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Just A Few Words...

Welcome to my blog, which is designed to give information and inside gossip about The Furry Tale Chronicles, my rom-com series. The first book, If The Shoe Fits, releases with Crimson Romance in April 2013.

Monday 23 January 2012

Yoikes!!!

Yes, the 'o' in 'yoikes' is meant to be there, it's not a typo. It's just how I say 'yikes'. And why am I saying 'yoikes'? Well, because I did it. I actually got off my butt, thoroughly tidied up my manuscript to the best of my ability (which probably means it isn't as tidy as it should be), and entered it into this year's ABNA.

Yoikes indeed.

The good thing about this is that I finally did something with my manuscript (rather than let it continue to gather digital dust on my laptop). I had a good go at fixing it up before, and it was a fairly legible piece of work. But it was in no way ready to be seen by a publisher. To be fair, it probably isn't now, either. I mean, apart from tidying up the punctuation and spelling errors, and an odd word change here and there, I haven't actually added to it, so it is still my first draft.

But let's be realistic here. I am under no illusions that my modern little fairy tale will be able to stand up to the drama and suspense giants that I am competing against. I've had a good nose around the various ABNA discussion boards, and I haven't actually come across anything remotely similar to the chick-litty genre that my book mostly belongs to. This could be a good thing because, as one friend pointed out to me, it may stick out from the crowd. But I tend to look on the flip side, and I figure that my story may be considered too lightweight to be a contender for the incredibly distinguished sounding 'Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award'.

Let's break that down a little. Amazon is just the name, so nothing to break down there really. And 'Novel' and 'Award' tend to explain themselves. But 'Breakthrough'? This is where I may struggle. Plots filled with suspense, thrills, drama, and all kinds of other epic-type elements, lend themselves well to being contenders for a 'breakthrough' kind of story. Me? I've loosely - and I DO mean loosely - based my plot upon Cinderella, which, I might add, is something that's been done many a time before now, and doesn't seem to me to have anything breakthrough-y at all about it.

OK, so I have a talking cat, which, while not unheard of in literature, is probably not so common in the real world. And despite a talkative tabby, my story is very definitely set in the real world.

Anyway, the book is definitely not 'breakthrough' in general terms. I suppose I could go with the definition of 'breathrough'  as being that of an unknown author making a splash with her fantastical tale of nude nosedives, cussing heroines, and magical pussycats. Yeah, I could go with that.

Of course, the odds seem pretty stacked against me. In my category, there are a potential 5,000 entries, and only a 1,000 maximum will go on to the next stage. Less, if the judges don't rate the pitches that high. So in reality, I have to have a pitch so good that it will beat 4,000 other pitches. Erk.

But if I flip that coin to the other side, and at least try to be optimistic, I could also say that I have a one in five chance of getting to the next round., and you know, one in five isn't all that bad. Sounds much better than saying I have to beat 4,000 people to the post, anyway.

Much as I would love it, I really don't envision myself at the beginning of June anxiously waiting to see if I have won. I don't envision myself making the semi-finals either. Reaching the quarter finals is probably as far am my doubting self will let me dream about, if only to be able to get real feedback from real publishers. Honestly though, I'm just hoping to get past the pitch. Unfortunately, there is a month to wait before we get to find out.

It's going to be a long month. And not a talking cat in sight to distract me.


4 comments:

  1. Glad you finally got it out there. I'll cross my fingers for you. It should get further than the quarter finals. Wish I could help with more than proof reading but I've no clue about the world of publishing.

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    1. I don't think ANY newbie author has any clue about publishing, so I at least have that in common with them. *snort* As to quarter finals, well...like I said, I'm just hoping to get to the next stage. If that happens - and that's a BIG if - maybe I can start dreaming... ;p

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  2. a little late on the uptake,(you can blame the Tart for that = getting the rest of us moto-vated, but it takes its toll in edit-time, as you well know), so want to say let her words ring in your ears "Tara's 1st books won ABNA in 2012". She has a way with words and words have power! I believe in you.
    I think you might also like to know I haven't even finished my (1st draft) edits, but I've uploaded for same reason.... aarrggh - goes now to edit... hopes entries remain open lol <3 Marian

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    1. Oh, good luck Marian! Honestly, I've edited in the least possible way - punctuation and spellings - so I know the book isn't ready for publication, but hey ho, I'm in it for the feedback, so I figured what the heck!

      Hahahaha... if only Tami's words were magically prophetic, eh?

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