03/09/2024
Okay folks, I’m ready to release the details to my current novel I’m working on…drum roll, please…
Genre: Sci-Fi/Dystopian
Title: THE NONAGREEABLES
Pitch: One woman’s life gets turned upside down after the government mandates the public to take a test that determines where they live and with whom they live.
Current word count: 12,000 words
03/08/2024
For the past several months I’ve been working on a few writing projects. One is a picture book called Winnie and Wilbur, featuring the purple dog and green dragon I’ve often illustrated.
The other is a manuscript I started years ago and I decided to finally finish it this past fall. It’s an 85,000 word high fantasy novel and my first novel completed. I’m very proud of myself for writing this book, but unfortunately, despite my hard work and time, I am realizing there is an entire business element to publishing I gave little thought to.
Growing up, I always thought I would write the book of my dreams and I could get it published one day if I tried hard enough. This is not the case and the reality is, there are markets for different genres and it’s an ever-changing landscape with the audience continuously moving the goal posts. If you time it right, and are truly a good writer with the right industry knowledge (and if Lady Luck is on your side) you might get published. Like any art, the world of writing is highly subjective and it seems like just about everyone is doing it, trying to fight for a spot on the shelf. That means lots of rejections, lots of feeling like you are failing. But there is something to be learned from these rejections, and it has helped me do a deeper dive into the publishing world so that maybe I can increase my chances of getting published.
After querying around eighteen agents and researching the market and what literary agents are looking for, I have realized my book isn’t a good fit for the current market and I should save my efforts and put them toward something else.
It’s my first book after all, so this was expected, but it still is a slow death of a dream and there is a silent, private grieving process involved that no one – unless you are also a writer – understands.
I’ve been asked if I will self-publish my book and the answer is no. Absolutely not.
For now at least.
It’s commonly known in the publishing world that self-publishing is basically murdering your book. Agents won’t be interested and to do the marketing all yourself is expensive, time consuming and honestly, not very promising. I don’t have the time, nor the money, to market a book as a debut author. There have only been about a handful of people (out of the millions) who have successfully self-published and moved on to major book deals. One that comes to top of mind is “The Martian.” Maybe if I’m convinced that this book will just never, ever see the light of day as I near my deathbed, I will decide to self-publish just so that it’s out there.
As of right now, I will hold onto my manuscript and perhaps I’ll try again if the market seems to be calling for a book like mine.
I’ve grieved this book, convinced myself that I can’t write for beans, have told myself I should just quit now and stop wasting my time, that I’m probably only giving agents a laugh when they read my query or my first few pages. I’ve told myself I’m not smart enough. But I realized that I have always loved writing and that it would be silly to just stop.
I’ve since moved on to another manuscript. I’m excited to share the details of this one and I’m determined to finish it before the end of the summer. It is a dystopian novel and I’m aiming for 80k-85k words. Still deciding on the title, but once I do I’m going to share it here!
Stay tuned for more information!