A newcomer to the Guild

[Elizabeth Schechter]

Hello, all!

My name is Elizabeth Schechter, and I write steampunk erotica (among other things). I have two steampunk short stories out in the wild (well, almost. One won't be out until May), and am working on a novel.

Pleased to meet you all!

[David Mark Brown]

Greetings! Welcome to the guild, and good luck with releasing your shorts into the wild. If you don't mind me asking, what have you been doing to prepare them for release? I've got a few shorts I am grooming as well and would be interested in picking up any wisdom you have to lay down:)

[Elizabeth Schechter]

Hi, David,

 

Preparing fiction for the wild -- first, FINISH the things! (Seems like a funny thing to say, but I know a lot of aspiring writers who never have actually finished a story or a novel.)

 

Once they're done, have someone ELSE read them. Join a writing workshop (the Online Writers Workshop is FANTASTIC for science fiction, fantasy and horror. For erotica, I recommend the Erotica Reader and Writers Association -- they have a Storytime mailing list where you can post your works for critiques.) Listen to what they have to say -- you are NOT the person to find the little nits in your story. Not at first, anyway. (I've gone back weeks or months after, reread something and went "Yipe! How did THAT get past me?" One of these was already in print, so it got past me AND my editor!)

 

Then, once you've listened to your beta readers and done your own revisions, and once you're just about to reach the point of pitching the story out the window... THAT is when you send it in. ;-)

 

Be patient. Publishing is SLOW. It took almost a year and a half for my first sale to finally see the light of day.

 

Publishing is also subjective. Do not take rejection personally. If, however, you have several rejections on the same story or novel, that might be the time to take a step back and regroup. Have you gotten any nibbles on your query at all? Might be time to rework the query letter! Have you gotten partial requests or full requests, but no takers? Take another look at the novel or the story. It might need more work. (Query letters and partials are pretty much only for novels. If you're submitting a short story, you submit the WHOLE thing.)

 

Hope that helps! Please feel free to ask me anything else!

[David Mark Brown]

thanks for all the tips. this is great advise. I started earnestly a couple of years ago. The first MS got to about the 6th rewrite, several agent rejections with a few requests to see the whole thing. Overall, it was a much too complicated novel to attempt as my first. But the feedback I got was great. Realizing I needed do make money and stick within my abilities, I am now about to get my second MS back from a couple of editors.
This time I am bypassing the gatekeepers in order to ebook publish this summer and see how that goes.
The beta readers sounds like a good idea. I'll have to do that after reworking what I get from the editors. How many beta readers did you use? Did you have criteria? or just anyone willing to read the book and give you feedback?

[Elizabeth Schechter]

I have four regular beta readers and a few others who volunteer on a genre basis. The regulars are my husband (who is my grammar snark), my writing partner, another friend who is a writer, and a friend who is a great reader. My main criteria for working with them is that they have to be willing to tell me where and when I have to kill the baby, as it were. I don't want anyone to handle my work with kid gloves. I want them to rip it to shreds and make me do it RIGHT.

Now, are you looking at self-pub or one of the smaller ebook houses? Most of my sources are romance and erotica, but I might be able to point you in the direction of a good small publishing house so that you're not wandering in the wilds alone.

[David Mark Brown]

Thanks for the offer with the publisher help, but I am intentionally going this one alone. I'm shooting for a small, but loyal fan base that I have been getting to know pretty well. I think I can find enough of them that read books electronically to make a go of it. I'm even thinking of foreign markets that lacknselection for ebooks.

[Elizabeth Schechter]

If you're going to try the foreign market, then you really do want to talk to someone in the know (if not a publisher, than a publishing lawyer). There are legal issues that I'm not even going to PRETEND to understand.

 

Good luck!

[David Mark Brown]

Thanks! That's a good reminder. I need to bring a lawyer on board. I think I'll post something about going foriegn in a forum and see what pops out.