Well, I didn't get any writing done today despite having the day off work due to SNOW--yes, more snow, it's crazy!--and I didn't get any writing done yesterday or Saturday either.
On the other hand, the Bell-Men edits are done.
Yup, that's what I did this weekend, starting Friday night. I read over Bell-Men with a careful, critical eye, fixing anything that struck me as awkward or off. I also made sure the chapters were all about the same length and numbered consecutively, and that I hadn't accidentally changed anyone's name halfway through. I had originally intended to cut at least 10,000 words and I probably could if I had to, but the story doesn't seem padded and every scene I'd thought about cutting actually contributes to the plot. I only ended up trimming about 500 words, which makes the final wordcount a stupendous 124,500 words. Now, of course, I need to write the query and synopsis--ugh ugh ugh.
I think the book's good. Whether it'll interest an agent I don't know, since obviously I haven't had any luck interesting agents in any of my books so far. Eventually I'm going to run out of legitimate agents to query, too, since once an agent has said no to one project, I don't typically query about another project. When I do find an agent, I want him or her to represent all my books, not just the one that interested them initially. If they've already said no to one book, they're off my list.
I suspect I won't get an agent until I've sold a book to a big publisher, which means I probably won't get an agent until, oh, 2015 or so.
8 comments:
You're like a writing machine, KC. (*he says with envy*) Eventually one of your works will catch the eye of an agent (and then perhaps they will be interested in the other stuff that's gathering dust).
I hope so! And I'm not really a writing machine, considering I haven't written a short story since last September and I've only chipped off about 18,000 words on the romance novel in two weeks.
That would be a short story, 18000 and a full manuscript edit more than I've done in recent memory.
Just a question - would you consider allowing the same guys who published Jack to do one or more of your current ready-to-go projects? Maybe if you got one or two out there, it would be picked up for a second version by a publisher and then the agent would follow...
Just a thought.
124?? I aspire to anywhere close to 100. How I long to have your swift writing hand!
BT--But you've been editing an anthology, which is far more work all put together than anything I've been doing.
I don't know if CWP would be interested in publishing any of my other stuff, frankly. It's a little bit outside their interest range. I'm shopping The Weredeer and Evil Outfitters to small publishers right now, though. *heavy sigh*
Natalie--I'm actually not sure how that one got to be such a long manuscript and I'm still not sure I'm happy with it. It feels self-indulgent to write so much on one project.
Good luck with the agent hunt. With my 2 MG books I queried so many agents there'd be none left if I struck them off the list.
I'm not afraid of querying an agent for more than one project. I have no shame.
And my unpublished books...
yikes.
(I have to read Bell-Men. Just letting you know.)
Cate--I'm sort of in that boat from my last round of agent-hunting for The Taste of Magic.
Aaron--I dunno if you'd like Bell-Men. I'm afraid to let anyone read it, anyway, not to mention the sex scenes that mean I don't want anyone I know to read it.
Maybe I should just bury it in the backyard.
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