/lit/ - Literature

>>13247364
just keep at it. I felt exactly what you're describing for five years or more. thought about giving up many times. then things all suddenly started coming together (not according to you!). but to each his own.
>>13247365
you need some good old Protestant Work Ethic. stop building castles in the sky. no one makes money off of writing unless they're already rich

>>13247331
I've tried a few small publishers, but not the one's you've mentioned. Thanks for letting me know. We're here to teach/help each other is how I look at it. though if people are brutal to us, it will only make us better

>>13247316
I did work at a publishing house. most of their costs go into marketing, and these publishing houses have little money. so if they know you could market it yourself, you're not a liability to them. Also, and there are other costs involved, like proofing, and with all the overhead, they have to be selective. It's not like they're evil. They're just existing in a marketplace where very few people read outside of school, and most of the books that are being read are either legal or non-fiction. so fiction because very tight

>>13247298
Thanks, anon. Though there is no pain in writing. Writing is an escape from pain. It makes me happy. I don't feel like I wasted years of my life doing the thing that makes me most happy. I understand most people won't like what I wrote. Everyone has their own tastes. I posted it for the people who will like it, because I promised I would, and I want to make others happy. That's why I started this thread. Never meant to make so many people angry. Thanks for reading.

>>13236565
>>13247087
Some people are legitimately interested in the process of trying to get published. So I will share my experience.
I did self-publish. Before that, I sent queries out to numerous agents (no publishers except DAW, because most don't accept manuscripts) for all the books I finished and revised. Never got any response back except form rejections. Usually no response at all. Sometimes the rejection was so quick it was clear they couldn't have read the book. For Glowbug I did present it as a scifi series. I would say within the last year or two, almost all agents will ask you how many social media followers you have. If you have none, or less than whatever number their algorithm set as min, it's an auto reject. That's how the publishing industry works now. In short, there will never be literature published under this system, unless some e-celeb is somehow also the next Faulkner or Tolstoy, which seems highly doubtful based on the e-celebs I've seen.

>>13246632
I'll read it, S&W.
You start by describing a situation which creates a question in the reader's mind, which is great. Makes us want to keep reading.
I agree with this anon >>13246836 except I kind of like the style. It just needs a bit more variety in the sentences. Start more sentences with dependent clauses, but not dangling modifiers, such as "Arms high with his..." because those can be confusing.
The list idea is cool, but you maybe need to build more credit with the reader before getting into a good list.
Overall, it's engaging. I think you're one of the few writers actually better at descriptions (narrative) than dialog, which is good. I would say cut the dialog down. A lot books end up being tons of dialog because that's all the writer can do, but writing dialog well is like writing teleplays. It's not really a literary talent. You have a lot of great stuff to work with, and it's a good sign that you're willing to take advice and revise, etc. Godspeed

>>13236159
it was conscious. good observation. I wrote this book eight years ago. at that time I thought compounded clauses was going to be my style. In my mind, at that time, I thought if you compound clauses in this way, it will actually mimic the way people think (I didn't realize I was crazy at that point) and it will flow much better. now I realize people don't at all think like me, and so most of what I did when I revised this first book was to get rid of a lot of that. but some of it I still really liked, and thought the pacing of it was cool, so I kept it. but, yeah, most of that grammar play which I can see people don't really care for is less prominent as the novel goes on.

>>13236139
you just hit upon prolly the sickest part of the whole novel right there, anon. though it's not divine. there are so many characters and subplots involved it'll make you think twice before saying "boo" to a goose

>>13236038
I hear this unedited meme a lot, but I'm a proofreader by profession. I was not going to make a point of it, but I challenge all of these people who say there are errors to actually point out to me an actual grammatical error. I'll fix it if there is one. In publishing we do a 2 week proof, because 2 weeks after it's published there will still be grammatical errors. but actually point it out t em. I play with grammar because I know it so well and I think it's interesting for me to read a writer who fools with grammar. is that not translating to people who are still new to grammar? maybe that's a problem I have.
I don't think there's a good example that can be SC'd. I write in a way that will build up to something huge. but here's something I like.

>>13235874
read a few posts above, where I constantly hate being alive, and want to die most of the time, except I'm Christian so I can't just die. But then writing is the only thing that makes me not want to die. and it makes me happy if people like what I wrote, but either way, I'll keep writing
>>13235889
if only I posted the snippet of the part where it's Hoffmeister's Fourth of July Bash in the Backyard Bonfire Blowout Bonanza (bring anything explodeable when tossed in a fire) [sic]
>>13235913
not bad, anon. you got one hell of a spark. put that energy into fiction and I'll pay for it

>>13235829
because you're the second one to ask about this:
After an extended blackout, the residents of a Chicago suburb begin to piece together the last fragments of media reports regarding a super virus which caused the total shutdown of NYC. In the midst of their chaotic reorganization, a mysterious figure appears, who suggests there is more going on than a simple power outage.
Blackout is the first book in a ten part series which explores how the entity known as Glowbug reshapes the country, from seeding new Messiahs in the west, to birthing a vast army of epileptic übermensch in the east, and how one family deals with, and confronts, the drastic changes to life as they knew it.
Though that's just the blurb from the book, which I wanted to keep short and friendly. Really, it is more of a family epic, which contrasts a "rural" (formerly suburban) area that now has no electricity, getting more and more conservative, with civics, religion, etc., contrasted with a west that is totally decimated almost back to primitive times, and a NYC where technology hits a kind of singularity, and all of this coming into conflict which results in something so dark it can't be described in less than a million words

>>13235801
there's a sadness that hangs like a black dread at almost all times except when I'm writing or listening to "Boys of Summer" by Don Henley

>>13234659
Characters are not realistic. Writer seems like a weeb. it does have some cool concepts though
>>13234801
that part is not yet edited. I posted it because an anon asked for that page number to be SC'd, after I promised I would post a SC of any page. strange he hit on by chance one of the most 4chan passages in the novel
>>13234824
you can read the description from the link I posted
>>13234827
put yourself in a place where it's impossible to access the internet, and don't bring your phone, and make sure you have to be there for at least 3 hours
>>13234904
thanks
>>13235224
Good question. Write a list. I got list of names, birthdays, traits, everything. I even made maps of the houses and neighborhoods, etc. so I could keep it accurate

>>13231518

>>13230318
actually this cover would work really well with the tenth book in the series. I'll save it if you don't mind
>>13230519
DFW, especially Oblivion stories, Thomas Mann's the Magic Mountain, War and Peace, The Idiot, Dune
>>13230520
thanks, anon. the beginning will make sense in the end
>>13230551
I think there's a way kdp will publish it as a paperback, but not sure how it works. I'll look into it

>>13230345
the email of my publishing concern can be found in the PDF front matter, and we can discuss the cover of the book further thus

>>13230324
read this >>13230208
I love reading. I don't read to brag. I don't read to have read more books. I love to just read because it makes me forget everything about this life we never asked for but were thrust into, and then they taught us we will die. For me, anything I can read which will make me forget that I will die, is worth so much to me. That's why I love a really long book. I read Le Mis cover to cover. Not because it's good, but because I need an escape. If you don't feel that way, I completely understand. Most people don't. But there is no more Les Mis, or Brother's Karamazov, or IJ, or Remembrance of Things Past, or the Magic Mountain, or even American Tragedy. These books which I indulged in, and were more than a thousand pages, are a thing of the past, and that's sad to me. Even though no one will publish it, I wanted to write a really long piece and I did.
Also, A Song of Fire and Ice, is long as fuck, and it's the best selling novel series in the world right now, so I don't think I'm alone. My novel (which I'm making into a series) is just more literary than GOT

>>13230288
I specifically obscured my name because my own feeling is that I am shit. I hope my work will be much greater than me
you have to realize a cover must be completely original. I can't publish an image you lifted from something obscure because of copyrights. all my covers are from my own photos, etc. I worked legal in the publishing industry, so that's just my advice to you
if you can do it, anon, and I like it, I promise I will take your cover, and give you a credit in the front matter, if you want, and will give your name (I understand if you don't want to provide your name)
if you don't read the entire first book, there is a theme about old sewing machines, and there is a cover I incorporated that into, but my wife said it was worse than the one I went with

>>13230111
thanks, anon

>>13230227
True. But it's more of a scifi concept behind the whole thing. And it does get progressively more scifi, especially from book 5 onward. The amount of insane concepts I wish I could share with you, but I don't want to spoil anything so I won't, in this book, are huge. Ask me a random page number and I'll post the SC. Aside from that, just running through the whole book, the amount of violence, death, murder, etc. in the book definitely trumps anything scifi. Plus the whole thing is dark as shit and about how life is absolute garbage and it was a mistake for any of us to be born, and what absolute hell it is to be alive

>>13230009
>>13230116
good point. but what book actually has a good cover, or a cover that made you at all feel what the book made you feel? A cover is kind of like a band name. It might be really bad, or really good, but it's just a place marker, representing something abstract. What's more important is whether the object it represents is quantifiably good or bad. It's kind of like the word nigger
>>13230139
you actually are bringing a smile to my face because I already know who you are

>>13230073
>>13230079
fair criticism. good points. not my first novel, nor the first one I tried to get published. prolly the fifth I've tried to get published. If you look on my goodreads page you can see I've already self-published two before this one.
Reasons for writing a long novel: 1. publishers reject anything that doesn't fit in with cultural marxism, and thus I became sick of the depression that followed my attempts at getting published which ended with absolute rejection. so I thought if I write something so long it would be like ten years before I even tried to get it published, I could avoid that psychic pain for a long time
2. like this anon said >>13230031 long novels are sick af. I love War and Peace so much I was sad when it ended. Same with IJ

>>13230002
thank's, anon.
>>13230005
that is what I'm doing. I'll publish each part as I revise it. Not asking anyone to buy it. I'll post free pdfs on lit of each part

>>13196024
not too ominous. I think the problem with my cover is it looks too much like horror, which it's not. more of the old pulp sci-fi would be cool, but those are usually paintings. whatever you can do will be cool I'm sure