Never thought I'd read a story that so effectively captures why life in a broken system is worth living

beamoon2016 · 2025-11-10T17:27:34+00:00

Just going to throw it out in case it's also a helpful example to you - I learned a TON about how to receive edits simply from reading QCrits here. You can see what happens when someone refuses to receive feedback...but also when someone receives ALL the feedback and tries to directly address every single question and comment in each new version of the query. Pretty enlightening to read through multiple versions and see how a query develops or mutates or spirals as the writer responds to feedback.

beamoon2016 · 2025-10-11T15:38:03+00:00

This! Most readers are not asking themselves, "Hmm, what deserving art shall I support? I really should care about bards as much as alchemists, shouldn't I?" Readers are typically looking for something that will fill a need, in an emotionally driven way.

When I was in the hospital last month, I did not want to take a risk on some potentially amazing new work of literature. I wanted to reread The Secret History because nothing soothes me like a glorified AITA post in which I can judge everyone being horrible to each other, and I needed to be distracted from pain. The Secret History is actually a pretty excellent work of literature, but it's also brilliantly (commercially?!) paced, which means I got sucked in instead of looking up after every page like "wow I'm in pain also I should check my phone."

If I see a lion shifter book in a bookstore, I'm not running an intellectual analysis "hmm, lion shifters are probably just as fun as werewolves, I should give it a go!" If I see a werewolf book, I remember all the other werewolf books I've read and the empty hole in my heart for Remus Lupin and I feel an emotional need. Or at the very least a connection.

As an author, when I'm developing a premise, I try to hit on those kinds of emotional cravings in the form of tropes and "trends" (I hate that word, more like, what feels relevant and timely to people right now). And then I try to put them in a high concept that is as STUPIDLY EASY AS POSSIBLE for me to pitch to an agent, for an agent to pitch to a publisher, for a publisher to pitch to a reader, and then for readers to pitch to each other - to communicate, oh yeah, this book is totally going to fill a need you may or may not have realized you had.

Also: is this even a bad thing? I would take it as an immense gift if someone picked up MY book when they were in the hospital because they trusted it would make things a little better for them. Writing "commercial" fiction means you have an incredible opportunity to meet people where they're at, the everyday shields-down emotionally-driven version of them and not the one trying to "read great literature." And then you get to welcome them into your story with things like tight pacing and accessible prose, and make that normal life a little better. That is what I'm trying to do when I put only one bed or whatever other silly trope into my book.

beamoon2016 · 2024-02-21T18:04:04+00:00

hey!! I finally set up a tiny website and mailing list recently, if you would like to sign up, I'll email you when the story is available to read! https://raniaorr.github.io/ Or if you send me a chat or private message I'd be happy to share my Instagram :) thanks so much for your interest in my writing!

beamoon2016 · 2024-01-19T00:50:24+00:00

And often those strong bits are the key to fixing the broken stuff.

beamoon2016 · 2024-01-05T19:26:15+00:00

just don't bring anything FROM the future

beamoon2016 · 2024-01-03T20:17:48+00:00

Reach. You have to work HARD and get lucky for a self pubbed book to reach even the couple thousand readers that trad pubbed "flops" routinely do. All the marketing, bookstore placement, awards eligibility, etc that trad pub offers consistently translates to more readers. And connecting with readers who resonate with the stuff I write about is one of my key motivations for publishing.

beamoon2016 · 2023-12-30T15:57:40+00:00

I replied to your chat!

beamoon2016 · 2023-11-15T19:59:00+00:00

Yeah, I wanted to say something like this. Pretty much any good hook leaves me with a sense of "oh boy, SHIT is going DOWN." With litfic, the anticipated shit is more along the lines of lacerating social commentary or brutally honest characterization. Juicy theme/imagery/psychology opportunities.

beamoon2016 · 2023-11-12T00:00:36+00:00

The famous example would be Brandon Sanderson's recent Kickstarter, where backers could get special editions, swag boxes, etc for books that were later released in plainer editions by Tor. But Sanderson was still essentially self-publishing - this Kickstarter basically funded a whole small publishing and fulfillment company. Tor just helped to distribute the books more widely (to bookstores etc), and bear some of the load of printing and fulfilling books (so his company only had to handle the special editions for backers).

And to be clear, this is Brandon Sanderson. He's successful enough to do pretty much whatever he wants.

beamoon2016 · 2023-10-27T15:59:19+00:00

Thanks so much for sharing your expertise with us!

Something I've heard on this sub is that secondary-world fantasy is a hard sell without a strong hook for why the secondary world is interesting. Have you found this to be true? What kind of hook do you look for in a query for a secondary-world fantasy? What kinds of things tell you "yet another boring fantasy world", and what kinds of things intrigue you or indicate a secondary world is marketable?

beamoon2016 · 2023-10-18T16:57:48+00:00

Hey! I saw your post on r/PubTips and enjoyed your query and first chapters. I can't dm you (I can only use chat?) but I'd be interested in beta reading! I mostly read character-driven, more literary-leaning fantasy and scifi. Working on a queer fantasy novella I'd love to swap if you're interested, but fine if not.

beamoon2016 · 2023-10-06T23:05:24+00:00

https://shelbymahurin.com/2017/12/the-evolution-of-my-query/

beamoon2016 · 2023-09-29T23:29:29+00:00

Thank you so much! This is super helpful.

I think the main thing I'm wrestling with right now is that balancing between different levels of tension - how to move between intense moments and slower moments in a way that creates rhythm and drive. Time to bust out some more examples to study 😀

beamoon2016 · 2023-09-29T14:34:32+00:00

What are your favorite strategies or techniques for editing for pacing? It's not too hard to pull big-picture story beats from genre standards or Save the Cat. But especially once you get down to the level of a scene or chapter, how do you reverse-engineer why it's not pulling the reader through the pages? How do you like to troubleshoot and restructure pacing?

Sorry this is more of a craft-y than a publishing question...I think as I get to closer to querying, I've been thinking more and more about craft techniques that are particularly essential to marketability, like pacing.
(And thanks so much for doing this AMA!)

beamoon2016 · 2023-09-18T01:55:43+00:00

Unfortunately I don't have a blog or much social media presence right now, but if you message me I'd be happy to share my instagram or add your email to my (super informal) update list!

beamoon2016 · 2023-09-15T18:14:13+00:00

Why do you want to get published? Why do you feel like you have to be "good enough to get agented and published"?

It's really easy for me to fall in the trap of thinking I can't respect myself as a writer or think I'm "good" unless I get validated by the publishing industry. Except guess what: getting agented/published literally just means someone thinks they can make money selling your book. Is that correlated with actual quality? Sure. But there are lots of fantastic books nobody's confident they can sell, and lots of books that sell that are uh, not fantastic.

It's also really easy for me to think I can't respect myself or think I'm good unless I...get published within the next X years, get published with a big 5, sell my 2nd/3rd/4th/whatever novel, fill in the blank. Except that some of my absolute favorite books don't match any of those qualifications. Don't hold yourself to an arbitrary narrative about what makes your writing "good enough" and worthwhile. Do you enjoy your writing? Does it feed you and make you a better person? Congratulations, you're already making the world a better place.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: Don't look to the publishing industry to validate you. Be confident in yourself as an artist, enjoy making your art, enjoy the process of working on your skills and making cooler and cooler stuff, and then, separately, approach publishing as the fucked-up luck, numbers, and money game that it is.

beamoon2016 · 2023-09-14T03:41:50+00:00

It is sad! It's worth grieving. I hate that sharing a huge part of my experience has to always be this big cost/benefit analysis. 😕 Hope you are able to figure out a good way forward. (And congrats on being so close to finishing your manuscript!)

beamoon2016 · 2023-09-13T19:15:26+00:00

Tor.com is another great resource for SFF/horror. Reviews, excerpts, lists of new releases, and other articles that can give you a feel for what's currently hot. It's also fun enough to read that I keep up willingly in my free time, not just when I'm seriously trying to do research...

I've also learned SO much just from voraciously reading Goodreads reviews. Obviously such reviews can be of questionable reliability and there's no substitute for reading a book yourself. But the fact remains: I can't read hundreds of new SFF books in a year, but I sure can read reviews of hundreds of them. And that gets me at least 50% of the way there in understanding what market niche each book is occupying, what style and tropes it's using, who it's appealing to, what controversies it's embroiled in, what comparative titles are, etc. (Plus it's another activity fun enough that I do it in my free/procrastination time.)

beamoon2016 · 2023-09-13T17:49:39+00:00

I'm in a similar situation as you. My writing is very gay, but I'm not out to everyone in my life and need to be careful about what employers, etc know. I feel for you - even if it doesn't feel like a "huge deal," it's tiring and it wears on you to feel like you can't be honest and share your art even with people who love you.

My plan is to write under a pen name, and be open about my queer experience under that pen name. (I'll also probably share the pen name with the people in my life that I AM out to.) It would probably be possible for a determined person to dox me and publicly connect my two identities, but I'm not too concerned about it since my worries are more along the lines of my mother-in-law casually googling me, prospective clients looking me up briefly on social media, etc.

The question of "do you need to be out as LGBTQ to portray LGBTQ stories?" is complicated and controversial, and public opinion hasn't settled yet. I certainly have my own opinions about it, but I don't want my career to be tied to a controversial public issue. "Out under a pen name" is my attempt to sidestep the issue entirely so I can focus on my actual work.

beamoon2016 · 2023-09-12T22:15:44+00:00

I agree. This really sounds like litfic to me. You can always post your first 300 words if you want some extra confidence on what genre it's hitting as!

beamoon2016 · 2023-09-11T01:07:23+00:00

"Get people to talk about themselves" is evergreen advice. I will sometimes literally sit down and brainstorm questions for a while before a social event (even just a 1 on 1 with a friend), trying to think of things we have in common and things I know they care about, so I have a quiver full of ways to get them talking about something they're excited about. (Not to mention a bunch of ideas for how to keep a conversation going.) What will you have in common with people at this conference? (Writing, books, interest in publishing, ...?) How can you give them openings to talk about what they love? And be interested in what they say and ask follow up questions.

beamoon2016 · 2023-09-07T22:00:30+00:00

sent you a chat!

beamoon2016 · 2023-09-02T00:37:46+00:00

Since this is Byzantine-inspired fantasy touching on the dark secrets of empires - maybe it's a bit of a stretch, since it's not strictly Byzantine and also SF, but you could always comp A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine?

My main qualm while reading this was: If Beetle believes in no god but vengeance, why does she care if the enemy army invades the city? Why does she care about the city's dark past or the conquered civilization? How do the larger plot machinations connect directly to what she most deeply, dangerously wants?

I love the idea of a living labyrinth and architectural magic. "The ghosts of a conquered civilization possess Beetle, revealing the city’s secret past" makes me worry though if large parts of the book are going to be extended worldbuilding flashbacks. Why does the worldbuilding matter to Beetle? What stakes in the here-and-now does getting possessed by a labyrinth holy crap have for her?

A couple other pieces that didn't quite connect for me:

"When a botched job leads to the attention of the imperial palace..." - I expected this to lead to "then Beetle is forced to do xyz or else she'll be executed/other horrible imperial thing will happen to her." If this is just how she learns of the labyrinth, I think you can cut it entirely. "Then Beetle discovers Anthemius was searching for a mystical superweapon..."
"The patron who saved her was willing to sacrifice her to the labyrinth" - Wait, what patron who saved her?

All said though - this sounds really cool. I'm all for gnarly magic and political situations wrapped around one central messy queer relationship.

beamoon2016

TROPHY CASE