Hello Everyone - WritingForums.com - Writing Forums, Writing Challenges, Critiques and Help for Writers

c-breezzz · 10-11-2005, 02:13 AM

Hello Everyone,

I just signed up with Writing Forums today after searching for a good while for a froum where I could communicate with other aspiring writers and possibly even share some of my work and get feedback.

I've completed one novel (fiction, 430 pgs) and actually have an agent at a literary house solicitiong my prose. Not even sure is "

prose

" is the correct word to use, but I notice that it is used a lot in the literary world, so thouhgt I'd take a stabe at it. Anyways, I haven't heard anything from my agent and my two year contract is almost up so I'll probably go through a tedious re-write and try self publishing.

In the meantime I've started a second novel, (fiction, 300+ pgs), but am not having any breakthroughs for the ending, so I've basically been at a sand still. Which is why I've been searching for a good forum as a place to bounce ideas off of others who share the same desire to write as I do. Well, hope to get to know ya'll better.

gohn67 · 10-11-2005, 02:23 AM

Welcome to the forum c-brezzz! I hope you like it here. There alot of helpful people here. I'm sure you'll meet some great people and get some great ideas.

Feel free to contact a mentor if you have any questions or need help navigating the site.

Nickie · 10-11-2005, 02:31 AM

Welcome to the forums, and have a great time here!

Nickie

Aevin · 10-11-2005, 02:47 AM

Welcome to the forums. Good luck with your novels--if you're writing that many pages, you're sure to improve quickly!

mammamaia · 10-11-2005, 09:09 AM

welcome, cb!... btw, i'll soon be a near neighbor [as things go in that part of the world], as i'm moving to tinian in december...

i sure hope you didn't pay that 'agent' anything to not do anything for you for two years!... before taking the costly self-publishing route, why not get an assessment of the work by a seasoned editor, and see if a rewrite is really necessary?... sad fact is, there are lots of scam artists out there posing as agents, as well as newly-hatched 'real' ones who aren't very good at it and haven't got the requisite contacts at the publishing houses...

as a start, why not post an excerpt here and see what the consensus is?... btw, the length of a ms is measured in words, not pages... if you're using the proper format, your first one would come out to about 107,500 words... if your automatic word count comes out to a significantly different number, you should make sure you're formatting it correctly before sending it out to other agents or publishers...

which is another thing you may want to consider... many of the smaller indie and niche publishers do accept queries from unagented new writers, so you don't really have to have an agent to hook a publisher... and, if your book does interest one, you'll then be more attractive to an agent, who can negotiate the deal for you, which usually results in a better one...

best of luck to you, whatever you do... love and hugs, maia

ps: i love your sig quote... nin is one of my favorites... m

c-breezzz · 10-12-2005, 10:39 PM

Wow, thanks for the wonderful welcome everyone. It sure feels good to be around such a great group of supportive people!

Maia, I had no idea where tanian was. I had to look it up. Yes you will be out here in the same neck of the woods. I hope the shopping is better there than here. Sometimes I really miss the mall but we have all the necessaties so it isn't that bad. Actually not bad at all.

Fortunately I did not fork over any money. It was basically a 2-year contract where I agreed to have my manuscript solicited by him as my agent. His payment would be a percentage of any deals that he had a hand in arranging, (book deal, tv deal, movie deal...). But my 2 years will be up in June '06 so... It probably sounds "kornee" but, I was really excited when I got the contract letter thinking that someone has to be interested if this guy wants to be my agent, cuz they are only in it for the money.

I do have a very good editor though. I found him in the Writers Journal magazine after reading an article about "Book Doctors" in which he wrote about non-seasoned editors, (if I may steal your phrase), posing as the genuine thing. I contacted him via email and he sent me his price sheet and we have been working together every since. He proof everything I write. I've referred other writers to him if anyone is looking for a good editor. He's a PHD, been published over 40 times, but enough of that.

I would be more than happy to post a sample of my writing. Is there a special place to post it or do I simply attach it to my post? Feedback is always welcomed from me and taken constructively. And hopefully as Dark Aevin said, maybe I have imporved. I'll attach to this forum then next time I log in unless you guyz tell me of a better place to post.

Well I'm at work so I guess I better get back to it. Thanks again for the welcome. You guyz are awesome!!!

~~And I'm working hard to live up to the Nin quote, but I'm not there yet.