Okay, so… I’m no Scalzi, but I thought maybe I’d try to do a reader question period. I don’t have a ton of readers, but if you have any questions about my writing, or (more entertaining, most likely) teaching, or what-have-you, feel free to ask in the comments. I’ll answer in a post or three.
Or none? That’s possible, too. We’ll see what happens!
I’ve spent much of the last few days shaking off the 2016-2017 school year. It wasn’t a bad year, as teaching years go, but it still takes a lot out of you.
But, it’s over, and now is the Writing Time. And the house-cleaning time, and the child-raising time. But without work-time, those other things go smoother.
I’ve been looking over my plot outline for _Year of Rage_, and … wow, it was bad. Whole chapters had to go. Luckily, I’ve been on a roll writing new chapter outlines, so I think the book will be okay. It just needed some adjustments. A character was cut, but I think she was superfluous, and a new character was created that will fit into the plotline even better than her predecessor.
The hard part right now is answering questions about the stellar nations in the book. Why is the T’lari Alliance so interested in the Boundless Empire? Why did the Matuush Ascendancy stop innovating so long ago? Why did nobody explore Khuta in the 1400 years it’s been a dead world? What happens if the Emperor of the Boundless Empire dies without heirs (hint: They’re tanists).
It’s exhausting, and often the questions are answered, then a note saying “Gods below, don’t ever put this in the book!” is appended.
Right. Back to work.
Queried: 38 Agents, 3 publishers
Form Rejections: 30 (28 Agents, 2 publishers)
Requests for Partials: 5 (all agents)
Personal Rejections: 3
Still out: 3 Agents, 1 Publisher
Neither publisher got past the slushers, near as I can tell. And that’s okay; I expected that. I haven’t had a partial request since last summer, which is wearing on me, but them’s the breaks, and as a friend has said, it’s basically a numbers game. 40 queries is still in the little league of novel rejections.
Lots of Renewals and Cancellations are being announced now. For those who care, and maybe for those who don’t but find me marginally amusing, here are my reactions to them. Note that I’ll only really be talking about shows I watch, or tried to watch, and won’t have anything to say about shows I’ve never seen or cared about. And because of who I am, this is mostly about genre television (Science Fiction and Fantasy), but not completely.
Who knew selling a book would be so hard?
Well, I did, actually. But this is nothing compared to the writing.
Anyway, the book is still going around to agents. There was a request for more pages, but the agent passed–said she was a “very, very tough sell on aliens, although your writing is good.” I’ll take that compliment; thank you!
The thing is, it’s very easy to start thinking that the book is crap because nobody has said “OH MY GOD I WANT TO REP THIS!” But that’s bullshit. People I trust, who have no reason to lie to me (and who were very honest with me in the beta stage about the flaws it had, and helped me fix them), like the book. In fact, my favorite comment from two of the beta readers was “If I’d bought this in a bookstore and read it, I’d consider my money well spent.” It’s not perfect–no book ever is, especially before an editor takes it in hand–but it’s good. It’s a story worth telling, and worth reading.
It’ll sell, or it won’t. But that isn’t the important thing. The important thing is that I have a voice, and that I need to use it. Because, while I need to write, I’m not really writing for me. I’m writing for that teenager who thinks the future won’t have people like him in it, because they’re not in the mainstream books being sold. I’m writing for the girl whose parents tell her she’s a loser because she loves SFF. I’m writing for the man who is sick of every story with a gay protagonist being erotica or romance.
So the important thing is to keep writing, and keep querying.
Onward!
Note: While this will crosspost to Facebook, I won’t be seeing any of the comments there for a few days, as I’ve left social media to avoid spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. If it matters to you that I see it before Saturday, best to comment on the blog.
Old books are weird. People often think they’re valuable, but the truth is, most books still in existence today were printed in enough numbers that they’re really not worth that much. Of course, the older it is, the more likely it’s going to be rare, which increases the value, but unless we’re talking “Gutenberg Bible” or “Shakespeare’s Folio,” it’s probably not going to be worth much even then. Age alone is no indicator of value; much depends on the rarity and condition of the volume.
One of the silliest parts of old book buying is the differences between one version and another.
One of the old books I own, The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke, was printed in 1921. It’s worth about $8. The 1919 edition, on the other hand, is worth $1400, partly because only 1000 of them were printed.
Another book I own, printed in 1819, is “Prayers and Offices of Devotion for Families, and for Particular Persons,” by Benjamin Jenks, Rector of Harley, in Shropshire, England. This 196 year-old book is worth a grand total of $25. Other copies, from just a few years prior, are worth over $100.
Fortunately, I don’t buy old books for their value (I couldn’t afford to, if I did). I just like holding a nearly 200 year old book and thinking about all the hands that have touched it over the years. It’s a connection to generations of human lives I will never touch in any other way.
