WriterOfStuff's avatar

WriterOfStuff

Sometimes Known as Peter Dawes
308 Watchers95 Deviations
76.4K
Pageviews
The Journal of Author Peter Dawes

But you can call me Jules...


Working on dressing up the place again. I'm sorry if my appearances are sporadic, but them's the breaks when you've got deadlines and such. But I remember this being an awesome community, and I have a brand new, shiny Core membership gifted to me from a good friend.

Might as well make the most of it, eh?

How many of you guys are still out there? Anyone lurking? What are you working on? Catch me up to speed.

Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In

Gadzooks, a DD!

5 min read
The Journal of Author Peter Dawes

But you can call me Jules...


You ever have one of those really awesome runs of good luck and ask yourself... okay, so seriously, either I had some really good karma coming to me or the universe is just trying to mess with me? That's been my life lately. I have been blessed with so many awesome twists and turns lately and I'm humbled by all of them. My fans all chipped in to help with a technological meltdown I had late last month. I now have a family computer and a personal laptop to take around to write-ins... rather than a sputtering Acer and a dead-in-the-water Dell. Our production schedule at Crimson Melodies looks achievable for once and after the most stressful summers I've ever experienced, fall is here and brought in some fresh air with it.

And then, I randomly logged in tonight to find an old flash fiction piece I wrote six years ago...

And discover I'd been given a Daily Deviation.

For starters, TarienCole and inknalcohol are amazing individuals and I'm so appreciative for this nod. Talk about a shot in the arm just as theJRWesley and I are setting out to seize the moment. To say I never expected it isn't false humility; I haven't been as active here in recent years and The Unquiet Dead has been one of those books where I'm flying by the seat of my pants, wondering where the hell we're going to wind up in the end. Oh sure, I have a plot outline, but outlines be damned, Christian has a story to tell and can't wait until we get to NaNoWriMo this year. 50k down, 50k to go. *cracks knuckles*

The Unquiet Dead - PrologueHe stood nearly a foot taller, and looked to be a decade older. I’d never seen him before, but from that day forth, I would never forget what he looked like. Chestnut-colored hair and cold, gray eyes. A full beard, which covered his lips, and a distinct facial profile. The stranger walked up beside me and set his sights on the innkeeper, but the name he spoke made my blood run cold.
“Have you heard of a man named Richard Hardi?”
There I sat, all of fourteen years to this man’s twenty-four? Twenty-five? It was hard to gage solely by looking up at him. He still bore the benefit of youth, but the gravity of his gaze suggested someone much older than he appeared. His question had me frozen with shock, forcing me to stare despite the fact that I knew I should run, hide; do something other than sit at the bar gawking at him so conspicuously. Father often had people calling after him, but they were townspeople. Merchants. Customers.
The sigil emblazoned on the man


So, here's to my medieval rogue. And to you wonderful people, for picking me up during the bad times and carrying me across to some better days. TarienCole, here's especially to you, because you have been a huge help and an amazing supporter. Thank you so, so very much.

If any of my followers have yet to delve into his amazing work, they should hurry over and remedy that.

More news soon. In the meantime, stay crazy, my friends.
Jules


Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
The Journal of Author Peter Dawes

But you can call me Jules...


Greetings and salutations, dear friends. It's been a while, and that seems to be the constant state of life for me right now. Balancing kids, publication schedules, and the various trials and tribulations of life has been hectic to say the least. You can find me most often on Twitter and Facebook... and on occasion, on my personal blog.
Punctuate that with a sweeping 'The More You Know' rainbow, and we're good to go.

I dropped off before I could finish talking about publishing, but in the meantime the supremely awesome Chuck Wendig blogged about the same topic recently. In the spirit of 'He said it better than I could,' I'm going to say, please go read it if you're still interested in the subject. Fox News only wishes it could be as fair and balanced.

I'm intending to post up a little bit of work here and there, but wanted to jazz this up first. I have a poetry profile that's been collecting dust and we'll not even go into my werewolf romances page and Peter's profile. So many things to write and not enough time.

But maybe, just maybe, soon...

What have you guys been up to lately?


Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
The Journal of Author Peter Dawes

But you can call me Jules...


Ah, here I am just a day late. My apologies; writing projects sometimes get the better of me when my muse is active.

Now... We begin our publishing journey with a look into the wonderful world of traditional publishing. Traditional publishing is basically just a term for the concept of querying an agent/publisher with your book pitch and working with said publisher toward the goal of seeing your manuscript from draft to bound and printed (or e-formatted) volume. Most publishing companies have a staff of editors and a marketing strategy which assists both the company and the author to maximize their profits. When most people dream of being published, they envision one of the "big six" companies (Simon & Schuster, etc.) from New York being at the helm, if not one of their "imprints".  (Sub companies of a larger publishing house, usually with a certain market niche it specializes in. Tor, for example, is MacMillan's sci-fi/fantasy wing.)

To most writers, this is still a coveted goal. I have a good friend who is an aspiring YA author and has been soliciting her work to literary agencies with the hope of landing an agent. The market model, though, has come under some scrutiny in recent years and ebooks have a lot to do with all that.

I'll save all that for another post. In this one, I'll focus on how one normally makes it from aspiring author to published novelist in the traditional publishing world.

First and foremost, you can't query publishers directly any longer. Considering the deluge of manuscripts and crowd of aspiring novelists which exist out there, it's a competitive market and the "big six" want something standing between them and the teeming hordes. This is where a literary agent comes into play. Literary agents come in all varieties and each has their own niche. And most of them work out of New York City themselves.  Agents accept the queries the publishers don't have the time and manpower to rifle through, and then approach the publishers with manuscripts they think have some viability on the market.

Now, the downside to that is getting an agent will have a lot to do with what is commercial these days. If you've found yourself asking why there's so much crap being published or made into movies or released onto an album, this is why. Movie studios, book publishers, and record producers have a keener eye set on the bottom line than they do the artistic integrity of the work they're unleashing onto the masses.

That's not to say everything publishers publish is crap. Or that a good, original idea will never make it through the steel curtain which is the literary agent model. But what an agent will be looking for is:

1. A completed manuscript, replete with genre, word count, and intended market. The last item indicates to the agent you understand who your audience is. The more niche the market, the harder it will be to find an agent willing to hire you as a client.
2. That said manuscript has been thoroughly read-through; self-edited for continuity issues, major grammar fixes, and plot and characterization; and presents the author's best foot forward. And even then, being involved in criticism groups is crucial. Speaking as a writer myself, if I didn't have another set of eyes on my work, it wouldn't be anywhere near market quality.
3. That the manuscript includes a one page synopsis of your plot, from beginning to end (and don't play the spoilers game with an agent), a briefer synopsis of the book for the query letter, and a query letter which contains the book's "high concept" in there somewhere.  (High concept = "a term used to refer to an artistic work that can be easily described by a succinctly stated premise")

For a list of literary agents and their specialties, I highly encourage you to pick up a copy of the Writer's Market for the current year. Most of these behemoth volumes contain tips on writing query letters and will tell you which agents are accepting new clients, what they're currently looking to represent, and how they prefer to be queried. Most queries are e-submitted these days, which also means they have faster response times than the olden days when I was querying. Agents will indicate if they want anything more than a query letter from you at first. Best not to send even a partial of your manuscript unless stated otherwise.

How does that affect your work on dA? While I'm not sure how long things linger on the Google search engines any longer, I wouldn't advise you to take down your work until you're a few months out from the querying process. Glean the benefit of peer review and criticism, and upload your work here under a different title than you intend to query under if you want to make absolutely certain. When you're getting ready to query, then take everything down and unfortunately, I do mean everything. If anyone's had a different experience, please let me know, but the last time I checked, agents and publishers alike do not want your work available online in any other form than the ones they provide.

There are other options for receiving peer criticisms if you don't want to stand the risk of even uploading your work here. There are sites dedicated to critiques of things like your first chapter, your first few pages, and your query letters. The one I know of best is Query Tracker, but if you know of any others, please post them in the comments section for anyone who reads this and might benefit from the information.

That's all I have for you right now. Next time, we'll talk about the current market and the pros and cons of traditional publishing. :)

Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
The Journal of Author Peter Dawes

But you can call me Jules...


Way back in 2003, I started a novel after what had been a five year sabbatical from fiction writing. In the interim, I'd gotten married and spent a few zealous years wrapped up in other things before the siren call of composition found me again. One of my best friends showed me a novel he was writing and I fell in love with it. Almost immediately afterward, I remembered I used to like doing this sort of thing.

The product of that reawakening was a novel series about a superhero named Shadow Fox. While I never bothered trying to solicit Scott's tales to any major publishers, there was this new concept called self-publishing which had broken into the mainstream consciousness. Still in its infancy, it at least provided an alternative to vanity presses and one place in particular charged no upfront fees for its services. You simply ordered a set amount of copies of your book and were charged accordingly. This company – Lulu.com – created a term called 'print on demand' and through Lulu my first two superhero novels were born. Then, along came a vampire named Flynn.

Flynn was different. With him, I suddenly had the impulse I might have created someone who could draw the attention of traditional publishers. After finishing his first three books, I began the arduous process of querying, not with any degree of seriousness, but rather as an experiment into what it was like to endure it. After a dozen rejections, two requests for partials, and one request for a full manuscript (which resulted in a rejection – it was a smaller press looking for something more Paranormal Romance), I decided to stop. Something about my maverick spirit wanted to grip onto the rights for Flynn's books and I wasn't ready to surrender them just yet.

While that hardly makes me an expert on traditional publishing, in the last few years I've befriended people much more invested in being published by one of the 'big six' as they're called. And since the inception of Crimson Melodies, my partner and I have discovered how crucial it is to know what the big leagues are up to as we refine a more professional micro-press. In recent talks with fellow wordsmiths, I've realized a lot of the things we've learned along the way are still a sacred initiation of trial and error. And now, with self-publishing, the options have expanded.

Should you self-publish, or should you query?

So, I decided to write a series of posts talking about the process from both points of view. While I confess my bias lies toward independent publishing, it's my goal to show the perks and the downsides to both methods and help you determine what to do with your work from here. I hope to share what the current market trends are, the ways the publishing scene has changed now – in large part due to Amazon (love them or hate them) – and how that affects simple things like sharing your work in the pre-publication stage.

My next post will start on the topic of traditional publishing. But I'd like to give you guys a chance to submit any further questions you might have first. I have a poll set up discussing the matter, or you can leave a comment on this journal.

Part One begins on Monday. ;)
Jules

:iconinyourroomplz:

Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Featured

Back in Business, Baby by WriterOfStuff, journal

Gadzooks, a DD! by WriterOfStuff, journal

Been Away Too Long by WriterOfStuff, journal

Traditional Publishing - The Process by WriterOfStuff, journal

Publishing: Demystified by WriterOfStuff, journal