Emotional Roller Coaster

Earlier this week I was at an all time high! My book was completed and life was good. Today I am in a pit of dispair. Welll, not that bad really. Deciding to cut 40% or more of something you worked so hard on is devistating, but it is the craft. I must remember to keep telling myself that.

So this past week I had started quering agents. At the same time I was learning something new. Most firt time authors only present manuscripts that are 100,000 words or less. Which is industry talk for just over 300 pages. Ouch is to say the least. My book is 180,000 words which equates to about 560 pages. So I'm thinking "Harry Potter" or "Twilight" right? Well, yeah - if I want to wait 6 years to find the right agent or spend countless number of dollars to go to conference and try to shove it down a publisher's throat. (And I am not saying that is what happened in the other cases.)

No, my goal was to get it published traditionally. Agent, publisher, the whole bit. To do so I need to conform to the guidlines most agents use. I have a much better chance getting it published if I do it that way. So here is my plan.

I keep out the queries that I have - who knows an agent might want to try representing a monster. In the mean time I'm going to rewrite the whole book - not like I did before, but narrow the focus to Emily. It is her story that I wanted to tell. The rest of the story are additional scenes for the entertainment of the reader and of the writer. But still 40% cuts a lot out of a story - as story unto itself, right? That's what I'm thinking. With the material I do cut I can use it to create an anthology or try to sell the "chapters" as short stories to magazines or online publications. I am thinking that I can do this to start a fan base even before the book is released. If not, I use them as a quick second book to the Chronicles. After all that I why I wanted to create a series - I can tell a story from any character's POV.

So off I go to write the next 100K words for the first novel I ever wrote - It's almost funny typing it.