Is that the dude Connie Neil pointed out awhile back?

Yep-- the one who completely went off on the publishing industry for not recognizing his genius.

I haven't done extensive reading or researching about getting an agent, but a fee like that would send my red flag meter off the chart. Some of that may be natural paranoia though.

Reading about getting published just drives me nuts. Every time I read something it makes it sound like it's impossible. Then I read writing tips, open up a nearby fantasy novel and often these two things do not match. I think this is why I just tell myself to not do much research and just revise. I use the tips that sound right, but don't worry about following everything. Maybe one day I'll just record myself reading it and have my own podcast, who knows. I've enjoyed putting it together so I don't feel especially do or die about getting published.

Anyhow, I'm definitely in a low confidence phase. But I have to remember, this is not the last revision and for that matter very few words that existed in my rough draft have made it into this revision. To a large extent this is still a pretty rough draft. I think my writing is too thin, but I have to balance that vs. word count. Also, I think I have too many weak sentences, but it's not as bad as the original draft.

Now that the kids are in bed. I'm going to have Audrey read chapter four to me and see if I can sharpen it up. Audrey is the voice I'm using for text to speech. I've really taken to have my computer read me the chapter and pausing it where I want to make changes. Maybe a bit of a weird approach.

Meh. Everything I've read in forums dedicated to children's lit is that TALKING ANIMALS ARE NOT WANTED.

Nothing I can do about it now, but hope that my talking animal is charming enough to break through. If not, I'll get good and drunk, have a nice cry, and move on to the next thing.

Everything I've read in forums dedicated to children's lit is that TALKING ANIMALS ARE NOT WANTED.

I'd like to say they don't know what they are talking about, but I don't know the first thing about children's lit. I mean aside from having children who read. Sam sounds charming from the bits and pieces I've gleaned on Buffista thread reading.

Incidentally, Jeff Harmon often lists scam publishers as legit. And he has all sorts of weasel words in his advice that might steer people towards vanity publishers. You know how self-publishing is a legitimate option if you are willing to do the marketing and so on... And of course it is legitimate for cookbooks, and stuff of interest to one family or one small social group. But some people won't take it like that when read in a Jeff Harmon book. Actually Harmon strikes me as pretty sleazy.

Egmont bought Deb's book.

Is it as common as it once was? Probably not. But it doesn't mean that a well-written book can't break through.

The thing about those forums is that there are always people talking about what's not selling, then bemoaning the fact when something that wasn't supposed to sell actually sells.

If I hung around forums and paid attention to what people say never sells, I'd probably be trying to attempt a Sylvia despite the fact that my oven is electric.

Trying to predict what publishing is going to do is like herding cats.

Self-publishing is legitimate, regardless of genre, if people want to do the marketing. As is e-publishing.

Provided people do their homework.

Self-publishing led to deals for Grisham and Christopher Paolini. And in those two individual cases, the authors were willing to do a tremendous amount of marketing and self-promotion.

And Herman's book is a good source of information, especially if supplemented with more research. It's not a bible, just a stepping stone.

I got back my first two chapters (they will be merged to make chapter one, together they are 2400 words) from my new beta reader. She said she marked it up a lot, but it didn't seem like a lot to me. She said she didn't get a good handle on the characters though, so I might have to pour some more words into that chapter, it's awfully action-oriented so there probably just isn't enough interaction.

There are only three significant characters and two are strangers to the POV character so inner monologue can't provide much on the other two. I think I'll have to back up the start to better set the scene and let the main character have some thoughts, then add words to the interactions with the other two characters and expand the scenes with more detail.

I'm starting to think I will lose a lot of words in this revision, but probably gain words in the next.