Are You Ready to Publish?

Glad to say Anticipation of the Penitent is still on Authonomy.com, but even happier to say that I'm moving on. I’ve gotten some good input, and am no longer focusing on the ratings or exchanging readings. (Don’t look down on the book because the rating is going down. The ratings on Authonomy.com are based on how many people read the book and how much activity you personally have on the site. Since I’m no longer trying to search out readers or reading as much myself, the rating is sinking.) Instead, I have revved up my querying literary agents. Two helpful sites are agentquery.com and Editors & Predators. If you are looking for a publisher or agent, check out those two sites.

I had seriously considered publishing my book through Tate Publishing, a Christian company, which had offered me a contract. But I learned that although they say they’re a traditional publishing company, it isn’t. They charge $4000 for publication of a paperback, editing and marketing. After selling 1000 copies, the contract stipulated that I would get the investment back. After contacting some people who have used them, one responded that he was satisfied with the services, although he had to put in a lot of work himself, and then utilized other services for some of the marketing. Another person was adamant that I should not use them and felt the cost was not proportionate to the services provided. Since I’m still in debt, and have recently made a silly purchase that I need to pay off, and since they only gave me 10 days to decide, I decided to wait, to investigate more, and pay off this debt before investing so much.

Then I learned of WestBow Publishing, an affiliate with the Christian publishing company Thomas Nelson, which really impressed me. But, after researching them as well, I’ve learned that although WestBow used to be a traditional publishing company, they are now the same as Tate, in that they are both vanity publishing companies. Vanity presses are known to charge too much for services that you could get for free or much cheaper elsewhere. There is also a bad rep in utilizing vanity presses. If WestBow is really interested in my book, the representative I spoke with knows that he could read it on Authonomy.com and then refer it to Thomas Nelson. Then I would be really thrilled!

No longer spending so much time on Authonomy.com, which I still think is a great site, I have made two significant decisions. The first, as I’ve already mentioned, is that I have stepped up sending out query letters. Second, I will start the process of self-publishing through either CreateSpace or LuLu. I’m researching both to see which I think will best serve my needs. They both have good reputations and referrals from people who’ve used them.

I will continue to write, and am looking forward to spending less time reading others’ work and more time focusing on my own. When my book is ready, I will send out the word everywhere so that you can be among the first to purchase it. You will be happy with the story!

Other news is that I was recently interviewed by Kim McMillon of Arts in the Valley at http://artsinthevalley.wordpress.com/. This is a local show that promotes Bay Area artists and writers. Make sure you check the site out. It was a 20 minute interview that will be aired locally in San Joaquin Valley on Arts in the Valley at KYOS 1480 AM, and will be uploaded to Facebook. The planned airing is on Saturday, September 8^th.  I will send out the word and place a link on the blog once it’s aired!

I ask for continued prayers on my book, writing and publishing. God bless!

Read Anticipation of the Penitent at

http://www.authonomy.com/books/45790/anticipation-of-the-penitent/read-book/#chapter

Happen Glance

A happen-glance at the full moon.

Bright white reaching out:

A touch of God’s hand to my heart.

“Oh, how I love you my Lord.”

Driving. I see the moon. I feel my God reaching.

Eyes water. Driving. A smile comes. Heart softens.

This is not my fascination with the full moon.

“What mysteries are you telling me?”

Peering up. I look ahead.

The building blocking the moon

but not the touch.

“Will something happen soon?”

Silhouette of trees hiding the light

but not his hand.

I smile. I laugh with God.

“How beautiful! Whatever it is,

God I trust you.”

Off the freeway. He reaches me.

Traffic. A glance at the moon.

I must pay attention.

But never will I forget that

touch of God’s hand

from the full moon

to my heart.

The Writing Bug, Anticipation of the Penitent, and tell me, what is Speculative Fiction?

Okay, okay, I haven’t been writing much these days, except for the writing prompts from Writer’s Digest. And I didn’t even do that this week, although it was a good one.

The reason: I’ve uploaded my book, Anticipation of the Penitent, on an online writer’s site called Authonomy.com, at http://authonomy.com/books/45790/anticipation-of-the-penitent/.  It is a great site, where thousands of books are posted of every genre, and people read some or all of the book, comment and rank them. In order to get the most readers, you also have to read others’ books.

That’s where my time has been spent, reading and reading, and commenting and getting comments. It’s great and it’s frustrating. Some people love my book, others say it’s too dark for them, others don’t like the Christian aspect of it. In other words, there have been the usual feedback.

I’ve made some corrections to the book on Authonomy.com, have reread my book, and I have to say, I still love it! To me, the subplots, character transformations, inspiration and redemption themes by the end of Book I and the end of Book II, cause me to still be amazed by it all. (Some people who’ve read the whole book have called it amazing.)

Recently, I haven’t been submitting to too many literary agents either. I get comments from Authonomy.com that help me to see exactly how to describe my book and where things can be clarified. I want to get a few more comments and make a few more changes before finding out the best types of literary agents to submit to.

In that regard, speculative fiction in the Christian field, is fiction that has Christian ideology to it, but isn’t your typical “happy” Christian read. It includes Christian horror, sci-fi, and fantasy. I originally considered my book in the genre of Spiritual Warfare fiction, which during the San Francisco Writer’s Conference earlier this year, I had so shockingly learned wasn’t an accepted genre.

Another shock from comments I’ve received from my book is the amount of people who consider it to be horror. These are usually from people who have only read the Prologue and First Chapter. Of course, it is about a serial killer, and there are some disturbing descriptions, but I had never considered it horror. Dark definitely, thrilling maybe, paranormal maybe, maybe even a bit of fantasy, but horror? There’s no gore, the killing and other darker scenes are not explicit enough, I thought, to be called horror.

So, because of the comments I’ve received, I’m tentatively labeling Anticipation of the Penitent speculative fiction/literary Christian horror, until further notice. I hope to soon continue submitting query letters to more appropriate agents (once I find them). And I will start writing again on my other two books, should I say …soon?

Notice to readers of Anticipation of the Penitent: Because of the Authonomy website, I have changed my blog to not include the entire book. Instead, only excepts of the chapters are included. People who want to read the entire book can go to http://authonomy.com/books/45790/anticipation-of-the-penitent/.