Sunday 4 December 2011

Thinking on paper

I'm thinking out loud really or rather on paper/screen whatever but I'd be interested in anything anyone wanted to say. You see, the thing is that for a while I have been thinking of self publishing BTL, given that I can't get an agent to "love it" enough to take it on. Obviously these days digital is the way to go and so I have been thinking about that too. But my dilemma is that I am the only one that has ever read BTL all of the way through so how do I know that it is good enough and that anyone else will want to read it? How do I know that I'm not just kidding myself? I always said that I would never self publish but after reading an article by Giles Brandreth the other week I realised that unless I am a celebrity, my chances of getting a book published are just about nil and he mentioned self publishing. Of I don't know.
On a different note, my "Nice" project has just hit 20,000 words. I have revised my deadline to say that I want the first draft, second draft and a bit of a polish done by April.

7 comments:

Frances Garrood said...

It might be worth while having BTL professionally critiqued? I think we all need an impartial editor, and after all those hours of work, it might be a good investment, and pay off in the long run? Good luck, whatever you decided to do.

Colette McCormick said...

Thanks Frances - good advice.

Anonymous said...

Ultimately, you must decide what you want to do but, if it were me, I would try to keep two things separate:

1. Do I think my work is the best I can make it?
2. How do I want to go about publishing it, once the answer to question 1 is yes?

What Frances suggests is indeed good advice. I wonder if there is anyone you can get to "unprofessionally" critique it, before you part with any money. Obviously you'd have to take their feedback with a certain pinch of salt, but it might give you a rough idea and weed out some of the more obvious errors that you haven't spotted yourself.

Flowerpot said...

Yes I would agree with getting some professional advice - Hilary Johnson is good as are Cornerstones. Good luck!

Colette McCormick said...

Captain as always you give good advice. I think that it is as good as I can get it or at least I hope it is because I have sent it out to agents.
FP thanks fo rthe advice because I was wondering who to use.
The captain may have a point also though about an unprofessional eye as I would be interested if a member of the regular public enjoyed it.

Suzanne Ross Jones said...

I agree with Frances, Colette. I think if you're going to self publish you really need to be sure it's as near perfect as it can be.

Lots of luck.

XX

Colette McCormick said...

I completely agree with you Suzanne. I've actually not given it a lot of thought what with Christmas and all but I think I may have gone off the idea for the moment.
Good to see you here x