The No News is No News Purgatory Thread, Vol. 7

+ whatever from me Rick. I am gald you servived <3

Appreciated, Rick.

Happy Birthday, Suki!

Dang, I'm missing a lot of stuff in this here thread.

tri

<scrambles in. Piles bar with mini-cupcakes, fancy beverages, and coffee. Slumps on the clean couch for a few minutes break from the world...>

Hi all.

Thank you so much for all your tweets, reps, PMs, and posts. It's been a crazy wonderful day!

~suki

Chiming in with my thanks, too.

Rick said:

NOTE to alcoholic XO - you are on an AIRCRAFT carrier, not a missile carrier. Your job is to transport Fury and her air wing within range, then launch AIRCRAFT!

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Launch all Vipers!

Parametric said:

Launch all Vipers!

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Rick, I think you have a character who has gone rogue.

Hola, my cloven hoofsies!

Opinions: I queried an agent I think would be a good match 4 months ago, and received an autoreply, but haven't heard yet. Cool to follow up, when I know it arrived, or pushy to follow up when she might just be backlogged?

In that vein, I'll probably be sp'ing this beast in Nov. and need a kick-ass cover artist. I saw X-Cin retweet an upcoming kitsune book today, and nearly stress-barfed. MY DUCKS ARE DISORGANIZED.

Thanks for the thanks, everyone.

Parametric said:

Launch all Vipers!

Click to expand...

Para, my drunk, rogue, XO - you're getting there, but you are at sea, not in space - so no Vipers. Let me paint a better picture for you:

Captain Para is on the Bridge of the USS TEAM EVIL, next to Captain Dys and Captain Fury, as you prepare to launch Fury's air wing. Looking down over the Flight Deck, you you spot the first four aircraft - Lieutenant Lela, locked into CAT One in her F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet, with her wingman, Lieutenant Phoenix, locked into CAT Two in her Super Hornet, the exhaust of their twin engines glowing red in the darkness. Lieutenant Commander Clovia is locked into CAT Three in her Electronic Surveillance E-2C Hawkeye, and I completely forgot about Mrs. Brommer when I finished up the Purgy character assignments, so for now I'll put her on CAT Four in the EA-18 Growler electronic jammer jet. Dys orders TEAM EVIL into the wind in preparation for flight ops, and all eyes turn to Fury, waiting for her command...

Clovia - once you return from this mission (I wouldn't bet on it) - Get your ducks in order!

ETA: So Para - repeat after me - Super Hornets, Hawkeyes, and Growlers (Oh, my!)

Rick said:

Para, my drunk, rogue, XO - you're getting there, but you are at sea, not in space - so no Vipers.

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Can the Rocky Horror Naval Battle be in space?

Clovia said:

Opinions: I queried an agent I think would be a good match 4 months ago, and received an autoreply, but haven't heard yet. Cool to follow up, when I know it arrived, or pushy to follow up when she might just be backlogged?

Click to expand...

4 months? Follow up unless it's a no response = no-type agent.

And don't worry about the other book. Even concepts that sound identical will be very different when executed by different people. Or, you may be getting in at the front-end of an amazing new trend.

Clovia, it depends on the art style you want, but deviantArt is a good place to look for artists not already doing pricey covers. I also have a long list of digital cover artists already experienced with e-book style. And there are some artists on AW, too. Try not to spend over $150 for cover art as it can take a while to recoup that. Fancy art is beautiful on print covers, but the simpler the better on e-books, with title and name BIG.

(You might already know all that, but there's the standard wisdom in case you don't.)

November is a good time to release - the book will be at all places by Xmas and you can take advantage of Dec. 26-March e-book boost. If you'd like/need step-by-step help on anything, just ask.

hillaryjacques said:

4 months? Follow up unless it's a no response = no-type agent.

And don't worry about the other book. Even concepts that sound identical will be very different when executed by different people. Or, you may be getting in at the front-end of an amazing new trend.

Click to expand...

I keep telling myself that every time I see the words "fox" or "kitsune." It's just taken me so long to get to this point with it, I can't help worrying.

Re agent: her autoreply leads me to believe she responds with the wording, but there are people on QT who got answers within days of querying, and then some who seem to have gotten eaten.

K. Taylor said:

Clovia, it depends on the art style you want, but deviantArt is a good place to look for artists not already doing pricey covers. I also have a long list of digital cover artists already experienced with e-book style. And there are some artists on AW, too. Try not to spend over $150 for cover art as it can take a while to recoup that. Fancy art is beautiful on print covers, but the simpler the better on e-books, with title and name BIG.

(You might already know all that, but there's the standard wisdom in case you don't.)

November is a good time to release - the book will be at all places by Xmas and you can take advantage of Dec. 26-March e-book boost. If you'd like/need step-by-step help on anything, just ask.

Click to expand...

Thanks, lady. I have a few people on DeviantArt bookmarked already, and of course all the artists I *really* like are professionals waaaay out of my league/price point. I was hoping Nov would be prime time to get this out, but I have a couple of stragglers I'd love to hear from before I start yanking submissions.

Clovia, you can start some of the process while you still have things out. There's a point at which it is difficult to turn back, but that point is very much closer to when the book is about to go up for sale.

Oh yes, Amarie, I had our very own Para edit it for me already. So as soon as I'm done with that and any revision that comes to me in a fever dream, it just needs to be formatted and all.

I'd like to get the art squared away soon so I can use portions of it on a website (so, building an author website), and then I need to start thinking about at least a twitter run-up to release day. It's going to be my debut, no matter how it debuts, and I want to treat it like one.

I'd still prefer to go the trade route (ha!), but me not having the ducks lined up for the alternative would be foolish.

*waves*

*takes cupcake*

Crash. Hubs in Houston. Kids are ... Being kids. So. Tired.

Hugs to all. I'll catch up someday!

Unfortunately, for custom art you're probably going to find everyone is already booked, of quality, or unable to meet a Nov deadline if commissioned now. My list of artists I've compiled so far is here. I hope you can find someone.

I actually start my SP advice with financial stuff. If you pay any professional $600 or more for services, you'll have to issue them a 1099 at tax time, so it's good to keep costs low. You will need a checking account and Paypal account if you want to get paid royalties electronically. If you're married and file jointly, set up separate accounts just for your writing business, then pay yourself from those. Lessens your chances of an audit. And keep thorough records for deductions, like saving all receipts. I log every purchase in a notebook.

Clovia said:

I'd still prefer to go the trade route (ha!), but me not having the ducks lined up for the alternative would be foolish.

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Have you queried any publishers directly? I've been surprised by some of the pubs that will take queries directly. They prefer that you have an agent prior to signing, but at that point I would think it would be easier to secure one.

Oh god taxes.

Uggggghhhhhh.

Clovia said:

Oh god taxes.

Uggggghhhhhh.

Click to expand...

Indeed. But I did my own for 2011 and the only scary part was the payment I sent to the fed. I paid out a bit less than 10% of my gross. You aren't required to file until you get paid at least $600/year, and starting in Nov, you'll be paid in 2013, so you won't file until 2014.

hillaryjacques said:

Have you queried any publishers directly? I've been surprised by some of the pubs that will take queries directly. They prefer that you have an agent prior to signing, but at that point I would think it would be easier to secure one.

Click to expand...

Yes. Got an R from one, and have two still out. Some of the people I would have queried are closed-door right now (missed the window), or the wait time would more than double the amount of time I've already spent querying. And I know, if I want it, the wait isn't that bad, but after *cough* years, my threshold for waiting months or years for a reply has dwindled inverse to the Grinch's heart.

I was actually hoping to interest a small pub, and then ask an agent I felt well-suited to my style to negotiate the contract for me. DENIED.

Better late than never, but pics of me & Rosie (apologies for the hugeness):

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY, SUKI!!!

omgosh, how cute are the both of
you tas and rosie?
and tas, i'm admiring your BATMAN BOOKS.
ha!

clovia, oh noes, i didn't mean to make you
feel boofy. =( and i'd TOTALLY poke at 4 months.
that is a long ass time. (or long enough, anyway.)

Morning everyone!

Clovia, KT is wise with all the SP advice. Adding another vote to nudge that agent, too. Also, chin up, you! It's okay if your ducks aren't all sitting in a neat line. That would be boring. And they are ducks with very shiny feathers.

Suki, I'm so happy you had an amazing book birthday! You deserve all of the awesome! *showers you with rainbow sparkles* I'm reading PE right now and loving it!

Tas and Rosie, love the photo! And the Batman Books!

Not much here. Had a rough day and I'm still not sure how things turned all pear-shaped, but feeling somewhat better now after a couple of hours of sleep. May or may not have called and made an appointment to talk to someone about some of this stuff. Feeling the acute need to ignore my list of homework and people I need to email about this or that and spend some quality time with my silly little book instead.

Oh yeah, and...

Parametric said:

Launch all Vipers!

Click to expand...

I'd be tempted to throw my trigger-happy XO into the brig, but you should have seen what she did to the place last time we tried that. There are still dents.

I guess Rick should've just figured this would happen putting all of us on one boat. Poor vfury might just be the most level-headed of all of us. Of course we have Fire, so we're always in good food.