Finished

Since Josh has the day off tomorrow, and since I am going to be moving into our new place all day Thursday, I thought I'd move my blogging days to Monday and Wednesday (and maybe Friday?) for this week.

So, I have finished The First Year. I'm sure it's not completely done at this point, but I am not going to edit it anymore before I start sending it in for publication.

I have a few different options:

1) Find an agent--It's going to be hard to market a collection of short stories, especially as a debut author, by myself.
2) Find some smaller companies that might publish similar things and try to get it published that way (and hope for a giant stroke of luck).
3) Divide up my 12 stories and submit them individually to magazines or writing contests.
4) Wait until after I've published some other stories (and presumably my name has become at least a little recognizable), and then try to sell The First Year. The project I am currently working on is a lot easier to classify, and also market, so it might be a better debut novel for me.
5) I can try and publish (probably in magazines or writing contests) other small things that I've written, just to get my name out there, before I send anything else in.

Writing is just like any other career--you have to have a resume and credentials in order for anyone to pay much attention to you. That's a problem I will have with finding either an agent OR a publisher, since The First Year isn't some sort of Blockbuster hit that will get lucky and get famous right off the bat.

Unfortunately, as with any other career, you can't get published unless you have credentials  and you can't get credentials unless you've been published.