Goodreads

September. *blows out the dust again* Time for a new blogging resolution to blog a bit more regularly. I've had quite a lot of ideas for blogs recently, but haven't actually got around to writing them. It's a bit frustrating...unless you blog it right when the mood hits you, you sort of lose enthusiasm with it (and 2am is an annoying time to turn the computer on). Maybe that's why people like Twitter--a handful of characters isn't very time consuming...

Anyway, you've probably heard of this blog topic before: Goodreads, a place to record the books you read and what you thought of them. I was a little unsure what to make of it when I joined up, but since then I've added a few books and I actually quite like it. It's nice to make a record of the books because with my bad memory, it's always quite hard to remember what I've read...

For some reason, there's also something satisfying in totting up the books into a nice, ever-growing statistic. We like stats, as humans, don't we? Even though most of them are nonsense (99% of statistics are made up on the spot...geddit?). My Goodreads only lists about 80 books, but that's because I can't be bothered to wrack my brains *too* hard to recall everything I've ever read. Still, I'm trying to start a habit of adding every NEW book I read, and the number's creeping up now.

The website also gives you updates on the authors you've read before, whenever they publish something new. Like a while back, I found out through it that Mary Hoffman has a new book out. Not the Stravaganza series that I like but something standalone. Whenever I have a spare moment to read something of my own choice (doesn't happen very often!), I'll get around to reading it.

You can have friends on Goodreads and compare your reading tastes, which is quite interesting, too. More fun stats. Unfortunately I only have two friends, so if you're reading this and aren't a complete stranger, feel free to add me... my profile is here.

Rejection, rejection, rejection...

Unfortunately the rejection letters have been trickling in over the last few weeks - electronic submissions seem to work much faster than mailed ones!

Now I have a choice: do I send out Between Time electronically to some agents across the pond, or do I send out some postal queries in the UK, or do I e-publish it for the Kindle?

I have exactly one month left before I run out of writing time and start my PGCE.

Hmm.

I think I'll try some electronic submissions to US agents. I'm considering 'translating' the novel for those agents. What do you think? It should be fairly easy, because I know a lot about American spelling (and grammar) already: ize/ise, colour/color, travelling/traveling...etc. I just found a useful site: http://www.translatebritish.com/dictionary which has a neat list of differences!

The only problem is that I've not got much time. I haven't done any writing for a week, because I went away to Liverpool to volunteer. The idea of the week is to give kids a holiday when they wouldn't normally have one. It was really good fun, but very tiring! We went ice skating, laser questing, to a Maise Maze, to a muddy adventure trail, for spooky night walks, to many parks, to a lake, to the beach, to the cinema, to Blackpool Pleasure Beach... and more! I also now know how to tell a really boring story that's certain to send kids to sleep!

And I need to pack today, because I head off to Amsterdam for a mini-break tomorrow. After that, I have a week gap where I *may* get some writing stuff done, but then I have another week of volunteering, and only then do I have a final week to myself where I might get sorted for submissions/writing.

Hmm...

Did I say I had a month? It's more like one final week! :o

I have reached 20K with the new novel I'm writing, at least. The second 'phase' of that novel is now complete and I'm about to head into the next bit. It could be tricky because I have to make around six months pass in this section...

I guess I just have to make the most of the time remaining. I will have time to submit Between Time in the States, but not to then e-publish it when I get a load of rejections. E-publication might have to wait until next summer. It might seem like a very sloooooooow process, but at least the delay will give the UK Kindle market time to grow!

Ready to be battered

Well, I finally accomplished one of my summer goals - I sent Between Time out to its first agent. After researching them, it appears the UK market has grown a little in the last few years and there are even agents who accept e-submissions (around five in total). So I'm concentrating on those first.

It's always a difficult question to know how many agents to send out to at once, especially when some of them seem funny about multiple submissions. A number ask you to make clear if you're sending it out to more than one. I don't understand why they care. Because if one offers you acceptance before any other, you can politely withdraw your MS from the others. I simply don't have time to wait 6-8 weeks for rejection before moving on.

The main argument for submitting only to a couple is that you can, if you're rejected, polish the MS more before you submit to the next batch. I have revised Between Time quite a bit since the last time it was out with agents. Particularly the first chapter, which I thought needed more of a hook.

Well, it's out there. The subject of this blog isn't quite accurate, though. A number of these agents differ from my past experience: they let you know that your work has been received, but only respond then if they're interested. So when I hear nothing after 6-8 weeks, I know that I'm rejected. That's a little frustrating, because, while I don't like rejection letters, they do at least give a sense of closure to a query. Oh well.

Ha, listen to me. Such a pessimist! Wish me luck. ;)

Dilemma

A number of my friends seem to be turning to e-publication. I had another request for proof-reading last week, which I finished yesterday. I don't want to say too much about that novel yet, but when it hits the e-shelves, I'll write all about it here.

It's such a dilemma for me!

My brother made a really gorgeous cover for my midgrade/tween novel, Between Time. It made me want to e-publish it even more! Because that novel is now as ready as it will ever be. I just let my younger sister read through to check the vocab level, and she also seemed to enjoy it. Critiques have always been positive. If I made a back cover, a book trailer, and prepare it for e-publication, it could be out in a month!

I had a dream, too, that I DID e-publish it. I was on a website, watching the 'sold' count creep up. Not hugely, but as high as 20 sales in the dream. And it was SO EXCITING!

But I'm just worried that I'd be limiting my sales if I e-publish... because I just can't see THAT many 11 year old kids owning Kindles. I don't know. This thread on amazon.com seems promising... but hmm. What do you think?

This summer is rapidly vanishing. If I'm going to go down the traditional route, I must get a large batch of queries out in the next week or so... so the rejections can pile up before September.

What to do? What to do? I hate query writing. I hate researching agents and pretending I care about them. I don't really get how you're supposed to do it anyway. The UK market, I'm pretty sure, is different to the US one. The UK ones are more elusive.

If I e-published, there would be challenges in a DIFFERENT way, but at least then there would be a clear end goal.

Arg!

In other news, I finally took a deep breath and made a start on 'Zack'. It needs some major structural work, which is always the hardest part! But if I keep battering at it, I might make headway eventually.

My newest novel is progressing quite nicely, though. I've reached the first 10K hurdle, and considering that the novel is probably tween, that's probably a good fifth of the way. I'm slightly worried this novel might end up being a little too long for its age-range, but I'll just have to see. No point in fretting over that at this stage!

So yes. Things are progressing. But slowly. And there's only so much summer left...

Results are in...

...and they were what I needed to progress to the next level. :D Once the graduation ceremony is over this weekend, I shall officially have a degree from Cambridge and will be moving on to my Post-Graduate Certificate of Education. Hehehe.

To continue on from the previous blog post, my sister and I have now sent off our competition entries. They'll start their journey through the post tomorrow, and should be there by the Friday deadline without a struggle. Good to have something out there. Maybe it'll inspire me to get on with other things too.

To say that today has been a stressful (waiting for the results, which didn't arrive until around 4pm!) and unproductive day is fairly accurate, although I have made a little progress, at least, with something. I started to look through Between Time, to give it another edit before I start researching agents for it. It's always surprising how much you can edit something when you leave it to sit for a while. I want to get submissions out for it before the end of the summer.

Still no Zack related news, of course. Seems like I'm doing everything I can to avoid it. Oh dear, oh dear. Still, tomorrow is a new day!

Competition!

A few weeks ago, I had a dream in which I was writing this blog post. In my dream, I hadn't edited Zack, but I did have a new novel.

Reality doesn't have such an achievement. I have written a short story, though. I was doing a little research for my newest novel on the Jacqueline Wilson website and I noticed there was a writing competition there. The winners are published in an anthology and there's an award ceremony at her Literary Festival in October.

I figured I might as well give it a shot, because to have ANY published credit has to help, even though I wouldn't get paid for it. I didn't mind that I'd lose the rights to the story as I would write it entirely for the competition.

Short stories are a pain to write. It took me about three months to think up an idea. Or at least to develop my initial idea into a coherent story. I think I've managed now, though... With some extensive editing, I've managed to keep it to the word count of 2000 words. Yay!

The story continues from where Zack left off, but from the perspective of a character with only a cameo in the novel. It's very different from the original novel!

Now all that remains is printing it off and sending it to the competition. I would have liked to have ran it past Critique Circle, but there are only a few days remaining before the competition closes! My little sister is currently writing her attempt, too. We'll be in separate age categories, which is fun. :)

Anyway, Zack is still unedited. But I'll hopefully make a start on it tomorrow. There's still plenty of the summer left to get it sorted.

In other news, exam results come out tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Meeting Garth Nix!

As the euphoria slowly wears off, I sit down to record an amazing experience and as it's writing-related I thought I'd share it here.

Tonight, I met Garth Nix.

This, for me, is like meeting David Tennant for Doctor Who fans. Or ... I don't know, David Beckham for football fans? Anyway, if you don't know who he is and you have a vague interest in reading children's fantasy, you must order his books NOW: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garth-Nix/e/B000AQ01XU/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0. I would happily recommend them all, particularly the Abhorsen series for teens and the Keys to the Kingdom for younger teens. Oh, and the amazing Shade's Children. And the Ragwitch.

Anyway, he has been a childhood inspiration for a long time. Many times I've been battling away at my own writing and turned to admire his prose not without a huge twinge of jealousy. I've loved him just as much as J.K. Rowling or Philip Pullman. They're my top three authors of all time.

So I was incredibly excited to hear that he was coming to Cambridge, and even better, on the night after my exams finished! I've been his friend on Facebook for a while and recently he has started putting up fairly frequent updates. That was how I found out about the event (Facebook has made life so much better, in certain ways!).

Anyway, I went, I saw, I left awestruck.

He was amazing. He did an hour talk, involving some fun facts about himself (yes, his name is his real one and not a pseudonym) and a fun fantasy story about a magical ring that gave him nine years success, which he then gave to the first person who put up their hand (unfortunately I was too slow, though I did put mine up very quickly). Then, he read aloud a bit of a novel that will be coming out next year. There was a question and answer session and finally a book-signing session.

I was far too star-struck to say anything very coherent when it was time to meet him, but it was still amazing. I did manage to request a photo with him and it turned out okay:

He was just as incredible in flesh as he is on paper.

I would have liked to have asked him to read something of mine, but of course, I know he would be too busy to accept even something short. My mid-grade fantasy Between Time is strongly influenced by the style of his Keys to the Kingdom series. I can dream and think he might read this, though; that would be amazing!

Anyway, all too soon, the evening was over and I was trembling in a corner, putting my signed book away and getting ready to cycle back. I think I must have looked rather mad on the way back with the huge grin on my face.

I don't think there's much more to say than that. Read him. Love him. And see him, if you have the chance.

Here's the signed book too:

*excited squeal*