So I’ve birthed my baby – what next? I have to get the baby all ready to go out in the world.
My soul is bared in the opening three chapters which are available as a free download (click on the link in the right hand side bar if you haven’t already) and the rest of the manuscript is with my Editor. It’s easy to feel my job is done and drop in to a hole of directionless lethargy. But no! My Muse will not let me do that for long – unless I ignore her whispers. It’s time for me to be the adult around here and learn the ways of the publishing and marketing world so I can give my baby the best chance in life.
This week has been devoted to doing just this and asking my intuitive Muse to show me the best route forward for my particular baby. I was initially pulled towards Indie Publishing a while back as it gives me so much more control and can be a far faster route to market but intuitively it looks like a ‘splash and crash’ route for me instead. Holding the vision of the end result I’d love this book to achieve (and its two sisters in the trilogy) I’m now drawn to exploring traditional publishing. I’ve found two agents I love the sound of and have started to write the all important synopsis, overview of the trilogy and introduction letter. I’ve found how much more challenging it is to reduce my 104,000 word novel to a 600 word synopsis – and a one-liner! But I’m getting there.
Yesterday I had a longer conversation with my Muse about the theme and overview of the entire trilogy – after all I can’t write an overview if I don’t know what it is! Much to my astonishment the theme has shifted up a notch from Book One’s theme that ‘love is the vital force which brings our imagination to life’. The theme now is ‘The Resurrection of the Feminine’. Time to be inspired once more as that’s something very dear to my heart (obviously), even though it’s hidden shyly from my conscious awareness for several decades.
Apart from that I had a call with a prospective mentoring Client yesterday and tonight I am off to do some intuitive readings at a corporate Christmas party in London’s fair city.
So believe me when I say even when you’ve written ‘The End’ at the bottom of that final page of your first novel, non-fiction book, short story, screenplay or poem life really does go on. There may be grief to wash through you but we all have to be the best parents we can be regardless of how our children show up in the world.
(Image came from this site and I hope they don’t mind me using it: https://locallocale.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/the-end-of-all-tantrums-nathan-mctague-empathy-parenting-advice/)
Anne K. Scott
You are a phenomenal woman Francesca Cassini
Francesca
You’re not so shabby yourself Annie Anne!