On The Path to Publication: The Strategy

Hello!


I have begun an exciting journey; I am planning to publish a novel.
I'm not doing this soon, but I am doing this. I'm not letting that dream sit around anymore, but I'm not blindly running after it like all those inspiring quotes say.
Nope, I'm making a strategy.

This is it, so far:


May-October: Finish the first draft of Roslyn. 

I'm close. I'm really close. If you hop on over to my WIPs page, you'll see it has reached 50k words. That's a novel-length story.
But, I have a problem with that; I'm no where near the end.
How I managed to reach 50k when the story is just reaching the middle of the plot, I have not a clue. There's no way I can stretch it into two books, though.
So, I'm letting this first draft do its thing and will fix it later (which will likely involve cutting out a lot of stuff to make it a decent length).

I would also, ideally, finish this before October so that I can read through it before plunging into the next step.

November: Write the second draft of Roslyn for NaNoWriMo.

My plan for this is to copy my draft down and edit as I go. Ideally, I'd have it in a close to completed state.

December: Take it easy.

For December, I'm giving myself a break. I won't necessarily stop working on Roslyn, but I won't have any deadline to meet or anything.
I'm doing this for a few reasons:

• Holidays
• A tradition among my writing group to do a secret-santa short story swap.
• I don't want to get burnt out. This'll take a lot of effort, and I'd hate to complete the goal just to. become deflated and apathetic towards my story. 

I will probably at least read over Roslyn to be ready for the next step.

January: Edit the 2nd draft of Roslyn.

I'll be spending this month reading over (if I hadn't already) and editing the second draft of Roslyn.

February: Send  Roslyn out to beta-readers.

This will be a really important step. It'll probably be the most important to me, personally, before hiring an editor and spending money (which is a whole different matter that I will discuss and mention here when the time comes).


March: Make the appropriate edits to Roslyn.

These edits will be based on what my beta-readers suggest.


{This on down is very iffy and may change as I go. So from here on down, it's guesswork.}

April: Send to omega-readers.

I don't know if that's really a thing in the writing universe, but this set is the final set who will be reading it. Their job isn't to edit, it's to read like a reader. To be my test audience, almost. I may or may not edit my work based on what they say.

May: Gap month. 

This is the next rest stop for me.


June: Business begins.

This is when I will begin all the money issues and "official" stuff. An official editor, choosing traditional or independent publishing, figuring out the cover design, marketing, earning money for all of it, and so on.
That will probably be about a year in and of itself. And I'll make a post like this one when the time comes. 

~~~~

I fully recognize that issues may occur, and honestly, I expect it. I don't have the best background when it comes to deadlines and commitment, and money will be a problem.
But this time around, I have a crew to hold me accountable who are all working towards the same goal of publishment. 

What you can do to support me in this:

If you find that you'd like to support me, there's a few things you could do. You could share posts of mine that you like, post my blog on any social media that you have, pin my posts to Pinterest, etc. That will help be greatly, because the more people who read this blog, the more chances I have of getting an audience dedicated to reading my work.
And when the time comes, buy my book if you've got some spare change.

But the main thing I'm asking of you, is that you pray. 

This is a big thing, and there's a lot of things I'll need to balance with it. School, money, family, mental health, and just generally stepping into adulthood.
So if you could pray that God leads me to the path that He desires, that I don't lose hold of life in doing this, and that God provides me with ways to earn and do what I'll need, I would be much obliged. 

I will keep you updated as this process goes. This will be a series that I'm calling "The Path to Publication", and this is the first stage, The Strategy.
The goal has no date, but I want to do this within two years. I think that's a fair amount of time; one year to write, one year to start the publishing process.

Here's to hoping, hard work, and sneaking up on a dream than tackling it and pinning it down so it can't escape. 

Cheers, friends.

           ~ Edna J. Pellen

P.S. Fun fact: Blogger refuses to accept that "publishment" is a word. But it, in fact, is! It is the act or process of making something publicly known; publication.