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KazG posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 1 month ago Good for you @philippaeast. You more than deserve that break! What a rollercoaster in a whirlwind you’ve been riding, but also, what an awesome result. Do you have an outline for book 2?
My update is that backat the end of last year I thought that Penguin Random House had gone too quiet and all was lost (my agent was getting ready to go out on wider submission) when we heard that the editor who had been positive about my book was leaving! After 12 years at Penguin! Calamity and woe. I gathered myself enough to send her a ‘thank you and good luck’ email and readied myself to go back to square one. But then, she emailed back saying that though her last day was the day after tomorrow, that her successor was still behind it, and would I be willing to read some editorial notes so I could revise before the new editor took it to Acquisitions in the New Year?
Jaw. On. Floor. So I said YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU, and they sent me a hugely useful editorial report, almost all of which I agreed with. I made the edits and my agent submitted again on Feb 13. So there.
No news yet! So I’m back to book 2 (which was my NaNo book which I hadn’t quite finished) – but in the meantime I’ve decided that what was going to be two books (ie a trilogy) will fit into one book, so this will be a two book series after all. Which is apparently easier to sell to publishers, esp for a debut author. I’ve nearly finished my outline on that, after which I will have to rewrite great swathes of the NaNo book, plus the new scenes. But all good. Just trying not to obsess about the silence from Penguin!!
How is everyone else going?
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That’s brilliant news Kaz. It’s like snakes and ladders, isn’t it?? Glad you’re still on an upward trajectory, and really looking forward to this book
This is AMAZING news, Kaz! Well done! Sounds really hopeful and positive and generally fantastic. I’ll be keeping fingers and toes crossed that aquisitions are quickly on board. WIll your agent be subbing more widely anyway, or are you waiting on this one first? And good luck getting back to the NaNo book. It feels like a looooong time since the end of Nov!
Ooh that sounds fantastic Kaz. Exciting, exciting, exciting!!! I’m watching this space…
Thanks @raine, @daedalus, @janeshuff! Yes, Snakes and Ladders is exactly how it is. We’re only submitting to PRH at the moment; the situation is a bit unusual in that I got a response from them after pitching directly to them, before I’d even signed with my agent (which happened just after, actually). They’ve already given me editorial feedback so we’re following up on that first, before we go wider.
Having said that, they’re saying NOTHING at the moment, the silence is agony! I’m immersing myself into planning Book 2, which is working ok, surprisingly (not being much of a planner in the past). A lot of the NaNo book is out the window already…
Oh gosh, so exciting! And well don’t for grafting out those edits. Really pleased they worked for you, and hopefully it just means you’re even happier with the book. Now I’m keeping everything crossed, but given that (if I understand correctly) your agent hasn’t even sent anywhere else yet, this is all looking super optimistic! Good luck on the Book 2 work as well. xx
Thanks @philippaeast. Yes, we’ve only submitted to PRH so far. The silence is killing me!
Oh man, I feel your pain!!
ps I’m trying to put an outline together for Book 2 as we speak. I’m not keen to go writing off into the wilderness as I did with Book 1! Still trying to find all the pieces, and how they might fit together….
Oh good luck! I’m doing the same, to try to stop things flying off in all directions. What outline template are you using? By chapter?
I’m using the Story Grid Global Foolscap template, where you block out your beginning hook (act 1), middle build (act 2) and ending payoff (act three), identifying the key plot points in each (inciting incident, progressive complications, crisis, climax and resolution). This template also gets you to define your overall genre (e.g. love story, action, war, thriller, coming-of-age, etc.), the core value at stake (e.g. life/death, love / hate) and the conventions and obligatory scenes of your chosen genre. Plus your theme / controlling idea, and your narrative device (e.g. POVs).
I can’t imagine planning every single chapter though!!
Oh that looks interesting! A new approach. I’ve just done a plotting workshop that looks at different ways of approaching this so my head’s trying to incorporate it all and decide on the best approach for me right now. I’ll summarise and post when I get a moment. Thank you!
And GOOD LUCK 🙂