Selling on Partial

Hey y'all,

I was supposed to blog about this last week, but it turned out to be a difficult week words-wise (they weren't coming easily and sometimes I was at my desk 8-10 hours a day). After a day like that, the last thing I want to do is sit in a chair and blog (and my treadmill desk is in the garage so it's kind of cold to blog there and the last time I used my treadmill desk I couldn't walk for a week. I think I needed new tennis shoes at the time--and I WAS on the thing for about three hours--but still....the scars, they linger...<--dramatic).

But this is a new week! And I'm sure the words are going to flow much more freely (I'm not really sure, but I'm trying to think positively<--optimistic).

So. Anyway. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I was working on finishing the book I just sold to Delacorte (a twisted retelling of Beauty and the Beast due out in 2013) and a commenter asked how I could sell a book that wasn't finished. Which is a good question! I had no idea that was possible when I first started writing, but it is, and here is how that happens:

Instead of submitting a complete manuscript, you prepare 3-5 sample chapters (usually 10-25,000 words) and a detailed synopsis. For the book I just sold, I had written five chapters (16,000 words) and a 9-page synopsis.

Now, selling on partial has some obvious pluses, probably the biggest is that you don't have to invest all the time you'd invest to write a full book before finding out if there is interest in the project. It also has some drawbacks. If something goes wrong halfway through, you can't give up and start something else. You're under contract and you MUST finish that book.

(Though this can also be a plus if you're the sort to flit from project to project and need a deadline hovering over your head to make you pick a project and see it through. I never used to be this type of person, but...lately... There are just so many sparkly stories, and the first 5 chapters are always my favorites to write. I have three partials on my computer at the moment. Presently, all of them are more attractive to my brain than the one I've been contracted to write. That's because that story is now at the 50k mark, the place where ALL SEEMS LOST. At least to me. Every time I hit a little over halfway through, I start to panic and become certain this is the book I will never be able to finish. 50k is the place where threads need to be tied and climaxes need to be approached and twists revealed and...*clutches stomach*...I get vaguely ill just thinking about going down to my office later today.)

And that's basically it. Despite the "omg will I be able to finish this" anxiety, I do enjoy selling on partial. It's heartbreaking to finish a book and not be able to find a home for it. I'm a little too goal oriented to simply enjoy the process at this point in my career, but maybe...someday... I am working on something that makes me giddy every time I sit down and open the file, something I want to finish no matter what, so...<--mysterious

I will say, however, that it is much more difficult to sell on partial before you've been published because you haven't proven to anyone that you can get from a great beginning to a killer end. My first book, YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME, was complete before it was sold (though I then proceeded to rewrite all 80k of it after the book was acquired by one editor and then passed to another, so...there you go. Finishing the book didn't really save me any work that time around. I ended up writing two manuscripts instead.) Since that first book, however, every book I've sold has sold on partial. FYI. For anyone who is interested.

Any other questions about this? I'm happy to answer if I've left anything unclear.

Happy Monday,

Stacey