After posting my review of Veronica Scott’s Wreck of the Nebula Dream, Chicory remembered seeing the query on Evil Editor. Well it turned out that old EE had recently reposted the query as an “Evil Editor Classic”.
I asked Veronica to write a blog post on the experience. Take it away, Veronica!
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In 2007 I was an unpublished author trying to learn my craft pretty much in a vacuum. I didn’t know what I didn’t know and so I hadn’t joined any writers’ groups or loops, hadn’t found my own beta readers and critique partners, didn’t know how to look online for the wealth of advice and assistance available. I was committed to improving the stories I was telling, in hopes of someday becoming published. At that point I’d written the first drafts of four science fiction novels and thought maybe I was ready to start querying agents and publishers. Being a total newbie to publishing as it existed six years ago, and realizing feedback was essential, I hit the send button, emailing a sample query for one of the novels to the Evil Editor blog.
A lot of the feedback I received in return was useful, no one was too snarky, which I appreciated. (Humorous yes, serious suggestions yes, overly snarky, no!) EE and the commenters were probably much kinder than they could have been, given the total newbie things I was doing at that point, including some predictable beginner mistakes…the novel was too long, I was trying to write a synopsis without knowing it, I wanted to send an agent fifty pages of the book….I did revise my draft query a few times in 2007 in response to the comments and suggestions but it was clear to me after the experience that I was in no way ready to submit anything to anybody. What I had was a very early draft of a novel that required a lot more revising and rethinking and I needed to become more knowledgeable about the publishing world. All good, solid realizations!
I honestly don’t remember all the ins and outs of the EE experience. 2007 was the start of some very turbulent times in my personal life and I basically put the draft novels on the shelf for several years to deal with what Life was tossing at me and my family.
Flash forward to today and I’m happy to say the finished version of what was a raw manuscript in 2007 eventually (after revisions and edits) became my WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM, which received a 2013 SFR Galaxy Award and was a recent Amazon Best Seller in Science Fiction Adventure.
I didn’t give it much thought in 2007, but now that the finished, polished version of my novel is out there as a published work, I do kind of regret that there’s a titular connection to that six year old, public feedback because the early version had a lot of “growing up to do” as a novel and the finished book is drastically different than the 2007 version. (Although the fundamental “bones of the plot” endured.)
I don’t regret the path I took, however, because I firmly believe writers need feedback to make the books stronger, whether from Evil Editor, Dear Author’s First Page feature, or your own circle of beta readers and critique partners.
Of course I always reserve the right to listen to the feedback and then make my own decisions LOL!
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Learn more about Veronica here.
I hope we didn’t embarrass her too much by dredging up these old memories. If you have any questions about Veronica’s experience, just leave them below; she has promised to come by and take part in the conversation. I’ll start!
Anyone remember Miss Snark? She invented the whole “agent critique blog” genre. By the time she stopped blogging, a bunch of similar sites popped up, and I would guess that Evil Editor is the oldest of them.
Thanks for the invitation to talk about the EE experience, Tia! I learned a lot in the process…early drafts always need someone’s critical eye besides your own (even though it was a review of the query letter, there were useful inputs about the plot of the book too, and how I worded things, etc.). I’ll be at the day job today but I’ll stop by in the afternoon and will be happy to answer questions. Happy Thursday!
Thanks for coming by, Veronica! I had a similar learning experience on Rachel Vater’s blog.
Wow! This is awesome to hear about your experience, Veronica. I’m so glad (and I’m sure your readers are glad) that you were encouraged rather than discouraged by EE and the minions. (As for the title, I hope you’re not overly worried about it. It was actually the mention of `Titanic in Space’ that made the connection between Tia’s review and the EE classic for me. That’s such a great tag-line, one with brain hooks if you will.) Congratulations on the award! And the awesome cover art.
Thank you VERY much! No, I’m not worried about the EE classic (hey, always good to be a “classic” something, right? LOL!) It was quite helpful to me at that early stage of things…I just don’t show the entire internet my fledglings any more :-).
{thoughtful look} Thanks for sharing, Veronica. That does sound like a good way to get feedback if you don’t have friends and family to help out. Or if you’re concerned their opinions wouldn’t be unbiased. I’m glad it worked out well for you. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
Well at that time I was a total newbie as far as trying to become a published writer, it was SO helpful to have a few places to go online and get feedback. The unbiased part is very important, as you note! Yes, I took all the feedback and sort of retired to my writer’s cave and pondered, but also we had a few roller coaster years in there as a family so the advice had lots of time to marinate or percolate. And I learned a lot of other things about my craft and the publishing business in the interim too – always learning, thank goodness!
I used to join critique groups. I was a member of Critters, but could never keep up with the critique requirements. I tried a few other places, then I discovered Absolute Write. I liked that forum because it was populated by writers who were actually successful. I also found some critique partners there who I have worked with for years.
But I was never brave enough to post at Miss Snark or Evil Editor. Rachel Vater, yes, and she was very nice.
Yes, feedback is great – even critical – when writing. I agree with that! I’m glad you found a good source. It sounds like you’ve found even better sources since, which is wonderful. {REALLY BIG GRIN}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin