You finish your draft novel, edit it as best as you can, get some people to read it (if you can bully them into it), listen to their feedback, tweak your novel, edit it again, make it as good as you can, then get ready to release it into the world…
 
But how?  In the olden days, before the likes of Amazon came onto the scene, your only option was to print out your query package, lovingly bundle it into big brown envelopes, drop it in a post box and hope for the best.  This is exactly what I did with my very first novel that I wrote in 2010.  How things have changed.
 
Now you can self-publish too; what does that involve?

If you self-publish, everything it up to you. After you’ve got your novel as good as you can, you will probably need to pay an editor for a line and copy edit (this is the editing you do to really make your novel shine), you can do this yourself, but unless you’re an editing ninja, I don’t recommend it.  After it's edited and proof read, you have to format it so you can print it, you have to create an ebook, you have to design the cover or pay someone to do it for you, and you have to market it.  You can do all this for virtually nothing, if you’re really good at editing and designing and doing massive publicity stunts that make the world interested in you and your novel, or you can get a publisher to do all that for you and they will take a big chunk of your profits for the privilege…

If you’re broke or fresh out of ideas for publicity stunts, then I guess the good old traditional publishing route still very much has it’s appeal.  You get your novel ready for a line/copy edit, then a publisher tweaks it and polishes it (with your input of course), makes a shiny cover and gets it on the shelves of bookshops.  They will also give you an advance before all this starts! (Usually, not always).
 
You’ve probably heard of some of the big publishers, like Penguin/Random House, Hachette and Harper Collins, but there’s loads of other publishers too, all of various sizes, ranging from the afore mentioned ‘big boys’ down to one-man-bands.  Some of them let you query direct, some of them insist on you getting a literary agent first.  Most of the bigger publishers only accept submissions via agents.
 
So how do you get one of these publishers to take a gamble on your book?

If you don’t fancy self-publishing, then you’re going to have to do some querying. 
 
So what is querying? 
 
It’s basically where you go to a publisher or literary agent and tell them a bit about you and your book, usually with a synopsis and the first three chapters, and hope that they like what the see enough to ask to see more.
 
So you get your query package ready, then you do some research to find a load of agents and/or publishers you think will like your novel, and you start sending out your stuff.
 
Then you wait.
 
And wait.
 
And then you’ll start to get some rejections.
 
At this stage you might tweak your submission package and send out some more queries.
 
Then wait some more.
 
Until eventually, you either get a request for a full manuscript, or you lose the will to live.
 
Ok, I might be exaggerating slightly with the losing the will to live bit, but you can certainly get to the point where you start to lose all faith in your novel.  You start asking yourself stuff, like:
 
“Is my concept too edgy?”
“Is my inciting incident exciting enough?”
“Are my descriptions too long / too short / too boring?”
“Are my characters engaging?”
“Do I have a strong voice?” 
 
What the bloody hell does “VOICE” mean anyway?
 
I’ve read so may agent pitches saying they are looking for a strong voice.  Sorry, I didn’t study creative writing at uni, why can’t they just talk to this sciences graduate in English?
 
(Sorry for my little rant, explanations about what “voice” means are welcome in the comments section of this blog post.)
 
So you keep sending queries until you either get a full request or you give up.
 
But even if you get a full request, that’s by no means the end of the road.  A full request just means that whoever you’ve queried wants to see a bit more of your manuscript.  After which, they may or may not want to offer you representation (if they’re a literary agent) or a publishing deal (if they’re a publisher).  If they’re the former, even once they’ve decided to represent you, they then have to try and sell your manuscript to a publisher, and there’s plenty of repped authors out there whose agents never sell their manuscript.
 
So why even bother to query?
 
Good question.  I’ve tried querying with four different novels over the years.  I’ve given up on three of them.  The first, in fairness, was a pretty rubbish book.  The second was rubbish too, when I first started querying it.  The third was ok, but could be better.  I’m currently querying the forth. 
 
Today I got another rejection.  I got a couple more rejections yesterday, and also sent out a couple more queries, too.
 
Despite the odds that no one will ever publish my books, I’m still doing it!
 
Am I nuts?
 
Probably, but that has little to do with my querying.
 
You see, I’m querying, but I’m also self-publishing.  I have written eight novels in total over the years.  The first was awful.  Let’s pretend that one doesn’t exist.  The second has a good concept, but its execution was terrible.  It’s been re-written three times since the first draft, and I reckon it’s now half decent.  The second and third books I queried were part of a six-book series.  Those are the badgers I’m self-publishing.  The eighth is the one I’m querying right now.
 
Why?
 
Why not?
 
Also, because my six-book series is my baby.  It’s my collection of stories I’ve been crafting for the last three years and I need to get these out into the world.  I can’t guarantee that if I rely on the traditional route.  They are also science-fantasy, so don’t sit in a neat little box that publishers tend to like, which will make a traditional deal more tricky.  I’m going to self-publish these, but I’m going to keep trying to get a deal for my eighth novel.
 
Why?
 
Enough with the questions!
 
OK, fine, I’ll explain.  My eighth novel is the first in a brand new series.  It’s pure fantasy, so sits in a nice little box.  When I say in my query letter, “this is a stand alone with series potential” I’m not bull-shitting like I was with some of the other books I queried (they were definitely part of a series).  I actually wrote the thing with one eye on the market, with the intent to try to get a traditional deal.
 
This sounds soulless, sad, depressing even.  But it’s the reality.  You might be lucky and write stuff with a lot of commercial appeal.  You might be super talented and write an awesome book first time.  You might query the right agent, at the right time, and get an offer early on.
 
Chances are, none of those things apply to you.  Chances are you’ll be like me, stuck in the query trenches doomed to never leave them.  But if this is you and you’re starting to lose the will to live, try to remember this quote that is often credited to golfer Gary Player in reference to his luck in getting the ball into the hole.
 
“The more I practice, the luckier I get.”
 
I’ve been practicing writing and querying for three years now (plus for maybe 6 months, 14 years ago), and I’ve not been lucky yet.  But if I keep practicing writing and making my query package perfect, maybe, one day, I’ll find the luck I seek.

​It started in October, 2021.  I’d managed to get away on holiday in the midst of the various Covid related travel restrictions.  I spent a week by the pool, reading.
 
I used to read loads.  In my late teens and early twenties I consumed books like they were chocolate.  I’d read series after series, mostly fantasy but with a few historical fiction novels and the odd sci-fi book thrown in too.  Every night I’d read before bed.  Sometimes I’d fill bits of my day with my nose stuck in a book, too.
 
Then life happened, and I stopped.
 
I didn't stop reading completely, of course.  I still read every now and then, and I always read on holiday.  And it was during my holiday in October 2021 that my love of books was rekindled, and the story idea I'd been thinking of on and off, for over a decade re-emerged in my head. 
 
I wrote my first novel around 15 years ago.  I was in a graduate job where I had to stare at a screen all day but didn’t have enough work to keep me busy.  So writing a novel was a way to look busy.  No one really cared what I was doing, I just looked like I was doing something.
 
In 2021 I found myself in a similar position.  I had to sit at a computer all day, I had to be there in case anyone called or emailed, but the work I had to do didn’t fill my day.  So I decided to write.
 
The Queen of Vorn first materialised in my head soon after I’d written my first (not very good) novel.  I’d started writing it a couple of times before, and never really got into it.  But in 2021 I started again, and this time I couldn’t stop.  By Christmas that year, the first draft was written and I started on book 2 then 3. Meanwhile, I asked people to read my first book.  They were friends and family, people who weren’t exactly experts on writing.  Back then I was excitable, and possibly deluded, and so when their positive feedback rolled in, I believed it.  Except that doubt nibbled at me.  I just wasn’t quite sure.
 
So in the spring I asked an independent editor to give my manuscript a review.  I got her report back a month or so later and it didn’t make for great reading.  I mean the report was well written, but it didn’t exactly tell me what I wanted to hear.
 
My novel stank.
 
OK, to be fair, that’s not what she wrote, but that was the gist.  The report flagged up all the major structural issues that I already had a suspicion were there.  It highlighted the massive holes in the plot, and made it clear it needed a lot of work.  I mean, like a total re-write.
 
Mentally, I wasn’t ready for that.
 
So I cracked on with more writing.  I wrote a sequel trilogy, did loads of work on it, got it edited, published it, then un-published it.  Previous blogs talk about why I did that, that’s not the point of this post.  I want to focus on The Queen of Vorn, and its journey to a whole new world.
 
Last year, over two years since I’d written the first draft, I re-wrote The Queen of Vorn.  I was finally ready to sort the thing out. 
 
I’m sure it ended up a hell of a lot better than it was, but it still wasn’t right.  I wasn’t sure about the first few chapters; I tweaked them and reviewed the rest.  I kind of thought it was pretty good.  Then I employed someone else to give it a review.
 
This review didn’t say it stank, but it did tell me there was certainly room for improvement.  So off I went and re-wrote the thing again.  I’ve just finished version four.
 
I was curious how much of the original novel remains, I compared the chapters based on my plot log and created a nice little diagram to show the changes.  Take a look below.

There’s a lot of red there.
 
If you look at the key, you can see that red shows chapters that I wrote then axed.  There’s 33 of them all together.   I average roughly 3,000 words a chapter, so that’s nearly 100,000 words I’ve deleted in my mission to make the Queen of Vorn half decent.  For comparison, you can see the word counts of the versions themselves at the bottom of each column.
 
That’s a shed load of words that will never again see the light of day.
 
But besides all the stuff I’ve chopped, I’ve done a hell of a lot of heavy editing, too.  All the orange chapters have been significantly altered from their original versions.  Even the green ones will have been tweaked – I’ll have re-written poor descriptions and improved clunky dialogue.
 
The Queen of Vorn has taken a lot of words, a lot of time and a lot of heart ache to get it right.
 
I’m hoping now it’s half decent.
 
No one has read this version yet.  I’m going to let it stew for a bit while I work on another novel.  I’ll then come back to it and give it a read-through.  I’ll correct grammatical errors and maybe make some changes to descriptions that don’t quite work, or I might flesh out some bits and cut others.  But the bones will certainly stay the same.
 
Then it will go back to my editor.  Hopefully for a line and copy edit.  Hopefully she won’t flag up major plot holes or structural issues.  Hopefully, when she’s done, it will be almost ready for publishing.
 
Hopefully.  Time will tell.
 
I’ve written this blog for anyone who’s curious about what goes into writing a novel, or for anyone who’s writing their own.  Back in October 2021, I was deluded into thinking that I could get things right first time.  I was wrong.
 
I waffled on in my last blog about a writer’s growth.  The Queen of Vorn was the seed for me, the story that really did start my writing journey.  I’m determined to make it good.  I hope one day you get the chance to read it, that you’ll agree it's good, and you’ll tell me so.  When that happens, I’ll know all this work was worth it.
 
Curious about how it starts?  I’m sending out my first chapter in my August newsletter.  Sign up below for your chance to get an advance preview.

​I’ve written seven novels, eight if you include the terrible collection of words I threw together in my early twenties.  And up until very recently, I’ve never bought a book on writing.  Other than what I was taught in English lessons up until the age of sixteen, I’ve never had any formal training in writing, either.  I approach writing, as most things in life, by just giving it a go and seeing what happens.
 
So how’s that working out?
 
For me?  Not too bad, actually.  Primarily because I’m pretty good at being self-critical and being open to feedback.  I’ve not read any books on novel writing, but I have had some professional advice from editors and a fair bit of feedback on various bits of my writing from people who have a vague idea what they’re talking about. 
 
It’s because of this feedback that I took the three novels I self-published last year off the market.  Being prodded to view my stories in a certain way allowed me to see the flaws and since then, I’ve employed more professional help.
 
I’ve talked about Snowdon Publishing Services before – they’re a small business that helps authors in a whole range of areas relating to writing and publishing.  It was Peter from this company that helped me see the flaws in my published novels.  It’s Karen, his daughter, who’s helping me grow as a writer.
 
So, after writing seven novels, and getting three of them market ready, what more is there to learn?
 
Lots.
 
I’m inclined to think good story tellers are born, not made.  But just like some people are naturally good at sports or DIY and others aren’t, no one becomes a top sportsman without training, and no one gets good at fitting a kitchen without at least a little bit of practice and instruction. 
 
At the risk of sounding a tad arrogant, I think I’m quite good at making up stories, but there’s more to a good novel than just a decent over-arching idea.
 
Character Sheets
 
One of the things Karen suggested I do, was create character sheets.  Before I started to use the template she’d provided, I thought it was enough to keep my character’s profiles in my head.  I was wrong.
 
Why?
 
Because when I read the questions on the character sheet, I realised I hadn’t fully considered all the aspects of the character I needed to.  Sure, I knew how they looked, what their back story was and what kind of personality they had, but I didn’t really get what motivated them, because I hadn’t given it enough thought.
 
The first question on the sheet that started to make me think was What is the emotional wound that causes the flaw?
 
Err…
 
At first glance I didn’t know the answer.  I was struggling to work out what the emotional wound was for some of my characters.  But when I thought about it, I realised that all of them did indeed have this kind of wound.  And when I considered this wound more deeply, I was able to develop a far greater understanding of their motives.
 
Themes
 
Karen also asked me what my theme was.  Um, I had to scratch my head for a moment because I wasn’t sure.  I then Googled ‘themes’ to see what a theme looked like.  Then I figured it out.  A theme is the main idea or underlying meaning that is explored in a novel.  When I thought about the story I’m currently working on The Queen of Vorn, I realised my theme is "do what’s right, not what’s easy". 
 
Now, with this theme in mind, I thought about the first chapter of The Queen of Vorn that I’d recently re-drafted.  I thought about my two main characters, Emma and Tom.  Both of them do what’s right, not what’s easy, but in very different ways.  In Emma’s case, it’s trying to unpick the gap in her memories as a young child, in Tom’s case, its heading towards danger to provide medical aid to wounded soldiers.  I also realised I’d not done the greatest job of portraying this theme, but I knew with a few tweaks, I could make this theme pop out, and the story would be improved as a result.
 
Beat Sheets
 
What the hell is a beat sheet?  It’s basically a list of key parts of your story.  When I did a revision to the plot of The Queen of Vorn, I ran it past Karen to get her thoughts.  She mentioned plot beats and started linking parts of my story into these beats.  This is an idea that is talked about in a book she also mentioned, called Save The Cat! Writes A Novel.  There’s a diagram of this format below.

I’m not going to talk about beat sheets here, mainly because I’m about to digress and go back to the point of this blog post.  I’m going to talk about a writer's growth.
 
You see, after Karen mentioned Save The Cat, (more than once), I thought maybe I should buy a copy.  It arrived a few days back and I started to read it.  After skimming over just the first few chapters I saw a lot of her advice written in those pages and expanded upon besides.  It was one of those moments when I realised how little I knew, but conversely, how much I did know, too.
 
When I read about beats in more detail. I saw how, to a large extent, my plot slotted in to a tried and tested formula, while bits that were out of sequence were highlighted.  In some cases it made sense for these bits to be out of sequence, in other cases, I realised bits needed to move.
 
I read about how a character’s wants and needs should fit in with the theme.  Everything Karen had told me started to fit together but I also realised that I had so much still to learn.
 
So what?
 
So what is a phrase we use in the army when we’re working out a plan to defeat the enemy.  “We know there’s three tanks hidden in that wood block and they have artillery defending their flanks; so what?”
 
The so what here is that in reading Save The Cat, I learned that I’m naturally good at writing stories.  I instinctively put a plot together that fits a tried and tested formula.  I figured out I already use themes, and my characters have wants and needs.  I learned that I did most of this without thinking about it, but with a bit of conscious effort, I can really improve on my delivery.  I’ve identified some of the gaps in my knowledge and found ways to improve my writing.  So the so what in this case is this:
 
You always have more to learn, never stop learning, never stop growing.