Tyler Hillis

Wow, it’s been a while. And life continues to roll on.

As mentioned in my last blog post, work on the book has continued on. Perhaps not as quickly as I planned (a universal truth of creative projects), but continued nonetheless.

Since that post I sent out another volley of Query Letters to prospective agents. And since that post, I received another volley of rejections. It was expected, yes, but still discouraging.

And so, my rate of pitching agents slowed a bit. Work at my job got busier and life got more complex. It seemed like the book was slowly but surely starting to slip into the realm of forgotten projects (a crowded place already).

And then, I had a baby! In mid July, my son was born and my life changed forever. He’s been a wonderful, difficult, and the cutest gift all wrapped in one. I took two months off work to bond with this little guy, and what a special two months it was.

Yes, my wife and I had very little sleep. Yes, at times it felt like we were drowning. And yes, it is the best thing to have ever happened to me.

During this break from work, I reread the fifth draft of my book and reignited the passion to get this thing published.

Right away, I made a huge change to the story. I cut out two entire characters and close to 20,000 words. It was a sobering realization after reading the new draft that I had to rework very little of the overall story after cutting these characters. It showed how little impact they had. It also felt like killing some of my favorite parts of the book – but it was necessary.

What is left is much better paced and connected. It’s slowly taking better shape into the book I envisioned all that time ago when I started.

I’ve also decided to change my strategy toward publication. I found a site called Reedsy where you can hire freelance editors to review manuscripts and help with query letters. So, I’ve accepted an offer from an outstanding former editor of a big publishing house to give me notes on the book. And then, work on my query letter with me.

I think it will be beneficial to get professional eyes on this thing. So far, only family and friends have given feedback on it. So this way, I’ll know what kind of chance this book has at publication. And if all goes well, we then move back into pitching agents with a renewed energy and more polished book.

Let’s hope the edit goes well!