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Comment by MaryLynn Bast on March 31, 2012 at 2:57pm

My BLOG TOUR Calendar is filling up fast for April 3-May 4. If you want to participate, shift on over tohttp://www.heartofawolf.com/blog-tour-dates.html, check out what's going on and where you would like to be added. See Ya'll there!

Comment by Danielle Boonstra on March 31, 2012 at 12:38pm

Thanks so much @Deni and @Laurie.  I am trying to take it a day at a time.  I confess though, I am really looking forward to this novel seeing the light of day.  I don't want to lose sight of my original story, but I'm also open to new elements replacing ones that just aren't working.

Comment by Marilyn Bostick on March 31, 2012 at 11:51am

@Susan, Thank you very much for that!

Comment by Marilyn Bostick on March 31, 2012 at 11:49am

@Laurie that is what I thought. How fair is it turn turn out a novel have it published and make nothing from it. I've been putting publishers in my ignore file. I needed a second opinion. Thanks!

Comment by Deni Cary Phillips on March 31, 2012 at 10:49am

@Danielle -- I wrote chronologically on my first draft to the 2/3s point, then started going back through to find out if I was writing a story or just a long something else :)

I have issues with upping the stakes, so I started making sure that was happening and examined each scene for hooks and foreshadowing, cutting down or tightening some descriptions and plumping the dialogue and character depth.

I discovered a missing element and started putting that in, and by the time I had "finished" the book, ie wrote to "the end," I was calling it a 2nd draft revision. That process took almost three years, but I really only worked on it consistently about six months of each of those years due to a weird work schedule that causes me to be totally busy in the late winter and spring, then not nearly so in summer and fall.

I've decided not to feel bad when I don't write every day, and I give myself permission to do a really good job rather than a fast one. Some famous writer said something about this - I want to say Elizabeth Berg - how it took her ten years to write her first novel. The good stuff takes time.

Comment by Susan Helene Gottfried on March 31, 2012 at 9:51am

Laurie: it's not opinion that reputable agents/publishers won't accept reading fees. It's a fact.This is what the AAR has based their business around (among other things, such as kick-backs for suggestions to certain freelance editors; etc.).

Marilyn: You are flirting with scammers.

Ladies, read Preditors and Editors and really learn the business end of the industry.

Comment by Laurie Rieger Bellesheim on March 31, 2012 at 9:25am

@Marilyn - It is in my opinion, and I've heard this in many other places, that you should NEVER have to pay for a publisher/agent to read your work! Most legit places will not take an entire manuscript without first requesting a query letter or synopsis first. I would be very cautious of the places you described. And for all your hard work and dedication into whatever you've written, I wouldn't settle for no royalties at all.

Comment by Laurie Rieger Bellesheim on March 31, 2012 at 9:14am

@Danielle - I self-published my first novel in September 2011. It took me almost three years to complete (to get to final draft). That's much longer than most, mainly because I was busy having my kids and dealing with babies in-between with no time/energy to write. However, I did about three drafts, started feeling my way out there in the publishing industry & ended up sending queries and sample chapters to agents, got little to no response except for maybe one or two comments back about my story. Taking those few precious comments, I re-wrote the entire manuscript again, had two close friends read it who added their own advice and changes, did some more changes and adjustments & THEN sent it out to a professional editor who found a TON of things wrong & I ended up fixing a lot again! I thought I'd never finish that thing! I was so glad when it was done and seeing it now makes all the hard tedious work worth it. Although, as I read the paperback copy, I've found a few small grammar mistakes so I have corrected it once again for the eBook version. I think if I had let myself, I might not have ever finished - I could have kept fixing & re-writing forever. At one point I had to say enough was enough. Good luck to you!

Comment by Marilyn Bostick on March 31, 2012 at 9:03am

I'm a member of a submission site where you can search for places to submit a manuscript. As I was performing my search I found publishers that required a fee, but if you were selected you could earn up to 2k. And, if you were selected you would be published in book format, but would receive no royalties. I pass up most of these. Should I rethink my strategy?

Comment by Danielle Boonstra on March 31, 2012 at 8:50am

For all you published authors (self or otherwise), how many drafts/re-writes did you go through before getting to the final product?  I'm on my 2nd draft (with many mini-rewrites in between).  Just wondering what others' experiences are.

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