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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2020 20:14:31 GMT
It's not obvious, Cameron. Famous authors list the dozens of times they were rejected and laugh about it now. It's about timing, and persistence. In a few years, your books might be gold.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2020 20:20:00 GMT
Blue, they have fonts with animals and fonts with vines.
32 animal fonts
Organic vine font
You can create layers of the individual letters and use vines for some letters and animal font for others. Or you can have two layers of all the letters and superimpose the animals and vines.
Or you can download vine image and remove background and place some of that over the font and some under.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2020 20:22:55 GMT
56 more vine fonts
I love beyond sky. Now I want to use it for a cover.
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Post by ronmiller on Jan 29, 2020 20:30:08 GMT
Yeah...Lois isn't much on giving advice. In case you still want to know, her agency is Spectrum www.spectrumliteraryagency.com/That being said, a lot of authors probably would have demurred since agents get inundated with submissions already and unless an author knows you and your work, they would probably not be too willing to give out contact information. Just for the sake of anyone else reading these posts, I would highly recommend the Writer's Market guide to literary agents for those interested in finding one. I can understand authors demurring on an unknown, and truth be told enough agents and publishers have essentially done the same it's become painfully obvious my work doesn't have whatever 'Wow' quality it takes to get a foot in the door. Even if an agent or publisher were to take an interest now, it's a bit late. Well, an author would demur since, unless they have read the work and/or know the author, they would be abusing their relationship with the agent by passing out their contact information willy nilly. On the other hand, agents and publishers are two entirely different breeds of cat. It can, in fact, be far more difficult getting picked up by an agent than a publisher. The simple reason is that an agent or agency may be anywhere from just one person to a small handful...severely limiting the number of authors they can take on. This means they have to be very, very selective. This selectivity will even extend to specializing in certain types of books. But...it's really a kind of old wive's tale that publishers are not interested in new, untried authors. One time, when this question came up in another forum, I checked the current catalogs of nearly a dozen top publishing companies. All of them contained new books by first-time authors. And sometimes the percentage of new authors was considerable. More than 30% of the titles in the catalog of one major publisher consisted of books by new authors. There are even pragmatic reasons for publishing new authors. As one editor told me, "New authors are just cheaper to publish." I have no idea who you tried your book(s) with or how many publishers or agents you submitted to, but the rejections may have less to do with quality than many other possible factors. Publishers can be very, very focused on the sorts of books they publish, for instance, and if something doesn't seem to quite fit their niche they may reject it regardless of its merits. Or they may have already published something along the same vein. Or there may already be several similar books on the market (or at least what they perceive as being similar). For instance, the very first thing I am always asked upon submitting an idea is whether there are any competing titles. A "no" answer goes a long way toward a sale. Another question that will get asked is, "Who do you see as the potential market for your book?" And the longer and more diverse the list, the better. And the "wow!" quality you refer to is often nothing more than originality. Publishers are much more interested in setting a trend than following one (this might seem contrary to the evidence, but it is true that a publisher would rather publish the next Harry Potter than yet another Harry Potter clone). All of this is why I will so often recommend consulting the latest edition of Writer's Market. The information for each publisher---which comes from the publisher themselves---goes a long way toward helping an author pinpoint just what publishers might be best for their book and which would not.
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Post by ronmiller on Jan 29, 2020 20:31:07 GMT
It's not obvious, Cameron. Famous authors list the dozens of times they were rejected and laugh about it now. It's about timing, and persistence. In a few years, your books might be gold. Exactly! And as I have mentioned elsewhere, every famous author at one time must have been an unknown writer who had a first book.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Jan 29, 2020 20:39:11 GMT
It's not obvious, Cameron. Famous authors list the dozens of times they were rejected and laugh about it now. It's about timing, and persistence. In a few years, your books might be gold. Timing and persistence, it's the timing part about now. On campaigns past I've worn-down opposition because of persistence.
Timing is a different matter. While the spouse was in-service I set aside my aspirations as a writer, and due to her being disabled on top of the kid's ages I have had to set aside personal aspiration yet again in order to take care of preparing things for their futures.
When it comes to strategy and tactics, I can be inhumanly remorseless and relentless as some have learned the hard way.
Semper Praesto Et Servire
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Jan 29, 2020 21:39:53 GMT
Ron,
If you've read my work then perhaps the originality of my work isn't the issue, it's pegging it to one specific genre. Then again you're a gentleman, which is a state of being I get intellectually even if I can't quite emulate it.
Oh well, back to wiping tiny butts and washing dishes, as tomorrow I need to clear underbrush.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2020 7:29:50 GMT
But what's annoying is often they haven't even seen your work before rejecting it. My husband got an agent, but Burt soon dispensed with him because the agent wanted my husband to slash huge portions of his book. Anyway Burt didn't try for an agent again, but made the big mistake of going with "Publish America" and they turned out to be useless. Burt's a good writer, but the agent wanted to virtually change his book and the publisher Burt chose turned out to be useless. C'est la vie! Burt then turnrd to politics and gave up writing. Now he's given up politics, hopefully he will return to writing books. He still writes excellent letters. He particularly targets the BBC. By the way don't give up Sphinx-Cameron. J.K.Rowling was repeatedly rejected by agents and publishers and if a secretary hadn't read the Harry Potter book and persuaded her boss (Who had rejected it) to publish it, Rowling wouldn't today be a millionaire. My cousin always says what you need to suceed is the talent to do the task(Writing) the energy to push it,plus LUCK, so here's wishing you luck S-C.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2020 9:49:14 GMT
The difference between having your book published and your book not published is belief. Those who believe keep pushing, keep trying, one more time, and another, and let's change this, maybe a new title, maybe a new cover, maybe frame it differently. And again, let me try. I know this is a good book.
Anyway, pushy people succeed. I personally have no patience, don't like spending on postage stamps and like to do things myself. I told my brother a few months ago, I don't want to be at the top or bottom of the pyramid. I want to be the pyramid. Or publisher. That being said. if a big name publisher suddenly wanted my recent love story, I might think about it. Hmm...not so sure.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2020 12:42:24 GMT
I'm not into love stories.
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Post by ronmiller on Jan 30, 2020 13:13:23 GMT
But what's annoying is often they haven't even seen your work before rejecting it. My husband got an agent, but Burt soon dispensed with him because the agent wanted my husband to slash huge portions of his book. Anyway Burt didn't try for an agent again, but made the big mistake of going with "Publish America" and they turned out to be useless. Burt's a good writer, but the agent wanted to virtually change his book and the publisher Burt chose turned out to be useless. C'est la vie! Burt then turnrd to politics and gave up writing. Now he's given up politics, hopefully he will return to writing books. He still writes excellent letters. He particularly targets the BBC. By the way don't give up Sphinx-Cameron. J.K.Rowling was repeatedly rejected by agents and publishers and if a secretary hadn't read the Harry Potter book and persuaded her boss (Who had rejected it) to publish it, Rowling wouldn't today be a millionaire. My cousin always says what you need to suceed is the talent to do the task(Writing) the energy to push it,plus LUCK, so here's wishing you luck S_C. I remember talking about this. Yes, PublishAmerica is a scam. The difficulty he had with the agent is something that surprises a lot of people: working with an agent is almost exactly like working with a publisher. You submit your work to them and then they look at it exactly as an editor would. By the same token, I have never heard of an agent handling a book quite like this one did. I have no idea how Burt went about finding an agent, but there are good ways to not only find one but to discover what their expectations are in advance. One way is through the latest edition of the Writer's Market guide to agents. And you are absolutely right about perseverance!
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Jan 30, 2020 15:53:36 GMT
While "Preditors and Editors" is currently down due to a change in leadership as well as migrating to Wordpress [eventually], one source for determining if a publisher or agent is legitimate can be found here: www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/A web search on either preditors and editors or predators and editors will bring up a lot of similar articles. As for perseverance, I have that and a petaton of patience. The context needed for me to sit down on a regular basis and possibly write for hours is what's lacking. Outside work I need to do is one thing, as different projects can wait [depending on the project], it's the inside responsibilities that can't. I have roughly three dozen novels in various stages of completion, many nearly finished. In addition to three young, active, precocious children, I also have a spouse who is still learning to deal with the disabilities which will leave her in pain for the rest of her life. Betimes making the right choice is neither simple nor easy, though it does assist the greater good. As I tell my oldest daughter when she complains about something not being fair: life often isn't fair, but it's up to you do the best you can with the choices you have.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Jan 30, 2020 22:03:24 GMT
One reason many people go into Self-Publishing is the odds of getting Traditionally Published. An article written in 2016 pegged the approximate number of new Traditionally Published titles in the titles in the US at 300,000, which if you were doing the lottery at those odds it wouldn't be so bad.
The thing to consider is what goes into that 300,000 titles that get picked.
First, consider the ginormous mass of submissions Traditional Publishers in the US [as a group] receive every year. The query letter that goes with the submission [how you plan to help sell the book, a good barebones summary that has enough 'Wow-factor' to warrant a second look, as well as how well the letter is or is not structured] winnows out 90% of submissions. Remember, this is Trad Publishers as a whole, receiving roughly 15,000,000 submissions. Losing 90% leaves 1,500,000 potential candidates for acceptance, and they will judge the quality of the submission solely on that query letter. [Since I'm not the best at writing a query letter of that sort, it would appear I have absolutely no talent at crafting a good story per the Traditional Publishing logic used to weed out the schlock. This means either the logic used to weed out execrable writing is flawed enough to also weed out a lot of writers who can craft memorable stories who just don't pitch as in sell them well or my novels are best used as toilet paper.]
Second, the submissions that make it through the first cut get read, which winnows out 80% as subpar [as in not as good as the query letter made them sound]. This leaves that 300,000 number, which is 2% of the original 15,000,000.
The thing to remember is any one publisher won't have that huge number of total submissions so the competition to get accepted varies by publisher and genre, but the odds of any one new unknown writer having a submission accepted still isn't great.
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Post by ronmiller on Jan 30, 2020 23:20:19 GMT
One reason many people go into Self-Publishing is the odds of getting Traditionally Published. An article written in 2016 pegged the approximate number of new Traditionally Published titles in the titles in the US at 300,000, which if you were doing the lottery at those odds it wouldn't be so bad. The thing to consider is what goes into that 300,000 titles that get picked. First, consider the ginormous mass of submissions Traditional Publishers in the US [as a group] receive every year. The query letter that goes with the submission [how you plan to help sell the book, a good barebones summary that has enough 'Wow-factor' to warrant a second look, as well as how well the letter is or is not structured] winnows out 90% of submissions. Remember, this is Trad Publishers as a whole, receiving roughly 15,000,000 submissions. Losing 90% leaves 1,500,000 potential candidates for acceptance, and they will judge the quality of the submission solely on that query letter. [Since I'm not the best at writing a query letter of that sort, it would appear I have absolutely no talent at crafting a good story per the Traditional Publishing logic used to weed out the schlock. This means either the logic used to weed out execrable writing is flawed enough to also weed out a lot of writers who can craft memorable stories who just don't pitch as in sell them well or my novels are best used as toilet paper.] Second, the submissions that make it through the first cut get read, which winnows out 80% as subpar [as in not as good as the query letter made them sound]. This leaves that 300,000 number, which is 2% of the original 15,000,000. The thing to remember is any one publisher won't have that huge number of total submissions so the competition to get accepted varies by publisher and genre, but the odds of any one new unknown writer having a submission accepted still isn't great. The chances of getting published traditionally probably aren't great...but by the same token, not every single book that gets written deserves to be published...in any form. By the same token, I am not so sure that your description of the weeding out process is entirely accurate since it can be very different from publisher to publisher. To take just one example, some major publishers have no problem with unsolicited, i.e. unagented, submissions while other major publishers insist upon them; on the other hand, many small publishers will consider nothing but agented submissions. That alone can make a huge difference in how a book is considered. Sure, publishers by necessity have to pass on a lot of worthy books, no question about that. The thing is that a potential reader knows that a book from a traditional publisher has run a gauntlet, that it has to have gone through a long, arduous vetting process, that is some assurance of quality. There is absolutely no expectation of that with a self-published book.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2020 1:56:02 GMT
Over the years I've had a lot of traditionally published authors taking their book, after their contract has expired, and republishing it themselves. Some of these authors are bestselling and already have a readership. Others only slightly.
Also, I've heard that an author sells maximum 5000 copies of a book, at 5 to 8 percent royalty, they make about the same as a self-published author who can make a 20% royalty. This is based on research from 16 years ago. Traditionally published author royalties might have increased since then.
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