Alan R Marble

I've had a little time to think about the self-publishing route, some time to sleep on it, and I've decided to make the plunge.  Steps are now being taken to that end, and with any luck we'll have the book ready to go in time for the holidays this year!  The manuscript is being adjusted and formatted for publication as a 6" x 9" paperback, a pretty standard size in the industry.  What's lacking (and what I don't have the capacity to do) is design and create cover art for the novel.  It seems likely that I'm going to have to commission an artist to do it for me, but hopefully that won't take too terribly long.

I've also decided to go ahead and give Kickstarter a go.  I believe that there's a good shot to get the initial funding we need to make the release go smoothly and, hopefully, give us a little boost in terms of attention and potential.

I am also going to start making better use of the Facebook and Twitter feeds.  I know that there aren't many followers just yet but since I'm going down this road of self-publishing I'm going to have to make the most of social networking.  Time to make the most of it!  So keep an eye out for more exciting news soon.

There are going to be some changes to the site in the near future, as we look to highlight The Silver Token a little more directly.  It will likely be moving to a permanent home on our own severs rather than hosted here at Blogspot.  We might also be moving over to Wordpress for a little more control, and while that might have an impact on some of the old comments not moving over, it shouldn't be a big deal.

All right, now on to some big changes with the novel.  Those of you who have been following on Facebook will have noticed a little talk about the possibility of going for a self-publishing route for the novel.  It's been three months since I started approaching agents about the manuscript and so far no bites, just a parade of polite, if impersonal, rejection letters.  I understand agents are busy and have a lot to wade through in terms of submissions, and as a result a lot of the success hinges on that query letter rather than the manuscript itself.
Perhaps I haven't written a good query letter.  Perhaps I've simply approached the wrong agents.

Whichever is the case, I am not really willing to let the manuscript linger due to query letter misfires or simply getting lost in the grind of the modern publishing world.  Self publishing is no walk in the park, to be sure, and there's certainly no guarantee of success (in fact most self-published authors will be lucky to sell more than a few dozen copies).  The onus is on me and my small network of friends and family to get the word out.  Still, it can be done.  It gives me more control over the process, and guarantees I don't simply lose interest and just never get started.

There are still a few considerations, of course, such as commissioning cover art for the published book.  I'm also strongly considering some kind of pre-order sale of signed copies to help generate a little seed revenue for the project; I'm also considering whether or not to take the plunge and give Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) a try to generate even more revenue for potential marketing and the like, but the jury is still out on that.

A final decision hasn't yet been made, but stay tuned!  I'm looking to get a little more use out of this site now, too.

So, I got back a polite response from one of the agencies I've queried letting me know it wasn't what they are looking for.  I'm not perturbed by this fact, though; I rather expected it.

I have been questioned, however, on whether I have been a bit 'negative' in expecting rejections.  Part of it I suppose is a sort of self-deprecating sense of humor, but more than that it's a sense of realism.  I understand that a rejection is not necessarily an indicator of failure, nor must it be construed as saying something negative about my work or writing style.  Agents are busy people; they receive a lot of queries from a lot of authors (hundreds a week) on top of their duties to their existing clients.  They have an idea of what sorts of things they are looking for, what sorts of things they are interested in.  It's a nature of the beast that you are going to get rejections.  I expect them not because I lack confidence in my own work, but because I understand that these things just happen.

No one gets accepted on their first try.  No one.

JK Rowling had to wade through 9 (or 12) rejections before she found someone who was interested in her new children's novels.  Who hasn't heard of "Chicken Soup for the Soul?"  Rejected 33 times.  The novel that would eventually become the popular series M*A*S*H was turned down 21 times.  Stephen King's first novel, Carrie, was rejected 30 times when he gave up and threw it in the trash; his wife dug it out and encouraged him to keep trying.

Like I said.  No one gets a "yes" on their first try.  So when I have said that I am preparing to get rejection letters, it's not out of a lack of confidence in my work, it's not out of a sense of negativity or giving up.  It's merely my way of acknowledging the realities of the industry, and preparing myself for the inevitable.  It's thanks to this knowledge that my first rejection letter does not strike me as a failure, does not discourage me from pressing onward.

It's just an important milestone on the path!

Well now that the final draft is complete, there's really only one step left to take : get the manuscript out there.

Been a while since I've updated here, much to the consternation of my loyal fans.  All, what, three of you?

Life has kept me busy the last few months but in spite of the lack of updates here, the writing hasn't come to a complete halt.  Right now the manuscript is going through another revision, this one to hopefully polish out a few rough spots, fill in a few holes, and basically get the manuscript into what I would consider a "submission-worthy" state.  Probably isn't going to take me all that long either, as I am not making any serious revisions.  No adding new characters, no new chapters, no new scenes.  I'm pretty satisfied that it should be good to go by the end of the month.

What then?  I've been doing a fair bit of thinking lately and I think the best bet for me will be to seek out an agent.  With everything else that is going on, all the other demands I have on my time, I'm just not sure I have either the time or the energy to devote to making the submissions to publishers myself, do all the follow up work, all of the stuff that agents know exactly how to do.  Granted, I'll still have to go through the trouble of finding and submitting to an agent, but at least there's a bit less of a labyrinth to navigate, there.  Perhaps there's even a bit of an opening there, too; a brother-in-law of a brother-in-law published a fantasy novel not too long ago, so maybe it's possible to make a bit of a connection.

That's about it for now.  Hopefully there will be some interesting and worthy news to share in the near future.

Well now that February is almost over, it's time to move on to the next phase of this thing.  I've gotten feedback from a good few of you, and it's all been encouraging, thank you all so much!  I haven't actually started my revision yet but that will change in March.  Originally I had planned on having the revision done sometime in that month but must be a little more conservative about that estimate now; we're looking at the revision to wrap up sometime in April.  In any case, I'm hopeful that I'll be ready to move on to the more frightening phase of submissions by May ...

One bit of feedback that was fairly consistent was a desire to see a sequel.  It's true that I left some things open-ended in the story but I was not, in fact, planning a sequel at that time. The idea has been bouncing around long enough in my head though that I'm ready to commit to the notion : once I'm completely done with The Silver Token, I'll be starting on a sequel!  Don't expect much in the way of details from me right now, of course, but it'll be an opportunity to explore a little more of the history of the dragons, build upon some existing relationships, and even see our protagonists caught up in adventure and intrigue in the far corners of the globe ...

Sorry, I couldn't help it :)

The last of the draft manuscripts are out to volunteer readers; I won't be entertaining more requests after this point, sorry!  The main reason is that I am looking to begin revising shortly.  I have gotten feedback from a number of you and am trying to hold off on my next rewrite as long as I can to get the most input possible but at the same time I don't want to wait too long.  Starting this week I will be re-reading the manuscript myself, and once I am done I will start on the next draft.

So where does it go from here?  Those of you who are still in the process of reading are more than welcome to continue offering input and thoughts even after I start my revision - even after it is done!  The current goal is to have a final revision done up sometime in March so that I can begin looking for places to submit the manuscript to and see what happens from there.

Once again a big thank you to everyone who has read it and given me some feedback to go on, your thoughts and opinions have been immeasurably helpful to me!