Hi, I wonder if anyone can help out. About 2 years ago I finished a horror / fantasy novel. I submitted it to a handful of UK agents and it was rejected, although with encouraging comments and recommendations for revision (and yes, I do know the difference between a standard rej and a qualified rej ! ;))) ) I don't believe I'll ever revise it further, and if I have time to write again I'll be starting something new. But my question is, how might I go about putting it on the net? Does anyone have any links or anything? I don't think I'd even want payment for it, just offload it whilst keeping full (c). I know more than is good for me about hardcopy publishing and submission procedure, etc. so I'm not after advice about that. But I haven't read up on e-publishing so I know very little about it. Also, the novel is quite long; 205,000 words. I already cut it back from 230,000 so it's not likely to get any smaller. Any advice would be appreciated, as it seems a shame just to chuck it out. If anyone is interested in putting it on their site, I can e-mail/post them a preview. Or even stick a couple of chapters on here for people to check out. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Cheers.

There are a few links (I'll post what I have in this message in the next day or 2. Have to dig them out LOL). Other than that, I posted mine on my website as a free read. Not free download though. Well, not without my permission anyway :).

Oh. I forgot to add that I would be happy to host the story on my site :). And yes you will retain full copyright with an email link so people can contact you.

Thanks, the links would be appreciated. I'll certainly consider your offer re your site - as long as you're happy with the size of the thing (about 600 book-print pages) and the fact that it contains some strong language and violence (like most books of this type, although there are no "gratuitous" sex scenes or "adult" themes). I'll check out a few options. Thanks again. - oh yeah, and I'll post a couple of para's when I crank up the old PC and find the damn thing... ;)

LOL Not to worry, as I certainly have the space. As for the strong language and violence, I'll just set up a warning page that gives people the oppertunity to continue or leave. lol I look forward to seeing what you post of it :)

205,000 words for a new writer virtually guarantees it won't get published. By night, I'm the Submissions Editor for a literary agency (and you can email me with questions, etc.) at Anthony@agentr.com). My own novels (a trilogy) were abotu 105-140K words each and I was told to break them up. So the trilogy became a quintilogy of "feature length" (75-85K words). Made FAR better sense, and now I have 5 revenue streams instead of three (I've sold the first two and am on the verge of selling the third, then I query for the 4th, with publication of the first next March). If you're getting rejectiona, it's for a good reason. If you're getting qualified rejections, it means you have talent. You need some molding (and a heck of a rewrite). Don't throw it away! To take all this input, which sounds consisten enough to be more than pickty editors, and have the arrogance/shortsightedness to simply epublish instead of going for the gold is to throw away your passions for nothing, in my blunt opinion. You've poured lots of energy into this, don't simply toss it away because of ego/apathy/etc. Email me, let's talk. :-) Anthony Hernandez

Thanks for the advice, Anthony. I agree, 205K words is quite a lot, and did indeed contribute to the reasons for rejection (although it was normally the "pace" of the novel that was criticised, which surprised me, because on reflection I thought it was too gung-ho with too many set-pieces and the agents thought it was too slow to get started and didn't grab attention from the offset!) The problem is that at the moment I have very little spare time (I've just started a new business), so although I fully agree that the manuscript needs substantial revision, I just don't have the time. :< Hopefully, this situation will change over the next year as parts of the business can be left to run themselves. Or not. :# Of course your're right in what you say about not "going for gold", but the experience I gained in writing this novel has, IMO, increased my abililty 3-fold, so I don't feel like I've lost out in any way. I suppose I just need to be careful that I don't let any skills I have acquired stagnate. However, as you clearly know what you're talking about I will bear in mind what you say and I will contact you shortly. Thanks again for your post. :)

Attached Link: http://www.bewrite.net/kudos_press.htm

editing service FYI

Thanks, interesting stuff.

audre, have you had experience or are you affiliated with Kudos? I went to your link, then looked up 'editing services' to compare with others. I don't know much about how to guage one against the other, not having 1st hand experience myself. Have any more advice?

www.rosedog.com, click the EDITORS link to see sample edits by different people. Most will do a sample edit free. You'll see my name among them. Yes, by night, I do freelance book editing :-). In any event, you need to check different editors and find one right for you.

Dude/Chick, sorry - did I get you mixed up with someone else? Thanks Nosfiratu, I will check that out.

I apologize Anthony. I was responding to audre's post and got you guys mixed up. Your sample critique seemed very thorough. I don't have anything ready for your services quite yet. Would I have to go through rosedog to do business with you in the future?