Well, I’ve kept my promise! I’ve sent my novel in part to
one of our reviewers. We’ll see what she has to say. And I’m still working on
the rest of the novel with a view to sending out that too, to one or two reviewers
and published writers. What’s more, a fellow writer and I are giving each other
deadlines and encouraging ourselves to keep to them – I’m hoping we can spur
each other on.
I have to write about the comment exchange on this page.
A reader asked how to find a good editor and in my reply I mentioned I wouldn’t be
comfortable with an editor who said they could turn round a 100,000 word novel
in a week. Guess what? The day after I’d written that, I got a call from a
journalist I used to work with some years ago. She’d written a 100,000 word
novel. She needed it editing for a particular deadline...a deadline just a week
away!
Well, one of my best editors had just finished one piece of
work so I knew she was free. And she’s fast, committed and deadline-friendly. So
I said yes! But in doing so I was very aware of going against my own advice in
the comments below. So now I would revise that advice, I suppose, although I certainly
wouldn’t advocate this course. You’ll have spent a long time writing a novel and it
deserves more editing time than a week – but the author, Sandra Danby, was in
an impossible situation and sometimes this happens. I’m glad we were
able to help.
This particular novel, Ignoring
Gravity, is now featured on a brand new website, Britain’s Next Bestseller: www.britainsnextbestseller.com
You might want to take a look. The site's premise is interesting.
If sufficient people order the book, then it’s published. An older site, www.unbound.co.uk , runs on similar lines
but so far it’s only featuring authors who’ve already been published, so BNBS is
exciting. Sandra’s novel is witty, touching and fascinating, especially if you’re
intrigued by identity and the nature v nurture debate. It’s also very
well-written – I’d expect nothing less from this former journalist and star
blogger – so Ignoring Gravity might be
a novel you’d like to support.
Thought-provoking, isn’t it, how many new approaches to
publication are springing up. Indie publishers are evolving too, so that
authors who are happy to pay for more of the work upfront like editing and
marketing receive a correspondingly larger proportion of the profits. We work on
several titles for such a company – Open Circle Publishing, www.opencirclebooks.com
Then there’s crowd-funding. More and more authors are
turning to such initiatives to raise the money they need for editing,
marketing, distribution and production. Good for them, I say.
Traditional
publishers need to work hard now to make the cachet of being published as
opposed to self-publishing really worth the trials and traumas of trying to interest
an agent in your work. In my last blog post I mention the importance of a ‘contemporary’
novel being set in contemporary times – well, given the amount of time it can
take just to get an agent willing to represent you, let alone a publishing
contract, that novel is certain to be some years out of date when it's launched. So perhaps I needn’t
worry about mine being a decade or so behind the times after all!
Seriously, I think self-publishing is beginning to evolve
and grow up. Sites like Britain’s Next Bestseller are proof of this. Self-publishing
is becoming more sophisticated and there are new routes for the cream to rise
to the top. I am long past the days when I used to recommend traditional
publishing to Fiction Feedback customers with self-publishing a second, lesser
choice. Not any more. Now I say, if you want to get your book out there within
the next six months, look seriously at self-publishing. And go for it.
