Aphelion

Congratulations on finishing! I know what its like to slave all day at a blue collar job & then try to write afterwards.<br><br>As I'm still peddling my magic realism fantasy novel a year after I finished, I can't give a lot of good advice, but the little bit I do know I'll pass on.<br><br>A lot of people say get an agent first. This is damn hard. <br>Harder than sweating out the novel in the first place. My stack of rejection slips attests to that, although I wasn't willing to pay an agent in advance. In my view they should be in with the project enough to want to suck up their percentage after the sale, not before.<br><br>Agents are interested only if the story will make money for them, e.g. how hard will it be for them to sell. In this way, the best way to get an agent is to make a name for yourself in enough webzines/magazines that agents will come looking for you. (That's what I'm trying for, anyway.)<br><br>If you do want to go the agent way, stick to AAR (Association of Author's Representatives) members. They have to swear to actually try to serve your interests according to a stated list of ethics instead of just sticking you for your money. Good luck with that.<br><br>Writer's Market from Reader's Digest Books should be your bible. It has a lot of advice on selling to publishers and agents alike, along with their addresses. I've bought a lot of them over the last 20 years, and if nothing else, they hold up a shelf or fit under the leg of a tippy table just fine. :) <br><br>One tidbit I have heard, and I don't know if its true or not, is that marketing departments want first books from an author to be in the 80,000 word range so that the reader "feels" he or she is getting a thick enough book for the price, since the reader won't know your name in advance. In your case, I hope it's not true.<br><br>Good luck!<br><br>Nate

One tidbit I have heard, and I don't know if its true or not, is that marketing departments want first books from an author to be in the 80,000 word range so that the reader "feels" he or she is getting a thick enough book for the price, since the reader won't know your name in advance. In your case, I hope it's not true.
Nate

<br><br>Chris Bonawandt's Dreamers project (a unified version of the Dreamers series published in Aphelion) is currently available as an e-book ... While this is not likely to make a lot of money, it might be a route to consider as length is not as big an issue (at least I THINK length is not as big an issue) as it would be with a print publisher. There are also publishers that print shorter stuff as 'chapbooks' ...<br><br>It'll be quite a while before I have enough accumulated wordage on (say) the Al Majius stories to consider making a book out of them, and longer still before I ever write anything else with enough words to qualify as a novel, so good on you for generating 42K words as one narrative. Best of luck ...<br><br>Chris, Guy Hasson, any of you with books or e-books on the market, anything to add?<br><br>Robert M.<br>

How to proceed and where in the horror genre? Do I look for an agent or submit directly to publishers? Any ideas from someone who's gone through this before?

<br><br>You might want to check out the Horror Writers Association website at http://www.horror.org/

... So far, I've got some small press print people interested, but I've been told self publishing takes your work out of any contention for bigger house considerations at furture dates. ...
Rstarr

<br>Rob<br><br>I don't think that 'small press print' and 'self publishing' are the same thing.  'Self publishing' usually refers to the author paying up front to have a book published (a.k.a. 'vanity publishing') and (usually) marketing it himself/herself.  A 'small press print' publisher, on the other hand, wouldn't charge the author to print, market, or advertise the book, but (a) would likely have a relatively small print run (maybe 5k copies, if that?), (b) limited distribution and marketing, (c) little or no 'advance' money, and (d) small and slow royalty generation.<br><br>Hence a 'small press' printing might garner you some recognition (making future sales easier), and a little (probably very little) money.  When you hit the big time, stuff that appeared in small-press releases or magazines or anthologies may be marketable again (once you regain the rights) -- viz. the 'Best of' collection concept.  The length of your novel would make it a good candidate for publication in something like Stephen King's "Four Seasons" -- once you write two or three more, that is.  In the meantime, as I said, ANY form of publication where you garner some money and recognition might be better than none.<br><br>Mind you, I say this as someone who will be thrilled if he can sell ANYTHING to any prestige market (including Neo-opsis or On Spec, our Canadian print zines).<br><br>Robert M.<br>

I think I'll just start another one using some of things I learned on the first, namely, to construct a story board or outline- To do some prep work first. I realise the plot or characters can still take turns off a preplanned path, but I'm convinced pre writing preparation makes a big difference.

<br><br>This is a little off track, but I can't say I'd recommend all that planning. I know a lot of books advise that sort of thing, but in my own experience, every time I chart out the fine details, I stop writing. Figuring out things ahead of time takes all the joy out of actually writing the darn thing. It becomes work, instead of an escape from work that will pay off at some point. If I have to outline, I keep it in the broadest sense possible.<br> <br>I figure as an unknown, no one is going to buy my stuff before it's written, so I might as well make the synopsis after the fact & have fun while doing it.<br><br>However, I do keep a dry erase board near my computer to keep track of small details, such as what a character is wearing or what time of day it is in the story. That way I have fewer problems with continuity if what I'm doing stretches into months until I'm done.<br><br>Nate

Of course I'd advocate ebooks. There's a few reasons for that:<br><br>1. The ratio of dollars earned to sales is MUCH higher than in print (although the quanity potential ain't even close to print). Also, rate at which that money is paid out is faster.<br><br>2. Having a successful e-book is another notch on the belt when you're trying to sell future works. <br><br>3. You can always sell your work in print later. Most ebook publishers are pretty upfront and basic when it comes to the rights they want to buy (very unlike in print). They may even permit having the book in both print and electronic version (although the print pub will likely nix that idea fast). There are few print books out there now that started as e-books (not that I can name them).<br><br>4. Most ebook pubs ARE picky about length. They go the opposite direction of some print publishers---shorter is better. Most cap ebook lengths at 80 to 90K, I think. And under 50K (which will be a major issue for print) is no prob. for ebooks. In fact, in some cases, its ideal. the Dreamers novel was only 52.<br><br>-Chris

Talk about serendipity. This issue of Aphelion includes a poem by Gary William Crawford, whose bio blurb notes that he is the "the founder and editor of Gothic Press"<br><br>http://www.gothicpress.com<br><br>"Gothic Press seeks fiction, poetry, and scholarship and criticism manuscripts up to 20,000 words. Fiction and poetry may be in any style or approach, as long as horror, Gothic, or dark fantasy elements are present. Scholarly and critical manuscripts may be on any horror/Gothic author or authors. Proposals for scholarship may be submitted, and these will be reviewed by established scholars on the topic. Please note, however, that Gothic Press is not always an open market; query before submitting."<br><br>Okay, that 20k limit kinda conflicts with the 42k you (Rob Starr) have written, but with Aphelion credits as a calling card, maybe you could negotiate ...<br><br>Robert M.

Good luck with that, Rob. <br><br>BTW: in future, if you're interested in publishing your book electronically, I can put in a good word for you w/ the publisher of Stone Garden.<br><br>-Christian

Here's a link to a print publisher that sounds not bad at all (found it listed at Ralan.com):<br><br>http://www.mundania.com/submissions.html<br><br>Accepts submissions by e-mail, will consider books over a broad range of word counts (that includes the 40k range, I think) ... highly rated on Preditors and Editors website.

Muchos gracias! Whenever you want to take me up on that, just toss me an e-mail: worddude79@aol.com<br><br>-Christian

Ok, I admit it. What I'm doing is not working.<br><br>I need advice on first novels, too.<br>(Well, the first novel ms. that I feel is actually good enough to see the light of day.)<br><br>I have an 80,000 word fantasy (action/comedy, borderline young adult/adult) that I've tried sending to every AAR agent that handles fantasies. I also exhausted every publisher listed in Writer's Market that handles fantasy that accepts simultaneous submissions.<br><br>The three agents I got personalized replies from said they liked the idea but were not "strongly confident" that they could sell it. :(<br><br>Publishing houses have only sent form letters & cards, apart from the one that wanted me to do the marketing plan and how much I was going to do myself to promote the book? (ie. how much I would kick in to promote it) I told them to get bent. :P<br><br>As I received its 27th rejection this afternoon, I plan now to move to the "one at a time" publishers. Does anybody have any experience that would suggest one house over another?<br><br><br>When I was 14 I told myself that I was going to be a writer--one who made a living at it. That was 20 years ago. Since then, I've managed three stories on webzines, one $5 flash piece to be out next month, and a giant stack of rejection slips.<br><br>Big, BIG sigh. <br><br>Nate

<br>My advice, Nate, is focus on sending your work to agents. I've been writing since I was 14 and in the past ten years haven't made much more than you.<br><br>Get the 2005 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market when it comes out. Then send your work to every agent that represents fantasy and sci-fi, or whatever genre you think you could squeeze your work into. Send them out and keep sending them out. Send them out all year and when the year is up, buy the 2006 N&SSWM and send it to everyone who wasn't in the 2005. Someone will bite. The famous novel Catch-22 was rejected more than 50 time before someone decided to publish what would beome a great piece of literature. <br><br>Your time will come when it comes.<br><br>-Christian