I’ve acted on feedback these last few days and tweaked the opening chapters of the book. This has involved removing my beloved prologue on the advice of a literary agent, my agent Laura and Fionnuala. As usual, my wife was weeks ahead of the ‘experts’ with regards this observation and, as ever, I ignored her advice. She was right all along, of course. The prologue will now be broken up and drip fed to the reader throughout the book.
I’ve also reshuffled a number of chapters and split others. This has meant the reader is thrown straight into Kirkwood’s story as opposed to holding back in the early chapters and focusing on his and Skelly’s back story. The rejig has also led to some minor rewriting to connect the chapters as seamlessly as possible. The end result is a punchier, pacer opening which hopefully hooks the reader from the start.
I’ll be querying agents with these new streamlined chapters as of Monday. My editor, Laura, is now two thirds through the book and well on schedule to forward me her complete edit by the end of March. I’ll then start querying indie publishing houses who specialise in fantasy fiction. My query letter and book synopsis will also require some amendments but they can wait for now.
#PitMad is coming up on 7th March on Twitter where you can pitch a 280 character tweet regarding your book to literary agents. How hard is summing up a 100K plus book in 280 letters or less. I’ll be giving it a go, anyway. I’m also considering launching some of my other fiction projects on another social media platform. It will probably be ‘Bomb Girl,’ a story which has been brewing in my mind for some time now.
What projects are you working on at the minute?
Black Thoughts 
Sounds a painful process. Not unlike birthing anything I guest.
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I’m getting there slowly.
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It has to feel good to have gotten credible feedback that makes sense to you and doing the work for the next step. I applaud you for not giving up (please don’t ever) and doing the hard stuff.
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I’m not giving up. Thank you 😊
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Re-writes? Never done one (yeah right, lol). While I won’t say it’s the same as giving birth, it can be a pretty brutal process. ::D
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I’ll take your word for that 😂
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I believe it will work out and you’ll get the contract. One of my followers here, on Wp, just shared that he signed the contract with publisher. So everything is possible!!
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Yes, it is. People like you, who are already published, inspire me to keep going. Is your book selling well?
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I don’t think so. But it’s only for adults & it’s odd (plus short story collection), ppl usually want to buy a huge novel (long story) or cool self-help book. I think if you really want to sell book – u have to go traditional. If you want to sell your book as self-publishing author – you have to write (and publish) at least 2 books a year. You can’t relax – u have promote it like crazy. Amazon is huge, but I don’t know for how long. At least 5-10 years. Then… who knows 🙂
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Well I’m looking forward to reading it. It’s the next book in my pile 🙂
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No projects.
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We’re almost at the end of our kitchen revamp project – which started almost as long ago as your book. Well, not quite, but it seems like it to us. Organising local tradesmen in a Swiss mountain village is a nightmare. Indeed you could write a book on it, though it wouldn’t sell very well. Anyway, as a sort of final hurrah, and to take advantage of the fantastic weather over the past week or two, the (10) chalet shutters have been sanded and painted (a beautiful dark chocolate brown colour) and are now back in situ. Ah, the joys of retirement!
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Sounds like you are well on top of things. I’m sure it will be worth it all in the end.
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Wishing you the best of luck, not that you need it – your talent speaks for itself.
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Fionualla seems to be pretty awesome! I like her a lot through your words.
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I like her a lot too 😊
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Currently working on building the world of my novel. It’s set in the country of Ethiopia and thus comes the mass amount of research. 😁
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Literary agents are very keen on books set amongst different cultures so your story could be one they might want to read. I hope it’s a success.
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What’s your strategy for submitting to agents? I’m about to start the same process. And in response to your question at the bottom of the post. I’m working on a collection of short stories that’s a healthy mix of Bukowski and Lovecraft
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That’s an interesting mix. I’ve just targeting agents who are interested in urban fantasy submissions.
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Urban fantasy? I don’t think I’m familiar with the term
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Look it up. Massive genre.
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Sounds like amazing edit changes for the opening!!! I’ll be getting more chapter feedback to you this week. A 280 character pitch is limiting. I’ve read about trying to say the plot or the main purpose of your book in a sentence. That really got me to think about my own stories.
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Thank goodness for computers.. changing manuscripts in the past must have been over whelming..;-)
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I’ve no idea how Dickens coped 😂
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Sounds great! The book is going to be even better.
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Thank you Shae.
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