Manuscript Received

24 Oct 2012 Leave a comment

by Sandy Wierman in Getting Published

The postcard has come back!  I now know for sure that my manuscript has arrived at DAW Books.  Now begins the period of waiting while they analyze its potential.  Obviously I’m hoping for a phone call instead of a rejection letter.  Keep your fingers crossed!

In the meantime, I’m working hard on editing the second book in my Skytrain series, The Magdalita, and finding out fascinating little factoids in the process.  In my fictional world (400 years in the future), all Human spaceships are in the same ‘time zone’, so to speak, to aid in coordination and communication.  I had thought to make this common time zone Greenwich Mean Time, but in a foray to Wikipedia, I discovered that Greenwich Mean Time, as an officially observed time, has been replaced by Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).  I think Coordinated Universal Time has a snappier ring to it, as far as being future-sounding, so I was quite excited at the discovery.

I know, it doesn’t take much to get me excited!

I felt a similar thrill when I was doing a little research on the first moon landing.  In my first book, The Brigand, I have a scene where vandals defile the landing site of Apollo 11 on the 400th anniversary of the first moon landing.  I had thought to have one of them destroy the American flag left on the moon by Armstrong and the others, but it turns out there’s a strong possibility it’s not there anymore, or at least no longer standing.  General wisdom has it that the flag was most likely blown over by the engine blast of the ascent module as it took off, and that whatever was left has since been destroyed by the degrading affects of the sun.  I found that to be a fascinating tidbit, as I’d always thought the flag would still be standing exactly as they’d left it.  (No doubt I got this idea from the opening scene of Independence Day.)

First Like

08 Oct 2012 Leave a comment

by Sandy Wierman in Getting Published, Uncategorized Tags: ,

It’s been a week since I mailed The Brigand to the publisher, so I should be getting back the self-addressed postcard I sent them, stating that my manuscript has been logged into their system.  Now begins the “up-to-three-months” waiting period while they read and evaluate it.  Obviously I’m hoping for a phone call and not my own SASE back.  (That’s a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope for those in the know!)

I experienced a milestone of sorts yesterday, though.  I got my first ‘Likes’ on my blog!  Really quite exciting!  I’ll be forever grateful for those affirmations and would like to show my appreciation … somehow.  I’m not above admitting that I have no idea where to go from here.  I think I need to get myself to the nearest Barnes & Noble and look for a Social Media for Dummies book.  I’m sure there has to be one!

The ‘Likes’ came from a photographer and an author and I’ve already gone out and checked out their sites.  Patrick Latter was the first, and his website has some truly AMAZING photographs!  Really beautiful work!  And the second was Ellis Nelson, an author whose first book, Into the Land of Snows, was just published last February.  I was really quite excited to read her blog.  Not only does her work sound fascinating, but it was fun to read about a first-time author navigating some of the same paths I’m following.  I haven’t read all the posts yet, but her earliest ones sound SO similar to my first steps into the social media arena.  I can’t wait to read more!

Maiden Voyage of the Skytrain

30 Sep 2012 Leave a comment

by Sandy Wierman in Getting Published Tags: , , ,

Well, I did it!  I just got back from dropping my manuscript (Skytrain Series #1, The Brigand) at the post office.  Not ‘drop’ really, more like handed over with the formal air of placing a crown on someone’s head.  The girl behind the desk must have sensed the importance of the occasion, because she seemed to handle the transaction with a bit more elan than I remember from past forays to ship packages.  I suppose it’s entirely possible she saw my husband and me through the glass door as he took a picture of me standing in front of the UPS Store with my manuscript cradled in my arms.  It was his idea to take the pictures, starting last night when he took a picture of me standing next to the 30-pound pile of paper I’d just printed out.  (Or rather, the “thirty-pound pile of paper”, since one of the things I discovered about formatting a manuscript — that I didn’t know before — was that numbers under 100 should be spelled out, whereas numbers over 100 should be rendered in numerals.  Not quite sure where the actual number 100 falls.)

I wonder if J.K. Rowling or the great Alice Mary Norton (otherwise known as Andre Norton) treated their first submission with such solemnity, or if they would smile (snicker?) at the care with which I packed it into its box.  I packed it twice, the second time taking greater pains to make sure the pages wouldn’t shift in transit.  I chose to ship first class instead of the cheaper, slower media rate, since I’m apparently in a hurry to receive my first rejection letter.  I would actually have preferred UPS, since their tracking capabilities would let me see exactly when it got there, but none of the publisher’s guidelines mentioned UPS as an option, and at this point I’m terrified of committing some kind of faux pas that would cause an editor to chuck my baby into the round file!

The publisher I chose for this first try, DAW Books, is one of the few that asks for the complete manuscript up front and promises to read every one.  Not only do I feel that gives me the best chance, but it also gives me a little breathing space before trying again, since they won’t accept simultaneous submissions to other publishers.

One of my first lessons on this journey was what a ‘simultaneous submission’ is.  The 2013 Writer’s Market was somewhat vague on the concept, no doubt making the assumption that everyone already knows what it is.  I suppose it could be intuitively obvious that it means you shouldn’t try to interest more than one publisher at a time in your manuscript, but I reasoned that it could also mean you shouldn’t submit more than one book at the same time to the same publisher.  As it turned out, it was the former definition, and I certainly see where it would be annoying to an editor to take the time to read and evaluate a manuscript, only to find out that another publisher had snapped up the manuscript already.

It’s been a fascinating experience up to now, learning about how to format a manuscript and find a publisher.  I thought I was fairly knowledgeable in the area of literature, but it turns out I’m sadly out of date!  Tune in for more on my continuing education in future posts!

Hello world!

30 Sep 2012 Leave a comment

by Sandy Wierman in Getting Published Tags: , ,

Hello world, my name is Sandy Wierman.  After a long and successful career as a software developer, I’ve decided to embark on a new life adventure and become a writer.  Technically speaking I’ve been a writer all my life, judging by the stacks of story-filled notebooks and the massive volume of letters sent out to friends and family, but now I’d like to move beyond my tiny sphere and actually get published.  I’ve written a four-book science fiction series called Skytrain and am now attempting to get the first book in the series, The Brigand, published.  I have it on good authority that nowadays it’s good to do some self-promotion (a concept that causes me to quiver in my shoes), so this blog is my first, unsteady step in that direction.  I plan to share the steps on the journey in the hopes that some may find my discoveries to be beneficial and perhaps even inspiring, for surely there are other middle-aged first-time authors out there looking for like-minded souls to share the trip!