Tuesday, July 6, 2010

State of the CW

So the last time I posted about the Book Code Named WBR (Hey, we could call it Webber!) I mentioned that I had gutted and rewritten the fantasy sections because they focused on the wrong characters, thus necessitating the Infodumps of all Infodumps. Well, today I'm reading my way (slowly) through the whole thing, and barring some massive mistake between now and "The End" ... it's ready.

Shit. I'm actually scared now. I can streamline the prose from now until the Second Coming of Christ, but I can't do anything else to the narrative on my own. I'm ... done. It's time to start shopping it around. And hope and pray to God that it's good enough for publication somewhere.

*sigh*

So, plan of attack for the next six months or so:

1. Finish the Great Proofread.
2. Complete Synopsis
3. Complete and test drive Query Letter via AWWC Query Hell (I've mentioned the Absolute Write Water Cooler before, right?)
4. Compile list of first choice agents and query.
5. Compile list of second choice agents and query.
6. Compile third choice, fourth choice, and fifth choice if I have to.
7. Send query/copy of manuscript to Baen Books, because they're the only large publisher I know of who still accepts unagented manuscripts in my genre
8. Compile list of smaller presses in genre who accept unagented submissions.
9. Compile list of second choice presses.
10. Give up, because if we get this far that means the mss. pretty much sucks and the only things left are the little bitty guys who can't pay and wouldn't count as a publishing credit anyway. Or vanity, which I won't do.

Why is this "we're done" thing so fucking depressing? I thought you were supposed to go celebrate with champaigne or something. I just want massive amounts of drugs.

1 comment:

  1. What's wrong with massive amounts of drugs?

    Done is always a bleah point, but it lets you move on to the next stage. So congratulations.

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