Comments on: Poll: Do You Share Your WIP Online?

By: annastan

annastan — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:11:41 +0000

Delilah, I think that makes a lot of sense to only post when you’re confident about your work. It’s funny that you feel good after 100 pages of your WIP since that’s usually when I’m at my most frazzled! Beginnings tend to work a lot better for me than middles and endings.

By: Delilah

Delilah — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:29:03 +0000

I post teasers once I’m past 100 pages and sure that I’m confident in my idea.

Before that point, I’m utterly mortified of anything remotely related to the WIP.

By: annastan

annastan — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:46:58 +0000

Wow Beth, that’s great! As Laura mentioned above, putting excerpts of your work on your site in correlation with your query can be a great tool. Clearly, it can work!

I wonder if you’ve kept the first chapter up now that you have an agent? Does your agent have a preference either way?

By: beth

beth — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:58:47 +0000

I put the first chapter of my work on my website when it was fully edited and I was ready to start querying. It worked in my favor–I had one agent offer to read my full manuscript based on the strength of the query and the chapter online.

By: annastan

annastan — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:22:39 +0000

Thanks for sharing your perspective, Cynthia. You make a good point that picture books (both text and illustrations) are practically impossible to share online without publishing the entire story. As you mentioned, the private blog might be a good option for getting some feedback without having this problem, but I’m sure that comes with its own set of complications.

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:09:05 +0000

I lean towards what Angela said. My manuscripts are Picture Books and it’s almost impossible to get a critique without sharing the entire work. As I’ve read on Verla’s site many times, once you put something on the internet, it’s published. There is artwork I’ve prepared for my Picture Book dummy I would love to share on my site. But, an art director has passed it on to an editor to be considered. Sharing the visuals would release the unique idea. That’s something I’m cautious about. I do like the idea of private blogs with mutiple users having access . . . possibly hearing about it through facebook friends, etc.

By: annastan

annastan — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 01:09:39 +0000

Angela, that’s a really interesting point. On the one hand, sharing parts of your writing can get people excited about it. On the other hand, as you said, you don’t want potential publishers feeling like it’s not “fresh enough.” Thanks for sharing your experience!

By: angela

angela — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 01:01:23 +0000

My agent asked me to take down blurbs on my books that were on my blog because she felt that if an editor did happen to read them and then later my MS crossed their desk, the concept & novel might not feel ‘unique’ to them if they didn’t put the two together. I think she has a good point!

By: annastan

annastan — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:37:20 +0000

Wow Cheryl, sharing excerpts during NaNo seems especially brave to me! Since Nano tends to be pretty frenzied, I could see the writing being even more raw than a regular first draft. Then again, if the story is engaging, it could be really exciting to read it in installments. And, like you said, it makes you eager to read the finished product. Thanks for sharing this example!

By: annastan

annastan — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:26:20 +0000

John, that’s an interesting point about keeping potential readers interested until you do have something published. It’s also really fun to go back after an author has their book out and see what previous versions of it were like. I guess there’s just an amount of confidence you have to have about your writing (without it being exhibitionist, like you said) to keep putting it out there for others to read. Or, if you lack the confidence, maybe it’s easier to fake it online.