So, you want the long version or the short version?
Short Version? Needs another draft.
What? Not clear enough for you? Okay, long version.
I met Hayley and Tim at the offices of Pollinger Limited today, and we chatted for about an hour. I tried very very hard not to be a dork. I partially succeeded, which is amazing for me. At first we talked about how long I’ve been writing, so I told them the NYC/S story (hey, they asked). This was a chance for Tim to get to know me and find out what kind of working relationship we’d have. They were feeling me out, basically. Anyway, after that we talked about the novel. In short he says that it’s a vast improvement and thinks I have a great writing style. The problem is no longer in the first 100 words, but the middle eighty. Basically they think I need to cut out some of the school stuff (in terms of running it day to day) and make Hanna/Az’s
realtionship more in the forefront of the reader’s mind. They’ll give me a bunch of suggestions in a week or so which I will take or leave as I see fit, and hopefully the NEXT draft will be the last.
Interestingly they said the exact same thing Ali Gunn said a couple years back. She said that five or ten years ago a story still rough like mine could have been shopped to publishers, who then would have had editors work with me to fix it up. Not anymore. Now it has to be virtually perfect or they won’t touch it. So basically I have to be my own editor (and this process has been a read education) and Hayley has been really good in guiding me on this, I think. Ah, the changing world of publishing.
Well, at least they didn’t throw me out. 🙂
Mossfoot Editing 