My writers’ group members had questioned my resolve to combine the short stories into the overall novel I was writing more than once. They suggested I take all references to the short stories (except for “Shadow Hunt,” which had become Chapter 9) out of the book.
I declined to do that and set about polishing the novel as it was. I really thought I had meshed all the disparate parts of the short stories seamlessly into the grand whole. As a result, I decided to pitch my novel to a respected and well-known genre editor.
I belong to a Pennsylvania state-wide writers’ group called Pennwriters. Every year at their annual conference, members can set up appointments with guest editors and/or agents to try to sell their novels. A few years ago, I got a 10 minute spot with Ginger Buchannan of Ace/Penguin/Roc – a very big deal indeed! I was pretty nervous but had practiced my pitch and went into the interview with all guns blazing. She actually kept me over 5 minutes, saying my novel had a “reverse terminator” plot and sounded interesting. She gave me her card and told me to query her when I had cut out 30,000 words!
I was pretty much in a daze about that – how could I cut out so much? And then I remembered the comments my writers’ group had made. I was able to cut out all those words pretty easily. As a result, The Sixth Precept, became a much leaner, tighter and better book. I know you all think that I never listen to my group but, honestly, this was the only time I had rebelled against their infinite wisdom! Of course, I had rebelled about 3 times but I’m much better now. J
I queried Ms. Buchannan and then, per her request, sent the entire manuscript to her. Nine months later it was rejected by another editor – there had been a reorg at Ace and Ginger was promoted. I’d like to think that she would have given The Sixth Precept a shot had she not been booted upstairs but this left the door open for IFWG!
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