Need help - new novella (SFF / YAA)

[PythagorasXIII]

Hey all,

Ultimately I'm just seeking people who believe in my story like I do, The Ecotopayana. It's a wild ride, in hindsight, there's a lot it could be compared to, but in the end I found I was just continually disappointed by stories I read my whole life; they left me feeling hollow, and still expecting something more.

It took some of my best years, soul-searching in my prime, to determine exactly what it was that I needed to see, and this quest led exactly to the story I present in this post.

I've done all the editing I can do to this 42k-word story, so I'd love to hear your critiques, any praise I hope I could share, and I'd like to get more connected in the publishing world and try to help my novella get traction, I do have sequels and spin-offs on the burner and lots of strategies for story expansion (some of which are alluded to in the story itself).

Now that I'm done with this 9 year writing project it will be nice to edit some others' work and work on editing rather than story/world-building.

Here is the short synopsis:

A mysterious Russian-backed businesswoman rises to power in western America after a covert economic attack - shimmering with originality, action, and thrill, yet intimately tied to the modern political world, “The Ecotopayana” is a once-in-a-generation heroic epic full of surprises, twists, laughs, deeply sobering lessons, and stunning poetry.

Containing 23 mind-blowing sonnets, Shakespeare himself would weep at this minimalist space opera as multiple antagonists and protagonists struggle in a non-linear, gender-bending, complex, highly realistic (yet borderline fantasy) sci-fi plot where our characters develop amidst unfolding revolution in San Francisco, serving as a much more detailed and balanced account of the story of Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia. Ultimately with women as main protagonist and antagonist, this tome will inspire girls and feminists from all backgrounds as it addresses high concept themes on religion, resurrection, gender, cosmology, and quantum physics in an inclusively written, accessible novella suitable for young adults and adults.

PDF host-page: goo.gl/sAURUq

Please just reply to this post with your thoughts, I'm also on twitter https://twitter.com/pythagoreanism

Warm wishes from Berkeley, California,

- "Pythagoras 13"

[jcwrites]

You may have shot yourself in the foot by posting your entire manuscript via Google Docs. Anyone who wishes can read AND download it free of charge, which may lead literary agents and royalty-paying publishers to consider the work as being "out there."

As to the work itself, you won't get much publishing "traction" with a 42k-word story; the going minimum—depending on genre—is around 60k, so you'd do well to bulk it up.

Your synopsis (query letter?) is all hype. Dump it and tell us about your main character: who is he/she? what does the MC want? who or what stands in the way? what does the MC intend to do about it? and what are the stakes?

Good luck.

[slightlysmall]

I'm so confused.

You fit 23 sonnets, an "epic" story, something about a Russian in the U.S., realistic/sci-fi/space opera ... into 42,000 words?

With "multiple protagonists [and] ... antagonists," so each gets, say, 15,000 words each in which you build up these "complex" characters?

Epics are, by definition, epically long. And the overall "I hate all novels I've ever read so I've written the ultimate novel mash-up that will appeal to everyone, but mostly girls" reads somewhere between hubris and "I don't know my genre."

And, yes, posting the whole thing in a public Google docs folder means it's published.

[PythagorasXIII]

Thank you slightlysmall and jcwrites, I appreciate the input, it means a lot to me, I'm changing it to a private link and going to do some more edits and additions.

I will reboot my synopsis with all this in mind, and I'm going aim to have something by the end of NaNoWriMo.

I am open to story-content edit ideas and suggestions in the meantime (dm me if you would like the manuscript as I've set the link to private), take care all!