Writing the Novel was the Easy Part!

Last week, my “Gangster’s Gold” manuscript came back from my agent and I’m happy to report, it’s ready to roll! Well, it’s ready to roll, but all my ducks aren’t quite all lined up yet.

When I decided to write this book, no one ever told me that writing the book was going to be the easy part! I mean, I whipped out that rough draft in thirty days. Then, of course, came the editing. That turned out to be far more involved than I expected. I mean, wasn’t it perfect already!? Um. No.

But still, I survived that step (although if we sell it to a publisher I will very likely be going through another round or two) and figured we were almost home free. What a silly, naïve fool I was! I hadn't counted on The List.

When my agent sent me back my manuscript, along with it was a list of additional items my agent needed. I studied this list with some alarm. A marketing plan? Wasn’t it the publisher’s job to sell your book? Ha! Not quite. They’ll publish it, but unless you’re Stephen King or James Patterson, you better be expecting to be out there hustling your own novel. So, if you see me out by the side of the road with my trunk open waving books around, be sure and stop by.

Next, she wanted a tag line and a cover blurb. I figured those should be easy. I mean, how hard could it be to condense a 70,000 word novel into a paragraph or a single enticing sentence? The answer to that is: really hard. In fact, I spent an hour at the bookstore one day just looking for tag lines and cover blurbs. I mean do you write a cryptic and mysterious tagline like A girl trapped between two lives separated by time or a more descriptive one like A girl travels through time to prove the innocence of a ghostly boy unjustly accused of stealing a fortune in gangster’s gold. Beats me. So, I’ll write one of each just to be safe. Then, the blurb (that descriptive paragraph on the inside or back of the cover that convinces you to buy the book). Again, I need to make it sound like the most exciting book ever so you’ll want to buy and read the entire thing before you even reach your car. It took me less time to write the first half of the book!

But I’m lucky. I have helpful friends. Mackie sat down with me and helped me think of ways to market my book. My critique group gave me suggestions on writing my blurb. My brother Brian even made me a little video teaser to put on my website to help (you can see it by looking in the right hand margin for the youtube link). Others also threw in their helpful two cents. My ducks are lining up quite nicely now.

So, by the end of this week, I plan to have this all back in my agent’s capable hands and see if she can drum up any interest. Granted, it’s not a paranormal romance or a fractured fairytale, both of which seem to be very popular right now, but hopefully someone will find some merit in it, publish it and make me Rich and Famous (or at least give me bragging rights that I published a book!) . I still need to find some other time traveling, treasure hunting ghost stories similar to mine. Oddly enough, there don’t seem to be a lot out there. If you think of one, let me know!