Randomness

[WarpGirl]

To certify that my brain will not let me focus on one story start to finish, I'm now writing a crossover fic for NCIS and NCIS:LA. Sometimes I wonder if I'll finish anything!

[Transwarp]

Sometimes I wonder if I'll finish anything!

Would it help if I laid a huge guilt trip on you?

<rummages around in the 'smilies' bin>

Drat. Wouldn't you know it? There's a smiley for every occasion except this one. Where's the large, pleading puppy-dog eyes when you need them? I'm afraid this is the best I can do:

[WarpGirl]

Guilt trips make it worse. Then I don't want to finish.

[Pennjazz]

To certify that my brain will not let me focus on one story start to finish, I'm now writing a crossover fic for NCIS and NCIS:LA. Sometimes I wonder if I'll finish anything!

Guilt trips make it worse. Then I don't want to finish.

You will Finish.....You will Finish...

[Distracted]

Ohhh... cool smilies. I seriously need those. I'm going to steal them and use them as reminders to finish my novel.

[Alelou]

D, finish your novel.

[Distracted]

Why, Alelou, thanks so much for reminding me. I tend to forget things, you know.

Seriously, I do intend to finally finish the damned thing this year. And then all I have to do is find an agent. Who, I understand (if I can even find one willing to take me on), might have me re-write the entire thing five times before agreeing to even look for a publisher. Joy.

[Alelou]

Sorry. My husband and I immediately remind each other of anything we ask the other to remind us.

Good luck finishing and then finding an agent. I took a couple years off from the trying-to-find-an-agent dance because I just couldn't take it anymore. I'm going to give it one more go this year, and if it doesn't work I'm just going to self-publish. That's gotten easier to do with the passage of time, and I just want the damned things to be out there for whoever cares to read them. My fantasies of actually making a living as a novelist are dead -- none of the published fiction writers I know can afford to quit their day jobs.

[Distracted]

Sorry. My husband and I immediately remind each other of anything we ask the other to remind us.

I know. I do the same thing to my kids. I knew you were joking, and so was I. It sucks that ironic humor doesn't transfer well in this medium, since most of my humor is ironic.

Good luck finishing and then finding an agent. I took a couple years off from the trying-to-find-an-agent dance because I just couldn't take it anymore. I'm going to give it one more go this year, and if it doesn't work I'm just going to self-publish. That's gotten easier to do with the passage of time, and I just want the damned things to be out there for whoever cares to read them. My fantasies of actually making a living as a novelist are dead -- none of the published fiction writers I know can afford to quit their day jobs.

Oh, I can't quit my day job for...ummm... twelve years and three months. Provided the state of Louisiana doesn't go bankrupt before I get my pension, that is.

It discourages me that you can't find an agent, though. You're one hell of a writer.

[Pennjazz]

Ohhh... cool smilies. I seriously need those. I'm going to steal them and use them as reminders to finish my novel.

No Problem....I have plenty more where they came from...

[Alelou]

Oh, I had plenty of agents tell me they liked my novel -- they just immediately followed that up by telling me it wouldn't find a market with publishers today. I figure this year I'll see if maybe they think it will find a market with publishers TODAY, and if not, I'll just put it straight to market myself, thank you very much. I'm not even sure I should bother trying again, but publishing a real novel with a real publisher could help me land a better teaching gig.

You might have much better luck with a mystery novel, especially if you pitch it as a potential series. Successful series vastly reduce their investment costs.

[Kotik]

Well, if it isn't fame or big bucks you're after, these days self-publishing is a lot easier, since many people go e-book these days. I've converted some of my favourite TnT classics to eBooks as sitting in a comfy chair with a beer or twelve and an eBook reader is much more relaxing than scrolling through web pages.

[Distracted]

Yeah. I met a guy at a party over Christmas who had self-published his fantasy novel as an e-book at smashwords.com. That site will let you set a price for your e-book or you can even distribute for free from there. I don't know the legal ramifications of distributing fanfiction from the site, though. Even if you don't charge for it I'm pretty sure that the site's rules say that the work needs to be entirely original.

Well, my book's not a mystery. It's scifi romance, a lot heavier on the scifi than any professionally published romance I've ever read and only slightly less explicit than a supermarket bodice ripper, Alelou, so I'm not sure how much of a market there will be for it. Most of the scifi I've seen is written for an intelligent mostly male teen audience. This one is aimed more at adult females. I guess the closest I've seen might be Julie Czerneda's work, only her stuff reads like they made her expunge the sex from it to market it to a teen audience. I really don't want to have to do that, but the average bodice ripper reader will probably have no interest at all in the mechanics of travel by interdimensional portal or in genetic engineering. The teenagers might actually like it, come to think of it, but their mothers probably won't want them reading it.

In short, I wrote the damned thing for ME. So there. But the concept does have some serious series potential. Should I try to work out some story ideas for more books before I pitch to an agent, do you think?

BTW, pennjazz, I simply adore this little guy.

[Alelou]

Yeah, definitely think of the series implications. And if it's techno enough and can feature a woman with big boobs on the cover, you might sell to the male audience anyway.

But I haven't read scifi in twenty years so I'm just not familiar with the market anymore. The last one I went crazy for might have been considered fantasy anyway -- Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, which fell apart terribly after the author got too popular and apparently refused to be edited or became a crack addict or something, judging from the way his prose style fell apart. But it definitely had a romance thread. Ursula LeGuin's stuff often has romance in it, too. Not so much sex.

On the plus side, you've got fanfiction street cred that can translate to this market. (Mentioning fanfiction would probably make most of my potential audience and agents run screaming from the room.) If I were you, I'd be trying to publish some fanfic regularly to keep your numbers up and point to all those nice stats as a platform for potential readers. An awful lot of SF writers start out in fanfic, so it won't be greeted with horror. (It also doesn't hurt that your ff publishing history suggests an ability to actually get stuff done -- editors live in fear of the author who can't deliver on time.)

[Asso]

Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
Marvellous!