Susabelle Kelmer's Blog, page 8

Uncomfortable Editing

Most editing recommendations from the publisher are straightforward.  Change this, tighten up that, change this description or fix this weird wording.  I get through all of those edits pretty easily, even the ones where I need to rewrite large sections.

But it reaches a whole new level of weirdness when the editor makes changes in the intimate scenes.  At the time, I edited appropriately and moved on, but later, I kept thinking, “it’s really weird when your editor suggests changes in a sex scene.”  The sex scenes are easy enough to write, and the fix she recommended needed to happen, but still.  Because I’m an American woman of a certain age, sex is still one of those things you don’t really talk about.  Or, you talk about it with plenty of euphemisms or descriptive language.

So, editing the sex scene at the request of the editor was kind of uncomfortable.  It shouldn’t have been, of course.  But it was.  I guess it never occurred to me that I would need to edit those scenes just like I would need to edit the rest of the book.

So far, however, those edits have been small, and more a matter of being clear about who was touching who at the beginning of the scene.  Of course, I’d read that scene a hundred times when I was editing and didn’t catch the confusion.  But that’s why I have an editor, right?

Still.  Most uncomfortable editing notes ever!

Edits, Round Two

The second round of edits for Fairest of the Faire were received from my editor at the publisher, and they were a bit more daunting.  All of the piddly stuff that was mostly style-sheet related, or me using some filtering words, has been dealt with in the first round.  The second round gets into more nitty-gritty stuff.  Namely, my ability to overload any good novel with a bunch of useless back story.

Now, I’m not saying back story is never important, but long, detailed back story is just boring and no one wants to read it.  That is especially true in my genre – contemporary romance.  The story needs to be fairly quick-paced, and get to the meat of the situation pretty quickly.

So, it was chop, lop, and shred on the first chapter of the novel, which was almost completely boring backstory.  The edited chapter (rewritten, actually) is much tighter, but also a bit more “action-y.”  Yes, I just made that word up.  But what it needed was more action, less back story, less boring.  I think the rewrite is good.  We’ll see what the editor thinks of it.

In the meantime, I’m working on my next novel.  I’m writing consistently, although I need to write more than a couple days a week if I expect to have a rough draft done by the end of February.  I learned from the first novel, and have plenty of action in my first chapter, with very little back story.  I think the story is actually coming along pretty well, and faster than some of my other attempts over the years.  We’ll see if there’s really enough to build a story from, but so far, it’s looking good.

My next round of edits should come back from the editor in mid-February or sooner.  The editor thinks there won’t be but one more edit, making the total 3.  I can live with that.  With any luck, then, my book will be in print by the end of the year.

Yes, that’s a looooong time away, but that gives me time to get novel two ready to be submitted.  I need to have another one ready to go, or already in the editing process, by the time the first one comes out.  The key to being successful is to be putting out new novels in regular intervals.  Novel two does not have a title yet, and hopefully something occurs to me shortly.  It took two years for Fairest of the Faire to get a title.  I don’t have two years for this one!

Editing Editing Editing!

I received the edits from the editor at my publisher about a week before Christmas.  I promptly got the flu, and a week later pneumonia.

I was originally supposed to have edits done with 10 days (according to my contract), but my editor, without knowing I was sick, said she didn’t expect the edits back until January.  Whew.  I am glad to have had the extra time.  The holidays were a whirlwind here, as my husband was coming home after working in Chicago for the last seven weeks, and with my girls and all their holiday busy-ness, and me with my holiday busy-ness.  Then there was all that napping I had to do, when I could, to heal up.  Oh, and I have that annoying day job thing.

I definitely appreciated the extra time to get the edits done.

My hard deadline to have them back to my editor is by Monday, January 5th.  I have almost completed the edits.  Maybe an additional couple of hours, and I will be satisfied that I addressed all of the things that needed to be addressed.  The vast majority of edits were style-sheet related, and all I had to do was accept the changes as I encountered them.  Only two sections needed re-writing to get rid of some “back story dumping.” The odd thing is that I knew these two sections were weak to begin with.  I knew already where my story was weak, and those were exactly the places that the editor pointed out.  This makes me feel good in many ways – the story is really good!  She thought it was good enough not to make too many suggestions of changes!  When does that ever happen??  I don’t know, but I’m thankful.

So, the edits progress, and I will return an edited manuscript to her by the time I go to bed Sunday night.  Then it will be a wait for the second round of edits, if there are any.

This thing is getting more real by the day!

In the meantime, I’m struggling to pin down an idea I can work on readily, so that a second manuscript can be in the works before this one goes to print.  I have some partial ideas, but nothing complete.  I need to figure that out, and soon!

It’s Official – I Am Under Contract!

It’s been a long couple of months waiting for the publisher to decide to publish Fairest of the Faire.  There was the initial submission, which I received a response to after a few weeks, saying that they were going to look at the manuscript.  That editor read it, and then passed it on to an independent reader for a second opinion.

The result was a contract in my email.  I’ve read it twice, signed it, and need to fill in some information for direct deposit and taxes, and then I am on my way.

There is still some editing to do – the editor will be sending me her requests shortly.  I will have 10 days to fix what she requests.  The publisher is taking care of cover art, and may be changing the title of the book as well.  I have to write an excerpt, a back cover blurb, and an author bio/information piece.  In other words, there is still writing to be done.  But I’ll get through it.

I can reveal more details later about publishing date, the name of the publisher, and other details.  I will be published in eBook and hard copy (print on demand).

And next, I need to write another book!  Can’t have Fairest of the Faire coming out, but not have anything waiting in the hopper!

In the meantime, I’m going to take some time to be awed by the whole thing.  Never in my life did I think this would happen to me.  Yes, I’ve worked hard, but being traditionally published is so difficult that most people who work hard never make it.  I am very blessed to have gotten to this point.

Now, back to work for me!

I Have No Nails Left to Bite

The publisher I submitted my manuscript to has decided he book needs to be read by an acquiring editor.  I got this news last week, and instantly did a dance around the house, like the crazy woman I am.  This means the initial read, probably a couple or three chapters, caught someone’s attention, and now someone has been assigned to take a closer look.

As the Internet kids say, “squee!”

Since I had the novel read by beta readers in March and April, and made some changes as suggested, I knew it was ready for prime time.  One of my friends called it a “sweet story.”  It is a sweet story, and it deserves to have a nice big reading audience!

They acquiring editor said that she will have an answer by October 30th.  That’s such a long time away, but in the meantime, I am consoling myself with the fact that the publisher wants to read it.  That is just phenomenal!

And in the meantime, in case this one sells, I need to have another one in the wings to offer.  I’m going to go back to Without a Net, make some extensive changes to the story line (mostly lopping off a lot of ancillary sub-plots), and get that one written.  I may do the bulk of the writing in November for National Novel Writing Month.  But leading up to that, I can get an outline written, get some character development completed, and write at least the opening two chapters.

And somehow, find some way to get rid of all this nervous “waiting” energy.

Biting My Nails

A little more than three years ago, before I lost my job and we moved to Colorado, I had been talking to a publisher about one of my novels.  They had asked to see the first three chapters of Without a Net.  Then my world crashed and I had to tell them that I was unable to follow through at that time.  It broke my heart to send that email, but my concerns at the time were much bigger – finding a job, moving my family across country, starting the new job, etc.

Three years, and I had not done any more not only with that particular novel, but in contacting that publisher again.  I was still writing, and I formed a writing group in my new town to keep me busy.  Day to day life has a way of passing by, and suddenly it isn’t months, it is years.

Last spring I dug out one of my more completed works and started putting some effort into getting it completed.  Fairest of the Faire is a romance set inside a Renaissance Fair, and in my mind, is one of the sweetest stories I’ve ever written.  I spent a month rewriting it and getting it where I wanted it, and in March I sent it out to be read by a group of 10 beta writers, one of whom is a professional editor.  I waited about 6 weeks, and got return comments from four people.  That was enough for me to work with, and I went back through the novel to make the suggested changes.

Then it sat.  I am paralyzed with the idea of trying to shop a finished manuscript around to potential publishers.  Yes, I know this means I’m not getting it published, and the worst they would do is say no, and blah blah blah.  But then I had a moment of clarity:  why not shop it back to the same publisher that had wanted to see Without a Net back in 2011?

I dug through my email and found the contact information, wrote a query, and sent it off.  I got a response the next day, asking to see the manuscript.  Of course,  I sent it to them immediately!  It has been two weeks, and I’ve been biting my nails.  Will they like it?  Will they want to publish it?

In the meantime, I need to keep myself busy.  Time to get back to Without a Net and get a decent story out of it.  I realized the other day that I’m allowing myself to be paralyzed by the size of the story I could tell about circus.  Back when I was teaching college students who were not native English speakers how to write essays, I always had to remind them to pare down their ideas, to make it something they could realistically work within a three-to-five-page assignment.  I need to take that same advice, and write a story that can fit in 90,000 words or less.

I know I can do it.  There’s no reason Without a Net can’t also be shopped to a publisher by the end of this year.

RomCon and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers

As I still sit and wait for all my beta readers to get back to me, I decided to go hunting for any local or at least within-my-state conferences I could attend.  A few years ago I looked at the Romance Writers of America conference, and it was just out of my my range financially.  I also had this nagging feeling at the back of my brain that I “wasn’t ready” for such a thing.  This particular convention is for those ready to publish.  It provides opportunities to meet with agents, sit in on some great workshops, and get to interact with published authors in my genre.

All for the low, low price of about $2.000.

I don’t exactly have that in my checkbook, and unless I sell a book, I never will.

So despite failed searches in the past, I let Google do is magic and immediately got a hit.  The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Gold Conference came up as a first hit, and it turns out it is nearby (Westminster, Colorado) and held the first weekend of September.  For a little over $300 ($550 total  if I want to stay at the hotel for two nights, which is tempting!), I can get a one-on-one with an agent, attend lots of different workshops, and I get breakfast, dinner on two nights, and a luncheon on Sunday.  I’ve not felt so excited about something like this before.  I can certainly afford to go, even if I don’t stay at the hotel.  I don’t have to register until end of July, which is good given the other conference I found that happens in June (more on that in a bit).  The RMFW is probably something I should join, as well.  Dues are low ($45 a year) and would give me access to monthly free workshops, as well as giving me a discount on the conference.

So about that other conference.  As it just so happens, as I was busy Googling, a friend of mine on facebook flipped me a message about another conference, this one put on by a group called RomCon.  Rom for romance…right up my alley.  In fact, probably closer to my alley than a general fiction conference.  And better yet – she was giving me information on getting admittance to their two day “University” for free.  FREE. The University event happens two days prior to the fan event, which is held over the weekend.  The University offers workshops on writing, selling, writing blurbs and queries, and potential meetings with agents and publishers.  This is an amazing opportunity, and would normally cost $200, but I am getting in for FREE.  Yes, I’ll have to take a couple of days off work, and I will have to drive to Denver two days in a row, but that’s fine.  It will be worth it.

So, one Google search and a friend’s suggestion, and I’ve found two conferences to attend in one year!  This is more awesome than any woman should have, don’t you think?

I’m excited, looking forward to attending both of them, and I’ve got a couple months to start working on my nerves and situational shyness.

The Waiting Game

Ten days ago, I sent my little novel off to some really great volunteer beta readers.  This is the email I sent:

Thank you for agreeing to be a beta reader of Fairest of the Faire. I wish this task came with lots of money and acclaim, but alas, I’m but a poor artist, and all I can give you is my eternal thanks and perpetual gratitude.  And if we end up in the same coffee shop together, I shall buy you a latte or chai or whatevers.

I would love to think that I will get nothing back but gasps of pleasure and exclamations of awe.  However, I’m a realist, and I wouldn’t be asking for beta readers if I didn’t think I needed them.  And definitely, I need them.  So here’s what I ask of you.

The book is not long, the genre is contemporary romance, and it is the kind of book I like reading.  It is just over 78,000 words, and in print would be about 220 pages or so. After you read it, it may not be your cup of tea.  But that doesn’t mean your comments won’t be helpful for me.  What I ask is to respond with:

1. What you loved

2. What you hated

3. Plot holes or anywhere I went off track miserably

4. Any characters you thought were not fully developed

5. Any characters that received too much air time and should be lopped or at least cut down

6. What you’d like to see more of

7. What you’d like to see less of

I’m looking for helpful, honest, constructive criticism.

I gave them a three-week deadline, and told myself not to expect anything for at least a week.  When I didn’t get anything after a week, I started to worry.  Which is silly.  These are people who are volunteering to do this for me.  They probably had other things they were already reading.  And they probably have other things to do, like sleeping and cleaning their houses and going to work and helping their kids with homework.  Kind of like me.  On day 8, I got my first response.  On day 9, I got my second.

And here I sit, waiting.

The good news is that the comments I’ve received so far have been encouraging.  “What a sweet story!”  I needed that.  The story is good, I know that, but it isn’t perfect.  But it’s not worse than some of the stuff I’ve read lately, and it’s not better than some of the better stuff I’ve read lately.  I have a few things to fix, but they are manageable.  I’m really looking forward to hearing from the other beta readers, for good or for bad.

And about the bad.  I’m going to have to figure out how to take the bad, how to grow a little extra skin so I can take it.  Otherwise, I’m going to let any negative comments drag me down.  I can’t let that happen.  My goal is to get this book published.  Can’t do that if I give up.