Only I could do this. Creating, working, sweating over my book, fretting I wasn't producing a certifiable epic . . . I get it finished!!! Go me, break out the happy drinks! Oh, but wait: I move forward with the natural progression an author takes after first finishing their book and second, recovering from the hangover; researching agents, how to write the best 'PICK ME!' query letter on the planet to keep me off the rejection pile, and I find out what? Agents have a little 'gotcha'! This would've been nice to know. They will flat reject a first-time novelist if their manuscript is over a set number of words. (Ever notice how in a series of books many times the first one is the shortest? Now you know why. Once you're an established author you can drivel with the best of them.)
For my genre (paranormal romance) they want to see between 80,000 and 110,000 words. Mine was 192,000. So, why haven't I been on this blog for awhile? I've been hacking my book to pieces . . . back to basics . . . See Spot . . . See Spot Run . . . And yes, those of you who know my flare for adjectives, I took every one of them out and still had over 175,000 words . . . then I got to furiously deleting entire scenes . . . still at 150,000. My book was going from this: "You and I are going to survive this crappy mess!" to this: "You . . . are . . . crap!" My characters sound like they're in dire need of English lessons.
It had been suggested to me that since my book had many characters and two intermingling storylines that I split it into two books. I decided to quit fighting city hall. I think. One book or two, the epic will still be certifiable because the author is. If I change my mind and stick with one book, maybe I'll try selling it in some country where they speak broken English. "I . . . am . . . screwed."
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I know I have recommended splitting up the stories, but you need to be happy with the results. Your opinion is what matters most, and if you think it works better as one book then I would leave it. Plus, if you are thinking of going the e-publisher route, then your book can be as long as you want it to be because YOU are publishing it... and you're not having to deal with some jerk of an agent. Make sure your book is the book YOU want it to be. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, my wise one! You and Jonelle's opinion always matters so much to me! Love you both!
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry Jimmie. Just my little book has been changed so many times, it isn't the same as what I started out with either. Sounds like you are looking into ebooks too. Good for you.
ReplyDeleteLove,Marjory