EHUD: Push for Publication

     Greetings Facebook friends, loyal readers, and Google advertising bots!  The time is coming nigh for me to once more query agents for my novel EHUD: Prelude to Apocalypse.  The last round of querying was... underwhelming, to say the least.  Out of maybe eighty letters sent out, seventy resulted in rejections, and the rest were left unanswered....  Which is why, before I start querying again, I'm launching the Push for Publication initiative!

     So, what does that mean for me?  Revisions.  Tighten up chapters, trim word count, the usual.

     And what does that mean for you?  So glad you asked...

     No writer exists in a vacuum--every piece of literature is built upon the comments and critiques of dedicated pre-readers.  And this is what I ask of you all: As I prep for revisions, please read my book.  Tell me what's wrong with it, tell me what's right with it, tell me what you would do in my place.  I've done all I can on my own: now I need YOU to lend a hand.

     For those who bravely take the plunge and agree to read, I am asking for some rather deep insights.  This isn't a spelling and grammar run; those things are important, but they are the final polish on a manuscript, and if there are more fundamental flaws in EHUD, those need to be addressed first.

     What I'm looking for, in order of importance, is this:

          

          1. Is the plot sound?  Are there portions that make no sense?  Do scenes logically flow from one to the next?

          2. Are the characters sound?  Are they grating?  Do they act consistently?  Are they downright cliche?

          3. Is the writing sound?  Is the verbiage so verbose as to be opaque to a casual bibliovore?  Is bad, or dumb sound?   

          4. Okay, is there any blatantly wrong spelling grammar?  Don't worry about it too much, but if it pops out, make a note!

     If you've read this far and are still interested, please contact me on Facebook or comment below.  The book is available in both .doc and EPUB formats, though the first paragraph is different between the two versions.  After I've heard back from everyone willing to help, I'll incorporate your critiques into the new revision and, hope against hope, get an agent out of it.  And hey, you'll get your name listed in the acknowledgements!  Sweet!

     Thanks in advance to anyone who's read this, and especially to those willing to read.  Together, we can make the Push to Publication! (though really, I'm the only one who gets anything out of it...)

Archived For Posterity...

     

        Okay, year three of my "State of the Human" address... One day late.  Dang it!  Okay, here we go...
        On the work front, I'm back at J.D. Young, the printing company I worked for through high school and college.  I went back shortly after my last "State of the Human."  By about April or so I got moved to the print department, and now spend my time babysitting robots and troubleshooting paper jams.  It's dull, but I have lots of time to write, so I won't complain...
        Speaking of writing: I've been sending out EHUD to agents, and despite several revisions and versions of my query letter, I have yet to get any interest.  So, until I have some other publishing credits to my name, EHUD is effectively dead...  The querying process is also why I never put the promised last chapter on this blog.  Apparently, that might constitute as "previous publication," and would be looked upon unfavorably by agents.  In December '14, I finished the first draft of Dear Sir, You Shall Taste My Blistering Fury.  I haven't started editing it yet, but look to start in April.  Hopefully by the end of this year, it'll be done and ready for querying.  In the mean time, I've finished a short story, which I will shortly begin peddling to online magazines, and have begun my third novel, Compulsively Yours, based on my short film of the same name.  (this one.)  It can be considered a loose prequel to EHUD.  Yes, I'm crazy like that.
        On the romance front...  That girl I mentioned last year?  Didn't work out.  Never ended up meeting her.  However, I did meet someone else, which led me into perhaps the most surreal period of my life.  For a period in late summer of 2014, I had my very own manic pixie dream girl.  Yeah, it was weird.  I'd known her for a while through church, then suddenly she was bursting into my life, challenging me to break my boundaries, get out of the house, live!  We went out to late-night pubs, we went line dancing, we went to an outdoor movie and got drunk.  It was amazing!  But then it turned out she had a boyfriend, and things got weird, and we drifted apart... though we still occasionally talk.  Right now I've just started with a fellow writer who lives over a hundred miles away.  Maybe it'll turn into something, maybe not.  Who knows?
        Okay, okay, what else...  Oh!  Okay: I've started running and weight lifting.  Still can't seem to dip below 291 (I don't know why, but that is the oddly specific weight I maintain month after month), but I'm slowly getting healthier.
        And saving the best for last: I done got a new dog: Spuds.  (See top of post)
        And that... is the State of the Human going into 2015.  Goals for next year's update?  And agent and a girlfriend, maybe with some publishing credits.  Time will tell...