All About Proposals--the Book Kind

A publisher recently asked my agent to have me send them pitches for six of my ideas for future books. A pitch is when you write one or two short paragraphs describing your story idea so that a publisher can decide if they are interested or not. This publisher came back asking for proposals for not just one, but TWO of them. Of course, neither of these stories happened to be one of the four I was already actively working on. Which means I have to start from scratch. Beginning a new story is always exciting--but oh so much more work than you could possibly imagine. And now I have two stories to write proposals for. A proposal, in case you were wondering, is several pages of description of the complete plot of the story, character descriptions of each and every character that makes an appearance in the book, as well as the first three to four finished chapters of the book. I've got a lot of work ahead of me, but it will all be worth it, if the publisher likes what they see in my proposals. One of these books is a brand new story I came up with just recently, so I've never mentioned it on this blog before. The other is a story I did mention on this blog once--but I'm not going to say anymore about it at this time. (This particular publisher likes to keep their future stories under wraps.) But if you read through all my older posts, you could get a hint of what might be coming soon. Wish me luck and keep your fingers crossed!

The Deal with Sequels

So I have some bad news regarding the Forbidden Sea sequel. My publisher has decided they are not going to publish the sequel at this time. The reason for this is that sequels always make less money than a first book. So even though a first book might sell pretty well, the only way a publisher will want a sequel to that book is if it does REALLY well--as opposed to pretty well. Forbidden Sea did well enough for them to want to see other books by me, but not well enough for them to want to publish the sequel. However, if one of the other manuscripts I'm writing were to get accepted for publication and do REALLY well in sales, eventually, they might be interested in the sequel.  But not right now. The good news is that one of my other manuscripts is currently in submission to a publisher right at this moment. Will they want to publish it? I won't know that for a while yet. It takes time for publishers to make up their minds. Way too much time. We authors have to learn patience. So keep your fingers crossed for me and I'll keep writing away on all the other stories I'm currently working on. That way I have something ready to go out next--just in case.

The Curse

Okay, it's official. I'm cursed. I wrote on this blog once before about how a certain Chapter Seventeen was giving me all sorts of grief. It took way too many revisions for me to count in order to make that chapter finally behave itself. But as I worked on the story--moving chapters around, combining some chapters, getting rid of some all together--chapter seventeen stopped being chapter seventeen long ago. It has a whole new number now and I really like the way it finally came out in the end. But I still shudder when I think about what it took to get there. So today I began the struggle all over again, with a brand new chapter that won't behave. This one is every bit as bad as the other, maybe even worse. I can see there are weeks of hard work ahead of me to figure out how to make it behave. So why am I writing about this? I just went to write the chapter number for this new troublesome chapter.  It is Chapter Seventeen.

*Cue Twilight Zone music*

Waiting for a Nibble

Publishing is a lot like fishing on a lake. You cast out your manuscript and sit there just waiting for a publishing fish to bite. Only in publishing, the wait can sometimes be years. It took two years for Scholastic to finally get back and make me an offer for Forbidden Sea. The waiting game is not fun--but it is a necessary evil that all authors must learn to live with. I have just finished a new book proposal and my agent is now beginning to make the rounds by sending it to all the publishers on her list. I  have lots of other manuscripts to work on in the mean time, but I always feel tense when the waiting begins all over again. I think this particular manuscript has a real chance to get published--but for now, I have to wait. : (

Less is More

One of the hardest things for an author is figuring out how to cut down a manuscript to the right length. When I write a rough draft, I like to put everything in including the kitchen sink. All those lovely ideas I just want so bad to write, I get them all in whether they fit or not. This is the fun part for me as an author. Getting to write all the exciting stuff without worrying about how it fits together or if it is slowing down the plot. But then comes the time of reckoning. Revisions. This is when I have to go through a story and brutally cut out anything that is not important to the main plot of the story. A normal young adult length novel can be anywhere from 50,000 to 80,000 words long. (Only insanely popular authors like J. K. Rowling get to break this rule.) One of the manuscripts I am currently working on at the moment is at 127,000 words long. You can see that some major surgery has to take place before I can submit the manuscript to a publisher. You have no idea how hard it is to choose what gets cut out and what doesn't. So many beautiful, touching, and hilarious little details have to go. Only the very best may stay. It can be a little bit daunting. But in the end, it is always worth it!

Haunted Dolls

 

What you are looking at is a doll in progress. A haunted doll. Sort of. I've been working on a story with haunted dolls in it. And I am attempting to recreate one of the dolls in my story as research.  A friend of mine, who sews, is creating an authentic Victorian wedding suit to go on the doll for when he is complete. It's coming along quite beautifully, don't you think? She did extensive research into Victorian wedding attire to get it just right. Eventually, I will sculpt a face, hands and feet for him out of clay. But for now, he's just got a suit. A very handsome one though. The exciting part is that he's turning out, just as I pictured him in the story. Which is great--unless he  turns out to be haunted, like the doll in my story.  

(o_O) 

Let's pretend I didn't say that.

Illustrating Again!

I currently have four manuscripts in the works. Two of which are pretty close to being ready for submission. One of those is a manuscript with illustrations! It has been so long since I got to do any illustrating--especially for one of my own stories. The worst part is all of these drawings have to be done in different styles--something I have never tried before. Each character draws differently, you see.

It is nowhere as easy as it looks to draw in manga style when you've never done it before, believe me! The sketch of the kid above is one of the characters for this new story. The characters below are from the same story just in different styles of drawing. They are all three drawn by me of course. What can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment.



One of the other manuscripts I'm working on has centaurs in it. I've always wanted to write a centaur book! There just aren't any good ones out there at the moment. Hopefully there soon will be--if my story gets published!