MS is sent!

Well, I took the plunge — after cutting 8,000 words from my Allyria manuscript, going through four complete passes at reviewing, revising and editing (including eliminating unnecessary characters, giving up scenes that didn’t advance the plot, and eliminating pretty much all backstory), I have now submitted my manuscript to a literary agent.

Granted, she is someone I know well, and she asked for the whole thing, and she agreed to send me comments and tell me the truth about whether it is marketable.  I know she’s swamped and may not get to it for weeks or months.  So…I have a three-part strategy for distracting myself from my fears while I wait patiently for her response.

1)  I’m going to simultaneously widen my beta readers’ circle — I have friends who love to read, and who have been clamoring to read the manuscript for months.  I am going to print it out and have a few bound copies made.  They probably won’t be as critical as I need them to be, but it will make me feel good to share the story and characters I love with a few more people.

2)  Then there’s always Book II to write.  I am halfway done with the first draft, but I know with certainty after going through the edits of Book I that I will be eliminating a lot of what I’ve written.  Still, it will be glad to immerse myself once again in Allyria and see where my characters take me.

3)  Finally, I’ve developed a query and showed it to a few people.  I’m going to await the agent’s feedback before posting it here.

Feel free to wish me luck as I await the first real (aka from the publishing world) criticism of my manuscript.  I have received so much support already from past comments.  Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Tags: book author, edit, editing, fantasy, first novel, literary agent, manuscript, publishing, queries, query, writer, writing