I’m pretty discouraged too but you got to remember that when you write you should be fighting for something. I wander in my imagination also but at the same time you got to have a goal. Something worth fighting for other than day dreams…that’s why I’m not going to give up. I’m not going to give up because there is good stories without sex scenes and that kind of junk that deserve to be told. There is good in this world worth fighting for. And I’m not going to let my generation go into the dumps of cheap romance novels.
Stories are the best way to show something. Something that could turn the minds of your readers to things that are worth while. I mean think about it…even the President reads. You have the power to change the course of history with the written word.

I think it would have been approriate to explain to the reader that as a novel is fiction, one would usually reference ‘writing a novel’ or ‘writing fiction’.

Without a helpful explanation, your point (which unfortunately is the first one for the reader) comes across as pretentious and condescending.

I’m not in it just for the money, I can think of easier ways to make money than spend hours upon hours of your life writing hundreds of thousands of words for a book that probably wont even get published, but I like writing and I love the characters that swirl around in my imagination.

I personally think a massive reason for book failures is the publishers marketing ability.

Thanks for the laugh, buddy! How’s the unemployment line? When you use food stamps now, if there’s some poor spelling on one of your stamps (ie FOOOD STAAMP), do you say: “hell, I’m not using this one. If the government doesn’t care about good grammar then why should I?”

I have a novel I’m getting ready to query, but I fear that it might be too long. It’s about 60,000 words in the YA genre. Do you think it’s smarter to cut it down, or is this acceptable? I don’t want to miss an opportunity because my word count is off.

Thank you!

Sarah

I am a first time writer,and have an 89000 word fantacy manuscript ready for an agent.

In one of your replys you said “Be patient, it could take forever”

I don’t have forever, I’m 78 years young!

Regarding the 15 second time limit, that doesn’t seem like enough time to read half a page.

I need to brag about my book, I’ve spent many hours, days, weeks, even years on it, and I’m not looking to be wealthy, just recognized, I need more than 15 seconds!