Woah There Stranger!

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I know, I know, it's been aaaaages since I posted, but I've been going through a lot lately. At least school will be out in two weeks, so I should be returning to the blogsphere soon! 

I've managed to do some writing and my "Secret File" (haven't chosen a name yet) is almost completed. The goal was 50,000 words and I'm only 48 words away from that goal, but I still have two chapters to write so it'll be a little longer. Maybe 55,000 words, which is fine for a romance novel. What I'm so proud of in this manuscript is that it's packed with voice! I've never written something with so much voice before. Yay for progressing ^.^

But yeah, I'm genre hopping! So far I've been set on YA, but then I finished an MG manuscript, and now I'm into adult romance. I don't know where I land but I suppose there's nothing that forces me to stick to just one genre. There are always pen names ^.^

I was planning on publishing this Secret File on Amazon for $2.99, but my buddy Rachael Harrie has been encouraging me to query. I suppose I have nothing to lose by doing that first. 

I've also been stuck by a huge decision: to write in English or Icelandic. I always write much more fluently in English and I'd like to publish my work in English, but the Icelandic market is sooooo much easier to break into. So I've come to the decision to try to publish at least one Icelandic and one English book every year (self-publish via Amazon or through a publisher if I get lucky) and a load has been hurled off my shoulder after that decision. 

Of course I'll write a lot more, because writing a first manuscript really doesn't take that long, but I think it's better to be modest to begin with. Besides, not everything I'll write will be publishable (yeah right! No, seriously...). 

Anyone else with such robust ambition? ^.^

Creative Writing

Okay, I know I said I was only going to blog once a week, but I'm just too lazy to do anything else this late evening. The weather has been unusually good in Iceland this summer, and there was another T-shirt weather today. That kind of heat always makes me a little drowsy. 

I'm extremely excited about starting school. I've changed my course selection three times already. I think I made the final change today. I decided that since I'm a mature woman now and know what I want, I wasn't going to follow the cookie-cut way of taking classes. I'm only taking two classes with the rest of the first year students, and then I'm taking English Syntax (an optional class for second or third years) and Creative Writing (!!), which is meant for students in the master's program!

I wrote to the teacher, explaining how much I already know about the subject, that I've written a full-length novel, that I've started the second one, that I've researched a lot about genre, styles, voice, rise and fall of tension, that I've read books on writing. I both emailed her and talked to her face-to-face (while buying course material from her for another course) and she sounded genuinely excited to have me join her class. For Creative Writing, we have; Holes, by Louis Sachar; On Writing, by Stephen King (I've heard so much about this one!); and Stein on Writing, by Sol Stein.

I decided to go my own way in course selections because the courses I've chosen will help me with my writing. It's something I would never in a million years consider doing if I was starting uni for the first time at age 18. I realized that if it's possible (and I'm so glad that it is!), I need to get the things I want out of this education, in the sequence that best fits me and my writing. Yay for being older and wiser!  

I'm sure that all the courses will help with my writing, in some ways or another, but English Syntax, Creative Writing, How Language Works I (need it to be able to take the useful part II next term), Foundation Course in English for Foreign Languages: Methods (again, part I of II for next term), and English for Practical Purposes (mostly learning to speak well in English - there are a number of presentations throughout various courses during the studies), are the courses I really need to take right now.

The first-year courses I'm saving for Fall 2011 are: The Talking Animal (No, it's not an MG kid-lit), British History and Culture, and Brit. Lit. I. All exciting, but all things that can wait :) 

The courses scheduled for Spring 2011 are very exciting. I'm trying to get into a master's class called "Fantasy". Yeah, that's right. We'll read popular fantasy books and discuss. Dreamy-creamy fantasy course *pats course*. But yeah, it's for master's level, so I'm not sure I can get it. I sent the teacher an email today to see if I can get an exception.

I got my delivery from Amazon yesterday. In it were three self-publish books (hey, I had a gift certificate from mileage points) Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual, Self-Publishing for Dummies, and Become a Real Self-Publisher, by Michael N. Marcus ,  The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan, and The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. The problem is that I have so much to read before the classes start next week, and I need to revise the first five chapters of my manuscript. I have very little time to read my choice of books! I do like to read in bed, before going to sleep. I might do reviews on these once I've finished - you know, just for the fun of it ;)

Self-Publishing

Image: http://erinlobach.edublogs.org/

I have taken time off from submitting, since my twins are on vacation. Their vacation ends next Monday, which means that I'll get back to business until Uni starts. That means three weeks of writing.

I've done a lot of thinking since the start of the vacation and I've decided to look into self-publishing before submitting to more agents (or any publishers). I really like the idea of it, and if I decide to do it, I'm doing it properly. I already have three self-publish books ordered from Amazon; Become a Real Self-Publisher, by Michael N. Marcus, a fellow She Writes member (even though he's a male), it has great reviews and he's got a lot of experience; Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual, by Dan Poynter, this has great reviews as well; and of course Self-Publishing for Dummies, by Jason R. Rich, because I love the Dummies books.

Why am I considering this? Because the books advice how best to set up your own publishing company, and I like the idea of that. I wouldn't use any of the companies who do the work for the authors (Lulu, Xlibris, AuthorHouse, etc.). That means I'd have to deal with all sorts of stuff, like accounting, but it shouldn't be undo-able, especially if I set up the company in Iceland and do business from here (got to love the internet). I'd have to find a printer in the USA, as well as a distributor (since it would cost too much to have the books printed here and then sent individually to the USA -- or I'd have to look into it anyway). The rest I can do online!

I know it's a huge gamble, but I do have business education and I have tons of interest and enthusiasm. It also means that I can publish whatever I want, and don't have to rely on having the right material at the right time for the right agent/publisher who's only looking for one specific thing for his/her list. I read somewhere that less than 1 out of every 100.000 manuscripts is considered good, the rest is junk. To me, that either means that the rest of the manuscripts look like something written by grade-schoolers, or it isn't the entire truth (that they're rejecting a lot of good manuscripts because of trends, risks, etc.), or they just have really, really narrow tastes. I'm guessing the second, that there are many great manuscripts being rejected because they were not sent on the exact right time.

I queried just over 50 agents and I've gotten 18 rejections. I don't know if I should see it as my story idea being bad, it's only 18 people. The rest either won't reply to their queries, or some might be considering. But even so, if I self-publish, I get to keep all my rights and decide for myself what to include in the books and what not. I'd possibly get less exposure (unless I become really good and clever at the advertising bit, which is the part I'm kind of looking forward to), I'd probably also sell fewer books, but I'd get better paid for each book sold. There are so many more advantages, and the disadvantages seem to be only the extra work and the risk (and possibly some snobbery against self-published authors). The extra work I can do, the snobbery is due to lessen with the increase in self-publishing, and the risk? Well, it's time to take some.

I wouldn't be thinking about this if I didn't believe so strongly in my trilogy. Sure, I'll have to change it a bit, make it into more chapters, cut out some things (again, what I've been considering over the past months), and then have another editor read over it for it to be 100% publishable. I'll also have to try to find a trustworthy critique group, although I'm really scared to do so (always afraid of people taking my stuff as their own - maybe that's newbie thinking, but it's how I feel).

So far I've connected self-publishing with non-fiction books, but I'm sure there are also self-published fiction authors out there.

So, what will I do if those remaining agents contact me? Probably champ at the bit! But I'm keeping a very open mind to the self-publishing and I'm going to study it well during my first semester of Uni. Then I'm going to write the second book before publishing the first. And after the trilogy, well, I have loads more ideas, both for the USA market and the Icelandic one.

What can I say? I once wrote a Severus Snape fiction and couldn't find a decent Snape site to host it (at the time), so I created one that is still running 6 years later, even through I had no idea how to do it to begin with. I suppose this is a similar scenario, only on a larger scale with more costs and more risks.

Question: How do you trust critique groups enough to let them see your manuscripts? Where's the best place to find a critique group with people who aren't afraid to say their opinions (YA fantasy/adventure)?