On Tuesday I finished this project, title included, and celebrated with a KFC! My new thoughts now include what to do about publishing. Do I approach new literary agents or should I go back and retry with all those who have said no for project one?
I’m undecided on this thought. What would you do?
I am so very close to the end with project three, I think I have the title sorted, I think. I’ll type it up and re-read the entire manuscript but the finish line is in sight!
There’s pretty much always a way to get your manuscript published, either by finding an agent, going directly to a publisher or crowdfunding. If you want it that bad, you’ll find the right way for you.
A few weeks ago I submitted my work to a publisher, without doing full homework on it and today it’s come full circle on me. I will tell you the name to help others. Austin Macauley.
After sending my work off, I got an email saying they were interested but that the next step would to get it approved by the board of editors and they’d be in touch. So far, responses to project one have been a no, all very nice and professional about it, some provided useful web links etc. As soon as I received a potential yes I went to look at the publisher further to see what the next steps will be.
They basically want money from me in order to publish. Today I received a contract through the post which I will not sign. I don’t have £2500 to go down this route and even if I did I would not pay to publish.
Would you?
Tuesdays are typically my Starbucks-Writing day. Today I didn’t feel like going, whether it’s the weather – the lack of any sort of cold anywhere, or my ideas didn’t feel like being typed out with the help of a Latte, I’ll never know. Instead, I ran a few errands and was home before 10am. For the first time in days, I opened up Project Three and edited a bit more.
I think one more draft, and then it’ll be sent off for submission – if I’m honest, I think that’ll happen by the end of the week, it’s that close to the end. I’m looking forward to having another piece of work sent out into the ether, waiting for a positive response. It will happen one day. It has to.
Tonight I’ve sat and gone through project three, my personal favourite for many reasons and I’m happy with the results so far. Either tomorrow or in a few days I plan to go back to it and edit again, eliminate everything wrong with it etc. As it’s a rhyming story it is somewhat harder to polish up as there are challenging restrictions but in two hours I’ve managed to do a significant rewrite on the original, so I’m going to leave it there and let the dust settle for now.
Currently, my google searches mostly consist of
They have helped massively.
If you’ve written a rhyming story, have you got any advice or tips you’d like to share?
With Project Robot, I’ve previously mentioned that it needs a lot of reshuffling around and a lot of work put into it. At the minute, I feel like I need to let it rest and let my brain do the thinking so will shelve this project for a later date.
Which means I’m moving straight to project three – my favourite! It’s the story I’ve had for years and is inspired by my eldest. I’m very excited to be editing as it does need doing but I feel it’s closer to completion which encourages me to get a move on with it.
How are your projects coming along?
I opted for the gym as it’s equally important to exercise my body as well as my mind and I can happily say, from a vigorous workout, I’ve been rethinking project robot.
Its nothing major but the first draft, I think, needs a bit of shuffling around somewhat so instead of just rewriting the sentences I should map it all out again and from that framework of view find the best way to get to the end.
As a short story it should still be accomplished within a couple of weeks.
Last night I sat and edited my robot story and decided to make a couple of significant changes. Initially, it was set in a work environment, but for the target audience, I don’t think they would relate well. So I’ve changed it to a school setting, and instead of a mean boss, it’s a mean teacher.
I’ve been on an epic bike ride today and am unsure if I can edit tonight as I’m currently tired beyond the land of nod. I’ll give it a shot though.
Good morning everyone.
I like to set myself little writing goals every day, here’s what I have for today.
“Try and work on editing at least a third of project robot.”
It’s set in a work environment but I may change it to a school so it’ll be a bit more appealing to the target audience.
More submitting – check
More over-thinking about the writing – check
More cookies eaten as a result – check
More happiness for getting work done – check
Good evening – check
Tan M Butler 
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