So you wrote a book. You’re all finished. All you have to do is submit it and you can move onto something new. Right? Wrong! There’s a lot more to it than that.
To start with, you don’t just submit your novel. You have to send a one to two page summary along with it. Shouldn’t be so difficult. After all, you just finished writing the book so you know exactly what happens. Only it is. Condensing something you just spent hour upon hour pouring yourself into is damn hard.
Okay, so now your book is accepted. Congratulations! Guess what? You have to do a slightly more detailed summary, being sure to touch on all the major plot points to send in along with the contract. You may or may not be able to use the same summary you sent with your submission. Me? So far I’ve had to revise mine to some extent. Perhaps if I were better at this part I wouldn’t have to. I have a day to come up with the one for Linked.
Think you’re finished now? Yes is not the correct answer. You still have to write a brief summary for the cover gurus. They need something that gives them a general feel for your book along with a suggestion of what you’d like on the cover. I must have done a good job with Drake’s Rules because I got exactly what I’d envisioned. The problem I now have with Linked is I have no idea of what it should look like so what do I tell the cover gurus? For this stage I have until I receive the contract confirmation from the main office which could be up to a month but I really should have it ready and waiting to send in as soon as that arrives.
No, that’s not the end of it either. You still have to write the blurb. Talk about stressful! A two or three paragraph teaser that will make readers choose your book over all others at that particular moment. Yeah, this one’s definitely not easy. For me, it’s the worst part. Pulling teeth, I’d pay someone if I could, it’s seriously that hard for me hard. Any volunteers? You’d get to read the book before anyone else. I have yet to write the blurb for Drake's Rules and now I have Linked to do too. Ugh! I'm ready to curl up in a ball and cry here.
One more thing and then you can move on to your next project. You have to choose your excerpts. You need one that’s attached to the cover on the publisher’s web page as well as a few to use when doing promotions. You should have both erotic and non-erotic ready to pull out depending on where you’re promoting. These must be carefully selected to again entice readers to pick your book. They have to give a sneak peak at the plot big enough to make the reader want to read more but not so much that you give away too much so they don't have to read to rest of the book.
See? There’s a lot more involved than simply writing the book. Book writing, that’s the easy, fun part.
To start with, you don’t just submit your novel. You have to send a one to two page summary along with it. Shouldn’t be so difficult. After all, you just finished writing the book so you know exactly what happens. Only it is. Condensing something you just spent hour upon hour pouring yourself into is damn hard.
Okay, so now your book is accepted. Congratulations! Guess what? You have to do a slightly more detailed summary, being sure to touch on all the major plot points to send in along with the contract. You may or may not be able to use the same summary you sent with your submission. Me? So far I’ve had to revise mine to some extent. Perhaps if I were better at this part I wouldn’t have to. I have a day to come up with the one for Linked.
Think you’re finished now? Yes is not the correct answer. You still have to write a brief summary for the cover gurus. They need something that gives them a general feel for your book along with a suggestion of what you’d like on the cover. I must have done a good job with Drake’s Rules because I got exactly what I’d envisioned. The problem I now have with Linked is I have no idea of what it should look like so what do I tell the cover gurus? For this stage I have until I receive the contract confirmation from the main office which could be up to a month but I really should have it ready and waiting to send in as soon as that arrives.
No, that’s not the end of it either. You still have to write the blurb. Talk about stressful! A two or three paragraph teaser that will make readers choose your book over all others at that particular moment. Yeah, this one’s definitely not easy. For me, it’s the worst part. Pulling teeth, I’d pay someone if I could, it’s seriously that hard for me hard. Any volunteers? You’d get to read the book before anyone else. I have yet to write the blurb for Drake's Rules and now I have Linked to do too. Ugh! I'm ready to curl up in a ball and cry here.
One more thing and then you can move on to your next project. You have to choose your excerpts. You need one that’s attached to the cover on the publisher’s web page as well as a few to use when doing promotions. You should have both erotic and non-erotic ready to pull out depending on where you’re promoting. These must be carefully selected to again entice readers to pick your book. They have to give a sneak peak at the plot big enough to make the reader want to read more but not so much that you give away too much so they don't have to read to rest of the book.
See? There’s a lot more involved than simply writing the book. Book writing, that’s the easy, fun part.
7 comments:
Hear Hear Sister!
I freakin' hate writing blurbs. And the longer the book, the more plot twists and secondary characters you have, the harder the blurb will be to write.
I have often wondered why someone doesn't hire themselves out to authors to create synopsis' and blurbs for them. They would make a fortune cause we ALL hate doing it.
I know you will do great though. You're a hot chic with super powers, you'll do fantastic.
XoXoXO
Dakota
So true. And of course you didn't even mention the rest of promotion. Like I try to tell my family, writing books is a JOB.
Theh there's the editing and the fle process....enough to drive you to drink
Okay. I'm exhausted now. Writing a book is so much easier than this other stuff. Synopsis and blurb? ARGH!!!!
You mean I'm not done after all? Aaaaaa! Just kidding...
Blurbs don't bug me. Synopsis writing isn't fun but do-able. Still, I loathe filling out cover requests for some reason. Shudder.
Where were you BEFORE I wrote the books???
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