I passed the thirty thousand word mark on my new YA novel. Writing new stuff always eases the doldrums of querying stuff you’ve finished to many of the same suspects out in the publishing world. With Amazon breathing down all their necks with a one stop shop as both agent and publisher I can understand how frightening these days are for them. When I look over the thousands of new books available from writers self publishing everywhere, it does make me more persistent about seeking representation from the ‘Old Guard’. Name recognition ain’t coming by way of hawking books on the Amazon forums I’m afraid. :) It will still take getting an agent to believe in what we’ve created enough to push our work up the publishing ladder where possibly someone other than the people we have locked in our garage will read it. Like most everything else in any business service - you need a pro.
The new YA novel is based on my characters from past Halloween blogs starring my paranormal pup, Demon. It’s been a lot of fun expanding this one because I really like all the characters and the dog that understands everything. I’ve mixed in the supernatural with a ‘Scoobie’ gang around Demon and Bay Area haunted places like Alcatraz as the backdrop to the segments. It sure beats my venture into first person POV in my last novel HARDCASE. That one has garnered a few partial requests but is still ringing up names on the rejection list. The present YA venture has healed the wounds from that enterprising attempt at a point of view tryst I find very difficult to write. It’s going to be a challenge keeping Demon and the gang down in the word count range for YA novels, but I’ll throttle myself into a 65,000 to 75,000 word finished product. Anyway… that’s news on the writing front. I know my writing friends are going through the same travails trying to figure out where the winds are blowing in the publishing storm. It’s still fun creating new realities because actual reality is getting tougher to understand every day. :)
4 comments:
Congrats on the progress. I'm at 22,000 words and holding for the past week. gotta break out of that today. There sure is a lot of stuff out there to compete against these days. both from mainstream publishers and self published. I don't know what the answer is. DOesn't look like anyone else is sure either.
It's a good thing we do this writing gig because we love telling stories, Charles, because big success appears to be a roll of the dice. :)
The weekend is a good place to bust through a block.
It’s still fun creating new realities because actual reality is getting tougher to understand every day. :)
It is fun, isn't it? :)
And I, too, am still interested in old-school publishing. Not ruling anything out, but self-pubbing isn't going to fly for everyone.
Congrats on the word count, Bernard--Go!!
'...self-pubbing isn't going to fly for everyone.'
I agree, Raine. Name recognition is a key to selling anything. Without it, marketing self published books is like opening up a booth at the carnival. I've done it, but never with expectations of much more than self satisfaction. :)
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