x/posted from Fangs, Fur & Fey
Q. For those of you, especially debut authors, who sold series where the first book was complete but future books were not: How much freedom did you have with the writing of the second book?
Q. On pitching series, do you pitch the series in the initial query? Or is that something you extrapolate once you've been invited to send some material along?
I have a three book deal with Gollancz and my debut book is book one in a reasonably open series – Spellcrackers.com. That’s what I pitched to my agent, and once I’d finished book one – my agent took me on as a client before I’d completed the manuscript ;) - that’s what he pitched to publishers. Along with the completed manuscript, I sent one page detailing my ideas for books two and three (both very short three line paragraphs), a few one liners about possible further books, and also some other ideas I had, to expand the series/stories in my world.
In answer to the question about book two, so far, I’m being left to write it as per that short paragraph. As to whether this is normal or not, I don’t know, as I am a debut author. I think this is one of those answers that could vary between different editors and authors and publishing houses.
Q. How do you deal with writer's block?
This is an odd one, as I’ve found hitting a block where I can’t seem to write the next scene, or bit of dialogue usually has a particular cause (as opposed to the just not feeling like working one, cos I’m tired, or distracted by too many other things, like life, or the other job - and I can be world class at distracting myself *g*)
Frex – I was writing a scene where my MC is alone with another character, and I couldn’t think of a thing for them both to say to each other. So I took a walk, and pondered *read racked brain for solution* And I realised *I* the writer, knew exactly why both characters were alone together, regarding their motivations, and the plot development, but my UF has a strong murder mystery plot running through it ;) so of course, the character other than my MC couldn’t *talk* about their real reasons, because that would give the game away, so they had to have some plausible excuse. So in the end, I managed to find their excuse, and ... the words started to flow again ;) (sorry if that was a bit convoluted, but I don’t want to give out any hints *g*)
Q. My parents are visiting England, and asked if I wanted anything can anyone recommend some UF that hasn't been released in the US? I spent about two hours crossmatching amazon.com and amazon.co.uk but had very little success.
As a Brit, I find most of my UF reading has been from the US, as currently UF in the UK is not as big. One UF Brit author that springs to mind is Mike Carey and his Felix Castor series - Mike is probably better known for his graphic novels – but his UF are wonderful books and are set in London (as are my own ;)) His MC, Fix is an exorcist, and has to deal with zombies, ghosts, demons, and a really different style of weres.
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