Need to Wallow

[lydamorehouse]

About a half hour ago, I got the news from my agent that my editor rejected my most recent military SF proposal.  I'm headed back to the drawing board to try again, but I needed to take a moment to wallow a bit.

Wah!

The good news is that I'm not sure how much more of this I can stand.  I say this is good news because it's time for me to think about other ways I can make money writing.  My dear friend naomikritzer suggested that I consider serializing the sequel to Precint 13 with a tip jar, with the ultimate goal of turning whatever comes of that into an e-book.  I've wanted to do this project since the proposals for that were rejected, and this might be a good way for me to get over the hump of feeling like the effort and time put into writing something as large as a novel is worth it.  Also writing on the fly like this is one of the things I enjoy about fan fic writing.  Perhaps people will feel free to comment and whatnot along the process and make the whole project fun and interactive.  I'm going to look into setting up a tip jar (I already have a paypal account) and get started on that right away.  I'm thinking of running that through this blog and possibly my under-used Tate Hallaway blog as well.

I don't know, but I have to do something. 

Wish me luck.

Comments

[empty-mirrors.livejournal.com]

Have you considered going to some of the small online presses? They don't give advances but they do do some editing and such and will help with publicising. Or you could try Smashwords. You have the great advantage of already published works and a name that people will recognise. I can't help feeling that one of those options might work out for you.

[lydamorehouse]

They very well might. I'm not disregarding anything at this point. I'd think I'd need a finished project for those, though. The thing going for the serialized tip jar model is that it would potentially bring in a small influx of cash right away, WHILE also providing the motivation to keep going on a huge undertaking like a novel.

I appreciate the advice. I'm really seriously considering all my options right now.

[empty-mirrors.livejournal.com]

Just let me know if there's anything I can do.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

That sounds like it could be fun!

[lydamorehouse]

I hope so too!

[mindyklasky.livejournal.com]

Congrats on thinking through different options!

I tried a tip jar for one novel (FRIGHT COURT), and I found that I didn't have enough of a following to earn real money (a couple of thousand, total, over the entire course of the book, and a fair amount of that was from family.)

After I finished the tip jar offering, though, I self-published the book. It's been bringing in steady money for over a year -- several times the amount of the tip jar.

So, my advice would be to think of your next step in *stages* -- tip jar, then self-pub, then build a series, etc...

Good luck!

[lydamorehouse]

That's the plan, actually. I actually think at this point a thousand bucks total is pretty good money, but that probably says more about our financial situation than I'd like to admit.

If you have other tips and pointers for me, feel free to drop me a private note: lyda.morehouse@gmail.com.

[planetalyx.livejournal.com]

Oh, Lyda, what a big fucking drag. I'm sorry you're having to regroup, and excited about what the future may hold for you.

[lydamorehouse]

Thanks. I'm weirdly excited too. I also got a good lead from the editor who rejected my proposal about what else she might like, so I feel like I have more options than I did even ten minutes ago. Fingers crossed.

[deepforestowl.livejournal.com]

Do you know/follow Haikujaguar here on LJ? She's been quite successful with the serialization model. Might want to check her out...

[lydamorehouse]

I added her as a friend and just browsed through her latest projects. I was interested to see that she doesn't offer a huge chunk to start with. My impluse has been to think in terms of the size I would post to AO3, which is about 2,000 words, as opposed to what I might normally consider a novel's first chapter, like, 10,000 or more. So, I'm glad to see that she goes for smaller bits too.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

*waves a hand!* Goodness, lyda222, I remember meeting you through Broad Universe when it first started! That was... gosh. Okay, that was a long time ago. o_o

Anyway, I've been serializing fiction online for almost eight years now. If you have questions or want to talk more extensively about it, I'm available here or in email (haikujaguar at gmail). :)