Fancy Pants

Jeffe called me fancy via IM yesterday.

I know, I didn’t get it either, until I read her blog. In it, she states that “if you’ve gotten your act together, you get to be “fancy.” If not, well, at least you’re wholesome and charming.” By that, I’m assuming she means that I do, in fact, have my act together. At least as far as the pubbing world goes. (Goddess knows my housekeeping act couldn’t be in more of a shambles than if a herd of flatulent elephants were to come bowling through the living room. Hell, it might actually be an improvement. Have fun thinking about that, Jeffe, on your way here tomorrow. Yes, we *are* going out for dinner.)

But that’s really not all that accurate either, I don’t think.  I certainly don’t feel as I know enough to be handing out advice about getting published to anyone. (Or getting an agent, etc.) And I have been receiving quite a few emails on the subject, so I know people are interested in the specifics.

 The best I can do is tell people how *I* managed it, or what I do when I write, for example. I can’t give anyone definitive answers on exactly the best way to go about doing things – because really, every scenario is different. What one agent hates, another might love. Some editors are sticklers for rules, some let you slide. It could be that your query letter falls into the agent’s email box two minutes after she shattered her favorite coffee mug and she doesn’t even look at your pages.

I don’t know. Whatever people say about the proper way to go about doing things, a lot of it is just timing, honestly. Having a book that can be sold, that an editor will love, that doesn’t need tons of revisions – some of this is in your control, and some of it isn’t. All you can do is make sure you do the best you can with what you have.

But even after getting a deal, there are doubts. The Kindle I got a few weeks has been great – I’ve been reading a ton of books that I hadn’t had the time to look at, but the downside is that I’m reading a lot more Urban Fantasy type things. And I’ve suddenly come to realize that my story doesn’t feel quite as fresh as it did before. Some of these other books are very similar to mine in many ways, and I can admit that makes me a tad nervous. (Although I’ve yet to see a small, bacon-loving unicorn that rolls around in women’s underwear yet, so that’s a plus. Right? RIGHT???)

But at this point I’ve come to realize that I need to trust in my editor (who should be getting me my revisions in the next week or so…*trembles*), and also in the sense of my writing voice – it’s gotten me this far, and there’s no reason it won’t take me the rest of the way.

And there’s nothing particularly fancy about that.