Dang it. Dang it. DANG IT! I miss this post every month. Gyah.
October was another submission heavy month, with lots of responses (OK, rejections) coming back from agents. It was good to hear back from some of the submissions I sent a few months ago and get those cleared off the list. Any progress is good progress!
Writing wise, I'm finally starting to get into Grey Sister's sequel. So far I've got 15k+ words, which is slower progress than I'm used to, but I have a better idea of where I'm going next which it good.
I decided not to go in for NaNoWriMo again this year. I have so many other things I need to be concentrating on (cough, real world job, cough) that I just can't dedicate that much time to writing at the moment. And anyway: who put NaNo so close to Christmas?! When would I have time to start my seasonal crafting?
I'm hoping to send out plenty more submissions in November and try and get some more headway on The Sequel.
Monday, 3 November 2014
Wednesday, 29 October 2014
Rejection #9
Date Submitted: 28th September 2014
Date Rejected: 28th October 2014
Response Time: 1 month
Response Type: Form, no further request.
Date Rejected: 28th October 2014
Response Time: 1 month
Response Type: Form, no further request.
***
"Many thanks for sending us the material for GREY SISTER but I'm afraid that we are going to pass."
Is it just me, or is that kind of a harsh way to say no?
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
A Book Related Video...
I'm trying out some Booktubing over on my Youtube channel. Here's the Creatures of the Night TAG, with lots of lovely fantasy recommendations...
Check out Katytastic (the creator of the TAG).
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Get the Books!
Currently Reading - Storm Glass by Maria V Snyder
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
The Ill-Made Mute by Cecilia Dart-Thornton
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
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Music from Youtube Music Archives.
Check out Katytastic (the creator of the TAG).
---
Get the Books!
Currently Reading - Storm Glass by Maria V Snyder
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
The Ill-Made Mute by Cecilia Dart-Thornton
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
---
Music from Youtube Music Archives.
Friday, 17 October 2014
Rejection #8
Date Submitted: 1st July 2014
Date Rejected: 14th October 2014
Response Time: 14 weeks (approx 3 1/2 months)
Form for Response: Form letter, no further request.
Another pre-recent edits rejection. Not a big surprise, especially as this was a big name agency. They did apologise for the late reply, which was very considerate.
Date Rejected: 14th October 2014
Response Time: 14 weeks (approx 3 1/2 months)
Form for Response: Form letter, no further request.
***
Another pre-recent edits rejection. Not a big surprise, especially as this was a big name agency. They did apologise for the late reply, which was very considerate.
Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Rejection #7
Date Submitted: 29th September 2014
Date Rejected: 7th October 2014
Response Time: 5 working days
Form for Response: Form letter, no further request.
Given that this was a snail-mail submission and that the response came back in less than a week, I have the sneaking suspicion that I did something wrong in my submission... poop.
Nevertheless, the fact that the person who emailed me forgot change the name of the novel when she copied and pasted the form letter, suggests perhaps its not too much of a loss.
To whoever wrote 'Lloyd's Book of Humour': I'm sorry they didn't like your book either. Perhaps we could form a support group?
Date Rejected: 7th October 2014
Response Time: 5 working days
Form for Response: Form letter, no further request.
***
Nevertheless, the fact that the person who emailed me forgot change the name of the novel when she copied and pasted the form letter, suggests perhaps its not too much of a loss.
To whoever wrote 'Lloyd's Book of Humour': I'm sorry they didn't like your book either. Perhaps we could form a support group?
Rejection #6
Date Submitted: 14th May 2014
Date Rejected: 7th August 2014
Response Time: 12 weeks (approx. 3 months)
Form for Response: Brief email (form possibly)
Argh! How did I forget to blog this one? Much grovelling and many apologies.
Possibly it has to do with my actually really wanting this agency to like me...
Anyway, I received a brief email from this (very small) agency quite some time after submitting. Although it seemed pre-composed, it did include statements like, "You're clearly very talented", and that the work had "an intriguing premise". I'd like to flatter myself that not every submission hears that! Ha ha. Such a big head I have!
Date Rejected: 7th August 2014
Response Time: 12 weeks (approx. 3 months)
Form for Response: Brief email (form possibly)
***
Argh! How did I forget to blog this one? Much grovelling and many apologies.
Anyway, I received a brief email from this (very small) agency quite some time after submitting. Although it seemed pre-composed, it did include statements like, "You're clearly very talented", and that the work had "an intriguing premise". I'd like to flatter myself that not every submission hears that! Ha ha. Such a big head I have!
Sunday, 5 October 2014
Thursday, 2 October 2014
End of September Update...
Dang it! I missed the end of the month again! Flump nuggets. Sorry.
September was busy with re-re-re-editing (what draft am I even on now? It feels like a three digit figure...) the opening chapters of 'Grey Sister'. I'm really happy with how it all turned out and I really think it's made some big improvements to the opening of the book.
In the past week I've been back to Agent Hunting and I've sent out four submissions. Now I cower behind the sofa cushions while I wait for replies. Yay.
I'm thinking (very, VERY tentatively) about doing NANOWRIMO this year. If I do I think I'd like to try out a new idea, rather than continue with Thea's story. It seems like a good opportunity to start a different project and get a big chunk done all at once. I don't know.... Has anyone else done NANO before? How did you find it?
As for now, I'm off to be rubbed and pampered at a spa break with my Mama Dearest. How decadent!
September was busy with re-re-re-editing (what draft am I even on now? It feels like a three digit figure...) the opening chapters of 'Grey Sister'. I'm really happy with how it all turned out and I really think it's made some big improvements to the opening of the book.
In the past week I've been back to Agent Hunting and I've sent out four submissions. Now I cower behind the sofa cushions while I wait for replies. Yay.
I'm thinking (very, VERY tentatively) about doing NANOWRIMO this year. If I do I think I'd like to try out a new idea, rather than continue with Thea's story. It seems like a good opportunity to start a different project and get a big chunk done all at once. I don't know.... Has anyone else done NANO before? How did you find it?
As for now, I'm off to be rubbed and pampered at a spa break with my Mama Dearest. How decadent!
Saturday, 6 September 2014
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
End of August Update...
Ooops! How is it already the 2nd of September? Completely missed the end of last month: sorry!
August has been a not-very-nice month. As I mentioned last month, I'm trying to find a new day job. If you follow me on tumblr, you'll have seen how well that's been going. Oh dear.
I've also decided, following the feedback I received from an agent recently, to completely restructure my opening chapters. Huzzah and hurray! More editing! The actual feedback I received didn't say anything about being so dramatic, though she did suggest I look at the pacing in the opening. But it's something I've been thinking about for a while. I'll try and write a bigger post about it all soon, but the short answer is I've been unsure about the opening for a while. To be honest, I ignored a lot of the big writing no-nos (no flashbacks, no long and meandering growing-up scenes, etc, etc...) and I've been trying to justify why I've kept them for a long time.
Now I've actually started, the restructuring isn't so scary as I thought. I'm trying to keep all the information the same, but change the way its told. So it's more a matter of rearranging than rewriting, which makes things a little less daunting.
I'm STILL not writing much (Ok, any) new stuff. It's frustrating, but I feel like I've been working towards too many other things this month to feel too guilty about it. Hopefully I can get this work done on the opening of 'Grey Sister' soon and then I can get back to submitting to agents and maybe even working on The Sequel...
(P.S Did anyone see my recent Youtube debut? Eeek!)
August has been a not-very-nice month. As I mentioned last month, I'm trying to find a new day job. If you follow me on tumblr, you'll have seen how well that's been going. Oh dear.
I've also decided, following the feedback I received from an agent recently, to completely restructure my opening chapters. Huzzah and hurray! More editing! The actual feedback I received didn't say anything about being so dramatic, though she did suggest I look at the pacing in the opening. But it's something I've been thinking about for a while. I'll try and write a bigger post about it all soon, but the short answer is I've been unsure about the opening for a while. To be honest, I ignored a lot of the big writing no-nos (no flashbacks, no long and meandering growing-up scenes, etc, etc...) and I've been trying to justify why I've kept them for a long time.
Now I've actually started, the restructuring isn't so scary as I thought. I'm trying to keep all the information the same, but change the way its told. So it's more a matter of rearranging than rewriting, which makes things a little less daunting.
I'm STILL not writing much (Ok, any) new stuff. It's frustrating, but I feel like I've been working towards too many other things this month to feel too guilty about it. Hopefully I can get this work done on the opening of 'Grey Sister' soon and then I can get back to submitting to agents and maybe even working on The Sequel...
(P.S Did anyone see my recent Youtube debut? Eeek!)
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