The manuscript for Air Born is done! It's hard to believe, but I finally did it. 23 months of writing, 18 chapters, 67k words, and a ton of passion and dedication. When working a full time job, doing volunteer work, and taking care of family - it's hard to imagine being able to find the time to write a novel. I'm proof that it can be done.
However, the task is not done yet. I did the writing and a first pass edit. I've written a query letter and within the past week, I've received one "not interested" and I just turned it around and submitted to another agent today. It could be a couple months before I hear back.
What to do now? Keep on writing! I've already started on the outline for the sequel, "Air Storm." Plus, I have another short story in the works, called "The Pendant".
(Picture: Pleased to have typed "The End" at Red Cup Coffee in Mukilteo)
Short Stories
Speaking of short stories, I decided a few months back to utilize medium.com as a platform for hosting my stories. Instead of seeking to submit these to various publications, all while trying to crank out a novel, I decided to post these as freely available for reading. It's my way of giving back to the fan and writing community. Plus gain a little free exposure for my stories. You can find these at www.medium.com/@TimothyTrimble. Enjoy! Recommendations are greatly appreciated.
Social Networking
One of the reasons this blog has seen so little love, is due to my ongoing postings via Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus - mostly on Twitter. I'm amazed, and thankful, for the fan base that's starting to build on Twitter. Anything I post about Air Born with #YA and #Urbanfantasy tags gets retweeted by a devoted group of followers. I personally have almost 5400 twitter followers. Which is not bad for almost 3 years of effort to grow my followers. The big surprise, however, is with the re-tweets. Thanks to the fans re-tweeting, my postings about Air Born are reaching over 300,000 twitter accounts. Wow!
It's Social Networking - Not Social Selling!
If you're following me on twitter, you know that I'm not interested in trying to hard sell my books or stories. I totally believe in using the social networking platforms for establishing relationships with my followers and letting them discover who I am as a writer. Personally, I don't appreciate it when I follow another author and I immediately get a direct message from them, asking for me to check out their book. Now, I will admit, I've personally purchased a couple books due to finding out about them via the twitter postings. But, I still not appreciate the feeling of the only reason someone engages me on Twitter is so they can start advertising to me.
I also make it a point to thank each and every single one of my followers. Originally, I did this via a tweet. But, I felt it was pretty annoying for my other followers to see a blast of 20+ new thank you messages show up in their feed on a regular basis. So, now I thank my followers via a direct message. It's more personable and less of a "spammy" posting.
If you're interested in following my postings, you can find me at:
Twitter: @TimothyTrimble
Facebook: Facebook.com/AuthorTimothyTrimble
Air Born Plans?
While I'm making a couple attempts to seek representation from an agent, if it doesn't pan out, I'll be taking the indie route. While I do prefer the control and flexibility presented by independently publishing, I just don't have the time to conduct the level of marketing and promotions necessary to make an indie title succeed. I could be wrong about that however. I'll test the waters with a few queries. If that doesn't pan out, I'll turn Air Born over to my personal editor, spend a few months doing the edits, and then publish via eBook and Print-on-Demand.
I do have plans for introducing something new into the book which I've not seen done before. Kind of a integration of another supplemental media for setting the tone and mood of the story. I'm not quite ready to announce this yet, but I hope it's groundbreaking and will raise the bar for indie publishing, and interaction with the fans.
Well, that's my quickie blog posting for now. I hope to do some more postings in the near future with progress of Air Born and the sequel.
Thanks for reading.
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