As we write our first novel, we can’t help thinking about its future. I day dream about DAW, Roc, and Tor. I hear stories about indie published works like J.L. Doty’s Gods Within series that I learned at a con sold over 30,000—and who hasn’t heard about the success of Shades of Grey? As I get closer to finishing my manuscript, I have to do more than daydream: I have to really think about what I want. If it’s traditional publishing, how do I optimize my manuscript’s chances with the most likely fit for it? Daydreaming is fun. This is work…and scary work at that, because every choice I make, every avenue I go down, every street I bypass, could be the difference between finding a publisher…
Or not.
As I near finishing my novel, I have started researching cover letters, query letters, synopses, publishers, and statistics on rejections. The numbers are downright scary. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in my manuscript with all my heart…but when I read that Rowlings’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone got rejected 12 times, that Herbert’s Dune got rejected 23 times, that L’engle’s A Wrinkle in Time got rejected 26 times, and that King’s Carrie nearly didn’t see publication because after 30 rejections, Steven King threw it out (his wife rescued the manuscript…thank you Mrs. King. I like that one!)…well, when I read those numbers, I think, what chance have I? This is why, in my head, my novel is both publishable and unpublishable all at the same time; it is my Schrödinger’s manuscript.
But I have one task to do before I try to take my novel from Schrödinger’s sealed manuscript box…and that is finish it. But how? I’ve been stuck on the Chapter 49 for a very long time.
Enter Clarion West.
