A writing post, I guess!

[annathepiper]

+0: First things first: y'all say hi to eklisiewicz, who has given me help on the earliest chapters of the third draft of Faerie Blood!

+1: The editing is going very well, as I have been yammering about under my Writing filter. Suffice to say, outside the filter, that I'm steadily winnowing through the emailed comments I have received and am on track to start printing before Saturday. Still need to get envelopes or a box, though. I went to Office Depot on my way home last night and found it unhelpful; the guy there was perfectly amiable, except he kept trying to steer me towards coming back to their store to mail the manuscript, at which point they'd let me have a box for free. Which wasn't really what I wanted to know, as I wanted to just buy something, pack it myself, and take it to the post office. I'll probably have to try the U Bookstore after all. writersweekend, you did I believe mention something about using Tyvek envelopes? I found those being sold at Office Depot but was uncertain what size would be appropriate for a 410-or-so-page manuscript.

+2: Also, for giggles and grins, I observed that several of the paperbacks I have read lately average 35 lines per page and about 12 words a line. Doing the math on 98,145 words, I get roughly 234 pages. This tells me that by most terms these days, Faerie Blood is still rather short. However, spazzkat has remarked that there's nothing wrong with a quick read--and the sequel can be longer. Which, in fact, it will be. ;)

Tuesday miles: 2.75
Miles out of Hobbiton: 113.41
Miles to Rivendell: 344.59

Comments

[writersweekend.livejournal.com]

Do NOT use a box. Use a tyvek envelope - it will need to be the larger size - around 11 X 14 or larger for your ms to fit. They have 'em at the post office for express mail, I think...don't spend the extra money for next day delivery or anything...the normal times for express mail is only 3-4 days, anyhow.

fingers crossed...

[annathepiper]

Okay! I should include an extra, should I not, along with sufficient postage to let the manuscript be sent back to me if need be? ('Cause I'm thinking, full manuscript, more effort to send, yeah, I'd kind of like it back.)

[peregrine-ek.livejournal.com]

Waving. HI Anna. Friended you back. Your novel is still WAY longer than mine.

[annathepiper]

Hiya! I figured LJ was a good way to keep in touch, so there you go! :) How long is your book?

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

The books on the subject I've read suggest than 120,000 words is about tops for coaxing a sale for a first novel.

I have some serious editing to do!

[annathepiper]

On the various web pages for the publishers I've been looking at, I've seen a range of 80K to 100K for desired length... and there's also the interesting factor of whether a publisher wants you to use the traditional means of estimating your word count vs. the hard count given by word processors. My exact word count is 98,145, but if I do the estimation thing, it comes out 112,200. So I'm kind of straddling the line, I suppose. :)

[peregrine-ek.livejournal.com]

Haha. Pleading the fifth on that one.

[annathepiper]

*grin* Hey, if it's complete and it's the story you want to tell, that's the important part!

[peregrine-ek.livejournal.com]

Complete? In my head maybe. Not on paper.

[annathepiper]

Oh well then, don't fret about your word count compared to mine. Fret about it not being done yet maybe, but who knows? By the time you're done you may have 50,000 more words than I do. :)