J.L. Block's Blog, page 3

What's holding me back!

The suspense is KILLING ME!!!

I was all ready to publish. I had the cover ready and the whole book formatted and then I recieved bad news.

A friend of mine had completed to original novel cover, but could not commit to the other two. Unfortunately that meant I couldn't use it as it wouldn't make sense to have two completely different style covers as part of a series.

I was really bummed out at first, but then I started to search for other people. I found so many talented artists on Deviant art. For anyone who doesn't know it is a website where artists display their work much like a blog is somewhere a writer can talk about their books.

I have someone in mind for the cover. We are in discussion at the moment, but I'll put up a link to her page once It's finalized. Her work is really good so I can't wait to share more information about her!

Anyway, that is what is holding me back, but I will persevere! If that means I have to wait even longer to get my book out I'll do it. I think there is something to be said for anyone game enough to make their dreams come true because It's a hard road and there is no easy way around getting what you want.

BETA: Slow but steady

As I mentioned in my last post, some of my close friends are BETA reading my book.
I was worried about it because only my mum and editor had read it. I felt my friends would judge it harsher. One reason is because I told them not to be nice and to tell me the truth.

In the end I received some amazing feedback. My younger sisters boyfriend told me he had put down a different book he was reading because he couldn’t wait to finish mine. To me that is probably one of the biggest complements I could receive as a writer. It came as a surprise because I didn’t know he was reading the book in the first place. I have to say I would have been quite annoyed at my sister for giving it to him if it weren't for that. I forgive her though, because she is my sister. 

In the end I’m happy that I had the opportunity to get some more feedback before I publish.

In my previous post I talked about sending my book to agents for queries. I sent it to about ten agents, but none were really interested. I figured as much. Agents get so much material and they have to say no to the majority. That’s the reality of publishing. I know that so I didn’t expect anything, and in the end I think I’m happy. Now I know that I will self publish and I won’t have to think about the ‘what if’ question. Getting rejected sucks majorly, but I think I queried in the right head space. It didn’t hurt as much as I expected because I know of many great authors who had been rejected multiple times before landing a deal or taking the self publishing route.

In the end it all boils down to what I want to do with my material. I could continue to try for a deal, but deep down I know that's not what I really want. All I really want is to share my book with people. If publishers won’t do it I’ll do it myself. I don’t care if only a handful of people read it I will be content knowing that I could share it with whoever comes across it.

I can't tell you how close I am everyone! The Keepers is coming in January 2013. I'll certainly be posting about it when it does!

The Keepers: More to come!!!

It’s in it’s final stages!! The Keepers is about to be submitted for queries!!

I debated for months, unknowing as to what my decision would be, but I thought why not at least try and query? If no one wants to publish my book then I’ll do it myself.
These days that option is quite valid.
Even if someone does want to publish my book.... I may decide I want to self publish in the end.
Who knows.... I can’t predict the future!

On a side note now it the time for what I like to call BETA readers. a few of my close friends will read it and I will go from there.

Let’s hope that all goes well for the Keepers!! I want nothing more than to share it with the world!