Adventures in Epublishing: Step 1 is the first in a series of articles on epublishing. I religiously follow J.A. Konrath’s A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog, and I’m applying his advice from his post on the rules of epublishing as I prepare my YA novel, Into the Shadows, for epublication on Amazon and Smashwords this November. (Click here to read Konrath’s article)According to Joe, rule number one is this:
1. Write a damn good book.
He also suggests joining writers’ critique groups AND editing it yourself. He feels that if you’re a writer, you should be able to edit as well.
So have I succeeded in properly following step 1? I think so. Into the Shadows was written before I joined SCBWI, however, after I joined, I brought many of the chapters into the group for critique. I even managed to get a friend from the group to read the full manuscript and give me an excellent critique. It was awesome and gave me a lot to work on, but it made it SO much better. The book has then gone through a couple of solid revisions. I’m currently putting it through the ringer one more time. After having the opportunity to critique other people’s writing over the last year and a half, I’ve gained a much better eye for what works and what is bad, bad, bad! Add an editing (technical) class at DePaul this spring and I feel like I’m sufficiently qualified to edit this book.
Could a REAL editor do a better job. Of course. Many of them would have years of experience on me. But being that I’m getting my master’s in writing and publishing, I should be able to do an editor’s job as well. And those editors had to start somewhere.
Oh, and is the book good??? Well, I like to think so. It was well received by my fellow writers and out of the many rejections, it did get requested in partial and in full a few times. I was doing something right to get it requested. I like to think that it’s an even better book now, with all of the knowledge I’ve gained. It may not be the book that would be out there if a publishing house got a hold of it, but it will in fact be the BEST book I can produce with the experience I have. We’ll just have to wait and see if that’s good enough!
Stay tuned in to Flyover Geeks to follow my Adventures in Epublishing!
Karly Kirkpatrick is a YA writer, avid reader, high school German teacher, and mother of a toddler. She is currently pursuing an MA in Writing and Publishing at DePaul University in Chicago. Read INTO THE SHADOWS, the free online YA novel before it hits the ebook stores this November at http://karlykirkpatrick.blogspot.com!
