A Spec in Time Series

Hi all. It has been a crazy month. I spent time at a writers’ workshop this month. It was all about getting everything ready to sell my book(s) to an agent. I learned a lot; there was so much information that it has taken weeks to fully understand it. This last week was the scary part: sitting down to read all the critiques and notes on my letter, synopsis, and the first ten pages of The Harvesters. I didn’t understand at the time I submitted everything for the class that — no duh — I had to sell the first book… first.

This left me with many more questions, maybe more than I had when I went into the workshop. That has kept my mind spinning about what my next step would be. Do I keep writing and finish book three, seeing I’m coming very close to that goal? Do I drop everything and return to redo the first pages of book one? Do I go through all of Book 1 and make all the necessary corrections? If so, do I go back to book #3, or do I make all the corrections and tighten up book #2, The Domes? Ugh, THEN…

Do I really want to give up control of some things to an agent and a publishing house? What would I need to give in to, where would my line in the sand be? Is it worth that? Is it better to just keep self-publishing? I can do that, yet I know now that I am incapable of publicizing anything. That upsets me to admit a fault in my psyche; however, that is the honest, hard truth. Do I just give up altogether? At least I can answer that one. No. It is a story I have to write.

What did I do with all of these questions in my soul? I went to a two-day lecture and meditation class with my favorite ninth-generation Daoist priest. Because crying over my broken spirit is good. Learning to let go and move on is even better. I’m still working on that as I type this blog.

Conclusion:

1) I am putting book 3-Inception, on the back burner after I add some notes from my notebook. It is in a good place for me to rest this book for now.

2) Then I will go back to the top of The Harvesters and clean it up. I have a much better idea of how to do this task. A lot of help and information has been taken in, tumbled around, sorted out, and accepted.

3) I will then recreate a packet to send to agents so that I can receive many denial letters or no return of communication at all. This will further crush the little ego I have left. I will do this no more than three at a time, once a quarter. That way, I can spread out the mental anguish.

4) While I’m waiting on agents to tell me to fuck off, I will go through book 2-The Domes to do the same tightening up and corrections.

5) I will then go back to book 3- Inception and finish it up. Rinse and repeat for the final three books. Or, if luck happens, doing court-ordered, publisher-ordered changes as they prepare for publications. If that happens, you will read many panic posts.

That is now my game plan. There is only one other question I have:

Do I pull the books from Amazon? Leave them up? Pull book one while I work on it? Seems silly to pull just the 1st book and not the second. I just don’t know. It seems like it is all or nothing on this question.

So, this is where I sit in my thoughts. I will not give up, and I can only improve.

pooh