On Writing & Publishing by Robin D. Owens

Personal notes on writing techniques, writing a novel, my writing career and threading your way through publishing a book.

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Location: Denver, United States

RITA Award Winning Author -- that's like the Oscar, folks! Futuristic/Fantasy Romance and Fantasy with Romantic Subplots.

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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Proposal Pages

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I am trying to get back to being more informative on Writing and Publishing instead of just talking about my own path.

A proposal is usually a certain amount of pages and a detailed outline (synopsis). Most published authors sell on proposal. I HAVE known authors to sell on paragraphs or even on pitches.

My easiest two book sale was Heart Choice and a "blind" book. That means Berkley wanted two "Heart" books, one they knew of, Heart Choice, and the other they had no clue of -- what I call a "trust me, baby," book. Which I knew would be Heart Quest.

Luna proposals are usually 50 pages and a synopsis. My Luna proposal, as negotiated with my editor at lunch during RWA, is at least 30 pages and a synopsis. The page length of the synopsis was not mentioned since I already have one. Otherwise, I'll ask my agent to see what the minimum amount of pages could be. The synopses are what slow me down. It can take months for me to figure out a plot. The pages actually go much faster for me.

So. I am working on the proposal for Singer for a World (current title but may not remain the same), the last Luna book in this series.

Yesterday I cleaned up the first scenes, 13 pages of my heroine Jikata, a full chapter. I knew I'd had some of the second chapter, but, of course, had mis-remembered the amount of pages, 3. This chapter will deal with Luthan, the hero.

I worked pretty much all day yesterday revising those 13 pages and looking at the scene with Luthan. When I finished work, I thought about the upcoming scene with Luthan and told myself I'd get right out of bed and tackle it.

And I did. Ten new pages are written, but will probably translate to more when properly formatted. I'll be wanting to clean them up and make sure they're fine this afternoon. I'm thinking of breaking the scene in two and adding a third scene (of a character you haven't met yet), that is also already written and needs to be revised.

If all goes well, I could have the pages done by the end of tomorrow. That would be pretty cool.

May you know where you're going today.
Robin

P.S. Oh, did I tell you that Luna formally ACCEPTED Keepers of the Flame? i.e. paid me for turning in the full manuscript? I'm going to the bank.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am sure that other writers and future ones will like to know more about the deatils of publishing, however, I hope you will be still talking about your personal experiences/opinion/seminars, etc. for those,like me, that love reading but are uninterested in beign authors. I really enjoy reading the "insider's" comments on the subject of writing, it seems to add a new dimension and richness to my reading. Thanks

11:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congrats on the payment!

10:47 PM  
Blogger FantasyAuthor RobinDOwens said...

Reader, thanks, I'll keep up both...but I thought I'd lost the thread there for a while.

Lila, yes, having the work ACCEPTED means that overall they like it...

Robin

12:08 AM  

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