Drawing from the Well
Queries: 57 (+2)
Rejections: 46 (+0)
First Eighth
Chapter 6/90 (+0)
Scene 25/500 (+0) – 5%
Word Count: 6507 (+0) – 4.8%
I sent a couple of queries, but no writing yesterday. Wednesdays are pretty darn busy and I took an opportunity last night to get some regular work done to catch up on things. It’s been a surprisingly busy week. Here’s hoping I can get back into it today despite battling Captain Doubt and the Niggling Fear Brigade.
I need to write a children’s book about them…
Filling the Well
The Bible: 80%
Miraclist: 51%
Blue Lily, Lily Blue: 35%
The Handmaid’s Tale: 25%
I wanted to get a lot of reading done yesterday. There’s a lot in progress right now and I’d LOVE to get some finished soon. My current goal for the year is 40 books. That’s 10 books in the next 3.5 months. I gotta get moving. So that takes a lot of reading. So, for yesterday, mission accomplished.
Polishing the Well
This is what I look like most days at work now. I’ve never been busier. I’ve got to put in a little more effort to keep all the plates spinning. It’s good stuff, it’s just a lot of it. That’s not leaving much for anything else, but I’ll get it together.
Well Chat
Learning from Others’ Experiences
I watched the new episode of Publishable last night. It was the first on the new, dedicated channel for this show. It was great. I learned a few things but one thing that jumped out at me was some truth in the publishing industry. I’m going to share it with you and then explain why Captain Doubt is sailing the seas of my mind again.
The truth that was discussed for a while was what happens step-wise as you progress from just being an author to getting an agent to getting published. The big thing that Kaitlyn Johnson said was that most authors don’t publish their first book. Now a lot of context came up in my brain when she said this. She went further to say that most authors find their agent through their first book but it’s their second that is their first to publish. The first goes back on the shelf for a while until they see some success and are able to sell it or they decide to self-publish it.
The context that came up was the adage that you should not write a sequel while you’re querying your first book. I’ve heard this from many sources and, frankly, I scoffed at it. I’ve spent so much time with this story and had already outlined the next book and was brimming with ideas that I saw no harm in writing Book Two in my series.
Then Kaitlyn Johnson said what she did in Publishable last night. She had a lot of reasons centered around learning the business and refining your craft. She also talked about debut authors for a while (that’s me!). What she said was that it is really hard for debut authors to sell a series on their first go-round. That combined with the other comment that the first book often gets shelved for a while was like a horn call to Captain Doubt.
So what does this mean for me? Well, what I’m hearing is that I’m probably making a mistake going down this road of writing my sequel while querying the initial book. It likely won’t sell as my first book. What should I do?
Well, one thing that V.E. Schwab says OFTEN is to write what you want to write. Don’t chase trends unless it’s what you want to do. Don’t feel bound to do anything you don’t want to do. If you do, you’ll hate your chosen career.
So I’m sticking to that but modifying my approach. I’m pretty far down the road with Book Two since I’m already in Phase 4 so I’m going to keep going. I know the story I want to tell here. I’m excited about it. It seems silly to squander that energy. For now, I’ll channel it into the work. But if I’m still hunting when this book is finished, Book Three is NO LONGER the next step. At that point, it’ll be time to jump to a different point in this Stratum…
Also, my next post (hopefully tomorrow) will be my 150th of the year so we’re going to celebrate and chat. See you then.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG