This seems to be the best board for this kind of question. I've been writing for ages now, released an ebook on Amazon, and have done a crapload of commissions for folks online. I have a full novel planned out and 110K words worth written out
I'd originally planned it as 3 books, and I'm a little over 1/3rd through the full story as I have it planned after about a year. Should I approach an agent with the first "book's" worth and keep working on the rest, or complete the full story and deliver it all at once and probably release it as either a 3-parter or one big book anthology?
doesn't matter, you're not going to get it published either way.
Jaxson Sanchez
duly noted
Nicholas Ramirez
One book at a time. Agents are often turned off by high page counts in general, let alone for an initial work.
Colton Gomez
Focus on self-publishing and marketing. Send your manuscripts to whatever traditional publishers you're interested in, but that will take a LONG time to get word back. Could take years before you're ever traditionally published, so focus on self-publishing. It'll make you money sooner, and if your book is as good as you hope it is, then word will spread naturally and you will continue to earn more and more sales.
Looks at it this way; you're hungry, you need food, but there's no stores or anything. You've spent time making this big elaborate trap that help you in catching BIG prey with lots of meat, but it might take a long time before the prey comes around to get caught. Do you sit there idly waiting? No, go fish, go forage, go hunt for smaller and easier prey. It'll take a lot of work, but it will sustain you until you start getting the BIG game. The BIG game is the traditional publishers. The fish, berries, squirrels, foxes, and so on and so forth are people in the HUGE market for self-published authors. The people who get books and ebooks on Amazon and Kindle.
Ideally, even when you get that BIG prey (traditionally published), you will eat well, but you can still do a bit of fishing, do a bit of hunting, pick a few berries. Especially the berries for vitamin C; don't want scurvy. The ideal situation for an author is to have traditional publishers selling physical copies (which is what they've specialized in for centuries) and to have Kindle/Amazon available for eBooks which they've been dominating in for over a decade now. It's the best of both worlds. So start getting your foot in the door for ebooks on Kindle. If you take off, traditional publishers will come to YOU, but getting manuscripts out there might make you lucky early on. I hear the common minimum of an advance for an author who has been accepted by a traditional publisher is $5000. Enjoy it if you get it! For now, work on self-publishing, some people make over $5000 a month with it. No joke.
Ian Fisher
This. Big books generally are harder to sell and don't make as much money as small books, and it's harder to sell an unknown name than a known one, so a fresh new and unknown author with a big book has a very low chance of being taken. Best to start small. You can try, but you'd have a much better chance with a small book instead of a big one. They also like if you have multiple books, because if they accept your stuff and publish your work, they may very well want more, especially if it sells well.
Zachary Gray
thanks, all. I'll suck things up and try to toss it out there for an agent. a friend of mine got a series of articles published for a book and he understood that they get the whole "don't make money until you make money." Also I read into some publishers and most of them won't even talk to a writer, only through agents who already have the connections
so would I be able to put it on the usual Amazon/Kindle stuff myself and look for the "big time?" Or just focus on striking out on my own and getting recognized via the various forums and such?
also in short, the story's of a girl in fantasy novel world who gets stranded among a tribe of amazons who take her in. big on culture shock, non-traditional families, and very personalized and visceral sensation adventure.
Owen Jones
Before you do anything post a one page length excerpt and I'll let you know if you should bother trying.
Connor Diaz
Yes, you can put it on Amazon/Kindle yourself. I personally use CreateSpace to make paperback available on Amazon, then once available on that, CreateSpace can help you transfer the files to Kindle. I advise contracting your book to KDP Select to. 3-month contracts, automatically renewed unless you cancel it, with KDP Select you can put your book for free for up to 5 days in every 3-month period (helps get the book out there and can aid in getting reviews) or make a Kindle Countdown discount for a week in the US and a week in the UK during these 3-month contract periods. Your book also automatically becomes available on Kindle Unlimited where people can read it for free but you get paid for every page read. About .42 of a US penny per page right now, so I guess about 240 page reads is a single US dollar.
You have full control of the pricing, to an extent. There is a minimum for paperback because of course it costs money for Amazon to print the book so even if YOU don't get any money, they still need money to manufacture the book. The more royalty you make, the bigger cut Amazon will take for their own profit, so if it costs, say, $4 to print the book, and you want $3 in royalty, the price si going to be more than just $7. As for eBook, $0.99 USD is the minimum, and you get 35% royalty then. If you set the book to $2.99 USD or higher then you get 70% royalty and there's where the REAL money is. $2.99 will give you about $2.05 royalty for just one sale. That's pretty huge, and you will not find such royalties via traditional publishing. Since your book is such an epic though, I think it would be understandable if you ratcheted it up to at least $3.99. I know a chick who self-published a fairly big book, and decided to jump straight into $4.99. Got quite a few sales, and so within a couple weeks got like $50 or more. That's VERY rare though, and you should not expect such instant success. Most self-published authors don't make $100 in their first YEAR, let alone $50 in just a couple weeks. Hell, my best so far has been $22 in a 2-day period, and my best month was April which earned me around $50. I've been a self-published author for a cunt-hair over 9 months. So I've been doing this for a decent amount of time, and also since I've already made over $100 and my first year isn't over I'm also doing better than the majority of self-published authors.
Nathan Sullivan
Yea, my first ebook I put out cheap and didn't make enough to get a payout until a year or so later. I gave it out pretty cheap though
Nicholas Sanchez
I don't know what process you went by, but I get paid monthly. When I started it was every 3 months for some reason, but ever since March 2017 it's been monthly, for the month that was 2 months prior. So at the end of this month I'll get paid for my royalties in May, then at the end of August I'll get paid for June, and so on and so forth. I use direct deposit though. That's also only for Kindle. For CreateSpace paperbacks, yeah, I need to wait until I reach 108 (either US dollars, British Pounds, or Euros) then I will receive 100 of that specific currency. So far I have nearly $20 US, and over 4 euros. That's just for paperback though, which doesn't sell NEARLY as well as Kindle. If I had to wait until I made $108 on Kindle, I probably would have gotten paid... oh... sometime in May? So 6-7 months after self-publishing my first book. I now have 7, working on #8 daily, it's probably around 10% finished, give or take, depending on length.
Michael Bailey
Might post it later, but I'd just hate myself if I didn't try so I'll put it out regardless
Luis Rodriguez
yes, no , maybe. make sure your fist book is self contained, also if they take your book than you may have to rush rest of the books and the quality will suffer. make sure to have an audio book made and a good marketing team. marketing is what moves most books
Hudson Diaz
alright, for those of you who've stuck it out with me this far while I gather the guts to finalize the first portion of it and look into other parties...
The story centers around the valla, a small tribe in an uncharted part of a forest in unnamed generic medieval land. They're a primitive bunch of all women (killing intruding men due to ancient cultural laws) with a warrior culture. The woods are inherently magical, mostly in the form of monsters and spirits appearing in the forest and the women having access to minimalist magic (healing others and speaking to animals is a pretty huge deal).
Amber is a girl in her late teens from the outside world whose parents die in a carriage crash that nearly kills her. Bella, one of the strongest women in the valla, finds her on their borders and brings her back to nurse her back to health, integrate her into the tribe, and adopts her as her daughter. Amber begins gradually learning from Bella in how to fight, understanding their culture, and exploring her sexuality while overcoming her grief. She ultimately joins the rest of the girls her age in fighting classes, where she makes a few colorful friends and earns a rival in the chieftess' daughter, who doubts her right to be among them as an outsider.
Amber starts to get used to the valla lifestyle when Bella takes her hunting, wanting to help continue her training and not wanting to leave her home alone. This results in being attacked by hungry wolves, which Bella defends her from but ends in Amber having to fight for herself, getting bitten in the shoulder but slaying one of them. After the fight, Bella informs her that one of her eyes has changed color from green to ice blue, which gradually fades. Amber is conflicted about the encounter, and to console her, Bella shows her that the valla are not only killers by taking her to the pens where they raise and train young wolf pups as companions. Amber is captivated by a chubby little white wolf, which amuses Bella and the handler greatly. They explain that it's because Bella slew a giant white wolf in her youth that earned her great glory among the valla. She lets Amber keep the puppy, but also decides that Amber needs a proper valla name. In a rather controversial move, she names Amber after the giant wolf that was deadly enough to rip valla in half: Winterfang.
"Winter" visits the druids about her change in her eye when it returns during a spar with her friends. They determine that the reason that Winter survived the crash was because the original Winterfang's spirit lingered and clung to her body, giving it strength enough to survive and "sleeping" inside her. Winter struggles with this for a bit, communing with the wolf's spirit a bit before accepting it as a part of her life
Jacob Perez
this puts her rival over the edge, ambushing Winter in the woods with a club and generally beating, humiliating and threatening her. Amber's puppy and Zeru, a friend from class she had growing close to, come to her rescue, delivering first aid while Winter starts to fear that Torda is right about not fitting in and being a plague-bearing monster. Zeru sympathizes and bites into Winter's thigh, leaving "her mark" and swearing that if anyone ever touches her again, they answer to her. This among previous events sparks Winter to fall for her as Zeru and her make an agreement; Winter goes into hiding, sleeping in her hut by day to hide from Torda before training in secret with Zeru and her pupper by night. When she finally feels ready to confront her attacker, Zeru delivers her formal challenge for a duel on the tournament and celebration marking the start of winter. After an intimidating show that embraces her wolf side, Winter makes her return appearance and after some struggle, beats Torda in front of everyone. The first arc ends with her being congratulated and praised by her friends and new family, but stepping away from the celebration to confront Torda. They break down some barriers, and ultimately concede that they won't stop giving each other shit, but that their petty war is over. sort of a "if I come for you, you'll know it ahead of time" agreement. Winter accepts that and goes back to her tribe of sisters, truly accepted at the chieftess meets her to give her a "true name," basically a glorified title like her mother did when she slew the original Winterfang.
the further stories I'm working on include her going through rituals to marry Zeru, going to war with an invading tribe, earning a job as a scout, a rekindling of her feud with Torda, and ultimately bearing children (a trio who end up being the central characters of the 3rd part)
also dealing with her wolf that she treats as a brother along the way, who yes eventually grows the size of a bear and lets Amber/Winter ride on him (ultimately carries her babies in pouches on his sides, or can fit most of one in his mouth as needed)
Matthew Scott
Oh so it's one of these sort of books. I hope you wrote it well because books with similar premises are dime-a-dozen. Perhaps, instead of rushing to the publisher, spend some time asking for critiques and refining your work, because from your premise alone, it will be difficult to differentiate yourself from the multitudes of similar genre fiction.
Robert Collins
planning to give it a hard edit myself soon and send it to the friend I mentioned who knew the editor.
but definitely feel like it's well written because I'm aware of "teen girl finding herself" stories and always try to add extra layers and originality where I can
main things were making sure the main girl's not an OP chosen one. she's a girl with wolf instincts who fucks up periodically and has a bolder personality than she did in the initial idea
definitely getting into the cultural strangeness, characters telling jokes (a druid laughs at Amber for thinking she's becoming a werewolf, she sasses her ghost-wolf-dad), Amber/Winter being a fleshed out person and not some kind of emo self-insert or blank slate. I dabbled with those when I was younger and got that out of my system. I keep up a local color/family, and keep the point of view through Amber/Winter to make it sort of hands on (big on describing sensations, tastes, etc.) while not going full narrow first person perspective. I flesh out everyone with character and reasons as she sees more and more of them; characters coupling up and changing roles, but also adding depth. Torda doesn't hate Amber because she's "the bitch character," but because we explore her paranoia and the pressure of her upbringing
also blatant lesbian sex, but I assume that's out there too and it's only really described when it's there for development (more sensory and purpose of showing love)
so... best I got is assurances/defensive-sounding tones of "yea, I know about tropes" and characters being much more involved than the synopses. tribal story with enjoyable layered characters that should let you feel like you're in their shoes as you go through these parts of the girl's life as she goes from scared kid to hardcore warrior mom. It's not the newest, freshest of stories, just well-told and colorful
Justin Reed
also have a half-baked premise of a magical female luchadora who is the last wrestler on a post-apocalyptic earth, following the sacred code of the monk-like luchas she grew up with that now possess her ancestral mask, so it's not that I don't have a few idle ideas to do later so much as this one felt like it had the most longevity and ability to invest in the characters
and I've had another guy who had some hands in helping with the story keeping an eye on it, but I know he's in too deep to be much help on actual opinions. hence coming to you and other folks I've dropped previews at who seem to dig it
Jack Young
>magical female luchadora who is the last wrestler on a post-apocalyptic earth I didn't think you were serious, until I sat back and read it again. What you're writing is genre fiction at its lowest, and because I have not read your writing, I cannot necessarily say that it is bad or good. However, on premise alone, it appears to be one of those discount pile novels with the ugly, big font size covers. If this is what you want to write, then I wish you the best of luck. Sincerely.
However, as someone who has read Joyce, Fitzgerald, Beckett, Hemingway, and all the other big names in fiction, I do not think that your work will last, nor will it be of great literary merit. And that is fine if you do not wish it to be so, but have no illusions about what you're writing. I would be happy to help review your book but this is my present stance.
Grayson Rodriguez
oh sweet jesus, this is by NO means deep, meaningful, or symbolic in the slightest. it's just entertaining. shallow fun that maybe gets some feeling and empathy for a fake person out of people, and certainly some smiles
I read the big names too in college, and never wanted to be them. I don't want to send a message so much as let people enjoy themselves reading it. it's just something to be, ideally, enjoyed
Julian Allen
>oh sweet jesus, this is by NO means deep, meaningful, or symbolic in the slightest. it's just entertaining. shallow fun oh thank god I thought you were setting yourself up for a long road to ruin. Glad to know you are consciously writing such prose. I've known others who were serious with such ideas. At least you know that its shallow. Whether you become published or not will depend on the quality of your writing then. Self-publishing is cheaper and more profitable for each copy sold but your exposure may be next-to-nothing. A publisher deal will definitely make you more prominent but whether your book will return on its investment is another matter.
Kayden Fisher
This is a decent high concept story. You should write it.
Carter Watson
I wouldn't call it high concept. It's pure fantasy even within the genre of fantasy. That being said, it could be one hell of a tale.
Camden Hughes
sandcastles, an idea that could differentiate your novel from others is the element of parody or self-awareness. Where it could be a simple, shallow book about concepts and storylines that have been beaten to death, it could also be a parody of that sort of writing itself. It might get you at some attention through concept at least.
Hudson Peterson
this image looks so fucking retarded
Kayden Smith
much appreciated, and there's definitely a bit of satire about how she's never the Chosen One, she's not especially powerful, and she's far from perfect or bland. those are the ones that get me to laugh the most as it is: mostly when the hyperactive twins babble at her and act like a shitty Greek choir; they guess incorrectly at what's going to happen, then break into fistfights about whose idea is stupider
yea, I'm grabbing random amazon and chicks with wolf pics for this. whether the publishers do it, I end up in the ebook route, or just for my own amusement, I've got a guy in mind I'd like to see doing some actual art for it. I assume the publisher types have their own people they'd go to for that if it gets popular enough
Julian Gonzalez
Publishers will pick the cover art and you won't have much say. On the flip side, I'm counting on them to pick a title for my future novel because I don't have one.
Carter Barnes
Post Chapter One, or something. I want to see your writing.
I disagree with the pacing because we are thrown into the thick of things within the first few paragraphs. There can be minor edits here and there. But of course, I have higher standards for prose, and so this critique may not help so much. It just seems that there's no grip on the pacing, and the story is let to run loose. But of course, what I'm saying depends on how you want to tell the story.
