Self-Publishing Billy Buttles
December 19th 2007 03:41
Hi everybody,
Hope all of you are well. First off, let me introduce myself. My name is Jonathan Rosen. I am originally from New York, but I now live in Coral Springs, Florida. Around six years ago, I started working on a Young Adult book called, Billy Buttles and the Gravesend Witch. I have always wanted to be a writer and the inspiration for this story came from the place I was living, Gravesend in Brooklyn. It was so named because there actually was a small cemetery at the end of the area. As a kid, I used to let my imagination run wild with things and think about a cemetery that was there before the town started. That was the impetus for my story. A cemetery that nobody knows how it got there and the strange things happening around the town. I started and stopped many times over the next few years, before finally deciding to just sit down and write it. I finished it at the end of 2006 and naively figured I would send it out and it would be greeted with open arms. Sure I thought I might get a few rejections, but I thought overall it would be positive. In the first batch of ten that I sent out, I received four rejections, three no-replies and three requests from agents to see more of the manuscript. I figured three out of ten was great. I sent in more material and two out of the thee asked for the full manuscript and one agent asked to represent me. I know that you shouldn't jump at the first one that offers, but I did. They told me to withdraw my manuscript from consideration from the two open agencies. The agency, said that they would send a contract out and never did. They kept giving me reason after reason they didn't do it. First telling me not to worry about it and then telling me the agent got really sick for a time, but it never came and go figure, soon the e-mails from them stopped as well. This was a good introduction to the business. This took several months. Afterwards I sent out several more queries and received rejections. Completely disheartening. In the meantime, I have continued writing and have nearly completed another manuscript and am halfway through a third. All of which are Youn Adult stories. I have also sent in some proposals for two non-fiction works and am waiting to hear back.
I know this is off topic, but I am telling it for a reason. For right or for wrong, I have decided to go ahead and self-publish my first story, Billy Buttles and the Gravesend Witch. I know they tell you to give it a lot more time and rejecions, but my reasoning is this: I want my name out there for future stories. I know the agents and publishing houses won't care whatsoever about my self-published work, but I am going to try to market it the best I can for now. I have a very good friend who is the president of a large PR firm in New York, and I am going to ask for a favor to help promote me. I just want some name recognition for future endeavors. I thought this blog would be a great way to help people keep track of the process. One, for fun and two, in case anybody else is thinking about going through with this, they can share my experiences. In my next post, I will tell you all which company I picked and what the details are. Until then, stay well and keep a lookout for my name.
Thanks,
Jonathan
Hope all of you are well. First off, let me introduce myself. My name is Jonathan Rosen. I am originally from New York, but I now live in Coral Springs, Florida. Around six years ago, I started working on a Young Adult book called, Billy Buttles and the Gravesend Witch. I have always wanted to be a writer and the inspiration for this story came from the place I was living, Gravesend in Brooklyn. It was so named because there actually was a small cemetery at the end of the area. As a kid, I used to let my imagination run wild with things and think about a cemetery that was there before the town started. That was the impetus for my story. A cemetery that nobody knows how it got there and the strange things happening around the town. I started and stopped many times over the next few years, before finally deciding to just sit down and write it. I finished it at the end of 2006 and naively figured I would send it out and it would be greeted with open arms. Sure I thought I might get a few rejections, but I thought overall it would be positive. In the first batch of ten that I sent out, I received four rejections, three no-replies and three requests from agents to see more of the manuscript. I figured three out of ten was great. I sent in more material and two out of the thee asked for the full manuscript and one agent asked to represent me. I know that you shouldn't jump at the first one that offers, but I did. They told me to withdraw my manuscript from consideration from the two open agencies. The agency, said that they would send a contract out and never did. They kept giving me reason after reason they didn't do it. First telling me not to worry about it and then telling me the agent got really sick for a time, but it never came and go figure, soon the e-mails from them stopped as well. This was a good introduction to the business. This took several months. Afterwards I sent out several more queries and received rejections. Completely disheartening. In the meantime, I have continued writing and have nearly completed another manuscript and am halfway through a third. All of which are Youn Adult stories. I have also sent in some proposals for two non-fiction works and am waiting to hear back.
Thanks,
Jonathan
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