Real Publishing (part 2)
LESSONS LEARNED
1. Just when you think you're finally ready to send out a manuscript, you will discover a book that tells you how to REALLY submit your work. Make time for a fifth draft.
2. Outline the plot, then write the story, then outline what you've written. Maybe it's just me, but the chapter-by-chapter outline that nobody ever asks to see made the story much more cohesive.
3. Turn change tracking OFF before you build a .MOBI file.
4. Pay someone to read your entire book to you out loud. Friends and family will do this for free and they'll do it wrong. I pay $0.50 a page, plus dinner. About all you can tolerate is fifty or sixty pages at a sitting, so plan to take a week or two. Swear your reader to secrecy, have the TV turned off, and remember that the spouses will want to sit in the same room and gossip loudly. Kick 'em out!
5. Pay your taxes before you send anything out to Kirkus or an editor. Then when you see how much it's going to cost, you won't panic.
6. If you use money you got from Mommy, Daddy, Sugardaddy, or Spouse, you should be able to hire the best help in the world to clean up the plot, polish the storyline, ghost write, illustrate, format, put your name on it and take an agent or publisher to lunch. If you do this, we will talk about you behind your back.
Jon
1. Just when you think you're finally ready to send out a manuscript, you will discover a book that tells you how to REALLY submit your work. Make time for a fifth draft.
2. Outline the plot, then write the story, then outline what you've written. Maybe it's just me, but the chapter-by-chapter outline that nobody ever asks to see made the story much more cohesive.
3. Turn change tracking OFF before you build a .MOBI file.
4. Pay someone to read your entire book to you out loud. Friends and family will do this for free and they'll do it wrong. I pay $0.50 a page, plus dinner. About all you can tolerate is fifty or sixty pages at a sitting, so plan to take a week or two. Swear your reader to secrecy, have the TV turned off, and remember that the spouses will want to sit in the same room and gossip loudly. Kick 'em out!
5. Pay your taxes before you send anything out to Kirkus or an editor. Then when you see how much it's going to cost, you won't panic.
6. If you use money you got from Mommy, Daddy, Sugardaddy, or Spouse, you should be able to hire the best help in the world to clean up the plot, polish the storyline, ghost write, illustrate, format, put your name on it and take an agent or publisher to lunch. If you do this, we will talk about you behind your back.
Jon
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