Damn this body!!!

ImagoX

PC Editor
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Jun 23, 2005
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www.freakygamer.com
I'm sick. SICK! I can't do anything but sit at my desk, snuffling and feeling miserable. For the last two days, when I went home all I did was go to bed. And I have the D&D Online beta languishing! Maaaaaaaaaaan... :indiffere

Hopefully I'll feel better tonight and can play a bit more- I know I owe you guys a Preview.
 
Your thread title... "Damn this body" it kind of sounds like you are gonna tell us how ripped you are or how much you lifted at the gym today.
 
Well then, let me tell you how ripped I am and how much I lifted at the gym today: not at all and not very much.
 
LOL... I could describe my daily workout routine, but then I'd be accused of bragging... :cookiemon

I'm feeing much better today (although, ironically, I decided to take the day off due to an "eye problem"-- I just couldn't see going in to work...)

Spent all day working on my book and playing Auto Assault and D&D Online. I think I have most of what I need for my Previews, but I really should keep playing. You know... to keep making notes. Heh. Heh.
 
It's an Urban Fantasy set in Chicago. I've been working on the $#@#@! thing for almost three years now, on and off, and it's finally nearing completion. Now the REAL work begins (finding an agent/publisher and selling the bitch).
 
haha, I completely understand. I suggest getting a book doctor to look at it first (you may have already done this). They know how publishers think and will help customize it for your market.
 
I've heard good and bad about book doctors (mainly bad).

Mainly, the rule that EVERY published author I've spoken to (and I've talked to everyone from Connie Willis and Mike Resnick on down it seems like) is to NEVER pay anyone to review anything of yours- the motivation is all wonky, which I can see. Better to get a literary agent it seems like.

Several authors in my writer's group sold their first novels or series via agents rather than the publisher's slush pile- the response time is usually 2-3 months (a slush pile can take 1-3 YEARS, and "please don not simultaneously submit to multiple publishers, thank you"), and if you follow Locus you can see which agents are selling to the markets you want to submit to. Agents will also "book doctor" your work as part of the submission process (since a successful agent that's selling books knows better than anyone the tastes of the editors they're courting for a sale), and you don't pay them a dime until the publisher cutsyou a check- the agent's motivation is to get you published, not to collect a fee for reviewing services.

You have experience with publishing, Jonas?
 
yeah, I know about the slush piles and some tricks around them. Getting a good agent, from what I've heard from some published authors, is a Russian roulette game. Most are not able to deliver or are all talk and no walk. A good one usually deals with already established clients.

My experience, so far, has been to ask published authors and attend a couple of workshops and seminars. I spoke with Stephen King's first publisher/editor (who is a well published author himself) and he had some very good reasons for seeing a book doctor for your first time out. He did like what he saw when he looked at the first 9 pages of my story, though. A book doc is good for if you don't know the details that publishers look for to reject you, and apparently there are a lot of little reasons. And their motivation behind is always to give you good advice that helps get you published. If they were a fraud or waste of money, then their clients would be unpublished. You get published, they get more rep and then more clients.

Personally, I will try to find an agent. To me, it's like buying a house with a realtor to work for you. They know more about the tricks and legalities than yours truly. Hopefully, they even know the people I would be trying to get to publish my book. I'll also try to get it published for a while without a book doc, but if that fails, I may try to get one to look it over for me.
 
Jonas, are you writing genre fiction (Sci Fi, Fantasy?) If so, I can get a spreadsheet from friend of mine, analyzing trends in the last 2-3 years of Locus's "Who's Publishing" page- by studying which agents are selling and to which editors/markets, you can eliminate a great deal of the uncertainty of going with an agent blind. If you're not writing genre fiction, I know that most of the other genres (Romance, Historical, Non-fiction, etc.) have their own publications like Locus, and should have similar write-ups.
 
I would definitely be interested in that list. I haven't been able to find anything I would consider reliable when it comes to recommending agents. As for my book, I am in the second draft stage. First one's done, now it's time to trim the fat and strengthen the weak points. I look for it to be done by summer (yes, I'm slow and lazy, but then again, I've been working on it for 14 years!)

The genre is fantasy. More of a modern day setting (think along the lines of Underworld. without the vampires)
 
Sweet! I finished MY book's first draft about 6 months ago, printed the whole thing out and made edits on paper (VERY helpful, BTW) and am in the process of doing the final electronic edit. I'm like 75% done and am on target to hit my Mar. 1 complete date. Let me find that spreadsheet- what email should I send it to?
 
Well, mine started when my best friend and I were 15. We were collecting comix and decided we could do some of the stories better. We invented our own characters, made our own drawings, and made up stories. We would use them as inspiration for art (we are both artists), and even now, we still get together and eventually play with images and stories. I ended up taking over most of it . Both story and characters have taken many different forms before cementing themselves into their current form about 5 years ago. Now they are grown and developed, and still growing and developing.