Permission to write

Granted!

(At least to myself)

After I finish my novella (which has picked up, much to my delight), I am giving myself permission to go back to the Crackhead Project. Because I read through it last night and I still want to work on it (and love it and hug it and possibly call it George).

It’s amazing how freeing it feels to give myself permission to work on blow-off projects. Well, that, and working on a project every day exponentially increases the love you have for it.

I’m expecting my promo bookmarks in any day now. They’re arriving just in time for RWA, and I will be carting them around by the handful while at conference.

If you want to see my terrific cover art, this is the ONLY way to do it (at least for a few weeks). So if you want a bookmark, just ask me! And keep it at hand for after RWA, because I intend to have a contest where you can win something impressive. Like lots of free books, or a gift certificate, or maybe even an ipod.

Also

It occurs to me that I have this argument with myself every few months.

Carry on, carry on.

Hello, my name is Jill Myles…

And I’m an idea chaser.

It’s shameful to admit, I know, but it’s true.  I want to write an epic fantasy. I also want to write a YA horror novel. And a romance. And an urban fantasy. And a fairy tale novel. And a historical romance. And…I think you see my problem.

It’s not the bad TV shows or movies that are the insidious ones. It’s the ones that do something GOOD, but they do not do it GREAT. Or they take the story in a direction I don’t want to see. I don’t care about an airship full of pirates! Take me back to the part where the hero and heroine were going to kiss again! Damn!

The writer-brain is ever at work. It seems a movie and thinks of ways to make it better. It reads something it likes, and begins to add to the story. What if the writer took it this way? Or this way?

Suddenly, new ideas are assaulting my brain. This, my friends, is both blessing and curse.

Let’s say you write a few novels…we’ll say ‘twelve’.  The first one is one of those kitchen sink books that no one can classify. It has time travel, monsters, historical tidbits, coming of age, evil puritans, and a hot Ojibwe dude who thinks the heroine is ugly but loves her anyway. This book is basically garbage. Sorry. The next book? Epic fantasy. Book one of a bajillion. Except you’re still learning how to write, so none of the story pieces sort of go together, and it’s kind of weird all around. The next book is a little better – it’s more or less a young adult novel featuring a heroine and dragons. Which is fine except that the heroine is a little overly sexualized/traumatized and the rest of it kind of screams to have the serial numbers filed off of it, or Anne McCaffrey might sue. So yeah. That one’s in the trunk too. The next one is Your Preshus. The one where things start to click, but the writing ain’t there yet. It’s an urban fantasy with a light, goofy tone, a heroine that is more shrill than funny, and a wisecracking horse. You still freaking love the horse. It’s not romantic, it’s not dark, and basically, it’s all wrong for the market.

Anyhow, that book is close but no cigar. Lots of bites, but no one reads the full manuscript. So you abandon #4 and you write something new, because at that point, you don’t know what’s wrong with that novel. And the next one…the next one gets you an agent. But let’s say you’re left rudderless and with still plenty of spare time while that one sells, right? So you write a few more things as your agent sells your book. Namely:

1) An urban fantasy about superheroes. It’s kind of light and fluffy.

2) A time travel romance

3) A romance that’s paranormal (kind of) and in the wrong voice (doh). Everyone pretty much tells you this idea is too weird.

4) That second book you’re contracted for. Yay you! You stuck with a genre!

5) A fantasy romance.

6) An urban fantasy. But this one is dark and srs bzns and woe. (You also kind of hate this one)

7) A light paranormal romance. Yay! There’s that genre again!

So let’s recap. You’ve sold a book! Hurray you! And your publisher says “We love this! What else have you got?”

…

And you look back at your list, and really, the only thing you’ve got is the most recent book you wrote. Sure, I can lob the time travel romance at my publisher. But time travel doesn’t sell, and why am I writing something else when my paranormal voice is so good, right? What about the fantasy romance? Bzzt, sorry. Different audience. Urban fantasy? Maybe. Which one? Light or dark? Because you can’t do both – people will expect a certain tone from your books. And heck, you might have to take a pen name and start building an audience all over again anyhow. And do you really want to do that?

A game plan is so, sosososo crucial. You have no idea. Think about what you enjoy writing. If you enjoy writing a bunch of stuff (like, say, me), focus in on one thing. Focus in on what people really seem to enjoy in your writing. Maybe your crit partners aren’t super crazy about the flying nuns in your latest book, but they sure do like the way you pulled the mystery together.  Focus on that. Write more mystery.  Build your brand.

Because, really. Think of an author you loved and followed for years…and then that author switched genres. WHY GOD WHY? Don’t you feel betrayed? I sure do! I still haven’t quite gotten over my favorite author’s switch to romantic suspense (a genre I normally don’t read).  What if George R. R. Martin decided to write detective stories instead of fantasy? Wouldn’t all those Westeros cosplay fans feel disappointed and left out?

(Now, GRRM can do whatever the hell he wants, I think, because the audience would follow him. But little ol’ me? Not so lucky.)

So anyhow. I tell myself this because I am talking myself down from several ideas. Instead, I am working on a light, sexy paranormal novella.  I’m sticking with my genre, because once you get the contract, you can’t write just for yourself anymore. You’re writing for your business as well as potential fans. And you don’t want to confuse them by writing an urban fantasy one day, and a cozy knitting mystery the next. Just sayin’.

(And if you have suggestions on what I’m supposed to do with a romance that involves the Bermuda Triangle, conquistadors, and dinosaurs, I’m all ears.)

Getting ready for RWA National

Hair? Cut.

Dresses? Bought.

Dress shoes? Check.

Sweaters/tops? Ditto.

Luggage? Yup.

Tan? Never.

I did waffle about a pair of tights, but ended up going with them. We’ll see how that turns out. I’m going to spend the next week in a frantic state trying to finish two weeks’ worth of work in 1 week, slowly, sloooowly packing stuff so I don’t have to wash it again before wearing it, and generally remembering to bring everything. I hope.

My schedule is made, room plans are done, tickets are bought, and I don’t think I’m leaving anything to the last minute except maybe travel toothpaste. I wasn’t sure what to expect last year but this year I have a general idea.

(now if my promo materials could just get here so i can squee over them)

If we were supposed to meet up for breakfast/lunch/whatever and we have not talked, EMAIL me because I am booked, yo.

Anyone else got last minute prep for Nationals?

This book comes out tomorrow

It’s been a while since I’ve raved about a book, but I truly, truly loved this one. I went into it with no expectations – I’ve been on a definite historical romance slump, and especially slumping in the areas of regency or Victorian (this is a Victorian). But I met Meredith at RWA last year and she was such a fun, sparkling personality that I wanted to read it, regardless of genre ennui.

I. Loved. This. Book. Words cannot describe how much I freaking loved this book. I started to read it and couldn’t put it down. After I finished it, everything else made me fussy because it was Not This Book. She ruined me for a good two weeks on other reads.

The hero and heroine were perfect. Perfect. If you liked Loretta Chase’s MR. IMPOSSIBLE, you simply must read this book. Jane at Dear Author gave it an A. The Book Smugglers gave it an 8 out of 10. It’s brilliant and clever and tender and I think Duran is going to be the next Loretta Chase.

You seriously want to read this book, guys.

Copyedits have landed

If I’m quiet lately, it’s because I’m busy. I started a side project just for fun, and sure enough, as soon as I launch into that particular project…copyedits arrive!

That’s all right, though, because I’m quite happy to get my copyedits out of the way.

It’s funny, because when copyedits were originally mentioned to me, I had the notion that someone would send me a big long print-out of changes to make to the manuscript. Then, I’d have to take each page and make the changes on my document. After all the endless changes were done, I’d print out a fresh one and send it back to my publisher.

Apparently, I was not the only one with this misconception. The letter on top of my manuscript says, quite clearly (and possibly in bold AND capslock) – make the changes on this document. Do not print a fresh document. We need this document back. Lose it and die.

(Okay, so maybe the last part is not on there)

I was also provided (very thoughtfully!) with a green pencil. At first, this amused me. They’re sending my copyedits…AND a green pencil? Some sort of weird two-fer deal? But the green pencil is very important. My copyedits are marked up with red, grey, and blue already. I have to use a different color so my changes stand out.

Armed with my green pencil, I dive in to see what a copyedit is all about. Turns out…it’s about reading other people’s marks to my manuscript to see if they make sense. Some of them are punctuation related. Once upon a time (and even today) I loved me some extra commas or em-dashes. My copyeditor does not like them so much, so there’s a lot of them marked out. Other punctuation changes. Deleting unnecessary words and sentence tags (there’s an embarrassing wealth of this).

I also have in the margins several notes about things to clarify. “On page 12, you said it was a diner. On this page you say it’s a café. Which is it?” So I correct the item and write ‘fixed’ over the note. The bigger changes, I’m making a note to go back and fix at the end. For now, I’m still re-reading.

Did I mention this is a long, time consuming process? The first few days, I had no clue what I was doing and didn’t know what half the marks meant. Took me 2 days to get through 25 pages. (Did I mention I have to have this turned in ASAP?) Luckily, I’m getting more confident with the changes as I go, and was able to make a big leap in progress yesterday. I should have no problems finishing on time, which is nice.

After all this is turned in, about a month later, I get galleys! I have to admit, I’m really excited about seeing galleys. That’s when all the fonts and styles are set, and the book starts to look like a real book instead of just my old manuscript.

Social Fail

I meant to go to the local RWA meeting this morning. It would have been an awesome one – the speaker was talking about marketing and publicity.

But someone (and we won’t mention any names here) slept until 1pm. Way, way past meeting time. Sigh.

So I have the rest of the day to sit in my pajamas, with dirty hair. I think I’m going to surf the internet, twitter a bit, and write. I wrote 2 pages in a fun side project – I’m going to see if I can write a novella based on a concept I had rolling through my mind (and one that Jane encouraged).

Wish me luck!

More stuff I can’t show you.

I got cover art for my second book last night! It made me squee in all the right places. Love my publisher – Pocket does really amazing romance covers, and it makes me sosososo happy to see mine.

But I can’t show you. At least, not until I get approval. BUT! I can show you a little something that is going on the cover…

“Laugh-out-loud scenes, scorching eroticism, and pulse-pounding adventure.” — Kresley Cole, New York Times bestselling author of Kiss of a Demon King

Perhaps you did not read that closely enough. I’ll wait here while you read it again.

KRESLEY FREAKING COLE BLURBED MY BOOK YOU GUYS.

(Perhaps you recall last RWA, when I mentioned I might meet Kresley? And I was excited? And posted this picture?)

That’s right. She was nice enough to make my day year decade and blurb my book.

You so want to read it now, don’t you? Yeah. Me too.

(But I get to! Because I am getting copyedits this week! And I’ll get to read — and edit — the whole thing AGAIN. Oh writer’s life, you are a glamorous one.)

Anyhow, there was some great link salad going on around and about the interwebs, most of it related to writing. Here ya go:

http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com/111221.html <-- On writers and self confidence, and how being confident in your work does not equal ego. At least, not always. (Maggie has an awesome journal, guys. You should be reading it.)

http://beth-bernobich.livejournal.com/282487.html <-- Beth Bernobich talks about poisonous writers on the web. Can I get an amen?

http://jimhines.livejournal.com/450145.html < -- Jim Hines talks about writers with 'real' jobs vs writers without real jobs. Excellent post. Jim's posts on the business side of writing are an absolute must.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JK7IKSfyLE < -- Earworm of the day (not the real video, just the song)

http://mymilktoof.blogspot.com/ < — Cutest blog ever. EVER.

And that’s all I got for now.

I came, I saw, I may have possibly rewritten it a billion times…

Oh editing. I love you and I hate you. It feels like I’ve been doing nothing but editing since April (ETA – that’s pretty much the truth, actually). I had a few lingering scenes that were breaking my head on VANISHING ACT, so I logged off the internet and went and worked in the other room. No distractions, just me and my characters as I tried to force them to do things that did not feel natural (since I’d already written the climax of the story once, rewriting it in a different direction – no matter how good the direction is – still feels unnatural).

But I wrote a huge chunk and I’m happy to say that I’m done, more or less, with the edits. Except I’ve got to go back through and re-read one more time to make sure there’s no bizarre jumps in logic. At one point I ripped out almost 40k from this book and rewrote back in about 25k (some of it coming from very early drafts).

For those of you that are word count junkies like myself? Starting tally of this book – 92k.

Tally after completing the last draft? 74.5k – my goal. I’m really happy with that number. The 92k felt bloated, but I wasn’t sure where to cut. The 75k feels much more streamlined for a YA.

I expect the wordcount to bounce up a little as I go through a paper copy of the novel and re-read one last time. There’s always tweaks here and there. But I can’t imagine it getting much higher than the 75k it stands at now.

And maybe now I will go back to my crackhead project. Or work on some short stories. Have not decided, but the world is my oyster. For a few weeks, anyhow.

A rant on word count

So. Wordcount. (Yes, I’m struggling for things to blog about, and Moonrat just posted something awesome on her blog and it reminded me that I wanted to talk about this.)

Here’s a great post from an editor:

http://romanticreads.net/2009/03/12/the-economics-of-word-count-requirements/

Here’s another great post from Moonrat (who is also an editor):

http://editorialass.blogspot.com/2009/06/is-there-word-count-cap-for-debut-novel.html

Here’s another great post from an agent:

http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-word-counts-and-novel-length.html

Okay. Did you read those three? All three of them mention word count. Did you also notice how small the word counts are? 80k. 85k. 90k max.

There seems to be this mythical unicorn of a concept that longer books still sell! Stephenie Meyer’s TWILIGHT was 700 pages long! JK Rowling’s books were enormous! Diana Gabaldon’s OUTLANDER is a brick of a book!

All right then. Let’s recap:

1) Did you make 50 million dollars last year like Meyer?
2) Are you JK Rowling?
3) Did you write OUTLANDER?

If you answered “Yes” to any of those questions, then please do ignore word count (and me!).

If you answered “No” like most everyone else, it’s something to pay attention to.

Bloated word count costs your publisher money. I’m sorry, but there it is. You can fit three fat books on a shelf where six slimmer ones might fit. You get paid the same for both. Would you rather sell three or six? Would you rather B&N or Borders order 3 copies of your book or six? What about Wal-Mart?

I buy a lot of books at the grocery store. My favorite one has the mini-racks – little black wire brackets that are made to cup the paperbacks. They can squeeze usually about five or so books in there. Last fall they reprinted GONE WITH THE WIND, gave it a snazzy new cover, and put it on the racks. Guess how many copies of GWTW could fit in each slot? One.

When I turned in GENTLEMEN PREFER SUCCUBI, I seem to recall the word count being around 95k or so. According to Amazon, my book is 384 pages long, and I still have no acknowledgements/author notes and I haven’t gone through copyedits. It could potentially keep growing:

Word count for my book!

I had no idea my book was so freaking long, you guys! But there it is. And maybe if my book would have been 70 pages shorter or something, B&N might buy 6 instead of 5 to put on the shelf. But it is what it is. And my book might cost my publisher just a little bit more than the last guy’s because my page count might be longer than Book X. Or my print run will be smaller. You can be darn sure that your print run is going to be smaller if your book is 500 pages long. Why? Because you’re going to require a lot more space on the shelf. And unless your first three initials are G. R. R. (and add an M), space is at a premium.

You want those pretty co-op slots at the front of Barnes & Noble. You want as many of your books squeezed into those slots. If your doorstopper makes it to co-op and you only have two on the shelf, and both sell, do you think they’re going to re-stock your book right away, or do you think an employee is going to wander past and just fill the blank slots with whatever is closest?

I visit a lot of writing boards. And word count ALWAYS ALWAYS comes up. And there seems to be this common misconception that “It’s okay for a fantasy novel to run longer!” or “Romance novels that are 500 pages still sell!” Usually these misconceptions come from one of three things:

1) Writing guides or writing books that are 20 years out of date, when the cost of paper wasn’t an issue, and when bookstores weren’t optimizing space like they are today.
2) The books that are 500 pages long were actually from authors that continue to have a backlist in print because they’ve sold so well for a dozen years (see OUTLANDER or GWTW).
3) That book is just that damn good.

And hey, maybe you’ve got #3. I’ve got confidence in my writing, but I know if I went back to my editor and said “Book 2 is going to be about 200k, is that all right?” she would probably need a drink. Or three. And then start writing me a tough letter about how I needed to chop my word count. Because she can’t go to marketing and say “About that book 2? Yeah. It’s going to be 700 pages long.” Marketing won’t like that. Publishing is all about the numbers, and you just threw off your profit margin by a landslide.

There was a great post from Anna Genoese a few years back about how every book considered for acquisition is immediately entered into a P&L spreadsheet to see how much money the company can make. I don’t have the link anymore (unfortunately) but it’s a real eye opener. You’re not writing a work of art for the publisher – you’re pitching a product to them. It’s all about the bottom dollar, baby.

Don’t get me wrong. Longer books still sell. Someone’s always going to pop on the message board and say “I sold my 170k book for a six figure advance!”

Wow, that’s awesome! Lucky you! You just hit the equivalent of the publishing lottery!

Some people also get 7 figure deals right out of the gate! Or tons of promo and publicity! And a 20 city book tour and a blurb by Stephen King!

And then there’s the rest of us.

What I’m trying to say here…if you’d rather have the odds in your favor, take a long, hard look at your word count and see if you can’t shrink it a little.

When I queried my first book, the word count was 110k. I got nowhere, so I revised and dropped it to 100k. Got some interest. I *really* got interest when I mentioned that my book was in the lower 90s. Agents want something they can sell, and I imagine something that’s an easy sale makes it that much easier to get an agent. A long word count is automatically going to put you in the ‘long shot’ territory.

(And wow, this got totally Ranty McRanterson, didn’t it? My apologies!)