How Productive Was Your Summer? Mine kinda sucked.

School started this week and I feel like my free time has been given back to me.  As far as writing goes, my summer was less productive than previous summers. Of course, we vacationed multiple times this year, so much so, on our last trip the boys said, “We vacation too much.”  Lol. 

I also have been indecisive over what to do with Club Neverland after learning that a scarily similar novel sold in January. That novel frightened off potential agents who had Club Neverland’s full and really like it but—with the similar book having just sold—didn't think they could sell another. 

The good news is each of them asked for other work of mine. Unfortunately, at the time I only had two other completed novels ready for submission. One is a paranormal, which we all know is a flooded genre. The other is a sci-fi/fantasy that because of the mix seems to be a tough sell.  I pitched to the agents a YA contemporary romance I’d just completed but hadn’t begun editing.  Even though I wrote a spur of the moment query for each agent, they happened to like it and asked that I submit the novel to them once it’s ready. 

Shortly after, I received four R&R’s for CN, which seriously threw me. But my confidence for Club Neverland selling had been shot to the toilet. I thought, Those agents just haven’t heard of the other book yet.  I couldn’t decide what to do—move on with my YA Contemp or rewrite Club Neverland.  My heart was still in Club Neverland, so after a period of “Why me? Why did this happen?” I decided to do the revision’s for Club Neverland.  They took much longer than anticipated and the middle to end of the book changed completely. I did, however, feel it was much stronger than before.  My critique partner agreed and said she “Felt it” when reading it.  That helped my confidence toward the rewrite.

But then summer came, the boys were home with me, we vacationed and my final read through dragged on and on. Here and there, I started editing my YA contemporary and my adult romance, which I wrote last year and never finished edits because it’s something I never planned to write. It just came to me on a whim and what a naughty whim it was.  LOL  Again, I was deciding which book to pursue next, especially since an adult romance agent, who by chance read Club Neverland and really enjoyed it, was interested in any adult novels I had.

I pondered—procrastinate—that for a while, then learned I had to have gum surgery. Since I can’t take pain meds and am extremely sensitive to anesthesia—both make me vomit for days—I was terrified to go through with it.  I did, however, and thanks to a nasal mist pain medication and lots of Phenergan mixed with my anesthesia, I didn’t vomit at all. It was the first time EVER!  I couldn’t believe it. Still can’t. 

But since I’m allergic to the world and all that it produces, my immune system took a beating and I got sick with the flu. So after two weeks of healing, I was down again.  But I’m feeling much better finally, as I said, the boys are back in school. I’ve decided to push myself to finish the edits on my contemporary romance and work on editing my adult romance, hoping to reclaim the intense and productive writing groove of my past. 

I’ve also decided to submit Club Neverland to Entangled in the hopes that it will still get published. When I discussed my frustrations over the novel with friends, writers Joe and Lisa Iriarte, and Vive Barnes, explaining that I sent out close to 90 queries for Club Neverland but only received 40 responses, 22 of which were full requests, they felt I didn’t query enough and that I needed at least 100 rejections before I stopped submitting a novel.  But those who know me well know this is my typical behavior. I shop a book minimally, receive a high request rate, and then after a few rejections I quit. LOL  I know. I know. I know.  I seriously need to stop doing that. 

I plan to. Well, I’m going to try. In today's crazy, flooded YA market it's all we can do. So much has changed in the industry over the years because of the economy, the popularity of e-books, and the success of small press and indie authors. The are many opportunities for writers to get their story out there, depending on what they want or need, their finances, and their goal for their novel. It can become confusing, especially when the rejections start rolling in. Perhaps, I should change the name of this blog to, To publish traditionally, or not to . . .   LOL

Now that I’ve vented about my life, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the writing industry, your struggles and fears, and your motivation.  Thanks for stopping by and happy Tuesday!