WIP Day
(To those of you who don't submerge yourselves in the blogging world, and the writing world: WIP stands for Work in Progress. And naturally, my current WIP is Prison Nation. Also referred to as PN.)
My paper print-out sits on my desk next to me. Waiting. I wanted to dive right into tearing its pages apart and scribbling with my red pen last weekend. Then I realized I needed to give us a little space. I needed to let the love linger, and if I started to re-hash it right after that extra long editing round I had just finished, the love would shrivel and die. Again. So, it sits unopened. And taunts me.
Right now I am beta reading for a friend. (Keary, you are awesome!) and am loving the mental break from my own WIP. Not to mention loving her WIP... Every evening when I am done with the reading of her WIP, I find myself itching to dig back into mine. I have ideas, things to fix, things to relish. But I cannot let myself until I finish hers. Ooo restrictions.
I have started to get feedback from some of my beta readers too! Two of them devoured the book within a day of me sending it to them and now I wait for all of their feedback to get to me.. ahem. One has given some bits here and there, and a few I am really going to dig into. The other betas are still working on reading it. Let me say, its really strange, knowing I finally sent the whole thing out to people. That they are reading it, experiencing it, loving or hating it. I almost don't know how I feel.
And now I have people asking me about when the book will be ready for purchase. Ok: I have no idea. There you go! I am still editing. Trying to make it shine. After that... its a bit foggy. I am trying to decide if I do want to market it around to some agents, or go indie with it and self-publish. There are so many pros and cons to each path. Its a hard decision! Any tips or thoughts or advice from you out there would be very much welcome...
Last item of note. Keary and I are working together on making a cover for PN. I am really liking it. If anything, it will work as an awesome place holder for PN, if a different cover ever comes into existence. Once we fix a few things on it, I will post it here for you all to see. Most likely during a WIP day, of course!
Now, get back to your own WIP!
Comments
Obviously Hocking has been very successful with her e-books and she has an interesting model. She prices her e-books quite low so more people can afford them. The low price creates added interest because many are willing to give something a shot for $1.99 as opposed to $14.99. That can work if you have a ton of interest, but not all authors do.
If you go the agent route, I highly suggest becoming familiar with www.queryshark.blogspot.com. She attacks query letters and points out the good, bad and ugly. On the sidebar there is a link to what works if you want to cut to the chase.
Another great editor blog is editorial anonymous. Lots of great ideas on what NOT to do when submitting your MS.
Good luck!
I would go the agent route first off, and see what comes of it.