Update!

So, no news on the book front. I still have that last revision that I want to submit to some agencies again, but I haven't passed it to my local reading circle to get feed back yet. What's the hold up? Am I really serious about getting published?

Of course, I am.

But two things have happened since August that have taken up a large amount of time. First, I started university classes at USF. Since I am working full time and going to school full time, life has been busy. I'm majoring in Elementary Education and will graduate May of '09 and will hopefully start teaching August of '09. I've really been enjoying the classes.

But I would be further along in the publishing process now, were it just work and class I had to attend to. What other great things have been happening. As I may have posted before, my fiancee and I are expecting our first child. Well, she's finally here!

Born October 24th, Olympia is finally here. The last few months have been a whirlwind of preparation, both materially and mentally. She is a beautiful little girl and I love both her and her mommy with all my heart.

So I've been balancing work, school, and parenting the last few months. I feel I'm getting into a rhythm now, as this first semester of classes comes to a close. I'm eager to get back to the book, which I feel is done, but I need to print out copies and have some people read the latest revision. One great thing about going back to school is that I have professional contacts. For instance, one of my classes is "Children's Literature" and my professor has 20+ years experience in kid's books. She's not a publisher, of course, but she has volunteered to read my book and I know she will have invaluable insight to share.

So, that's about it. The book is still alive and it will be published, but life doesn't stay on hold in the mean time. I'm enjoying life and a published book will only make it sweeter.

Another Revision?

So the submission process is on hold for the moment. If anyone who has a query of mine responds back, great, but I'm not sending any more out for now.

Why? I wanted to experiment with my book some more. Simply put, I have a feeling that the first half of the book is too long and too slow. It was always a concern of mine, but my adult readers didn't really feel that way. I got some great feedback on how to speed it up some, but mostly regarding sentence composition, not plot lines. I cut down the first part of the story, sentence-wise, before I submitted, but I find myself going back to my initial concern that the first half is too slow.

Percy Jackson confirmed it. If you haven't read about him yet, I suggest you look up Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. It's a middle grade fantasy novel with a target audience of 10 year olds... the same audience I'm going after. All I can say is, wow! The writing is quick and snappy, but provides great characterization and precise descriptions where needed. I don't intend to mimic Riordan's writing style (he writes in first person - which I didn't think I'd like at first, but loved later!), but he did show me how a story can be quick, yet detailed.

I would say that his writing is the opposite of J.K. Rowling, but just as good and, to be honest, I was drawn in by Percy Jackson in a way that I never was with Harry. Sorry!

So, I've gone back over my book and realized it was about 30,000 words too long. I don't say that so I can copy Percy Jackson's style and length, but because I realized the story didn't NEED to be as long as it is. I saw almost right away where I could cut; how to make the story flow quicker and the writing snappier.

Right in the middle of my story was a 6 chapter spread that introduced a lot of characters, clever exchanges of dialog, and really developed some internal conflicts for the characters. Unfortunately, the external conflict ground to a crawl during that same time. Now the same conflict, internal and external, takes place over just 2 chapters. Zzzzzziiip! We're moving right along!

The beginning suffered much of the same and, I believe, was a little too heavy handed with the theme. Cut Cut Snip Snip. I'm still working on this part, but the first 4 chapters have been merged into 2 chapters, getting to the main conflict much quicker. I still have some more cropping to do and I just keep getting more excited as I go along. I really think this will make my story more accessable and, to be honest, an easier sell.

I've cut 25,000 words so far and have a few thousand more to go. I am going to go line-by-line again and work on sentence composition, weeding out access description and dialog. I want less stage direction and more fun. Anyone interested in reading the latest edit, let me know!

The Search Goes On...

The big agent liked my query, but passed on the full manuscript. "Didn't resonate". Ah, well... that's the biz.

Fortunately, I've got around a dozen queries floating out there and there are plenty more agents to send to if this batch doesn't work out. It only takes one yes :)

I wont lie and say it doesn't hurt to be turned down, but, as any pimply-faced teen in high school knows, the sting fades with time and courage arrives again to tempt us with glory.

So, here's to awkward teens and new authors... it'll happen... eventually.

My First Query

So tonight was it: my fist official submission to a literary agent. I've been working on a query letter for a few weeks now, trying to make it perfect. It was a very unnerving process.

For those not in the know, a query letter is an official "look at me" letter. It is almost like a press release, though the target audience is that particular person who will likely ignore you, but just might make your career. The query starts with your "hook", a single sentence description of your story. From there you describe the characters, plot, and conflicts in a single paragraph. After that nightmare, you get to relax a little and list your writing credentials and why your wrote this particular story. Never been published? I guess you'd better have a great hook and an interesting story behind the story. After all that, you get to sum up the letter, thank the agent for their time, and leave your contact information.

Please allow 6 weeks or eternity for a response.

The purpose of a query is to introduce you as an author and the story you're trying to sell. Many books and articles have been written on how to write the perfect query, often with contradictory information. If an agent likes your query, he or she may ask to see a sample of your work (say the first 50 pages) or perhaps the whole completed manuscript. After that, an offer of representation may be made... or not.

Simply put, a query is the gateway through which agents and writers meet each other. A manuscript will not be read unless an agent takes interest in the original query. That being said, the query is most likely the single most important work of a new author's life.

And I sent my first query to perhaps one of the greatest literary agents of all time. I will not name names here, to avoid my own embarrassment, but also out of professional courtesy to this or other agents.

It is said that rejection is a writers most familiar companion, but I have a good feeling. This should be where I "CMA" by being humble and nervous. I wont do that. I've yet to watch or read "The Secret", but I do believe in positive thinking. What's more, however, is that I've worked my rear off on this novel (as well as the query) and I am confident in my success.

So tonight's the night.

In other news, I have spent some hours going through the manuscript again and have made some minor changes here and there. I've taken the feedback I've received from my early readers and it has been very helpful. The novel is much better off for their criticism and I've very pleased with the result. I've managed to trim off a couple thousand more words and I could send out a copy of the manuscript today and be at ease.

Getting some feedback...

April is behind us now and I'm proud to say that I finished everything that I had proposed in my last update. I trimmed 5,000 words from the story, which involved taking out one minor character (Ghostpaw, you will be remembered!) and tweaking bits here and there. I think the story reads much smoother than it originally did and I am very proud of the end result, which is 119,000 words and 380 pages.

With that done, I went to the local Office Depot and had them print out two manuscripts. Surprisingly, it was done right there (as opposed to the 4 day wait I was originally quoted) and cost $10 less than I had estimated.

With two copies of my completed book in hand, what did I do? After I did a little jig, I gave a copy to my fiancee and one to my mother. Along with reading the book, Mom made three additional copies (printed on front/back of pages and bound in a spiral bounder) to make it easier for people to read. Of course, "official" manuscripts are not printed double sided and are never bound, but I will admit that these new copies were so much easier to carry around and read.

So, in total, four people have read my book. The feedback has been great. So far everyone likes or loves it. Let me set the record straight, friends and family will always say they love something that you spent 2 years of your life creating. In no way does having your mommy love your book mean that it will be a best seller or even find a publisher at all. In my query letters to prospective agents, I will not boast that my uncle said "the last 1/3rd of the book was some of the best fantasy writing I've ever read". This will not impress agents or publishers.

But does make me smile and feel real good about what I've done. It's true, having friends and family gush over your work will not ensure that it sells, however, if they are truthful and really did enjoy it, then it means that it's at least readable. Now, when these readers can identify your major themes and talk about your characters exactly as you yourself imagined them, then it means that your story was understandable... and if they are smiling while they are discussing all this, then it at least means that your story was enjoyable.

So, the feedback has been great so far and I am most excited to make a few minor changes to the master manuscript and start sending out those queries. I've wanted to send out the queries for weeks now, but it would be just my luck that someone bites and wants a final manuscript ASAP (I could only wish)... but how amateure would that look if I had to delay sending it because "my mommy hasn't finished proofing it yet"? So I decided to wait.

I am meeting my uncle tonight to get the last of his input. He holds the record so far of being the fastest reader, as not more than 30 hours after I'd handed him the manuscript he called me to let me know that he finished it and loved it.

So by this time next week I should have all the final changes made to the master and will have as final a story as any book can be (with the exceptions of editor input). I have my list of agents in mind, but I'm going to send to one in particular first. Something about him caught my eye and I want to give him full courtesy to read my query first.

To everyone who has helped me so far: Jeanie, Mom, Susan, and Reese: thank you very much and it has been a pleasure.

Another long break...

Wow, another few months have gone by. It's taking my just as long to "finish" the book as it did to write it. I wonder if that's typical. Before anyone brands me as a slacker, I do work full time and started college full-time again in January. I already have an Associates degree, but am now completing some pre-req courses to get into USF's Bachelor program for Elementary Education, which starts in August. On the more personal front, I'm excited to announce that my fiancee and I are having a baby! This last month has been a whirlwind of information, doctor's appointments, and post-baby planning. We are expecting in October and, before anyone asks, we don't know yet what the sex is.

So I won't say that working on the book has taken a back seat... but it's just gone very slowly. But I have good news! The changes to my first manuscript have all been made on the master document file, so editing is 90% done. I want to change two scenes in the book to make them more interesting and I also need to cut about 5,000 words. Eeek!! 5,000 words? How can I possibly do that? The story is about 124,000 words right now, and my research shows that fist time authors are usually only granted between 100,000-120,000 words for their first work, and many publishers wont take a risk over 100,000. I'm going to analyze my story and trim the fat as much as possible.

I have a list of agents I will query very soon and I've already started my query letter. It's nerve wracking to try and sell yourself on a single page, but it's how it's done and I'm confident I will succeed.

I have updated my website with some cool pictures I took and edited myself. I also added a "twitter" badge for microblog posts. I don't know how much I'll use it (I'm busy enough as it is), but it looks neat and is cutting-edge internet stuff.

By the end of the week, I think I'll have the whole story finished. I really can't wait for someone to read it!

Still going...

I haven't posted anything for a long while for two reasons:

1) The blogger website has had reoccurring problems connecting to my webserver. It very frustrating when I want to post something and have to wait three days before I can get it up. I don't really know what the problem is. I've done a lot of research and it appears that this is a problem that blogger has had for a couple years off and on. Some people believe it is a problem with the end server (where benmurphy.net is hosted) while many others believe it is a problem with blogger. Regardless, every other time I go to make a post it doesn't work. I'm looking at using an alternate blogging program, but this one is so nice... when it works!

2) I haven't had a lot to report! I'm still doing the revision by going through the firs printed manuscript chapter by chapter. I realized I wasn't doing it fast enough so I've recommitted myself to doing it every night. I takes about an hour per chapter and I'm about 1/4 through the book. It's taken me a month to do the first fourth, which is way too long for my taste. To be fair, the first part of the book was written almost 2 years ago and really needed some work. I think from here on out it will go much smoother.

Still, I have another 20 hours to go, so if I spend an hour a night, it will take me 20 days to finish. That still feels too long! I really wish I could do it faster, but considering I only had about 90 minutes a day to write the book in the first place, I shouldn't beat myself up over not having the time.

I really do have the time, it's just a matter of using it efficiently. Still, I laugh that it took me 15 minutes last night to go over two sentences. I loved both, but they didn't fit well together so I spent that time trying to make a match. It's funny that it took me 20 seconds to originally write the 30 words in question, but 15 minutes to get it to work. *sigh* So is the life of a writer... it could be worse!

Now, let's hope this blog goes through.