Samuel’s Girl has been accepted for publication by Damnation Books, the same publisher currently selling Jessica’s Trap.
This one is bigger. Jessica’s Trap weighed in at around 60,000 words. Samuel’s Girl is 97,000 and that’s after I cut the original story in half. It was my first full-length novel and I filled it with astounding levels of unneccesary detail. Writing Norman’s House and then Jessica’s Trap taught me to be more concise. Then I went back over the first two and ripped the nonsense out. It’s worked with Samuel’s Girl and I have since been doing the same with Norman’s House. That gets submitted next. It tells of what happens in Jessica’s house when the demons return to finish what they started, three centuries later.
I’ve checked Samuel’s Girl and made sure the words are all in the right order. I spent the weekend applying the publisher’s format requirements to the book and now I have some details to deal with. Hints for the cover artist, the back-cover blurb and so on.
Having produced a 97,000-word novel, you would think it would be a trivial task to write the back cover text, wouldn’t you? It’s not. It’s murderously difficult. It has to intrigue a reader but not give away too much. It has to tell you what the story is about without telling you what the story is about. I have around 500 characters to achieve this.
I’d rather write another novel than work on the back cover blurb. It’s easier. Still, it must be done and it must be done right, so I have to stick at it.
I won’t get the cover art until I’ve done my part, so best get to it. I hope this one will be out in time for Halloween.
Ideally, I’d like to see it out in September. Jessica’s Trap opened on April 30th, 1647 and was released, with marvellous timing, in April 2011. Samuel’s Girl takes place in late September so if it could come out with the same miraculous timing, that would be quite something. If I can do it again with Norman’s House then I’m going to suspect the intervention of some supernatural agency. It wouldn’t be the first time. Many things started happening on and around this Beltane Eve, all entirely coincidental, of course.
This has inspired me to return to the blog, which has been lying fallow for some time now. I have been learning how to be a book-marketer and that’s not easy at all. I intend to document my learning curve and experiences and put them here. When it’s complete it’ll be edited into a little eBook which will, perhaps, allow others to skip the early, wasteful stages and move straight to the low-cost and effective strategies.
Meanwhile, I still have to learn the ins and outs of WordPress. It can do some amazing things…
Update: Samuel’s Girl is scheduled for release on November 1st 2012. I have seen the cover art but can’t post it here until it’s finalised by the publisher. It’s extremely good.
Romulus Crowe 