at least 5 times this year, officially accepted Now Isn't the Time, and yet I keep writing. So, who knows?
