STRATEGIES FOR PUBLISHING YOUR NOVEL

The Leap from Writer to Published Author

How do you make the leap from writer to published author? It takes more than talent and hard work. You'll need persistence, thick skin, and a plan to get your manuscript traditionally published. I'll give you my best advice. 

Write Your Best Story

Let's pretend you wrote an entire novel. ( If you did, wonderful!) Go ahead and release a long overdue sigh. Now take a deep breath because you have a lot more to do. So far, you finished a first draft. If you want, take a short break from working. Eventually, you must edit, edit, rewrite, and edit. 

What feels ready probably isn't. It might take ten edits or more before it's ready to share with professionals. Check your manuscript for plot holes. Does the story make sense? Get rid of every typographical error. Check for inaccurate tense issues and other problems. If you don't know where to start, read a craft book on the subject. I liked one titled Fix Your Damn Book! by Jame Osiris Baldwin. The book provides a no-nonesense method to make the process easier. 

Reading your story out loud helps to find missing words, duplicate words, or unneeded words with double meaning. Microsoft Word has a free download called Read Aloud. It's simple to use. Search your own files with it, and let the software read to you. It has helped me find mistakes in my own work. 

Print out the story and mark it up with a red pen. Go back to the file and make changes. Edit, edit, edit. Work on it until it is as good as you can make it. If you decide to self-publish instead of traditionally publish, you will need to hire an editor. Every writer needs an editor, even those with editing skills. 

The Query

After completing your masterpiece, give some thought to where to send it. If you want an agent, consider sending queries to seven agents at a time. Most of them have a full plate of stories, so they're picky. You must convince them your book will sell. Think of literary agents like book realtors. They help books find a publishing house.

Your query letter makes the first impression. Go to Query Shark at https://queryshark.blogspot.com/  if you need to see examples. Your cover letter must stand out from the crowd. If you can distill an interesting story into a few sentences, you can grab an agent's attention. 

Never send queries to random agents. Always research the agencies first. If their website says they want romance submissions, don’t email a letter describing a horror novel. After they receive it, they’ll tap the delete button, sending the file into the dreaded black hole.  

Give the recipients a few months to respond. No response means she has rejected the work or she’s swamped with submissions. If you don’t get an answer within twelve weeks, consider sending another seven. 

Direct Submissions

Some writers send submissions directly to publishers. That’s okay too. Sometimes writers can pitch to publishers at conferences. If they ask for the manuscript, you may get a contract offer. Fewer people are using agents these days. Small to medium presses have great editors that can help you publish a fantastic book. 

Follow Directions

Always read the publisher's or agent's submission guidelines before sending your query. They are busy people and will reject your work if you fail to follow their instructions. 

Never Give Up

While in the query trenches, write the next novel or a short story for a literary magazine. Sending a few to open call anthologies will improve chances for publication as well. Never give up. I recently signed a contract with The Wild Rose Press. Dreams really do come true, so don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t beat the odds.

10 Ways to Enjoy National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo)

Photo by Artem Kniaz on Unsplash

Writing Ideas for November

 

Fall swept in along with National Novel Writing Month.  Nanowrimo, a nonprofit organization, encourages writers to write 50,000 words in 30 days. 

As I blog, millions of fingers are tapping thousands of keyboards. I imagine people are typing like mad at their desks, on their sofas, or in their recliners. Some of them are sitting in coffee shops or in the park.  

What if you want to participate, but you feel like you

missed the boat? No worries. I have 10 ways to make 

this month productive.

1. Start writing late. Don’t worry about hitting the 50K word count. Consider 1,667 words a day, which is 50,000 divided by 30. Your word count will fall short of the Nanowrimo goal, but hey, you put in the effort. Here is the official Nanowrimo link if you want to check them out. https://nanowrimo.org/come-write-in 

2. Finish an old manuscript. Once upon a time, you loved the project. Maybe you can rekindle the desire.

3.  Go to a conference or take an online writing course. If money is tight, binge on free YouTube videos.

4. Research writing contests and prepare an entry.

5.  Start a new blog or prepare a post for an existing one.

6.  Revise an old manuscript that didn’t make the cut. Sometimes a rewrite does the trick.

7.  Write a nonfiction book on a topic dear to your heart.

8.  Write short stories or poetry 6 days a week. Spend 1 day a week submitting them to magazines.

9.   Spend November reading craft books or a novel that’s collecting dust on its jacket.

10.   Give your brain a rest and let it percolate. By December, your mind will brew a fresh story. Down time prevents burnout. If writing isn’t fun, you need a break.
 

REASONS TO READ

Make Me Time

Most people read books as children and when they became adults, not so much. For years, I was in that category. My busy job kept me at work twelve hours a day, six days a week. There wasn’t any more energy left in me after I drove home, cooked, cleaned, showered. My head hit the pillow and the sandman caught me, pulling me into dreamland.

The never-ending cycle of responsibilities sucked the time away. One day I decided to slow down. No one on their deathbed ever wished for another seventy-two hour work week.

The books were waiting, collecting dust on the shelves. If I didn’t start reading, I never would. Sight can’t be taken for granted either. Vision can fade away with the next birthday. I can make several arguments about why people should read.

1. Life is stressful. Stories are a diversion.

2. Reading keeps your brain fit and helps fight off dementia. Wilson RS. Boyle PA, Yu L, et al. Life-span cognitive activity, neuropathologic burden, and cognitive aging

Neurology. Published online July 3 2013.
http://n.neurology.org/content/81/4/314.short

3. Children and parents can bond and make life-time memories by reading together.

4. Books make us think, expand our vocabularies, entertain, and educate us.

5. If no one ever reads, writers might stop writing, depriving the world of brilliant stories.

My favorite books are the ones that make me forget I'm in a crowded airport or some other unpleasant place. Written words send me on a journey and become a movie in my mind. Try going on a mental adventure sometime. Pick up a good book, and you won't miss television or the commercials. 





http://n.neurology.org/content/81/4/314.short

HOW TO MAKE MINOR CHARACTERS SHINE

Photo by Ajay Zula on Unsplash

Give Minor Characters Five Minutes of Fame

Some writers give little thought about minor characters. They’re written into a scene to relay information so the main character has a link to move on to the next scene. Too often filler characters do clichéd things and add nothing to the story. When they’re written in this way, it’s a missed opportunity.

To avoid minimizing the minor characters, imagine that they want to be the star of the story as if the story is about them. Let them shine though their part is small. Minor characters can add interest to the scene by helping or hindering the protagonist. For example, in the story, Cinderella, the stepsisters have minor parts, but they are unforgettable. 

Here is the link to the original story by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm021.html It’s different from the Walt Disney version and is quite interesting.  Below is a piece of it illustrating how the stepsisters were irritants to Cinderella.

 "Why should that stupid goose sit in the parlor with us?" they said. "If she wants to eat bread, then she will have to earn it. Out with this kitchen maid!"

 They took her beautiful clothes away from her, dressed her in an old gray smock, and gave her wooden shoes. "Just look at the proud princess! How decked out she is!" they shouted and laughed as they led her into the kitchen.

Later, when the prince searched for Cinderella and presented the gold shoe to the stepsisters, one cut off her big toe to make it fit. The other sister chopped off her heel. This was a shocking surprise.

The birds were also minor characters. They were Cinderella’s allies. When the stepmother made her pick lentils from the ashes, the pigeons and turtledoves helped. During her wedding, the pigeons punished her stepsisters by pecking out their eyes. This made the story memorable.

When writing about minor characters, give them dialogue, mannerisms, and descriptions

that set them apart from the other characters. If they’re too common, the reader will yawn and put down your book. I hope this post helps you write better. Let minor characters do the unexpected, giving them five minutes of fame. Sprinkle a little spice into your stories.

DANGLING AND MISPLACED MODIFIERS

                                             Photo by George Bakos on Unsplash
 

I've been away from Blogger for several months now. Since things are changing here, I will probably move my posts to a different site. After the pandemic started, I didn't spend as much time on social media. Like this unplugged, abandoned television in George Bako's photo, I was isoloated and felt out of place. And I noticed other bloggers either stopped posting or moved their posts off Blogger. 

Today, I wanted to blog again. Dangling and misplaced modifiers came to mind. Sometimes writers write unclear sentences and end up with something silly. This is the case with dangling modifiers. A dangling modifier is usually a prepositional or participial phrase that describes, or gives more detail about the wrong word. The word it was supposed to modify was left out of the sentence, and the modifier was placed near the wrong word, leaving the modifier dangling.

Let me give you some examples:

While still in diapers, my father remarried. 

Ha ha. Babies don't get married, so we know this is a messed up sentence. Since while in diapers is next to my father, the sentence means my father was still in diapers. It should refer to the narrator, and the word I isn’t in the sentence. To correct this, the I should be added. While I was still in diapers, my father remarried.

Here is another dangler with the same problem:

While reading a book on the sofa, my cat jumped onto my lap.

Cats don’t know how to read, so this is silly. Instead, it should say: While I was reading on the sofa, my cat jumped onto my lap. Or: While I read on the sofa, my cat jumped onto my lap. 

 Here is a misplaced modifier which has a similar problem:

He read from his Kindle wearing glasses.

We can assume it is the male in this sentence who is wearing glasses, but the way it’s written says the book is wearing glasses since the modifier is next to Kindle. Maybe rewrite it as: He wore glasses and read from his Kindle.

Here is another problem sentence:

At the bottom of the aquarium, Leslie saw the eel.

Leslie wasn't swimming in the aquarium with the eel. To fix this issue, rewrite it like this. Leslie saw the eel at the bottom of the aquarium.

One day, I walked the dog in my pajamas.

A four legged dog can't wear two legged pajamas. The fix: One day, while I wore pajamas, I walked the dog.

I am selling several old hats from grandpa in great condition.

Is grandpa in great condition or are the hats? How about: I'm selling several old hats in great condition that belonged to my grandpa.

It’s important to edit your writing to avoid silly mistakes. I hope this brief post helps you understand how to identify a misplaced or dangling modifier and how to fix it.