Patricia Hamill's Blog: I read too much! - Posts Tagged "publishing"

Welcome to my blog.
I decided to start this blog to celebrate my favorite pastime, reading, and more recently, writing.

This year has been an uncommon one for me in that I've managed to totally immerse myself in the art, starting in January when I finally wrapped up my first writing project, The Golden Ship, and first considered the prospect of getting it published.

Getting published: a daunting task. What do publishers want? They want you to have an agent. Yikes, an agent? Yes, I researched it for months on Writers Digest and on various publishers' webpages. All signs pointed to an agent. Statements like, we no longer accept direct submissions, were common. So, I started researching ways to attract an agent.

What do agents want? To find out, I joined Writers Digest and started collecting notes on the new agents they advertise. New agents are an excellent opportunity for new writers, so they said. I also visited and devoted countless hours to reading the blogs of a few well established agents. My favorite was Getting past the gatekeeper. It revealed valuable insight into what agents like and things to avoid. Plus, I learned about query letters, bios, and submissions for the first time.

This was getting complicated.

Circular references are when you define a word with itself. Why do I mention this with regard to agents? Let me explain.

My research in January quickly branched off into a process of finding and sorting through various agents and what they were looking for. Before I began I was under the impression that an agent was a magical person who would champion my book to the publishers, land me book deals, arrange for signings and readings, etc. Shortly afterwards, I realized that my guess was off a bit.

First of all, marketing. I discovered that agents were most interested in authors who already had a good grasp of marketing their own works, had blogs, had followers and fans. Basically, agents want someone who will champion themselves.

Second, published works. Sure agents are the go betweens between authors and the publishing houses, but I learned that they are most interested in prolific writers. This means that agents want to represent authors who are already published and who are churning out quality books at a good rate.

I can see how that would be attractive, but here I am with one book under my belt and no presence. Hence the circular reference, in order to get published, I would have to have an agent; in order to attract an agent, I would have to be published and established (with some sort of following).

Hmm, now what?

So this week, I just wrapped up The First Swords, by Fred Saberhagen, fun stories I haven't read in over 10 years. Did I mention they are also huge? That's a big plus for me, because I usually devour books in a day or two.

This year I've been reading 2-3 books at a time, on average, plus writing 1-2 at a time. If it sounds exhausting, you're right, but it's worth it. I've had a lot of fun and now I have two books out there for people to enjoy.

I'm working on my third now, another completely unrelated story told from the perspective of a survivor in the zombie apocalypse, but don't worry, the sequel to Shadows of Valor is still in the works, about 25% done and I'm anticipating rolling it out in April 2013.

So, just to solidify that I do, in fact, read too much, in December and early January when I was wrapping up The Golden Ship , I was finishing up Terry Goodkind's awesome epic fantasy The Sword of Truth series for the 3rd or 4th time, starting up the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon is the first in that series) by Christopher Paolini, and starting up Robert Jordan's and Brandon Sanderson's Wheel of Time series for the 5th or 6th time (or maybe more, I re-read the whole thing every time a new one comes out).

In January, I also started writing Shadows of Valor (This of course was part of my quest to attract an agent by becoming a prolific writer).

By the time I was wrapping up The Wheel of Time again around March, I started on the Death's Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (probably also about the 5th or 6th time) and I finished up that 7 book series right about when I hit a stopping point on Shadows of Valor (including the first few chapters of the next volume) and began the process of final edits for The Golden Ship.

That's also about the time I got my first tablet and started the downward spiral into the reading frenzy it enabled. Let's see, since August, I've read the following:
The Morcyth Saga by Brian S. Pratt (7 books), The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan, Shadows of the Sun, Soul Stalker and Abyss by Laura Kreitzer, Storm Front (Dresden Files #1) by Jim Butcher, Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks, and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. That's 17 books from August to mid October, assuming I didn't forget to include any.

So, as you can see, I read too much. But that hasn't stopped me from writing, playing, working, and getting published.

More on that last one later...

Last time I detoured into a quick tally of all the books I devoured this year. This time, let's go back to where I left off.

I had come up with a few easy (read short cut) steps and worked up the courage to send a query letter to an agent. The response was swift and decisive. Either my book or my pitch was lacking. So, back to the drawing board I went.

First off, I needed to come up with some more realistic steps for attracting an agent, steps based on actual research. So here is the revised plan I came up with:

1. Write another book (or books).

2. Get published, somehow.

3. Earn a following.

4. Start a blog.

This list wasn't quite as simple as the first one, but each goal, simple or not, was a worthy accomplishment in its own right.

Maybe I wouldn't attract an agent or write the next big best seller, but what I would gain would be worth the effort. Now, all I had to do was get started.

First up, new book...

My plans for attracting an author include: 1) writing more books, 2) getting those books published, 3) gaining followers, and 4) writing a blog.

I can say I have made quite a bit of progress since I first thought up my plan to attract an agent.

I've completed one book, drafted another and am working on the draft for a third. All these in addition to The Golden Ship, the book that first made me consider getting an agent. Shadows of Valor is, of course, already published and I've mentioned it in a few posts already. The Zombie Logs is a draft ready for editing and revision. Finally, the as of yet unnamed Shadows of Valor #2 is in progress, perhaps about 80% complete (give or take depending on where the story takes me). So, that's one.

Two, I finally went with self-publishing on Amazon, to which I will probably devote more time in future posts. You can find my books there and read the first few chapters or pages of each. My next foray into self-publishing will be to look into other distribution paths for The Golden Ship. We'll see how that goes.

Three, gaining followers is a work in progress as well. So far I've got about five fans on Facebook (look for Patricia Hamill (author) to join their ranks) and two on Goodreads. I've also managed to earn at least one fan at work and another through her. I don't know whether I should name names, but I want to say that it is absolutely awesome when someone reads your work and tells you how much they enjoy it. It's also a great feeling as a writer when they describe how the story made them feel and what they hoped would happen as they progress through the story. I'm incredibly thankful to everyone who takes the time to give my stories a chance.

Four, writing a blog, well, that's what this is isn't it? I'm enjoying posting my thoughts and am hoping those of you who find this are enjoying them as well. I'm trying to post every four to five days with reviews sprinkled in here and there for good measure. Blogging may also help with number three, but even if it doesn't, it is worth it.

As I work towards completing all four of my goals, I realize that I'll probably never really be done with any of them. Another story will always be waiting to be written. Those that turn out good, I'll get published. As I get better at writing, publishing, and marketing, more people will discover my work (and hopefully become fans), and as that happens more of those may discover my blog.

So here's to progress. Hey, I might even send out a few more query letters.

Although I don't usually write New Years Resolutions, I will make an exception this year. So, here they are:

1. Finish editing The Zombie Logs (whatever title it ends up having).
2. Finish Shadows of Valor #2 (draft).
3. Approach at least four bookstores to ask them to carry one or both of my books.
4. Send at least four query letters to agents for my self-published and/or unpublished books.
5. Review at least two independently published books per month.
6. Post to my blog at least once per week (including review posts, but with at least one per month being a non-review post).
7. Remain an active participant in the message boards on CreateSpace and KDP.
8. Remain an active participant in at least one Group on Goodreads.
9. Draft notes for a sequel to The Golden Ship.
10. Write a sequel to The Golden Ship (draft) for NaNoWriMo 2013.

Well, there you go. I think that'll keep me busy for some time. Wish me luck!

Continue Reading...

Shadows of Valor is complete! Yeah, I know my last post was about this, too, but I'm still excited about it. Even more so now, because I just received my first review for Fight for Valor on the Michaelscifan blog.

You know, it's very scary putting out a book. But what's even more scary is putting out the final book in a series or trilogy. There's this overbearing feeling of potential failure, that people will be disappointed, that as an author you'll drop the ball. I've seen this happen with other trilogies. I spent much longer finishing and then editing this one than with any other. I redesigned all the kindle covers so that they had a common feel but were distinct from each other. I read this thing from front to back more than a dozen times, to check for errors, to gage the flow, to confirm, at least to myself, that the story was fun to read and interesting. Finally, I took some deep breaths and hit publish.

And then I waited. I posted some links and put half of my books on sale in celebration. I asked for reviews from just a couple of folks who liked the first two books. And last night, late, I saw the first review. I feel like that one person reading and loving my book has made it all worth it.

Will everyone love it? Probably not. But I know one person did, and that just makes my day.