Taking my latest novel to market

Last week I had the remarkable pleasure of focusing full time on revising and polishing my latest novel, Finding Magic. I had to take a week of vacation from the day job to do it, but it was worth it.

I'd let the manuscript "chill" for 8 months -- since March -- to try to generate some separation, so I had fresh eyes (sorta -- can't really forget). I think it worked. My first day I found myself gulping the story down, not watching out for editing nits but taking in the pace and story (turns out it's a bit of a page-turner). Went through the whole 80,000 words on Monday. Luckily, I still liked it. Made a couple of minor structural changes, but that was about it.

Then I took two more days to go through the full manuscript again, line editing -- attending to word choice, clarity, continuity, etc. I worked with printouts, partly because it's easy to miss things onscreen, and partly because a hard copy is the final form an editor, and maybe an agent, will be dealing with.

This has changed -- once it was exclusively paper. Because reading is a visual experience as well as a mental one, I thought it would be smart to be sure the opening pages broke at compelling points, etc. in the hard copy. But times have changed. I asked litblog agent Miss Snark about what agents and editors read nowadays. Her response:

"Almost everyone I know is reading more on the screen, certainly partials and queries. I read almost everything on the screen now except query letters"

Incidentally, she hates the Courier font. In electronic form, she just changes it to something she likes, no problem. For my money, the final trip through your manuscript should be with a properly formatted, professional printout, no matter what the font. The result should work just fine in an electronic format, too, and can easilty be adjusted in that form.

 

Once the polish was done, I moved to marketing it. I thought I'd share with you what I'm doing to approach literary agents -- I'm between agents, having amicably retired my relationship with my first agent.

On Thursday, I tackled the dreaded query letter with dread -- for me, even though I spent 20 years writing advertising, it's far easier to write a novel than it is to summarize it into a succinct, compelling summary. Arrrgh!!

Still, it had to be done. So here's what I came up with -- I'd appreciate your input.

What if what we think of as "magic" is real? Not the anything-is-possible sorcery of Harry Potter, but the control of a natural energy to cure illness . . . to "fly" . . . or to kill?

What does having that ability do to people? What happens if we discover them living in secret among us?

Ailia, a healer, has that ability. So do the clans made up of her kin that hide from normal society, fearing persecution. And so does Gabriel River, a man who "sees" when people lie and has been isolated by his otherness since childhood.

Ailia is a woman who loves too much. Crushed by grief when her beloved husband is killed, she aims to end her life -- but a pit bull of a Homeland Security agent discovers her "difference" and charges into pursuit.

Fleeing to protect her kin, Ailia draws Gabe into her escape. He learns that he and his five-year-old son share the lineage that gives Ailia her abilities, a gift that's driving Gabe's son into autism. Ailia's heart goes out to the child, and her desire for life returns.

But then a clan leader, seeking revenge for the murder of his son by ordinary people, creates a plague to wipe out non-clan humankind. With Homeland Security closing fast, only Ailia, with Gabe's help, can stop the plague. She's forced to choose between living while others die and sacrificing her newfound life to save humanity from a gruesome death.

This next thing isn't part of my querying process, but there's more to what I do than write novels. I edit them, too, and it seems to me that it's only fair, in the sense of full disclosure, to let prospective clients see samples of my writing. So I post them on my editing website, editorrr.com.

Because I'm a visual thinker, I can't resist creating a cover concept (what do you think?). I don't have any intention of using it in my marketing efforts (yet), but it's fun to do, and helps dress up the page on the editing site that offers a sample. The page with the first chapter is here. There are samples from two other novels on the site as well.

If you visit, feedback is welcome.

Friday of that week I spent putting together query packages. I've decided not to do email queries at this stage, primarily because God only knows what will prick an agent's interest in an emailed letter with no writing sample (and She's not telling). A botched query means no go, but it's the writing that's the crux, and if the first chapter or two of my novel can hook an agent's interest, no matter how I screw up the pitch in the query letter, I've got a shot. Miss Snark agrees with that premise, by the way. So I want to be able to put at least one chapter in front of an agent (or, more likely, his/her assistant). If that fails, well, that's okay. At least I had my full shot.

I researched agents who represent work in my arena (speculative, fantasy, science fiction) and found ten that looked to me to be likely candidates who would read a sample. I hope I'll hit a window where they'll be a little more accessible -- online agent Kristin Nelson recently wrote of the holiday dead zone of publishing: the last three weeks of December when publishing virtually shuts down. After the first week of December, she postpones submissions to editors until January. So maybe there's a little down time out there, and agents may catch up on queries.

Just for fun -- and for a little attention-getting behavior -- I printed this cartoon on the submission envelope. I figure it can't hurt.

So that's one writer's marketing effort. I'll let you know how it comes out. Now, if I can only figure out how not to obsess about it for weeks and weeks and weeks and . . .

For what it's worth,

Ray

Free edit. Email a sample for an edit that I can post here.

ARCHIVES .

© 2006 Ray Rhamey

Comments

[Kathleen Bolton]

Good luck, Ray! It sounds like a slick premise that is sure to get you the invitation to sub the full, if not more. Fingers crossed for you.