The Quest # 2

I had a busy weekend with a friend’s wedding, so I only managed to query two agents since the last posting. Which is great because I had two rejections last week. I have achieved replacement rate.

I’m not discouraged by the rejections. That’s the business. I barely have ten. Breaking in is harder than writing. That’s why it’s called breaking in, because the people on the outside need to use a crowbar to open the window.

I think it’s worth talking about why I want to be traditionally published over self-published. I don’t know that there is necessarily a bunch of bullet point reasons, but I think one big reason is that I am already self-publishing.

I put the five Quint stories on Kindle (https://rb.gy/lu1mmp) and they sold very well among friends and family, and no one outside that circle. I came too late to Kindle for when it was open.

I am also recording an audiobook of my epic fantasy epic poem (Prologue here: https://youtu.be/tRjh2oIWQW4) . This was the first book I ever finished. I am proud of it, despite the occasional clunky sentence.  

These two projects took, and will continue to take, so much out of me. I know I will have more novellas that I am going to be putting out there on my own. Part of the appeal of traditional publishing is that it offers a team of people to work with to improve my work.

Another is that I want to see my work on bookshelves. Vain, I know, but I want to see my name among the writers whose works inspired me.

I think I want to be a hybrid, straddling both, releasing somethings as self-published and others, notably novels, as traditional.

Thanks for reading,

Michael

The Quest #1

The quest is a simple one. That does not mean that it is an easy one, just that the objectives are not complex. I want to be an author. I want to see my books in bookstores. I want to tell stories to people.

Fortunately, I have wanted this for some time, and have made the following progress. I write every day. One full page, 12 pt. font, single spaced. This habit has been the savior of the dream.

When I started writing, right out of school, I would go through periods of intense writing. I don’t remember how quickly I wrote the first chapter of The Ring of Dain Thar Duin, but I think it took me less than a month.

Then I rested on my laurels. I wrote the first chapter of a book. Hooray! The days then began to slip by and work was not continued. I think a month or two later I wrote the next chapter. Then repeat. I took me about seven months to write roughly 30,000 words. For some, this is what they want, but for me, it was too slow, too undisciplined.  

January 1st, 2019, was the first day promised myself to write every day. I have kept that promise to myself since then. My writing has improved; my stories have improved.

My production since then had been: The Ring of Dain Thar Duin 225,000 words, The Quintilogy ~150,000 words, Howl 120,000 words, The Rider (working title) 203,000 words, The Peacock 53,000 words, The Worth of a Stone (working title) 134,636 words, plus a wide array for shorter works.

I have written a million words of fiction, and I am ready for it to start working for me. I have begun to seek an agent for The Worth of a Stone, a cozy fantasy novel which was born from a period of anxiety and how I got out of it.

In my notes, I have queried twenty agents, but I think it is more like twenty-five, because I didn’t have a system to start. It has been three months since I started. Having worked with people trying to get their books published, I understand a terrible truth:

Breaking in is harder than writing a book.

Much harder.

Even as I write this I got a rejection from an agent. So in the Quest blog I will be writing about my quest to get published. I expect it will take me quite a long time. But I have high spirits.

Join me on this wild ride,

Michael