Winter Workout - First stage done

[onyxhawke]

Everyone should have received either a "Still reading after one." or a critique form by now. If you haven't, either post here with the title of your book, or use the contact form on my website to let me know.

A lot of interesting projects this year. Some were very hard to say no to, and one or two I might not say no to at all. Between the Winter Workout and cleaning out the regular slush pile (which is filling up again) I'm pretty certain well over a million words have passed my eyes in the last month.

Thank you all again for taking part.

Comments

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

If I belatedly realise I sent a ww submission to your regular submission address by mistake, what then should I do, beyond kicking myself ?

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

You get to wait.

No, rather, thank YOU instead

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

Thank you for risking terminal eyestrain and early monitor poop-out reading all these submissions!

Does a "still reading after one" message mean that you're going to sit down and read the entire manuscript? Wow! I must have been livin' right. (Tell that to my priest!) (OK, I don't have my own personal priest . . . but I have a Pomeranian.)

Wonder how many of those got sent out--for curiosity's sake--and what the ratio to "no" answers was? 10 kept for later perusal, 500 sent back . . . something like that? Now that I've seen the opening lines sent in on another blog, I have more sympathy for the poor put-upon slush pile readers. They need a cookie!

Re: No, rather, thank YOU instead

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

"Still reading after one." means just that. I read at least one chapter (if they were real short i _may_ have read more) and i not only don't hate it, and haven't been convinced its unpublishable, I have some belief it _might_ be publishable and something i want to represent.

Re: No, rather, thank YOU instead

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

That's encouraging. Thanks for doing this.

[sauntau.livejournal.com]

Hey, I got a "Thanks for taking part in the Winter Workout, right now i've got to pass." Is that a critique form? Or am I just dumb?

(Name: Sarah Johnson, book title: Sons of Fire.)

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

that's odd... my outbound email shows the rtf attachment...

Oh well, happened incoming to one or two people too.

[chuntastic.livejournal.com]

I didn't hear back but I suppose I could have been an inept boob with my submission.

Angel's Reflection is the title.

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

That was sent to the regular address not the WW one. It will still get read, but it will take a bit.

[chuntastic.livejournal.com]

Ahh I figured it was incompetent boobery on my part.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Any suggestions for "Unfortunately i need to pass. Not because of quality, but becasue I don't think this is going to get published by anyone in sf/f that i'd deal with," when I can't get past the query stage with the mainstream folk because they're telling me it's too SF for them?

I don't know how to get out of this catch-22.

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

Um...

The only three real options are:
1) Small presses
2) Rewrite
3) Shelve it and write something else.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I am looking into 1, since from my pov it's the only option that makes sense. 2 in either direction would make it so much a different book (and not one I can write) that there isn't any point. I've tried 3. I could probably do it better now than I could when I was trying it, but my heart's not in it until I finish getting this story cycle out of my brain.

IOW, I have a driving need to sell this story, which I realize is probably self-sabotage [sigh].

Still, there are so many time travel novels doing quite well out there in both skiffy and mainstream venues that I have a very hard time understanding what's specifically wrong with this one, since I keep getting told it's good, just unsellable (you're not the only one who's said that). [sigh again].

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

The nice thing about shelving something is that the market changes every couple years...

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I've heard that one before [wry g].

If that's the case, I'm halfway to a market change, since I've been trying to sell this puppy for a year.

I just wish I knew what's specifically holding this book back, is all. Even if I wanted to try to fix whatever it is that's keeping it from selling, I don't have a clue as to what that is.