Wednesday, August 26, 2015

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Woah! What a week.

First, I got a new granddaughter. She's a delight already. The hospital made my daughter sign a paper that she wouldn't tell anyone any of the details, so, sorry if you want more details. Hospital's orders.

Then, I got back all the edits from Limitless's editor and fixed what I could and commented on what I thought should be left alone. I don't think the editor understands colloquialisms and dialectics very well. That's OK. Hopefully he learned some of that from me.

A couple of days ago I got back the jacket cover and blurb. Fantastic, both. Everyone who saw it had about the same reaction: "Awesome!" Man, with a jacket cover and jacket blurb like these, I can't see why it wouldn't sell and sell big. Here's to crossing my fingers.

On top of that, my son just purchased domain names for me, for me and my book. What do you think of these:

http://paulwwest.com
http://bridgetownhigh.com


There's nothing on them yet, but he'll help me fill them out. I can't be more excited!!!

The book won't come out until October or November, so, all you faithful followers, hang on. The ride isn't over yet.
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About Paul West

Paul West is a freelance writer and novelist. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Paul claims to be a "Prune Picker," though he now makes his home in Taylorsville, Utah.

You can follower him on Twitter: @PaulWWest

Published: Wednesday, August 26, 2015

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Got back the first round of edits from my editor at Limitless Publishers. So far, he hasn't identified much in the way of content. He's mostly found punctuation issues. I think he is using a different standard than I've been taught. He only sent me the first 100 pages. That's about 1/3 of the total pages. Now, all I gotta do is find time to review the edits and agree or disagree with them.

So, for all you faithful followers who want to see what's involved in getting your novel published (either indi or trad) hang in there with me and I'll show you all the horrors (ha ha ha).
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WOW! To all my faithful followers, I ask: Is this timely or not?

NOT!

I just got this note in my email.

Dear Paul,

Hi there, and thanks for thinking of me! I just reviewed the opening pages of BRIDGETOWN HIGH, and I must say -- the concept of your novel intrigued me. I've been looking to build my YA fiction list, so I was looking forward to your pages.

That having been said, I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass on your project because I didn't really connect with your writing voice as much as I would have liked. Your narrative flowed well, and you're definitely a competent writer -- I just thought your opening scene was slightly too emotionally overwrought, to the point where I found myself unable to sympathize with Mark, despite his terrible tragedy. Perhaps you could approach the scene from a different angle, one that's more heart-wrenching in a subtle way?

I wish I had better news for you -- I always like to remind writers that regardless of my subjective opinion, there are lots of agents out there. Who knows, someone might just feel that "spark" for your project and want to represent it as it currently stands. Please continue to persevere, and I wish you the very best of luck in securing representation!

My best,


If I had gotten this a bit earlier, I might have been able to mull it over and see what I could do to improve things.


Oh, well
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Does anyone know how to get people to read a blog? I guess when it comes to being technologically talented, I missed the boat when God passed that talent out.

My publisher, Limitless Publishing, asked if I minded that they slip the editing effort by a few days. Sure. I will still have two weeks to fix whatever he finds wrong, but won't effect the release date.
I hesitate to mention the date as that may end up slipping too. eventually.

I wrote back and said it was OK, but I'm extremely anxious to see what kinds of edits he comes up with. Bridgetown High (assuming the title remains the same) has been edited over and over by several people in my critique group. It reads pretty smooth in my opinion.

So, to all you faithful followers, hang in with me and see what the publishing process is like. And, when that is over, I'll teach you all how to write a best selling novel - assuming my novel achieves that status, ha ha ha. Or, maybe it will be GERTA! that achieves that status.

Oh, you don't know about GERTA! It's my next middle-grade novel. Here's a teaser:



She stood five-foot-eleven, had to be all of 450 pounds and smelled worse than a sewer. Her dull beady eyes looked out from a mass of tangled, dishwater blonde hair. Her twisted and puffy face was pocked with oozing acne. “IT’S GERTA! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” We’d all scream in our best blood-curdling cries whenever we saw her. Everyone knew she was cooties of the deadliest kind and we would probably die if she ever touched us. But I loved her.

What do you think?
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My publisher, Limitless Publishing is, so far, doing a great job. They're requiring a lot from me, but they're still doing the bulk of the work. So far, the biggest task I've had to do was to go through my novel's manuscript and format it according to their standards. It took me a few days (considering I can only work on it during my lunch breaks at work), but I got it in on time. So far, so good. Now the novel is in their hands. They will now do the major edits for content, as well as for grammar, syntax, spelling, and anything else they might find.

So, for all you faithful followers (all 2 or 3 of you), keep tuned. There's a lot more to come. We haven't even begun to talk about marketing. That's the scary part. Wish me luck with that.
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