Drafting versus Revising

Hai! Yes, it's me again, just posted yesterday but the Universe is a funny thing sometimes and here I am today to lead off the Word Whores lineup, discussing drafting versus revising.

I'm not sure what stand my fellow Word Whores are going to take on this aspect of the writing process. In my writerly garret, I do a first draft of a novel, which is the initial time I commit my entire story to the metaphorical paper. (Actually, I rely on the laptop and the keyboard and the electrons of WORD nowadays). What I do is get something written, and each time I sit down to write thereafter, I start by rereading the portion of the story I wrote last time. This process warms me up for the new stuff and I might expand on what I wrote previously, add embellishments, clean up action etc. Technically I guess that's "revising" but I wouldn't give it the twitter hashtag #amrevising at that point. It's not Revising with the capital "R".

When I finish the first draft, I have all the bones of the story in place and then I regard myself as revising, in the work I do on that book thereafter. I'm not sure what it would take for me to feel I'd done a second draft of a novel. Wholesale replacement of characters and plot elements maybe? I can't honestly remember a time I ever did that.  Even if I add or delete new scenes, it's still revising at that point.

I can't tell you how many more passes I make through a manuscript. As you've discovered if you read these Word Whores posts very often, I'm quite the organic, superstitious, what's-the-opposite-of-organized author. So all parts of my process vary, depending on feedback from my beta readers and critique partner, and then on inputs from my editor. Drafting is between me, myself and I but more players enter the mix when we hit the Revising stage.

I once received a pretty hefty Revise and Resubmit (R&R) from a publisher and that one took me a while to absorb and think through. I liked the suggestions, but not in their entirety, so I had to figure out a way to accomplish what the editor was recommending, as far as amping up the conflict and tension between the hero and heroine and not allowing them to fall in love too soon or too easily. I ended up with a couple of very cool new scenes and some insights I could apply to future projects. Always a good thing!

Carina Press Executive Editor Angela James wrote a terrific blog post about the R&R process. As Ms. James said in that post:

"Trust me, if the editor wanted to reject your book, it would be a lot less time consuming. The R&R letter can often take hours for the editor to craft, after they’ve made extensive notes while reading your book. We don’t just whip out an R&R letter in 15 minutes and send it out. It gets crafted by the editor and then read by me and we discuss. We want to make sure that the letter is clear, lays out the issues, but also tells you why we love the book and want to see it again."

I know some authors who have chosen not to pursue an R&R's from various publishers. I've known other people who have done R&R's and either the book as revised got bought, or it didn't.

The author has to decide if the suggestions work for them and their vision of the novel. And now, if you'll forgive me, I #amrevising, on a deadline!

How to Sell a Series When You're Not a Pre-Plotter

This is me with my granddaughter, Aerro, up in northern Wyoming last week. We all gathered to say goodbye to my Father-in-Law. It was bittersweet. Such a sad event, but also the largest gathering of the family possibly ever before or again. Daughter Lauren and Grandson Tobiah are playing on the jungle-gym in the background.

So, last week the Bordello was in rare near-consensus on the topic of outlining and how much we hates it, Precious. But what happens when you sell a series?

I mean, it's what we all want. Kind of the holy grail for writers, if we don't get to pick something like "have J.K. Rowling's career." For a long time (much longer than I liked), whenever my family asked me what I wanted for Christmas or my birthday, I'd reply "a lucrative, multi-book contract."

(Fortunately they love me and find me amusing, for the most part.)

The multi-book contract guarantees that the book you write will have a home - no worries about where or who you'll sell it to. It also provides a sense of creative continuity. If you sell three books in a series, then you know you'll have that time and space to tell the story at least over those books.

And there's the rub.

I might have gleefully misted my way through the first book, but those editorial types are all persnickety. They want to know what the OTHER books will be about, too. Thus this week's follow-on topic: Selling a Series: Concepts, Synopses, Outlines, and/or Manuscripts.

Now, some writers have all the books in the series already written. This can be fabulous for when that lucrative, multi-book contract lands in their laps. The rest of the series is already written and it's dead easy to tell the acquiring editor what happens next. There are two drawbacks to doing this, however. One is that the editorial direction on book 1 might change what happens in subsequent books, creating greater or lesser revisions. Not that this is a huge deal, but it's not a slam-dunk either. The second drawback, which is the major obstacle to me, is that you might never sell that series. I have one book still that hasn't sold and it may never do so. It's one thing to have invested in a single novel that never sells and another to have done so with two or three.

But that's my particular schtick - I hate "wasting time." Many authors would likely argue that writing a book is never wasted, whether it's pubbed or not. I tend to be goal-oriented.

So, let's say you sell that first book and score big - get that contract for two more - and those still need to be written. What happens next depends on the editor.

For me, I sold the first book in my Twelve Kingdoms trilogy, which was already written, and provided with it a "series sketch" of the next two books.

Wait, you say. What are you saying, Jeffe? Did you actually KNOW AHEAD OF TIME what the story would be before you wrote it??

 ~scuffs toe in the dirt~

Kind of?

KAK used the analogy last week of an outline being like an itinerary for a vacation. That's actually how I see it, too. However, KAK and I should likely never take a road trip together. Even though we'd have great conversations.

You all know that vacation type - the route is ruthlessly planned and timed, down to which eatery will serve for each meal. Me? I know pretty much where I'm going, but I hate being tied to a schedule. I'd rather enjoy the serendipity of discovery. Yes, that means sometimes we eat later than we like, sometimes at crappy places. It also means we end up in places we would never have known to plan on.

Thus, the series sketch has been my savior. With Twelve Kingdoms, I have three daughters of the High King and I know overall how their stories fit together. Did I know this when I wrote book 1? No no no. But, in writing the story of the middle daughter, the personalities and destinies - for want of a better word - of her sisters became more clear to me. Clear enough that I could write a paragraph that went essentially "now that we've ended up in New Orleans with a car load of antiques, we need to drive up to Delaware to sell them. But that won't give us the profit we're looking for, so we'll end up driving into Newfoundland."

Now, some editors, after buying a series on this kind of concept, then ask for outlines and synopses of those books. So far, my Kensington editor, Peter Senftelben, has not asked for that, for which I'm tremendously grateful. I think it's a vote of confidence that he knows I'll turn in a coherent novel. Even my other editor, Deb Nemeth at Carina, who bought Ruby on spec and a "synopsis" that was really more of a sketch - :D- and then asked me for a "more detailed synopsis," didn't come after me when I, um, didn't send it until I'd finished writing the story.

It's not that I don't *want* to cooperate and provide that detailed synopsis. It's just that I can't write one. It would be a lie. I know many writers do this - turn in an outline or detailed synopsis and then cheerfully deviate from it (as Linda suggested last week) - and I suppose I could, if pressed. I'd rather work with editors who understand my process and trust me to make it work.

And, fortunately, they love me and find me amusing. For the most part.

What's New in the Land of Readers

I was at the Lori Foster Reader and Author Get Together this weekend. During my signing, Angela James, Editorial Director of Carina Press, visited my table and I so coveted her lemon drop martini that she gave it to me.

If anyone asks how Carina treats their authors? THIS.

Because this event is more of a reader party and less of an industry conference, I didn't get tons of "official" information that pertains to this week's theme of "Industry Pulse-Trends, Tech, & Troglodytes."

However, I did talk to a lot of readers and that gave me an unusual - and fascinating - insight into their pulses.

Being primarily romance readers, they know what they like and how they like it. They were at this event to discover new authors to read and they were like kids shopping at a candy store. They snapped up bookmarks and cards. They tapped the cover images and said "tell me about this one." Things I heard from them:

"You had me at Contemporary."

"Anything erotic - yes, yes, yes."

"I'm a paranormal girl. I want THIS."

"What flavor of fantasy are you - fairies, shifters, vampires?"

What's interesting to me about this is, if you listen to the jaded and world-weary panels of agents and editors, they will shake their heads and say "paranormal romance is dead." I've been hearing that news make the rounds lately. Agents can't sell it. Editors can't buy it. Nobody wants it and all us writers might as well pack up our supernatural critters and store them in the basement until the next season.

Apparently the readers did not get this memo.

Now, they ARE tired of the same old, same old. I've seen a lot of eye-rolling over Yet Another vampire/werewolf love triangle. But this is a weariness based on lack of invention in the stories, not in the overall genre. Readers are hungrier than ever. Feed them.

Interestingly, there are many still struggling with the tech. I know the statistics say that everyone who's gonna get an eReader already has one, but that's not what I saw at this event. Many readers were stacking their raffle bets on the baskets with eReaders, so they could acquire their first one. One gal I talked to who hoped to win an eReader was all excited when I showed her the Kindle app she could put on her iPhone. She acted like it was a miracle.

So fun.

As for the troglodytes, the paper-only readers are still out there. One gal said she simply CAN'T read on any eReader because of something headaches something eyes something technical jargon. I didn't quite get it, but she was annoyed I didn't have paper books for her. Alas.

That's my report!

Publisher Spotlight: Carina Press

(<=Jake the Glowing e Cat LOL!)

First of all I have to thank fellow Word Whore Jeffe Kennedy for leaving Carina Press for me to write about, since I’ve had exactly two e publishers so far and one of them was myself!

Carina is the digital first imprint of the mighty Harlequin and here’s what HQN has to say: 

“Be adventurous in your reading and try something new!” Carina publishes works from 15,000 words on up, including contemporary romance, steampunk, erotic romance, gay/lesbian fiction, science-fiction, fantasy, or any number of other genres. They’re also very excited about New Adult right now. For more specifics on what Carina does and doesn’t publish, you can visit their Submission Guidelines page.

Here's what their page has to say regarding royalties: "Carina Press pays 40% of net digital receipts to books sold on 3rd party retail sites and 50% of net digital receipts to books sold directly on the Carina Press website. Our contract also lays out royalties for the other rights, such as audio, print and foreign translation."

I can only speak to my own, short experience with Carina but I’ve been very happy. Carina let me live a writer’s fairy tale – I submitted my “Priestess of the Nile” novella to their slush pile in 2011. It was the first thing I’d ever submitted anywhere…and they decided to acquire it! I was so excited and disbelieving that I’m afraid  I wasn't very coherent when I received The Call from Angela James, Executive Editor. “Priestess” came out in January 2012. The second novel in my “Tales of the Egyptian Gods” series will be released by Carina this coming September. The stories are set in 1550 BCE Egypt and have a strong paranormal element.

I loved my Editor Alison Dasho (who recently left Carina to become the Acquisitions Editor for Thomas & Mercer). The whole editing process on both books was a wonderful collaboration, in which I learned a great deal that made my writing stronger. Carina gave me a stunning cover for “Priestess” - it wasn’t at all what I had been picturing (can you say six pack abs LOL?) but was beautiful, mysterious, evocative….ok, yes, I fell in love with the art and the vision of my story. There’s a delicious hint of the Crocodile God…I haven’t seen my next cover yet but I’m confident it’ll be as satisfying. Carina does outstanding cover art!

One of the biggest personal benefits to me of being a Carina author has been the two wonderful author loops I’m now on (Carina and also Here Be Magic). I’ve met some terrific people on the loops, and everyone is very generous about giving advice, commiserating as needed, and celebrating the good stuff with you.

“Priestess” was also issued as an audio book through Audible, which was exciting for me. Carina does put some books into print also, as I understand it, but as yet I’ve not experienced that. They don’t pay advances, the royalties come quarterly, I was pretty much responsible for my own marketing but they have been very supportive with materials for book signings or other events. Carina does have quite a social media presence, with Angela, editors and others tweeting, etc., so I received some promo there. As a beginning author, trying to make a start on creating the all important backlist, having my series at Carina has been a very positive thing.

I believe every author should do what works for them as far as publishing, self publishing, traditional publisher, e publisher, agent/nonagented. Listen to the experiences of others, remember this is a business, stay flexible, but ultimately, do what takes you further along the path you want to go. Happy writing!