Teresa LeYung Ryan, an author and editing consultant has just been mailed the first fifty page manuscript. I included the synopsis which is a bit more revealing than the description on the website. You have about 500 words to explain what you have written in 160k words! Lovely little exercise I must say. She’ll read the first 50 pages and make her comments and edits. Those edits and comments will fuel discussions and any revisions we might make between myself and my editor Vicki Weiland.
The manuscript is off my desk now for a few weeks. I’ll turn my attention to my other novel that I am just getting started. I’ve still got a few more steps with this first novel to work out, but they are relatively simple. Teresa promises a 14 day turnaround on her evaluation. Once we digest those comments, react, adjust any elements we deem wise we’ll begin plowing ahead with submissions.
Yesterday I spent most of the day going over the first fifty pages one sentence at a time. It was a very granular examination of the text, so slow and in such detail it was hard to really make much sense of the thing. As an unpublished author I have no alternatives. I have to give every buyer every chance to say yes, and not a single reason to say no. Maybe a few books from now I’ll face a different circumstance, but for now? I am still looking for someone to open the gate and invite me into the game. It is fun to be standing at the edge of the unknown…
I’ve never seen her with the shade cover on. It looks amazing!