I’m going to interrupt the ruminations on FLOSS every now and then to comment on where I am in getting my first book in front of readers. Work began on this tome (yeah, it’s a little long. I’m cutting out as much as I can.) five or six years ago, when a friend told me she had finished hers and challenged me to put my scattered images of scenes down on paper. Thank you, anonymous friend. If you give me permission, I’ll give full attribution.

I remember telling my wife, Janice, almost three years ago that I had finished the book. What I meant was that I had finally reached a place at which I could write “The End”. But, of course, even though I had been heavily revising as I composed, that was really just the end of the beginning. It was followed by years of arduous revision, murdering my darlings, and reading everything I could find on what agents wanted to see, especially in the first pages.

I submitted to a few agents about a year ago, and received polite, personal (except for one form letter) rejections. Along the way I was refining my query letter, and, even though she, too, declined representation, an agent who writes a blog about query letters complimented me on my query.

I’m in the last pass of revision, still with an eye out to cut what little fat remains. A novel is supposed to be from eighty thousand to one hundred twenty thousand words long. Novels that require world-building (science fiction, historical novels, anything set in a world that’s unfamiliar to the target reader) can be a little longer (or so I understand). My novel peaked at a bit over one hundred thirty-one thousand words. Now it’s down to about one hundred eighteen thousand. Even though I’m in the length window, publishers are more willing to buy a shorter book than a longer one, because it’s cheaper to produce. If it’s well-received, the next books can be longer. So I’m still cutting, punching up the wording, and making it harder for an agent to decline. That, of course, should make it a more enjoyable experience for the eventual reader.
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The next post will probably be about Calligra Author. After that one, maybe I’ll post a possible back-cover blurb for the book.

Check back. If you’d like to be notified when a new post lands, register. You’ll get an email when I post. I’m going to categorize my posts (Book and FLOSS), and I think I can make only the category that interests you result in an email.

Craig