DELIVERING My BABY

I'm a bit past that now, but that's what my

agent said she'd do for me. And believe me, I'm

the one who has experienced all those labor

pains.

I have had a few miscarriages with my manuscripts. I

have come close, but failed at the committee level.

Unlike a baby coming whether ready or not, our little

novel babies require a great deal of perseverance and hard work to actually bring the delivery to pass.

 

The following is not really for published authors, but for those who feel their precious manuscripts are ready to be sent out into the world of traditional publishers.
 

 First that well written query, then if accepted comes the BOOK PROPOSAL which causes most authors to shudder. It's very demanding. In it you must persuade an agent, then a publisher why they should read a

chapter or two of your book.

Here's what I wrote for my novel and maybe you can use it as a guide:
Title:              The Testing of Taylor Jones   Historical Romance with Quest subplot 

Hook:             A venture into the unknown. A step of faith or an incalculable blunder?

Late 1890s: As members of a covert expedition in search of a creature thought extinct, Dr. Garrett Steele, veterinary professor of the New England Museum of Natural History and reporter, Miss Taylor Jones, are thrust to the limits of their courage and endurance in the rugged outback of Australia. He wants to make the find of the century and she wants to write an account that will make her a household name. When betrayed by a rogue team member, danger escalates their passionate clash of personalities into a relationship neither had bargained for. Will each find what they crave, or will they fail the final gut-wrenching challenge?

Then follows a one or two page SYNOPSIS, PROMOTION,  MARKETING and COMPETITION

 

Uniqueness:

v  The fascinating subject of cryptozoology: the study and search for animals thought to be extinct. Many naturalists were involved in this well over a century ago.

v  The huge but elusive Burrunjor has been depicted in cave paintings, rock carvings, and in reports by early Australian colonists. And bones of large carnivores have been located in remote Outback caves. Also the fascinating, mysterious Aboriginal culture.

v  Along with her speleologist brother, Rita has been on a few caving jaunts and these experiences gave her real insight into the feeling of aloneness in the cave depths. 

This is followed by ENDORSEMENTS, CHRISTIAN THEME, INTENDED READERS, and the MANUSCRIPT STATUS - length and whether completed. 

A full AUTHOR BIO, PUBLISHING CREDITS and FUTURE PROJECTS.

I was also urged to get a TWITTER a/c. Would you also like to follow me? @RitaSGalieh

Even at this stage where my agent has given it to her editor contacts, I can only continue praying my novel will eventually find the right publishing home. 

 

    So, as soon as you can, begin working on your Hook and Synopsis for your Book Proposal. It helps by planning ahead.   

 

  *Rita Stella Galieh is a scriptwriter and co-presenter on Vantage Point, a 5 minute program broadcast throughout Australia. She has contributed to several US Anthologies by Adams Media and has two Historical Romances published by Ark House Press. Each year she and her husband minister in Buddhist Government schools, prisons, hospitals & churches in Thailand

Why I Don't Read Much in My Genre

I was reviewing my 2013 reading list the other day and it struck me how few science-fiction titles are on that list. Not so odd, you may think, except that science-fiction is my chosen genre. My very first story was sci-fi and so too was my debut novel, Alpha Redemption, as are my two upcoming releases. So why don't I read more sci-fi? Surely it makes sense to read within your genre to improve your own writing? Well, yes and no.

Back in the day, when I had a full head of a hair and a readily-identifiable body shape, I worked in the fitness industry. One thing I discovered was something called cross-training. The idea is to do more than focus only on those muscles you use for your particular sport, but to supplement this with other activities. There was a time when professional athletes followed a simple training regime. Tennis players practiced tennis. Golfers played gold. Swimmers swam. Today, the benefits of cross training are common knowledge. Tennis players use weights to improve their power and they hit the running track to increase stamina. Even golfers can be found doing things other than golf. It is no longer enough to just focus your energy on one activity. To improve your game you have to supplement your training with activities not quickly associated with your sport.

In 2013 I read twenty three books, of which only two were science-fiction. The reason for this is that, while I love the genre, I so often find the writing to be lacking soul. When I pick up a piece of science-fiction I pretty much know what to expect. As a rule, writers of sci-fi have a lot to say about worlds filled with exotic technology but seem unwilling or unable to populate those worlds with believable characters. Many of these stories are best-sellers, so people must like them. For me, however, I need a main character I can care about. Last year I ended a book by a best selling author and could only wonder what people were raving about. You know something is wrong if the main characters are in dire peril and you don't care, simply because the author has not taken the time let you get to know them.

Whatever you may think of Star Wars, there is a good reason why it was (and still is) so popular. The stories may be set in fantastic worlds filled with interesting technologies. It may have flying cars and light sabers. There may be droids and laser guns and weapons the size of small planets. These, however, merely enhance the experience. What makes the stories so compelling is that they are, at their heart, about a boy trying to discover who he is and where he came from.

Writers of science-fiction can learn a lot by studying Star Wars. I'm not talking about all the whizz-bang technology, but the human element. Another good series is Firefly. Why it only ran for one season is a mystery to me because it has more soul than just about anything out there, in any genre. Perhaps there was not enough whizz-bang technology to keep the mainstream sci-fi buffs happy, I don't know.

All I know is that, as long as sci-fi continues to produce writers who care more about technology than they do about people, I will be looking elsewhere for my inspiration. I will do what modern sportsmen do and employ some cross-training. I believe this can only improve my game and make my writing stronger.

FRUSTRATED? WHY? It's all so easy.

Yes, occasionally / mostly / often, we writers possess this attitude, sometimes with a vengeance!

Literary agent Rachelle Gardiner received some interesting comments from readers of her blog. They follow:

1. Frustrated at finding the right audience.
2. Frustrated with the marketing side of it. To her it feels so much like a waste of time when she'd rather be writing.
3. One had two agents answering her query saying it was great, but they'd pass.
4.One multi-published author had six different manuscripts out to publishers who asked to see them......several months ago! And still no word.
5. One very frustrated fellow said genres have become restrictive requiring square peg stories to be hammered into round genre holes! He wanted to be able to read a story that sweeps across the literary landscape going wherever the story takes it. Umm, a little like the frustrated author in the cartoon?

What frustrates you most about the whole rigmarole of writing the book, finding an agent, sending in the proposal, then having to market the book you know the whole world wants to read? Aargh!!!
But we are writing faith-based fiction aren't we? 
The following encouragement is from Karen Ball of the Steve Laube Agency:

A woman went to visit her mother, telling her how discouraged she was, how weary of all the struggles in life. The mother took her into the kitchen, set three pots of water on the stove, turned the heat on high. In one pot she put carrots; in the second, she put an egg, in the last, coffee grounds. After about 20 minutes, she turned off the heat, fished out the carrot and the egg, and asked her daughter to what changes had taken place.
“The carrot’s all soft and squishy,” the daughter said, “and the egg is hard boiled.”
The mother then poured the water from the coffee grounds into a mug, and had her daughter sip it.
“What change has taken place?”
The daughter smiled. “The water’s been changed into a delicious coffee.”
The mother put her arm around her daughter. “So then, we have a choice when the heat is on in life. We can grow soft and squishy, like the carrot, or hard inside like the egg. Or we can be like the coffee grounds, and change the water around us into something rich and refreshing.”
Let’s give that a try, friends. Let’s let God use the hard times, the discouragements and frustrations, to refine and perfect us. 

* Rita Stella Galieh, author of two published full length novels, is learning to overcome frustration in her attempts at finding comparable books in a requested proposal. Does anyone else find that an easy task? Apart from ACFW's Fiction Finder and AMAZON, where else can you find such things?