My debut novel's out....Now what?

by Kim Van Sickler

Snatched in Gullybrook is the first of the four book's I've written that I've felt was ready to publish. More than ready. I'd spent nearly a year querying the book to agents and hearing back that the book was great...but too edgy. Yes, it's difficult to write a book about sex trafficking of minors as anything other than edgy.

Meanwhile, a human trafficking professor at OSU spent the past year urging me to publish the book so she could recommend it to the students in her massive open online course. I missed her last course. Her next one starts this month (August 2014.)

Did I really want to miss this opportunity again?

Uh, no.

I took the leap. I don't know what I'm doing, but doing it anyway. I enjoyed the publication process with CreateSpace. They were easy to work with, and any issues were resolved quickly and decisively. I loved finding Michael Di Gesu to create my cover art, Michelle Ziegler to develop my website, and Janie Sullivan and Kate Kyle Johnsen to edit my manuscript. Finding Dr. Jacqueline Meshelemiah, during the writing process, to guide me and inspire me. I've been contacting human trafficking organizations, registered to attend a September human trafficking conference, and encouraging book groups to read and discuss this difficult subject.

I decided to donate 10% of the profits I make to organizations that educate about human trafficking or rehabilitate/aid victims.

And I'm working on my next book so that I can take advantage of the momentum created by Snatched in Gullybrook, the first novel set in the sex trade industry and told from three interconnecting viewpoints. (See how I'm choosing to think optimistically, that the book will sell and readers will be looking for my follow-up novel?)

Here's the pitch for Snatched in Gullybrook: Three of Gullybrook’s teens are manipulated, then snatched from the local mall. In their new lives as sex slaves, Megan, Candace, and Sissy, strangers before their abduction, forge a bond with one another that becomes their lifeline.

I've got a giveaway going on Goodreads.

I hope you enter, or that you buy a copy of this book and become part of the "proceeds" I donate to human trafficking charities. I welcome your reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, and your recommendations to other readers.

I also welcome your advice. I'm learning as I go. This is a process. I'm in it for the long-term and want to do things the right way. What pearls of wisdom do you have for this debut novelist?

Self-pub Journey. Step One: After the editorial evaluation

by Kim Van Sickler

The time feels right to get my human trafficking book out into the marketplace.

After a year of, “Great story, but too edgy for us,” I’m ready to self-publish. I’ve polished the manuscript and have a convincing cheerleader in Dr. Jacquelyn Meshelemiah, a human trafficking educator at The Ohio State University. She encourages me by insisting that my book captures the essence of human trafficking better than any fictional account she’s ever read. She wants to make it required reading for her massive open online course on human trafficking.

So now what?

 

I contacted CreateSpace, the self-pub arm of Amazon for an editorial evaluation. The evaluation took about two weeks and covers issues like plot, structure, and pacing. Overall I’m left with plenty of encouraging comments like this one under the subhead: Writing Style:

The overall style and tone works for the manuscript, given the plot and genre. The syntax, diction, and word choice are appropriate. The author has a gift for incorporating the other four senses (sound, taste, touch, and feel) besides sight into her prose. This works especially well for the sex and rape scenes. For instance, on page 103, it states: “Me on top doing all the work while he lies there like an engorged tick. A tick that oozes fast food and coffee from his large pores.” The author’s voice remains consistent, since she retains a young adult, female voice quality throughout the entire book.

However, there are areas where change is urged. And now I’m faced with deciding whether I am going to venture down those roads or not. The edit recommends I change the name of the book because it “sounds too vague and almost happy-sounding”. Instead, I should reference the darker, more disturbing nature of the story in my title. Even though I consciously chose an innocuous title. One that conjures unremarkable images of an outing with girlfriends, a common place for teenagers to escape Mom and Dad, flirt, and shop. An unremarkable place with pitfalls that every teenager should be aware of.

So do I want to change the title to something darker? I’ll have to ponder that.

The suggestion for change I will really struggle with is the one to nix the three points of view and proceed with my lesbian trafficking victim as the main character. This isn’t the first time I’ve been told that feisty Megan is my strongest character. The evaluator wants the other two victims to become Megan’s back-ups. The reason? “Their backgrounds and experiences are not different enough to warrant separate characters”, even though she felt that, “[A]ll the characters give variety and yet do not confuse the reader”. Again, a trio of victims versus one victim was a conscious decision of mine. The repetitive nature of the indignities they suffer underscores the trafficking nature of the crimes against them. They are cattle. They are a small part of a growing business enterprise: the sale of human flesh for sexual gratification.

http://kailadunn.wordpress.com/page/3/

 Writing from the POVs of the three victims is supposed to amplify the growing magnitude of the problem. I’m fairly sure it’s something I don’t want to change, even if the evaluator thinks writing solely from Megan’s perspective will make the story “more compelling”.

http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2013/11/LibrariesHarmVictims.html

But the suggestion to amp up some of my setting descriptions, to make them more “evocative and concise”, including the “suburban upper-middle class setting from which the girls are kidnapped”, rings true with me. Settings have always been something I need to go back and flesh out. I will definitely read through the manuscript again and do this.

Have you ever felt strongly against incorporating an agent’s/editor’s suggested changes to your story? What have you done about it?