Wednesday, August 1, 2012

ISWG: Taking the Plunge & Some Thank Yous

I'm taking the plunge--kind of. Some people say it's a short story. Some people call it a novella. I call it Fate, and I'm taking a risk with it. It's a risk and it's not. But it's important to me, because the story behind the story is just as interesting with this one. A person who's opinion I really valued told me they could not get past page three of this story and would no longer be reading for me. I was ready to give up. When my husband found me crying over my computer, he took it and read the whole story in about twenty minutes. (Thank you, Emil).  He told me to find someone else to read it.

I posted I needed a CP on my blog and the next day Shelley at Stories in the Ordinary offered to read for me. One day later she e-mailed back saying she loved the story, and I should pursue it. I did. About half of my queries resulted in full requests. Super thanks Shelley. If you hadn't believed in me, I couldn't have. The first rounds of requests for revisions went well, but they resulted in more revisions and while I have some different changes I want to make, I'm not willing to change some things others would like me to.

Which leads me to a calculated risk. I'm self publishing it. An agent told me self publishing shorter work won't hurt my chances of getting an agent for longer work, and because it's short anywhere it gets published it will only be available as an e-book. It's already been professionally edited by Kelly Hashway, and that's another thank you. If it goes well, I may even consider self publishing novel length work in the future. If it doesn't, well, I'm not making any money or building a platform with it on my hard drive either.

And now a plea for help. Would any of you be willing to help me with a blog tour or a cover reveal or both?

21 comments:

  1. Yep, I'll promote it. I don't do blog tours as a rule, but when you're ready, give me a blurb or teaser snippet, short author profile, pic of cover and links to purchase. I have a featured author/book page on my blog and I'll post it there. (You can DM me on Twitter @ficflash and I'll DM you my email address.)

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  2. That's great news, Beth. Here's to a great tour. I'll help, but it will have to be in Sept. Right now I'm up to my ears in a book launch and a family issue. Both are taking any time I have. Let me know if I can do something for you in Sept.

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  3. Thanks for the shout out, Beth! I really did enjoy your story and think others would too, so I'd be happy to help promote. It might have to wait until early September or so, since I've got a lot of "real world" things going on this month, but please email me and let me know what I can do. :)

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  4. Thanks for the shout out. I'm in for the cover reveal and blog tour. :)

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  5. I'll be happy to help with a cover reveal and tour. Sending good vibes, hugs, and best wishes. Good for you.

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  6. I'd be happy to help out with a tour and cover reveal!

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  7. Congrats! I'd love to participate in the cover reveal and tour. I'm proud of you for taking a chance. You never know until you try.

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    1. Thanks Jessie. You've been so helpful basically since I started writing. You were the person who told me about YAlitchat ;)

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  8. You're brave. I self-pubbed a short once. I've sold one copy until now. I guess I'm not the best marketer. :P

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    1. Is your story still available? What's it called?

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  9. I'm game for a cover reveal or blog tour. My blog is nickieanderson.blogspot.com
    Message me there and we can definitely set something up! I'm always happy to help support other writers.

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  10. I'm new to YALITCHAT, but you can count me in on cover reveal. Congrats for taking the plunge. I know a lot of successful self-pubbed authors and they seem happy.

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  11. Good for you for not giving up.

    The moral to this story is: don't put much stock in one person's opinion. When asking for opinions of your work, get several (at least 4 or 5) and then look for common comments. If only one or two people mark something as subjectively 'bad,' you can probably disregard. Anyhow, best of luck. :)

    IWSG #179 (At least until Alex culls the list again. :P)

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  12. What genre is it?

    I have a number of friends who have seen tremendous success with self publishing their novellas and novels. They write romance and women's fiction.

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    1. It's clean adult romance. Although, it got rejected from one publisher for being "too explicit"---there is no sex or even the insinuation of it....

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