What are we reading?

[JasonPratt]

That's cool, JP. I've thought about trying Kickstarter to help fund my book, which is about halfway done, but it's taken me several years to get to this point. I would have no idea what 'rewards' to offer since I've never written a book before.

To be fair, she sort of cheats by being an author with... 7 traditionally published books so far and the 8th in post-production? So she can go to self-pub and even go Kickstarter with a built-in audience already.

By "cheat" I mean "worked her butt off to be in a position to win the publisher lottery eventually." ;) Her other first book, which she finished shortly after this one (both being worked on at about the same time) -- also the one I always thought needed the least editing as it stood -- was picked up six years later when an editor leaving one publishing house, whom she'd gotten to know by meeting her a few times at conventions, wrote back (after Marie's second submission a few years later) to say she was passing it on to another editor over at Warner for recommendation. The new editor called back a month or two later and asked if Marie had an agent yet. She hadn't been able to get an agent yet, but all she had to do at that point was call up the one she wanted most to be with and say "Hi, Warner Aspect wants to publish me, can I have an agent?" i.e., "Say, would y'all like some money for almost no effort?"  :D She's been churning along ever since.

(Though Warner did throw her a curve by saying they'd only make an offer if she could write a sequel, too. Which for that book she had never once considered, but she knew the Ghostbuster motto.  >:D )

So she did eventually sell her (almost-)first book first -- and notably she the two houses that finally expressed interest had already seen it submitted to each of them once, and she had given it only some minimum tweaks before second submission years later! But it took a long time and a lot of networking at conventions and conferences. She wrote another four or five books meanwhile that she still has never sold. She doesn't didn't really do series (I think she'd still prefer not to do them usually), and was kind of forced into them by her publishers. But when trying to get in the door it's definitely best to write a bunch of things that could be series so you can send out more submissions on one hand; while publishers like to have series on the other. Also helping: writing short stories and getting them published by anyone who will pay you for them; though in her case winning the Asimov Award that year helped set up both being bought by Warner and getting short stories published. But the idea is that publishers (and agents) like to risk their own money on people whom other businesses felt comfortable risking their own money on. The scale doesn't matter a lot. But getting to know editors at publishing houses via conventions and making a good impression with them obviously helps as well.

Consequently, she has always rightly said I stand pretty much no chance of ever being picked up!

1.) My work prevents me from traveling and thus effectively networking with agents and editors;

2.) I'm not really geared to write short stories; (she wasn't either but she learned through hard work)

3.) I only have one very large story in me that all my 'stories' in plural seem to fit into, so I have a series but not multiple submission possibilities;

4.) Last but not least I have to use a weird narrative structure to solve a plot problem much later in the series, which makes for difficult entry into the story for no reason that can be clarified until the end of the series. (Not a problem most other authors have, but still a significant one.)

To that an editor once added bemusedly that I'm faaaaaaaar too Christian for most secular(ish) publishers, yet not even remotely enough Christian for Christian publishers. (That's a fair assessment.  O:-) )

But my problems and her successes can be a good guide for others. Do as she does, not as I do.  8)

(Or be prepared to spend a luxury car's worth on 6000 really nice hardback copies plus marketing.  :D Which is not at all guaranteed to work. But does guarantee I have 100% rights to my work and copies ready to put in stores should things ever pick up enough for someone else to risk money on me.  )

[Gusington]

As a writer the last two posts befuddle and depress me greatly.

[BanzaiCat]

As a writer the last two posts befuddle and depress me greatly.

My synopsis was that bad?

[JasonPratt]

He may have meant my last two posts.  :-[

(Or possibly my last one post which like many of my posts might as well be two posts long...  )

[MetalDog]

Picked up John Scalzi's Old Man's War at the library today.  I seemed to remember someone here suggesting it as a good read.  And they were right.  I also picked up Octavia Butler's Mind of My Mind and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover Landfall.  I already finished Old Man's War.  Probably picking up the Darkover novel next.

[Staggerwing]

Dawg, there are a few more novels in the Old Man's War series you should check out. IIRc, there are also a number of short stories, some of which actually form a kind of serial novel in themselves.

[MetalDog]

Thanks, Stagger.  Now that I am aware of them, I will be on the lookout.,

[Gusington]

Just the amount of work you are all putting into getting published and the unequal results received...depressing for me, especially as an aspiring author.

Also - I am about to begin reading Carthage Must be Destroyed. Been looking forward to this one for a long time.

[Staggerwing]

^Ah,
"Delenda Est" is a great Alt/Hist novella by Poul Anderson. It is one of his "Time Patrol/Shield of Time" stories that speculates on what could happen if time-travelers intervene in many pivotal moments in history, some not even remembered as such. For those of you who have an interest in Roman-era Germania and the Age of Migrations two other great stories by Anderson are "The Star of the Sea" and "The Sorrows of Odin the Goth".

[JasonPratt]

Well, Gus, any of us can be an author, and even a good author, regardless of how well we succeed at publication or not.  O:-)

(Heck, I succeeded at publication! -- just not at marketing. )

[eyebiter]

.

[MetalDog]

I always wanted to like Dune.  It's one of the classics, like the Foundation series by Asimov, or 2001 by Clarke.  Ringworld by Niven & Pournelle.  I just couldn't do it.  Not sure if it was over my head or just boring as hell.  The good thing is, I know I am in the minority here.  Too many people have read it and enjoyed, so the fault must be on my end.  Glad you are continuing to enjoy Herbert's universe, eyebiter.

[Toonces]

^ You are not alone bruddah.  I just couldn't get into Dune. 

I got to the part where the mom(?) and kid are in a cave with some guys, and the kid starts to have this "experience" or something, and I shelved it.  Just  not what I was expecting.

But so many people like it, I feel like I should like it.  Maybe I need to try again?   :-\

[Barthheart]

^ You are not alone bruddah.  I just couldn't get into Dune. 

I got to the part where the mom(?) and kid are in a cave with some guys, and the kid starts to have this "experience" or something, and I shelved it.  Just  not what I was expecting.

But so many people like it, I feel like I should like it.  Maybe I need to try again?   :-\

Life's too short to force it. If that's the point you got to and shelved it you probably won't like the rest.

Dune was good, the next two were a slog but God Emperor, 4th, was just awesome.

I've read some of the books by his son and they are good to and probably more straight forward sci-fi than Herbert's stuff.

Maybe start at the prequels as they setup the Galaxy the Dune is set in.

[bob48]

I enjoyed all the Polesotechnic League period of Nicholas van Rijn books by Poul Anderson.