Gulp

[matril]

I made a goal to submit my first novel for publication this year. I finished it probably three years ago, though I've been poking at it with various revisions ever since then. It's long been time for me to swallow my apprehensions and send the darn thing in.

I am absolutely petrified. Not just of rejection. Sure, I'm scared of it. But that's fully expected. Oh, I'm certain I'll still bawl my eyes out when I get my first rejection notice, but still - it's pretty much an essential part of becoming an author. What terrifies me even more than the inevitable rejections is all the little nitpicky, bureaucratic aspects of publishing - agents, deals, formatting, policies, money stuff, blah blah blah. It's not enough to write a good book; you have to know where and to whom to send it, what sort of letter to attach to it, how to address whoever might read it, make sure you don't end up getting into some slippery deal that takes all your money, etc, etc. I suppose an agent is supposed to help with all that, but I've heard a lot of people say that you should first get your submission accepted, and then get an agent. Urk. We got "Getting your book published for Dummies" a while back, and I've been perusing it, but it's really pretty overwhelming. I checked out the submission guidelines on a website for a publisher that specializes in Sci-fi and Fantasy, and my novel meets all the requirements for length, etc., but then they go on about "rich text format" and vague things about cover letters and synopses and I'm just too scared. Grr, grr, grr.

I should just become the close personal friend of the head editor. That'll take care of everything. :P

Comments

Be Brave

[shehap.livejournal.com]

I know I'm required to say this, Matril, but your book is really very good. It is ready to be published. It should be published. The next step on it's development is to publish.
Be brave. I believe in you!

Re: Be Brave

[matril.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I know you mean it - you've given me good constructive criticism, so you don't just heap meaningless flattery upon me (though heaps of flattery are always nice ;).

[sonetka.livejournal.com]

The SFWA website has guidelines about formatting, and the Writer's Market has sample cover letters and synopses and so forth; Rich Text format is just ... can you save a file as .rtf on your computer? Because that's what it is :).

For getting an agent - I *think* that SFF is an exception in that several places take unagented submissions; I know if you do more standard literary stuff, you need an agent the same way you need oxygen - you're getting nowhere without it. Can't say for sure, though; all I do is short stories (which nobody wants agented except perhaps the New Yorker, and who cares about them?)

[matril.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information. I think my fear really comes down to this - after all my hard work at writing, I could get rejected thanks to some minor technical error that has nothing to do with the quality of the novel at all. But as long as I'm well-informed, I shouldn't have reason to panic about that.