Gosh, what a year?  Another 12 months of writing and changing careers (that's another story).  At the start of 2024 I was still attempting to get a traditional publishing deal for book 1 in the Gallantrian Legacy.  I self-published the second trilogy; the plan was to try to get a publisher to take on the first trilogy (you can more about that here).  But I didn’t get a single full request for that book.  The decision to pull The Offspring Trilogy came with a second decision – early in 2024 I decided I’d self-publish The Homecoming Trilogy. 
 
So I stopped querying, took a deep breath, and decided to sort The Homecoming Trilogy out.
 
Boy, did it need work.
 
The Queen of Vorn
 
The Queen of Vorn is book 1 in my 6-book, 2-trilogy series, The Gallantrian Legacy.  This book had already been re-written once.  I didn’t think it was in that bad a shape, until Karen from Snowdon Publishing got her teeth into it.  After her manuscript review, I knew another re-write was in order.
 
Different authors have different definitions of what a re-write looks like.  My view is its where you have to make so many editorial changes to your story, it is almost a new book.  I’d suggest at least 50% of the words are thrown in the bin and re-drafted from scratch.  The general idea might be the same, the characters might be the same, but there will be minor and major plot changes, and bad prose and dialogue will be replaced.
 
Last summer, The Queen of Vorn got another, rather significant makeover.  It is now almost un-recognisable from the first draft I wrote in Autumn, 2021.
 
It was finished this autumn and is now being line and copy edited by Peter at Snowdon Publishing.  This book is now very close to being ready for human consumption.  But what about the other two books in The Homecoming Trilogy?
 
The Prince of Vorn
 
Book 2 in The Homecoming Trilogy has also a lot of work.  This one had barely been touched since I wrote it in 2022 and needed even more work than its prequel.  Its plot didn’t need as much jiggling about, but the writing itself was awful.  Writing and having professional edits, then dealing with your editor’s subsequent suggestions is a very good way to learn to write better, and between drafting this book and taking another look at it, I’d had a pro-editor pull three other novels to bits.  I’ve improved a lot as a writer as a result.
 
The Prince of Vorn was re-written, sent for a manuscript review, then all the points that came out of that review were addressed.  I’ve almost done this, I’ve just a few chapters to proofread then it will be ready for a line and copy edit.
 
The King of Vorn
 
Book 3 in The Homecoming Trilogy needed even more work than The Prince of Vorn.  The writing and the plot needed a lot of adjustments before I was happy to send it to Karen to get her feedback.  But I finished a pretty comprehensive re-write of that book in November, and it is now under review.
 
Magic Breakers
 
I also did an edit of Magic Breakers, which is the first book in a whole other series, and I did some querying of that one.  So far, I’ve had no luck.  But I have been invited to talk about querying by The Writer’s Workout.  A link to the website is below. In March 2025, you will have the chance to watch a video of me waffling about querying, plus you can watch loads of other people who are involved in writing and publishing.  The conference is fully online and free.  I really do recommend you take a look.

​That pretty much summarises what I’ve done writing wise in 2024, so what will 2025 look like?

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.