General

[komodo]

I know...been a long time since I've wandered in here. I've pretty much dropped from the paintball scene. A bit of spring cleaning kind of rekindled the urge though.

Anyways, in my time away, I was busy completing my senior project for high-school. In my rather poor decision making, which I mistook for wisdom at the time, I decided to write a novel for my graduation project. It was originally supposed to be around 100 pages, double spaced, 12 point font in word. Instead, it wound up being 92 pages, single spaced, in word, which when roughly converted into a standard 6"x4" novel format, is around 215 pages.

Pretty much just a science fiction novel, with a War of the Worlds/Half-Life type theme. It's a sub-story to a much larger story I've had floating around in my head for a couple of years now, and am just starting to put on paper as well.

I'm basically in the editing process right now, taking critique from english teachers, friends, family, etc, and tweaking things here and there. Right now I'm shooting to get it to a real editor by the end of the year, and getting it published. I'm just a tad perplexed on where to get started on that aspect.

So MCB, you guys have a young Sci-Fi novelist in your ranks.

[Harbinger[TG]]

Cool.
I haven't had much time for reading because of school, but I do love the sci-fi fantasy stuff

[CrazyBoy78]

Nice. I also do a bit of writing (currently working on another book which I'll hopefully finish this time, lol) and I've talked to a few writers. Had a pro as a teacher too.

The biggest deal is getting it published. Many publishers only do so many books a year so they pick the absolute best ones. The minimum wait time from when you send it in to when they get back to you can be as long as 4 months. And that's assuming they like it. Not to rain on your parade or anything.

Good luck with the book and let us know how it goes!

[komodo]

I've already had someone who, I won't name any names, has done some editing for a lot of writers.

With of course the usual beat-down of screw ups and a few flaws here and there, he gave me the confidence boost after telling me that what I sent him was one of the better things he's ever read from someone else, and for a first-draft, it was amazing.

I'm hoping publishers will think the same. Also hoping they'll try to market in on the whole me being 18, still in school, blah blah blah stuff. If not just to think I'm gullible and will try to screw me on rates, by do the whole marketing gimmick of a "young and upcoming writer" thing.

Or I guess that is more a pipe-dream. haha.

[Harbinger[TG]]

Originally Posted by komodo

I've already had someone who, I won't name any names, has done some editing for a lot of writers.

With of course the usual beat-down of screw ups and a few flaws here and there, he gave me the confidence boost after telling me that what I sent him was one of the better things he's ever read from someone else, and for a first-draft, it was amazing.

I'm hoping publishers will think the same. Also hoping they'll try to market in on the whole me being 18, still in school, blah blah blah stuff. If not just to think I'm gullible and will try to screw me on rates, by do the whole marketing gimmick of a "young and upcoming writer" thing.

Or I guess that is more a pipe-dream. haha.

The Eragon kid already won that battle. But good luck. You might want to think about putting it on the net to get it out there so you can build a fan base and then charge money.

[komodo]

Originally Posted by Harbinger[TG]

The Eragon kid already won that battle. But good luck. You might want to think about putting it on the net to get it out there so you can build a fan base and then charge money.

Already in the works (hopefully).

And you know, ST was a helluva lot better when you were a mod. I honestly didn't mind the random banning of a good majority of the incestuous morons that place is teeming with.

[pizzaluvr]

That's really cool... I wanna read it!

[stevedavidson]

selling that book will go through the usual issues - making it through the slush pile, etc., etc., but there's one more hurdle as well. Editors at the major firms these days are being squeezed mightily by budgets and are therefore sticking close to home; that means little innovation, little experimentation, emphasis on authors or series that are known sellers.

This makes the breakthrough to a sale that much more difficult these days.

I did a lot of writing on paintball over the years; several hundreds of articles, the two books a fair number of people have seen and two books that probably will never get to market.

When I left paintball, I made a conscious decision to drop the non-fiction stuff and get back to writing fiction - SF in particular.

However, I'm not one to play by the rules if there's a better/faster/cheaper way to get by. (I'm also fortunate in having been a fan who was fairly well known in the 70s and 80s and therefore still have/had a lot of contacts in the industry.) I've called in those contacts. I've already been able to make a pitch (for an anthology) to the head editor at one of the major publishing firms, and will be renewing acquaintances with other publishing firm people who were 'just' fans years ago and are now heading up major lines.

I also started doing reviews again, for free, as a way to get the name out there. And, posting regularly on SF oriented forums. That got me a contact and a request for a review from Gary Wolf (Roger Rabbit creator) which I'm writing right now. And THAT contact put me in touch with 'the world's greatest editor', who has now seen my first completed story (novella, about 10k words) and has said 'yes, its saleable and keep going'.

He even suggested that it ought to be nominated for a Prometheus Award (for libertarian SF), which was nice but not practical.

Now that I've remembered that stories must have a beginning, middle and end (although not necessarily in that order), and I know that I'm not just playing with myself, my plan is the following: write shorter pieces WHILE I am working on the novel(s). Its good practice, it lets you FINISH something and you can get them out on the market more quickly. I'm polishing the short and will be sending it out in a week or so.

The novel's subject was chosen because I like the premise AND because I believe it is the kind of thing the market will be looking for when its finished.

Three other things before I go:

1. typical advances for sf & fantasy these days is 5,000. initial print runs are small too; you can't expect a royalty of more than about 8 percent; the publishers are looking for doorstops (no one is exactly sure why, lots of proposed theories)

2. don't put your stuff out there for wide distribution on the net, unless you are prepared to loose a sale because 'its already been published'. Send copies to friends or folks who ask to read it - but don't stick it on a 'my new novel' website or some such. Again, unless you want to go that route.

3. please stick to it and don't take the easy "some people said its good, it takes too long to sell so I'll publish it myself". There's a lot to be said for self-publishing - most of it bad. The main thing you miss is going through the process and learning to really hone your craft. If you do have talent, the harder road will ultimately be more rewarding.

[komodo]

Thanks.

I've already gotten into that whole self-publishing skirmish a few times before. Some argue it is the death of your sales, some say that it can be rewarding. What path I'll choose on that is yet to be seen.

The main thing I am currently worried about right now is who I let see it, and who I let help me on it. I know a lot of publishers love that "first rights" crap, and if they know that I've been going to a few people here and there, and not the editors they want me to go to, then it could screw me a lot.

Everything about the whole publishing process is rather confusing, and I've honestly only given it a brief skim. Hell, I'm not even out of high school yet, why should I know all of that?

As for what you said about keeping plenty of stories going on at one time...I shouldn't have a problem with that. For one, I got this novel done fairly quickly. The first 20 pages or so were done back in September. Then I procrastinated and waited a week and a half before the project was due to write the last 72 pages in Word. Secondly, I have at least 3 other stories in the works, all about 30 pages each so far. 1 of which shouldn't be much longer than the book I just finished, one may span into 2 or 3 books, and 1 could end up being one of those sagas that just keep going and going, with tons of spin-offs. You have no clue to this massive universe that I have created in my head for that one.

Anyways, thanks for the input. I have a feeling you'll be a guy I'll be coming back to when I need to figure out where to get my foot in the door.

[Quacker]

Make a character a Jesus analogue and start hawking it to churches and christian stores.