Noon and Midnight Lands

[asakiyume]

Poor Noon and Midnight Lands: I really doubt it’s going to find an agent. It’s been glanced at by a number of agents, and it’s not something any are wild about. Or perhaps it’s something they think isn’t right for the market, and if that’s the case, they may well be right. I had the good fortune to have an editor at a quite respectable publishing house look at it, and although she kindly said that she “read with interest, as it is imaginative and nicely written,” she went on to say, “Regretfully in the end I'm afraid my enthusiasms aren't strong enough to support a publishing offer.” So if any agent were to fall in love with it, perhaps they’d have an uphill battle persuading a publisher to take it.

I could change it to try to make it more palatable to the publishing world, but I don’t want to. If I’m going to spend time on a novel, I’d rather start a fresh one. And The Noon and Midnight Lands, just as it is, is the story I wanted to tell. Then too, even if I did revise it—made it start more expeditiously, removed the our-world main character so that it wasn’t a crossover fantasy, etc. etc.—it still might not appeal.

But meanwhile, in some ways, I feel really blessed in the success I’ve had with it. The people who have read it seem genuinely to have enjoyed it, which has delighted me no end. They have liked the world the way I liked the world—it seems like it’s been real for them, the way it’s real for me. Opening up new worlds for people—well, it’s wonderful.

Which is all by way of a preamble to say that I’ve set a deadline for how long I’m going to try hunting for an agent for this book. And if I don’t find an agent by that date, then I’m going to find a way of making the story available online—after first registering my copyright. I’ll probably do some combination of offering it free and charging for it, but I haven’t really thought that far ahead.

For me it’s not either-or with regard to non-traditional and traditional forms of publishing. I have no qualms about doing a little bit of everything.

And, too, consider this list of best-selling novels of 1910. How many works are familiar to you? How many authors’ names do you recognize? There are a few well-known works and well-known authors, but there are also lots that I bet I'm not alone in not knowing. This isn't to say they aren't good--they may be wonderful. They were certainly popular at the time. But now... forgotten.

Then there’s the artist and and poet William Blake. He eked out a living as an engraver, self-published his stuff, and we still remember him today.

…not that I’m ever going to be a William Blake. It’s just good to remember that there are all kinds of ways of doing things, and all kinds of measures of accomplishment.

Comments

[heyes.livejournal.com]

If you do publish it online, make sure to put a paypal link on the site, so that your adoring fans can choose or choose not to donate to the cause of you drinking more coffee and writing more novels.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

will do!

[jtglover.livejournal.com]

Seconded.

[miafedup.livejournal.com]

Third!

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

If you want to publish from lulu
which is a good one, and can involve
amazon sale, retaining rights to close
down the book and give it to another publisher
until you isbn it, may I recommend a
friend in alaska barbarakelley
who has formatted and prepared several
manuscripts into lulu books. she is
also a good person whose journal come
to think of it you would enjoy in any
case...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's all early days yet, but I'll bear it in mind--and take a look at her journal, in any case.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see now what you were talking about! How exciting!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes! It makes me feel happy--either way, I end up feeling positive.

Two Thoughts

[jtglover.livejournal.com]

I agree with you very much about the problems/quirks of publishing. There's no guarantee of the future, success doesn't necessarily mean anything other than money and contemporary acclaim, etc. Writing full time sounds awfully fun in so many ways, but the pressure of writing 1+ books per year doesn't guarantee anything but that, you know? Blake, or Lovecraft, or Mary Shelley, etc. -- we value them for a fairly small corpus of works.

Cherie Priest and John Scalzi (each in different ways, if I remember correctly) succeeded because they posted their novels online

Re: Two Thoughts

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

--and I don't mean to dump on or diss traditional publishing, I hasten to add. It just seems likely that traditional publishing's not right for this book... but I'd still be willing to try the process again for a different book.

... and my book may also just not be much good; that's quite likely too. But people can enjoy not-very-good books, as well, I figure :D

[behindpyramids.livejournal.com]

*stares at the lists*
These were the best sellers?! I had a phase in my life where I went gaga over Pollyanna, Gene Stanton Porter and F. H. Burnett (the only people I've read on the list, and even then it was because I combed second hand bookshops and interlibrary loaned across the country for their works) but even then I realized they were weak books...I suppose the equivalent of today's Twilight? Pollyanna is ridiculous. I loved it, but it's ridiculous and I never reread it. Porter is insane. She's a compelling writer, but her plots are soap operas. Laddie made me wince, and other than her massively famous classics Burnett is no better.
anyway-
please let me know when Noon and Midnight Lands goes up. I'm really excited to read it (especially with that title! it's so delicate and evocative).
A lot of my favorite books are the ones that are going out of print/are out of print and not very famous. There are lots of real gems out there, but unfortunately the public likes a certain type of book (Pollyanna and Porter and Burnett all wrote in the same saccharine mode) so self-publishing makes a lot of sense.
I adore your lj, and your short stories, and I'm so excited to read something longer by you!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I liked Pollyanna, and I adored A Little Princess by Francis Hodgkin Burnett--I won't even apologize for them! Pollyanna I only saw as a play, but I thought it was very good, and not too saccharine at all, and A Little Princess was a ripping good yarn, in its way, and provided me with a wonderful role model--I wanted to be as kind as Sarah, and as full of fortitude. Maybe they are saccharine by today's standards, but I love them!

It all depends on what you want out of writing, too. And it's not like I'll turn my back on traditional publishing, even if I do publish this online, myself. I have another novel that might be more suitable for commercial marketing...

Mainly, I just want to share my stories with as many people as I can!

I'm really glad you like my LJ--that makes me so happy! I feel really glad, too, that you let me share your life through yours.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

(oh, and I realized that my comment might sound like I was criticizing you for saying those works were saccharine--but that's not my intention at all! What I meant to be saying was that, since I, too, like those books, I don't think you need to apologize for liking them.)

[judo100.livejournal.com]

Even finding an agent doesn't mean your book will be published - I've had two agents pick up my novels, but never sold any of them. If you put your novel on line, please be sure to tell us where - I'm eager to see it! The PayPal suggestion sounded good. All the best!!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh I know! Once you have an agent, the whole thing starts all over again!

And as I say, I already know that at least one editor wouldn't take it, so... that's not a brilliant start.

(Love-Love-Love this painting of yours, by the way!)

[faerie-writer.livejournal.com]

So what you've been posting about with the pictures and the gorgeous prose is for a book? Is it more like a poetry/picture book than a novel? If so, one of your other options could be to write a fiction novel and filter that magical winter prose into the story. :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

No--this stuff I've been writing here is just daily stuff. The Noon and Midnight Lands is a fantasy novel. Here's the query letter that jmeadows helped me write for it:

Thirteen-year-old Ara meets Kerrin, a boy who's never seen night. He comes from a place where the sun is always up, a land of perpetual daylight, where people never sleep. He's in our world to learn about darkness and night, because it’s into a land of eternal night that his father, the king of the daylight lands, has vanished.

Ara introduces Kerrin to the sounds and feel of darkness, and in return, he teaches her about magic. Soon after, Ara travels with Kerrin back to his world, where all times are places: dawn, daylight, twilight … and night. To learn the fate of Kerrin's father and revive the daylight lands, they'll have to journey through these lands and weave new ties of trust between the people there—while avoiding the snares laid by Kerrin’s powerful and treacherous uncle.

[vg-ford.livejournal.com]

You could always do an audiobook and put it out on Podiobooks.com (http://www.podiobooks.com). They have the donate button as part of the program.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

No, I'm very print based! So I'll do it with text, to start with at least. Thanks, though for telling me about Podiobooks--I have a friend who is really into podcasts; wonder if he knows about them.

[88greenthumb.livejournal.com]

The title sounds like an invitation to adventure!

Hope you find a publisher by your deadline. If not, doing it online and having interested readers pay, sounds like a good alternative!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It makes me happy to think I have other options :-)

[westerling.livejournal.com]

I'll be interested in seeing it when it comes out, in whatever form that might be.

I worked in a bookstore for 15 years, and in my opinion, the publishing industry is between a rock and a hard place, as they say.

If your book is sf or fantasy, you might want to look into Small Beer Press (http://www.lcrw.net/). They are local and very good, if you haven't ever run across them before.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I agree about the publishing industry. I wouldn't want to be in their shoes.

It's fantasy, but it's YA/middle-grade fantasy, so I'm not sure it would be something Small Beer Press would consider. I do know them! I admire them tremendously and would love to be published by them. I do find them intimidating, though, because they published the marvelous books by Greer Gilman, which set a high standard! I'll see if they publish young people's things, and if they do, maybe I'll give them a try.

[slobbit.livejournal.com]

Well, I hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does, lead the way, sister. I'm pretty sure I'll be in the same boat, seeing my results with shorts.

You're right to not back down from your story for the sake of trying to sell it.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I don't mind changing some things, in some stories. I could even imagining trying to change things in this story--but only if the person asking were an editor, and the end result was going to be publication--and only if the suggestions showed enthusiasm for the basic premise.

[janni.livejournal.com]

If you want to hear positive things about how several editors or agents passing on a book doesn't mean they all will, or about how the waiting game can sometimes be worth it, I can give that perspective ... though either way, the next step--working on the next book while following whatever course you decide to follow for this one--remains the same. :-)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh, I believe it! Although it's more than several that have passed on this one--though I haven't exhausted the field yet.

I tell myself all the time about Madeleine L'Engle and how long it took her to get an acceptance.

I have a whole other finished novel that may be more marketable, though it needs some work on its ending. And, I have several ideas for other novels, and one that I've been mulling in my head for a while, in particular. This experience with The Noon and Midnight Lands, though, has given me pause. I do want to *share* what I write, don't want it just to sit on my computer...

I would love to be published in the traditional way--of course I would--because I could reach more people that way. And that still may happen. It may even happen with this book, though I feel less sanguine about it. I figure, I can do both, if it comes to that. I can be shopping around a different novel in the traditional way, and offering this one online.

I'm really, really happy, too, when I see people like you getting published and having success--just like I'm happy when I see haikujaguar having success--or like when I see Norilana Books going great guns. It's wonderful, all of it.

ETA: "people like you"--what stupid thing for me to say! All I mean, really, is people. "People like you"="people like me"--so when "people like you" get published, it gives *me* hope. Sorry... sometimes I amaze myself with my poor word choice.... hmmm, maybe *that's* my problem.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

There's another thing to consider--well, two. One is, few authors sell a first novel. If this one got some respect, then you are already way, WAY ahead of most, whose first one gets the pinched nose and dismissal.

So:

set it aside for five years, and then reread it. Could be, your craft will have leaped forward enough for you to see just where to give it a bit more dazzle.

or

Set it aside. It's done, it's what it is. You do not foresee changing it, in which case, you write the next. That one may be the one to get the agent . . . the sale . . . and the audience, in which case, when editor or agent say, "Is there a chance you have anything else ready, until you write your next?" you can say, "Why yes, I happen to have one!"

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Both excellent additional things to do.

Is it my first novel if I also wrote one at 15 and submitted to a publisher (and got a rejection)? That novel--written on a typewriter--is in a lockbox in my living room.

... I guess it's my first finished novel since becoming an adult--well, second; technically, I finished Majestico's Pocket Circus before I finished this, though I started this first.

I do think it's quite possible this one isn't very good. I do hope I'll get better with time and practice. But... I guess I want to share this one, even though it's bad, or may be bad. I know, I know... then I'll have hideous journeyman prose out there for all the world to see... but if I do self publish it, let's face it: not that many people will see it. The people who read this blog, maybe, and maybe a couple others? Do you think it would actually hurt me? I mean, i guess someone--an agent or someone--might stumble upon it, read it, and think "she's not very good," but if then I had a better novel, at some point in the future, and submitted it, do you think they'd hold the bad prose of a previous novel against me?

[marmota-monax.livejournal.com]

YA and/or fantasy are not my milieu, per se, as I deal strictly with board books to early chapter books, but ALL publishers are feeling the pinch in a big way right now. There are freezes on publishing new works at more than one publisher. I'm fortunate that my clients are still putting forth new titles, but I am seeing the frontlists cut down by one third to one half as many titles. It may just be that your timing is off.

Agents like to see that you have more than one ms ready to go, but I'm sure you knew that already, so it's good you've got another one in the wings. Work on more outlines, too, and consider an outline for a sequel to TNaML. Publishers LOVE books in series.

And this may be way off track, and I'm sure you already know about SCBWI, but the group that meets in Amherst is one of the most active in MA. It's been so many years since I was a member, I can't remember if YA is even considered a pertinent age group for members' discussions.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I have an idea for a sequel for this! (And an idea for a sequel for the other finished novel I have.) So I'm ready to go on that score.

And thanks for the info about SCBWI in Amherst! It makes sense, with Holly Black being local....

[kythiaranos.livejournal.com]

I know sksperry has had many people go to his site to read Darkside, so you may want to ask him about his experience.

I went through the same sort of frustrating experience with my first book--lots of 'I liked it, but--' comments. I hope you have better luck than I did.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I think I can already safely say that I have *not* had better luck than you :-P
I'll go take a look at skperry's page...