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Final Revision Complete

I finished going through the entire manuscript a couple of days ago and now have a PDF version available to well-wishers. There were problems with the e-pub version that will require different software to fix. We'll see what happens with that.

In the meantime, the true manuscript, which has been cleansed of typos and unnecessary sitcom-type jokes, is being marketed. The waiting is no fun, but what dlse is there to do?

It Never Ends

I've been busy over the last couple of weeks in converting the Dead in His Tracks manuscript into a form that would be readable on e-readers and using the opportunity to correct errors as I came across them. I had actually just copied and pasted the first several chapters in an effort to make time, but then started reading through each one mostly to catch typos. It finally occurred to me last night that I should go back to the beginning and proof it from page 1.

Chapter 1 was in better shape than I had feared, and most of the corrections I made were just that: corrections. This was good. This was heartening. And then I got to Chapter 2.

Chapter 2, it turned out, was still weighed down with too much jokiness and cleverness and asides. I've started fixing it. Submissions will continue to roll off the assembly line while I do.

I can hardly wait for Chapter 3.

Plugging Along

Dead in His Tracks has now been rejected by one agent and is awaiting the verdict of a second--one who seems to simply not reply if she doesn't like it, per the following stats:



But, those are the risks. She's on vacation, so the clock on her four-week evaluation period will start running on Monday.

I have to say that I don't quite get it. When you only take queries via email, why is it so difficult to send a form rejection once you decide you don't like something? Just as a courtesy. Just as I give her the courtesy of only querying one agent at a time (multiple submissions are done, but are frowned upon) and in following the limitations she sets out on her webpage. I know that she gets a lot of blind queries like mine, and that she will have a mountain to wade through come next week, but are those any reason not to have some standard text that you can copy and paste into a reply email? Maybe there's something that I don't understand here, and you can bet that I would gladly send her the entire manuscript if she requests it. It's obviously not a deal-breaker or an approach that makes me unwilling to submit. I just wonder why.

Why?

Now that it is done, now that Dead in His Tracks is having to fight its way in the marketplace, I have begun to question the wisdom of having written it at all. As I have progressed as a writer, as I have gone from thinking of myself as being a comic writer to thinking of myself as being a serious one, I have also come to question whether this project, conceived in humor and dedicated to the proposition that all things are created absurd, was the best jumping off point for my new incarnation.

Conceived, originally, in a spirit of parody, there are elements of the plot that strike me as being too constructed, too manufactured. It seems too mannered to me. It also occurred to me earlier today that it is harder to go from genre novel, in terms of sales, to general fiction than it is the other way around. The people who represent genre authors and the firms that publish their work want different things from a mystery than what I can give them. They cherish and defend the cliches that I wish to subvert.

Given all my feelings about this, Dead in His Tracks will probably become a #1 international bestseller and then a movie--most likely in 3-D--starring some pretty boy who can't act. Or....

And So, To Market

I finished the latest revision of DEAD IN HIS TRACKS this past Monday. I'm now working on the cover letter and that most dreaded of all marketing items, the synopsis.

I had an interesting run at the end of the rewrite of the novel. I went, very suddenly, from slaving over a single chapter for about a month to knocking out two or three chapters a day. Apparently they had gotten less lousy the further on I had gone.

Which is not to say that there were no changes or corrections. I actually added to the final paragraph, so I can quite truthfully claim to have rewritten it from one end to the other.

And now on to trying to sell it in some realistic manner. Wish me luck.

Chapter 7 Continues

Since my previous post, I have been creating, from whole cloth, a new Chapter 7. The events leading up to this momentous event are as follows: When I started this revision way back in the distant past, I found that I needed to combine what had been Chapters 1 & 2. This meant that Chapter 3 became Chapter 2 and so forth along the line.

That is until I reached Chapter 7.

The new Chapter 6 (which was the old Chapter 7) included the mention of a character that I had not been aware of before then. It seemed reasonable that Drayton would speak with her. In order to do that, a new Chapter 7 would be necessary.

I've been working on this new chapter over the last month or so with some success. It's growing like a weed. Now, I might find that it will need to be taken apart and put back together again once the dust settles, but things are going along nicely thus far.

In a related turn of events, I've decided that it's time for me to maintain this blog a bit more steadily. The progress of this manuscript matters--to me, if not to anyone else--and the record should be noted.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

As I've worked at revising my book, it has taken an increasingly serious turn. What started out as a comic mystery has turned into a literary mystery, and the title Michael Drayton, Detective Guy has become increasingly anachronistic. I'm at a point where I'm starting to sense that the difficult, smash-it-to-pieces-and-put-it-together-again portion of this current revision is coming to its end, and so the imperative to find a new and better title has made itself known.

The new title of the book will be Dead in His Tracks, which I am putting my thumbprint on as of the date of this post. I have a brand new chapter to write and then one more that is going to need a lot of attention. After that, the quality of the work improves dramatically, and the task of revising should get exponentially easier.

I am very excited at the possibility of having a manuscript that I can submit places in the not-too-distant future.