Holy cow! How is September halfway over? It seems like school started just a week ago. Only six and a half weeks before World Fantasy convention in San Jose, and I think I’m going to have to readjust some of my goals.
I’d wanted to finish Bringing Stella Home 2.0 by the 11th of October, but the way school and work is looking, I probably won’t be able to write 2k words every day in order to meet that goal. Besides, the story has several major issues that can only be fixed with a major overhaul, so there’s no way this novel is going to be ready for submission in time for the convention.
However, Genesis Earth is looking pretty good. So far as story issues go, I was very satisfied with the third draft–I think I fixed all the major issues and wrote something that’s pretty close to salable. Before the convention, I want to go through and make one final revision, one where I polish up the prose and fix the readability issues. That shouldn’t be too hard–I can probably do that in two to three weeks.
So here’s what I’m going to do in the next six weeks. I’m going to check out all of Robert Charles Wilson’s books and immerse myself in his prose–not to copy it, but to hopefully boost the quality of my own prose. The quality of his writing is fantastic, a beautiful mesh of literary prose and thriller pacing and rhythm. While I’m doing that, I’ll start the 4.0 draft of Genesis Earth and work hard at it, until I’ve polished that work as much as I can. That’s the work that I’ll try to sell when I’m at World Fantasy.
I’m a little worried, because I submitted the full manuscript to Krista Marino back in June and haven’t heard back. At the BYU Writers and Illustrators for Young Readers conference, she said she had a response time of 4 months, but I’m worried I won’t hear back from her before World Fantasy. Is it appropriate to send a polite note asking her to get back to me before the convention? I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot by sending out simultaneous submissions, and if an editor asks to see my ms, I want to be able to send it to them ASAP. Then again, I suppose I could just tell them that the full is currently with someone else, and that would demonstrate some professionalism…but I want to be able to send it if/when they ask for it.
Which reminds me: I need to do some HEAVY agent/editor research before this convention. I want to go to World Fantasy with a list of people to look for, so I know where to go to network, which panels to attend, who to look out for in the hallways and parties. I want to be very professional about this, and get the most out of those two/three days that I can.
As for Bringing Stella Home, my current WIP, I’m going to do my best to finish it before World Fantasy so that I can start November with something new. I need to finish that book before I can set it aside and let it percolate in my mind for the next revision. Besides, it’s been too long since I’ve worked on something completely new. After October, I’ll need to take a break from all these revisions.
So that’s the plan: Finish Genesis Earth 4.0 and Bringing Stella Home 3.0 before World Fantasy. Research all the editors and agents to look out for at the convention. Oh, and hold down 14 credit hours and 2 on-campus jobs at the same time, with some time left over for a dating/social life (INSHALLAH).
Hehe…these next six weeks are going to be packed!
I enjoy reading your blog for the enthusiasm you have for writing. It inspires me to write more. I try to write at least a thousand words a day when my kids are in school. It’s next to impossible to write when they are home and awake.
I’ve heard that it’s good to let agents or editors know that your full manuscript has been submitted with someone else. It makes them more interested.
First, you really shouldn’t have expected an answer back from Marino already. It’s only been 2-3 months. I do understand that waiting until October will be cutting it close. I think if you send her a note asking her to hurry up, she’ll be more likely to send you a rejection instead of taking her time to consider it.
You did not say if Marino was an agent or an editor – and looking up online leads me to believe that she is an editor of Delacorte Press, which doesn’t accept simultaneous submissions and only submissions from an agent. My understanding is that the agents and editors are separate pools, so submitting in one doesn’t affect the other (unless you’ve exhausted all the editors that an agent can submit to). Also, at least for agents, they expect simultaneous submissions unless they request an exclusive. Here’s a blog about the agent side – http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2008/08/exclusives-and-literary-agents.html
So thoughts from a similarly inexperienced person – meet the people you can. Mention that the full is with Marino, and send it if they request. From what I’ve read on blogs, the agents/editors are going to be more likely to request a partial than a full, which isn’t as much of a simultaneous submission.