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March 2008
Okay, so I said I'd have a new name for my column by this month. I haven't decided on one yet, and since I'm right up against the deadline for submitting, I really can't hold off until I settle on the right one. The month of February wasn't really conducive to spending lots of time meditating on such things, anyway. I started out the month by going on a cruise with my wife for our anniversary (that was way cool, by the way), and then devoted pretty much all my writing energy since to the editing job on Cardan's Pod.
Yes, indeed, the edit is now complete, and I must say I've learned a few lessons from the process. For instance, when the editor cleans up a sentence and changes the meaning entirely, it's a good indication the meaning wasn't very clear in the first place. It makes you look at the manuscript with a more discerning eye, trying to spot those areas of ambiguity that might lead the reader astray.
Unless, of course, you're one of those kinds of writers that would rather scream and shout at the editor, berating them for not paying enough attention because - obviously - your writing was perfectly clear in the first place. The lesson you'll learn in that case is just how patient your editor is, and just how much flak they'll take before they tell you where you can stuff your manuscript. I don't get to be that kind of writer, though, until such time as I've gained enough writing clout that I could pound my fists on the keyboard, and devoted fans would still buy it. Once you reach that level, editors are fine with leaving your manuscript alone, because it will still sell no matter how many errors are in it.
Another lesson is that editors are people, too, and not infallible. They might read something and reach the wrong interpretation of the paragraph, not because it was written indistinctly, but just because they missed some important little detail like a question mark. These cases are where you learn if your editor is easy to work with, or whether they're going to scream and shout at you for foolishly correcting them. I'm happy to say my editor was not that kind of editor, either.
In fact, other than an unforeseen delay in getting started due to a health issue, my editor was very easy to work with and did an excellent job. She spotted places where the writing needed tightened, where point-of-view became a bit muddied, and where things needed revised for the target audience.
All of this editing had to be done by the end of February, in order for me to meet a deadline with Xulon Press. Xulon is a Christian self-publishing outfit, and after careful consideration I elected to forego the traditional publishers in favor of self-publishing Cardan's Pod.
Part of this decision had to do with having posted the story here on Collector Times previously. Most traditional publishers will not even look at a manuscript if it has been published anywhere - even online - before. The exception to this is when a book has shown enough sales receipts from a small publisher that a larger house decides to pick it up. This happened with the book, Eragon, by Christopher Paolini, but such cases are the exception rather than the rule.
Another part of this decision is that I am becoming more and more convinced that the Print-on-Demand services and self-publishing are the wave of the future for writers. We are seeing a gradual shift in the market to accepting books from such publishers, and as more decent stories are released through such outlets, that will continue to increase.
As such, I am basically gambling on an experiment. With the investment in good editing, plus the additional investment in the marketing package and the advertising I plan to do, can an unknown new writer make a decent in-road into the market?
We'll see. I may be limiting my market potential some by going with Xulon, but with the religious themes in the story I could easily go with either a Christian publisher or a secular one. I've been involved in a collaborative project that was published through Xulon, and I liked their finished product. Since I kept the Christian themes low-key in the story, I can still hope to appeal to the secular readers who - like many religious readers I know - don't want to feel "preached at" when they sit down to enjoy fiction.
The adventure continues, and if all goes according to schedule, I'll have print copies of Cardan's Pod in my hands, and I'll be able to point folks to where they can get their own copies.
So now that the manuscript is finished and off to the publishers, what will I do now? Tomorrow, we're going to Disneyland.
No, really. No, they're not paying me to say that, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if they did. Heck, even free tickets wouldn't be bad. Seriously. A pair of free tickets would be a nice compensation . . .
. . .Hello?
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