we interrupt this manuscript to bring you another manuscript....

[lagilman]

I can haz editorial letter for VINEART, which I suppose I should start calling by its actual title now. It is due back 4 February.

*eeeeeks*

All right, we are officially back in Work Hard Mode.

The 10 Stages of Revisions, LAG-style

1. skim letter.
2. print letter out.
3. procrastinate.
4. go over letter with the highlighters of 'easy,' 'okay,' and 'eeek.'
5. go over manuscript with red pen and letter.
6. procrastinate.
7. enter changes into manuscript.
8. read over manuscript again.
9. fix things that got broken while fixing things.
10. hit 'send,' and panic.


I also need to com up with some ideas for cover conference, so they can reject my suggestions. ;-) So... anyone want to tell me what would make YOU pick this book up off the shelves?

Comments

[safewrite.livejournal.com]

Put the vinyard on the cover and hint at magic. Aw, heck, Suri - see if you can get your agent to to have them push it at wineries and in wine magazines, too. It's a unique concept; you might as well use it.

[lagilman]

Hah. I'm the one who will be doing the pushing and the promoting. That's the Way it Is....

[safewrite.livejournal.com]

Then by all means do the book tours of the LI vinyards. They let you do readings and bring books and sell them and drnk wine: what's not to love?
http://www.loving-long-island.com/best-long-island-books.html

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

Yeah, definitely vineyard, at least for background and I think for the foreground, if I saw a bottle and something about the bottle suggested magic (ah the beauties of foil lettering and embossing) that would definitely catch my eye.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Completely and utterly off-topic, me and Kat are in NYC for today and most of tomorrow. Are you interested in potentially getting together for lunch or some such, either of these days?

(We're staying in Brooklyn, if that's any help)

[lagilman]

very cool! I'll be in Manhattan tomorrow - want to meet for brunch?

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Certainly! Though our familiarity with Manhattan is lacking, so we'll leave the choice of location up to you, if that's alright. We can get pretty much anywhere the MTA goes. If you need to get in touch more directly, I'm going to send you a message with our cell no. Let me know if you don't get it.

[lagilman]

I've screened your last post so no risk of cell spamming. :-)

I'll look for a place that's downtown, so we're traveling equal distances, and get back to you. :-)

[ilvack.livejournal.com]

One post of yours that has always stuck out in my mind was about the time you helped out in your local wine store. Someone there showed you the different ways to tell when a bottle had been stolen from a crate by looking at a few subtle clues.

Whenever I think of that story, I see a close-up shot of an empty spot of hay where a wine bottle was once nestled. Sometimes there is a bottle standing next to that spot, and in the reflection there is a distorted figure pulling away from the crate.

That would make me want to pick it up just to figure out what was going on. An added bonus would be reading the book, learning those little clues that you learned that day, and then looking back over the cover and saying "Oh! See that little scuff mark on the wood? Notice how it moves from left to right? Well that means..."

[safewrite.livejournal.com]

oooh! I like that image!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Wine-scented scratch 'n sniff cover?

[rovanda.livejournal.com]

vineyard or grapes sound good - maybe grapes on the spine? with a magic-ish light effect? that would be incongruous enough on a f/sf shelf that I'd take a glance at the back cover blurb.

Of course, why *I'll* be picking it up is your name on the cover ;-D

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

will buy it anyways, but a decent cover that reflects the storyline.

Or, you can tie the book to a selection of small bottles of wine (FREE with Purchase!)

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Isn't "Panic" step 11?

(Would that make Step 12 be acknowledging that you handed it over to your higher power?)

Nonetheless, I very much empathize with that, it rang very true to me!

[lagilman]

Isn't "Panic" step 11?

Nope, it's "send-and-panic," all in one step.

Step 11 is "sleep for 20 hours."

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

Lots of vinyards near here.....