Status and Support

[Jamieson]

Good luck to both of you, panyasan and Alelou, I feel your pain.

With any luck I'll have a new shorty out soon, myself. I actually wrote most of it a couple months back, but I've been sitting on it because I wasn't sure how I felt about it and I wanted to walk away for a bit instead of forcing it out there. I'm sure it'll get a good overhaul when I go to type it up (meant to do that tonight, didn't happen), so hopefully I can work out the rough spots enough to be satisfied with it.

[Distracted]

Darn. So much for my dreams of someone emailing me out of the blue and offering me 50,000 USD for Virtual Seasons 5 and 6.

[Jamieson]

Damn

Speaking of which, I never did get around to reading your virtual season 6 and I really want to, so I'm currently re-reading the whole of season 5 to refresh the failing memory...loving it all over again

[Distracted]

Thanks. I'm happy somebody's still reading it.

[Cogito]

Thanks. I'm happy somebody's still reading it.

[panyasan]

Thanks. I'm happy somebody's still reading it.

I am pretty sure people are still reading and enjoying your work, Distracted. (You can find Distracted's work in the Archive, people! For example this classic tale : No greater love and this funny story: Kiss and make up.

Some less important news: the rewrite went well, the first draft of chapter 6 of World of Ice is done and send to my beta!

[Asso]

... the rewrite went well, the first draft of chapter 6 of World of Ice is done and send to my beta!

That's great good news!

[Distracted]

Thanks for the PSA, panyasan.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you've done with Chapter 6 of WOI.

[Alelou]

Yahoo, I finally updated NORTH STAR! I even broke my own rule, and included a pretty dress.

[Cogito]

WooHoo! Happy Days are here again!

[Distracted]

Thank you for your patience as we keep your novel under consideration. Your novel was selected out of the slush pile for closer examination. Due to the volume of manuscripts ahead of yours, and the press of other business, this process may take some time.

We will contact you with our decision as soon as possible. Meanwhile, when you have the opportunity, please send us a full synopsis to accompany the manuscript.

Please let us know if you have any questions, and thank you for your continued patience.

Sincerely,

Gray Rinehart
Contributing Editor
Baen Books

*squeal*

[Alelou]

VERY EXCITING!!! Congratulations.

Now get your web site going, and all that stuff they're going to expect you to do to market the book. (Especially since your apparent interest in that might help them decide in your favor.)

[Cogito]

Excellent news, you'll be negotiating film rights before you know it. Who have you got picked to play the part of T'Riss?


Waddya mean it's not Lerteiran Chronicals?

[Distracted]

Oh, Lord, Alelou.

Okay. Gotta write one of these synopsis things first, though. Dunno how I'm going to summarize a 500 plus page manuscript with 4 viewpoint characters in one or two pages.

What content should I put on my website? I've got nothing to post but the novel I've already submitted to them and a whole bunch of Fanfiction.

And Cogito, the novel's not Lerteiran. Sorry.

[Alelou]

Is it sci fi? Look around and see what other authors are doing. If you read widely in the genre, you could post about your favorite books (and if you review books, you can get other people wanting to review yours in exchange -- the only thing is that authors can only afford to be nice). Or of course there's the writing process. You can post about conventions or gatherings or societies or even this site or fanfic or whatever that's likely to be of interest to your audience. You can post about the universe of your novel, especially a good thing if you might be continuing a series in it. It doesn't have to be a lot, but it gives you a 'platform.' I have to admit I had the same hesitation, but I'm just going ahead and doing it anyway.

Perhaps even better, get involved at Goodreads in your genre.

M.J. Rose is a good source to go to -- she's pretty much an expert in publicizing a new book. Here she is: http://www.mjrose.com/content/authorbuzz.asp

Synopsis can't be too hard if you have already written the book. Just get a sentence or two from each chapter (or whatever division makes sense for your story) and then put them together into a readable synopsis. They're mostly looking for the overall plot and character arcs. It's like an outline, but more readable, and hopefully with a little flair.

I'd recommend keeping your fanfic going, but frankly I think we have about 300-400 active readers for Enterprise these days and I'm not sure it really matters (I was getting all impressed at my stats the other day until I looked at how many were multiple chapter views vs. visitors). Still, if even a few of those can start the word of mouth going for you, it might be worth the effort.