Advances in Publishing

Some time ago I wrote about my shift in strategy aimed at getting my first novel published. The shift was to change which novel to pitch. Happily, I have progress to report.

For four years, Lying in Judgment, the story of a man serving on the jury for the trial of the murder he committed, endured rejections from agents of this sort: "Too tough of a market to sell such an unsympathetic main character." Or, "First novels need to be shorter – publishers are loathe to risk even an extra cent for a first time author." Agents almost universally loved the premise and writing, but didn't feel people would root for an admitted murderer, at least not for long. Or it suffered from the bane of courtroom dramas, the "talking heads" syndrome – and I don't mean "Psycho Killer," either.

The Mountain Man's Dog (title under reconsideration, suggestions from readers welcome) took its place at the top of my pitch list. MMD tells the story of backwoods loner Lehigh Carter, a man who fears dogs and women, having been bitten by both. To his chagrin he gets cornered into adopting one (a stray dog) by the other (a former fiancée – and yes, I was tempted to say "stray woman") – Stacy, the gorgeous daughter of gubernatorial candidate Senator George McBride. Daddy disapproves of his daughter's interest in Lehigh, a "hayseed" in his opinion, especially after Lehigh stumbles across one of McBride's illegal campaign fund-raising transactions, putting the old pol's peaking career at risk. As Stacy and Lehigh grow closer, McBride gets more nervous. Paul van Paten, his campaign treasurer and Stacy's most recent man-left-standing, moves aggressively to ruin Lehigh. Arson, dog-napping, death threats, and murder attempts send Lehigh on the run. The local police force, solidly in McBride's pocket, give chase. With dogs.

I submitted this story to three forums for feedback. On The Critique Circle, reviews of the first two chapters pointed out a score of minor issues, but happily none of the major ones confronting LiJ. Readers found the main characters likable and believable, i.e., very sympathetic. It's nearly 30,000 words shorter, and has a better balance of action and dialog.

The second site is CreateSpace, a self-publishing forum run by Amazon.com. Only the first chapter appeared there, but again the critics (other writers) liked the characters, voice, narrative, and premise.

The third site was actually a competition – the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Ten thousand entries have been narrowed to 500 quarterfinalists – 250 each in General Fiction and Young Adult Fiction, based on the pitch and first chapter. My pitch was a bit weak – I slammed one together at the last minute – but the premise apparently carried it forward. My first chapter, by all accounts, is very strong, and is available in two places:

• On Amazon.Com – where customers can also submit a review of the story (please do this!) so far. Amazon's version is in Kindle Reader format. If you don't have a Kindle, you can download one for free for Windows, Mac, iPhone, or Blackberry from Amazon. Note that all 500 quarterfinalists' entries can be downloaded – free!
  
• On my website – in PDF format.
  

So far it's gotten two reviews from Amazon readers, both positive, and viewable from the Amazon link above.

Over the next month, judges will narrow the list to 50 semifinalists in each category, based on the entire manuscript. At that point, entrants receive full manuscript critiques.

From those 50, judges will choose three finalists in each category (YA and General Fiction). Then readers like you take over to choose the final winner in each category. The overall winners get a $15,000 publishing contract. A long shot, but an exciting one.

I also pitched the story to an agent, who's interested, but she advised: Send it when it's ready. To me, that means: once I've processed all of the feedback and incorporated the necessary revisions into the story. Having the luxury of time and this agent's patience, I'm going to wait until my run at ABNA is done.

I'll keep you posted.