Writing: back to the detail edit of Daughter of Mystery

[hrj]

That distracting short-story previously mentioned (Three Nights at the Opera) has a functionally complete first draft. That is, it's at the stage where I still need to create a bunch of proper names for items currently identified as things like "socialite #2" and "title of opera". But the content is done and semi-polished. So I'm leaving it to rise for a while while getting back to the next editing pass through Daughter of Mystery. For this one, I'm actually working with hardcopy printouts, which helps to process the text through different parts of my brain. In addition to the various comments from my beta-readers, I've developed a checklist of things to review so I don't get off track. Some of them are pure copy-editing (ensure that the formatting of titles is consistent, review all punctuation and sentence structure). Some of them have to do with overall consistency of style in content, such as making sure that each chapter includes adequate visual and other sensory description, and that each of the major thematic elements in the story is advanced in some way in each chapter. A big part of this pass involves aligning the language correctly for my desired point of view. I think I've done a pretty good job of sticking to a tight third, but I know I've drifted off into omniscient a few times, and there are a couple of chapters where I switched which character's pov I'm using. And then, on top of the rest, there's simply tweaking the language here and there to improve the story. That's a process that never really ends. I figure that after I finish the current pass, when I've sent it out to a couple more readers, I'll aim for a straight read-through to see if anything seriously trips me up, but I don't want to keep tweaking it forever.

Then it's time to make some decisions about submission. The more I've been researching potential markets, the more I've realized that the choice between the big-name general fantasy publishers and the smaller specialized-market publishers if more balanced than I was thinking previously. Sure, I'd love the prestige of getting accepted by a big-name publisher. But I'd also like to find a publisher where the whole series can find a comfortable home. (And based on prior experience, I'd like to avoid getting myself into a contract where I have deadlines for the unwritten books. It would be a different matter if I had them all in the trunk already.**) Furthermore, it's one thing to say that I'd want my books to be eligible for award nominations (which depends to some extent on the qualifications of the publisher) but let's be realistic. As long as they're eligible for the various specialty gay/lesbian literary awards (which are much less likely to have qualifications that exclude small presses) it's not like it makes a difference. Let's be clear, it's not that I think being nominated for awards is important, but it's a sort of general metric for evaluating markets. If I want to know which publishers have the expertise and sense to publish good lesbian fantasy fiction, one way to research that is to look at who's publishing the books that get award nominations.

And this brings up a rather delicate point. Especially due to the wonders of POD and e-publishing, there are a fair number of markets (and I'm talking about paying markets, of course) specializing in lesbian or gay/lesbian fiction. But there are a lot fewer that publish an intersection of genre and writing quality that I personally would be interested in reading. On the one hand, it's nice to know that my stories aren't trying to break into a saturated market, but on the other hand it would be useful to have more basis for identifying markets that are actually interested in what I'm writing. Are they not publishing stuff similar to mine because nobody's writing it? Or are they not publishing it because it doesn't fit their interests or criteria? That swings me back in the direction of the more mainstream fantasy publishers because at least there I can point to a handful of books and say, "This -- this is what I aspire to be in company with."

**Of course, by the time I find a publisher for Daughter of Mystery it's quite possible that I'll have Mystic Marriage in revisions and Alma Mater in partial draft and I'll feel more comfortable about the idea of deadlines.

Comments

[gmdreia.livejournal.com]

Sarah Waters is generally in the mainstream fiction genre, no? I never see her stuff in the LGBT section. Always in the regular fic section.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

And that's part of the problem. A publisher that publishes Sarah Waters isn't necessarily going to be interested in lesbian historical fiction in general -- they may be interested in writers like Sarah Waters (literary, significant 'name', established publishing history). Oh the other side of the scale, you have the major players in the lesbian fiction world, like Bella Books (publishers that are the metaphoric -- or in the case of Bella, literal -- descendants of Naiad Press) who tend to focus primarily on contemporary settings, and when they do venture out into fantasy, historic, or alternate history, it doesn't feel like they're participating in the same genre conversation as "mainstream" fantasy/historic/alt-historic publishers. It's sort of like the difference between Marion Zimmer Bradley and Katherine V. Forrest. (Not that I'm comparing myself directly to either of them.)

It's a bit of a genre-trap in several ways. My best statistical chance for getting published (for various reasons) is to target the lesbian small presses, but that greatly decreases the chances of anyone outside that community stumbling across the books. But the writing/reading tradition that I'm coming out of and feel the most identity with is the "mainstream" fantasy community (DAW, Del Rey, Ballantine, Tor, Baen, Ace, etc. etc.). Same language, rather different "dialects".

[lferion]

You might put Crossroads Press on your list of possibles -- Melissa Scott & Jo Graham have sold a new series to them which is part mystery, part historical & part fantasy/magic, and contains overt gay/queer characters.
Lost Things is out in ebook now & hardcopy soon.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I've added them to my general reference list, but it looks like they primarily re-issue existing works. Also, they have the combined disadvantages of not being a targeted fantasy press and not being a targeted lesbian press ... without being a "big name" to make up for it. Not saying there's anything wrong with that -- but if I'm aiming for the stars to start with there are other places I'd try first. My main conflict here is in deciding whether to aim first at a publisher that "speaks fantasy" or one that "speaks lesbian".

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

I have personally had a great experience with Lethe Press, run by Steve Berman, and I think your work would be interesting to him; he publishes Icarus, a speculative mag, and is delightful and insightful to work with. Pays, too, which is nice; and he's published many award nominees (and winners)

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Hmm, Lethe is in my Big Spreadsheet of Leads but hadn't previously moved up into serious consideration. I'll flag it for a closer look on your recommendation.