The Process
As many of you know, I found a publisher, Black Rose Writing out of Texas. They will be putting out the first book in my fantasy series in Fall 2017!
This is a project that I've been working on since 2009, back when I began what will now be book #2. I fiddled with it and improved it some for a few years until deciding that a prequel was needed. I don't know if it's needed for readers, but I needed to write it. I wanted to get to know the main character and I felt like I needed to step back in time and investigate his past to understand who he was. When I began that journey I soon realized there was a potential book there. So, I pushed the old book to the back burner and began with a new "first" book, which I'm calling Beyond Barlow.
I finished Beyond Barlow a couple years ago and I could have chucked it out there as a self-published book, but I wanted to see if it had the goods to pass a publishing house's muster. Without an agent or much of a track record, I aimed for the medium to small houses and finally latched on to Black Rose, who has been in the business for over ten years now.
I'm glad I didn't push Beyond Barlow out when it was first finished. The past two years has given me ample time to improve upon it and catch my MANY grammatical eras...j/k. No, but seriously, I'm terrible with that stuff. I and a number of others have made approximately a dozen passes over the thing and I'm sure there are still errors. I hate mistakes and would continue to correct the manuscript forever, but I'm learning when to let go.
This process has also been good for the original "book #1". Man oh man, am I glad I didn't rush to publish that one! Recently I went back over it and, although the writing was adequate, it was not exciting in the least. The plot needed work, too. I think when all is said and done it's going to be so much better. With the little I've done to it so far, I've turned a ho-hum adventure into a suspenseful thriller. I don't know if I factor into Black Rose's future plans, but going through this process has made me confident that book #2 will have no trouble finding a home.
This is a project that I've been working on since 2009, back when I began what will now be book #2. I fiddled with it and improved it some for a few years until deciding that a prequel was needed. I don't know if it's needed for readers, but I needed to write it. I wanted to get to know the main character and I felt like I needed to step back in time and investigate his past to understand who he was. When I began that journey I soon realized there was a potential book there. So, I pushed the old book to the back burner and began with a new "first" book, which I'm calling Beyond Barlow.
I finished Beyond Barlow a couple years ago and I could have chucked it out there as a self-published book, but I wanted to see if it had the goods to pass a publishing house's muster. Without an agent or much of a track record, I aimed for the medium to small houses and finally latched on to Black Rose, who has been in the business for over ten years now.
I'm glad I didn't push Beyond Barlow out when it was first finished. The past two years has given me ample time to improve upon it and catch my MANY grammatical eras...j/k. No, but seriously, I'm terrible with that stuff. I and a number of others have made approximately a dozen passes over the thing and I'm sure there are still errors. I hate mistakes and would continue to correct the manuscript forever, but I'm learning when to let go.
This process has also been good for the original "book #1". Man oh man, am I glad I didn't rush to publish that one! Recently I went back over it and, although the writing was adequate, it was not exciting in the least. The plot needed work, too. I think when all is said and done it's going to be so much better. With the little I've done to it so far, I've turned a ho-hum adventure into a suspenseful thriller. I don't know if I factor into Black Rose's future plans, but going through this process has made me confident that book #2 will have no trouble finding a home.
No comments have been added yet.
