Posted by First of all, my #SFF novel pre-order link (kindle edition) is available to purchase on Amazon! If you like my writing style, please check it out. Print edition link should be available around release date (and it has 374 pages).
I don’t think most people realize much work we have to put on our novels until and after they’re published. I know I didn’t. I thought that after finishing the first draft, everything else would be easy.
Oh boy, how wrong I was. The first draft is a lot of work, but it’s only the first step.
But don’t get me wrong. I love every single part of this journey, even the *gasp* editing parts. Without editing, my novel wouldn’t be the literary masterpiece that it is.
Anyway, besides announcing to the world that my book is finally on the Amazon website, I wrote this blog to showcase the writing flowcharts I created. Note that this doesn’t include everything–far from that. I didn’t explicitly include blogging or social media here, for instance, or the amount of days I spent rolled into a ball and thinking how much my writing sucked at that moment. Not everything can (and should) fit into a chart.
Writing – Stage 1
This is the chart for stage 1. It contains everything that we need to do until we start querying.
Writing the first draft is just the first step. I don’t show this to discourage writers, though. Quite the opposite. This is just to protect them. Some writers finish the first draft and bypass a lot of the other steps. Don’t query the first draft of your novel.
The truth is, if we don’t spend the time polishing our novel before querying, we will almost certainly fail. Do not start querying your #nanowrimo novel as soon as you finish it. Bree Crowder explains in this blog post that the point of NaNoWriMo is not to write a publishable novel in 30 days.
There are many places where you can get beta readers:
- Goodreads has several beta readers group. E.g. this one.
- Several writing forums have sections for beta readers. AbsoluteWrite.com has one for Beta Readers, Mentors, and Writing Buddies.
- There are also places where you pay for beta readers, e.g. this one.
Gabriella Michaelis has a blog post about how to find the right beta reader.
Writing – Stage 2
Stage 2 is if and when you get an agent. Since I bypassed this stage, I have no insights for it. If this changes in the future, I’ll update this section. AbsoluteWrite.com has a thread about this stage in the Rejection and Dejection subforum. It’s called “The Next Circle Of Hell.”
Writing – Stage 3
Stage 3 is when you finally have a publisher. Awesome. But don’t expect that your work is done. There’s a lot else to do. Here’s my chart for this stage.
Note that my novel is going to be published in January, so everything after that is just speculation.
At the moment, I’m looking for ARC reviewers. If you have a blog and are interested in reviewing my novel, please contact me.
Final Remarks
That’s all folks! Please check below the first three chapters of my upcoming novel.
Pre-order link here.
