Sunday, August 08, 2010

Setting It Free

Hallelujah! My publisher was kind enough to accept the half-edited SEASONS OF RECKONING this past week! She knows it's a first draft after chapter 10 and she was okay with that! Meanwhile I keep editing and will send her the other smoothed-out chapters as I get chunk after chunk done. Praise the Lord for a patient editor.

That said -- I released the document from my jump drive to her computer with no small degree of trepidation. Let nobody deny this -- it's hard to set your story free and hand it into someone else's keeping. The usual bugaboos lift their heads. This puppy is going to be read by another! What if she liked the first book in the "Seasons of Destiny" series (she did like it) and hates this second outing? What if my character's rather dry, low-key sense of humor doesn't work as well as Bethany's out-there one? What if she hates the way Marcus and Ebrel meet? What if what if what if--?

It's not easy.

In other news from Casa Chaos, I see on an e-mail loop we all know and love, what we'd change about CBA publishers. I did respond in my trying-to-be-the-voice-of-rational-thinking mode to the loop. What I wanted to say was: Why is this even a question? Who (except for those three or four remaining CBA publishers) cares what CBA does anymore? The Christian fic market has grown so vastly larger than these few, conservative, "let's ignore the world's need for Christ and push out more Bonnet Books" publishers that the conversation is all but irrelevant before it begins. Please!

Striking my blow for the larger market.

2 comments:

Lisa Lickel said...

Aw, very much in agreement with you. What's worse is when the baby comes back with the words "there's something I don't like about it, and I don't care enough to work with you to fix it."

I'm sure you'll do well. And I agree - I went "huh?" at the question. Like anybody's going to act on it, anyway. Waterbrook went first when they started putting out weird stuff that barely qualified as spriritual. But the buggy stuff sells...so it must be good, yes? :) I wouldn't ever write it. I have to live next door to my Amish neighbors. And they don't allow vampires.

Deb said...

I agree--they don't listen to readers unless someone forces them to, and even then it seems grudging.

I wish the "buggy stuff" would stop selling and give some more varied ideas their chance.