Progress Update IV

The end of the year is upon us, dear reader, and whoo buddy what a year it was.

For Real Though

If you’ve been following along with this little project of mine you’ll already know that my Round Two Betas have been having quite a rough go of it. Life has been dealing some of them a hard hand and the rest an interesting one to say the least. And for those of you who didn’t know that, well, see above.

Yet, despite all the hurdles, troubles, and last minute pants-shitting brought on by sudden changes to their holiday plans my Round Two Betas have been working diligently through my manuscript with zeal.  

Yes you read that right, dear reader, I’m still not done with Round Two. I am, however, *almost* done with Round Two so I’ve got that going for me which is nice. Even with most of them getting kicked in the teeth one beta went the extra mile and volunteered to reread for a more in depth analysis, while another introduced an intriguing “partner swap/tag-in scenario” with their fiancé that I’m interested to see the results of. Hell, no matter what it’s all more productive then back when I was trying to find a decent partner on Goodreads.  

Maybe I Just Talked To The Wrong People

Thankfully the feedback that I have received thus far (both from those who have finished and those that are still in process) has been overwhelming positive. I know, I know, I keep saying that but it’s not  a brag. More like delayed shock. You see, I’ve heard countless horror stories from established authors about their beta reading process (not to mention the blood curdling tales from countless debut authors) and I think I’m safe in saying it would be naïve of me to complain about either the frequency or quality of my feedback, considering.

Just because this Round hasn’t moved along as swiftly as the pre-Covid internet would have had me believe it should it doesn’t mean I’m not happy with how things are going. On the contrary, I’m quite content with how fast my Round Twos have been moving. Taking into account the collective shit storm their lives have been this year the fact that any of them managed to take any time at all to help me out is, well, damn. That’s just impressive (and more than a little humbling). Thankfully most of their personal situations have drastically improved over the past few weeks and months which not only does the heart good, but means I can start worrying about my manuscript again instead of, you know, the people reading said manuscript.

What’s more, many of them have assured me they plan on diving back in to reading with a vengeance or rereading to give more in depth feedback. The whole thing is kind of inspiring truth be told.

But I haven’t been idle either!

While awaiting/cataloguing the Round Two responses I’ve begun researching the query process, building a list of possible agents while working to develop a gameplan to slay those most curious of beasts: the query letter and synopsis.

That’s right, dear reader, I’m shooting for traditional publishing at this point.

“Come At Me, Bro”

For those of you wondering what the Querying process entails, in brief a query letter is a sales pitch one gives to a literary agent in the course of seeking representation. If the agent chooses to represent the work then they try to sell said piece to an editor/publishing house (while helping you negotiate contracts, offering ideas, etc.). Think of the querying process as the unholy lovechild between applying for a job and speed dating. Trust me: Tinder ain’t got nothing on this! Seeing as how the process is a bit more involved than a simple email I figured any work I do to get a head start is time well spent.   

So, that’s where I’m at, dear reader. Hoping Round Two can get wrapped up in early 2022, debating whether a Round Three of Beta is necessary, and working to lay the foundations for the next steps along the journey.

Oh, and one more thing: Happy New Year!