My newest novel, "Lost Diary," was loved by my beta readers and so I sent it off to my wonderful editor in San Diego for an assessment edit . She returned it with a few suggestions but overall had high praise. I made her corrections and dropped my wordcount by 2, 600 words! You have no idea what a struggle that is and the longer you rework a project the more you realize your own bad habits and idiosyncracies. For example, I searched my finished novel for the word "carefully" and found I had used it in over a hundred instances! I was horrified. Believe me there are now far fewer of those instances along with a number of other bad habit words.
I've also learned the English language does not have enough descriptors for facial expressions. Once you get through all the variations on smiles, frowns, hard lip lines, sighs, gasps, brow furrows, forehead lines, lip curls, flushes, wide eyes, blinks, nose flares, folded arms, cocked heads, nods, shakes, etc. you find there's nothing left. Some well-known authors have even made up words to fill their description gaps. Watch for "quirk," as in quirking lips, quirking brows, quirked a smile.
"Lost Diary" is now back in the hands of my editor for a final line edit. In the meantime I'm compiling a list of potential agents who I hope will fall in love with my premise and my writing style. I'm using very helpful software called Query Tracker that aids in that process. I've tried this before with my second book, "Still Breathing," and after 6 months and 142 submissions without a single nibble and very few actual rejections--many agents just ignore you if they don't like what you sent rather than even bothering to communicate "no." I guess they just hope you'll die waiting. As you can deduce, I'm not looking forward to this torture again but I think my new book has a better chance, so here I go once more.
I haven't been happy with the results of self-publishing. It's an incredible amount of work and expense for very little return (in my experience). You pay for everything yourself: the edit, the cover, the layout design, formatting, printing, bookmarkers, etc. You have to design your own ads and decide the types and placement and length of campaigns. Amazon, BookBub, Goodreads, and Instagram don't givie away their ad space! Public relations and marketing are not my strong suits so that may have an influence in my frustrations. The other nagging feeling is that every minute I spend marketing, I could be writing. I find it's very hard for me to shift hats or to do both. In addition, much of the marketplace is closed to independent authors or highly limited and reserved for the big four publishing giants and their armies of subsidiary companies. I have found it all to be a heavy slog for the independent writer, no matter how the internet spins it.
This time around, I've discovered many agents who give me hope, at least in the words they write about themselves and in their take on the writing/publishing scene.
Wish me good hunting.
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