OTG: Author Outline is #1 downloaded free education book on Amazon

If you haven't downloaded a copy of Off The Grid: Author Outline, its free today on Amazon. In fact, as of this writing its the number one most downloaded free book in education/research. How cool is that? Reality check: there aren't too many other free book in those categories, but #1 is pretty awesome, so don't spoil my girly joy.

Off The Grid: Author Outline is the complete original outline of my debut thriller, Off The Grid. This ebook is for those who have already read, or are about to read Off The Grid, a thriller about energy and corporate espionage. To fully understand the outline, readers should first read Off The Grid. Talk about a “spoiler” alert, if you read the outline first!

The outline includes a condensed rough sketch, character profiles, plot point outline, deleted scenes, a full timeline and a sneak peak at the finished novel.

This is not a how-to-guide for novel writing. There are hundreds of outline guidebooks that are worthy of a look if you would like to hone your craft. My outline won’t teach you how to outline your own story, just show you how I did it.

I hope that by seeing my personal process for outlining Off The Grid, you will be inspired to write the story inside you. (If this guy can do it, then so can I!) The outlining process might not be your cup of tea, but you won’t know until you start writing, right? So get moving.

Download your free copy today

Dear agent, meet the thousands who already bought my book

As most of you know I'm very happy to have self-published Off The Grid, yet when I started the publishing process I still offered it up to agents. Like most unknown authors, I received plenty of rejections. After 4 months I published it on my own, but one agent didn't get the memo. 

This post is not to disparage her in anyway, so please don't get that idea. 

She finally got around to my query letter and asked for 75 pages to read, which was roughly the standard for agents with a mild interest. She did apologize for the long delay in between correspondence and I gladly sent her the pages. 

She read them, wasn't interested and sent this rejection letter. If you're curious about what they look like, here you go: 

Dear Mr. Kolbet--Thanks for sending me the first 75 pages of this novel. I'm sorry to say I wasn't quite keen enough to want to handle it for you. You clearly know your territory here, but I didn't see the kind of brisk pacing and drama I look for in suspense fiction--it was a bit too technical and corporate in nature. And I didn't feel the voice was quite strong and distinctive enough to attract an editor in today's tight market.



Sorry not to be more keen. Another agent may well disagree, so do keep trying. Best of luck, and thanks again for thinking of me.



Sincerely,

{Name removed}

Would I have liked to get representation? Yep, but like most of us nowadays, agents are not really a requirement to have publishing success. 

I'm currently working on another novel - about 25,000 words in today, which is 1/3 to 1/4 of what I expect the final product to be. I'm not sure if I'll offer this one up for agents. I'm more interested in getting my words in front of people than bowing to agents who toss unknown writers aside everyday. 

To the agent who reviewed my work - thank you for giving me a shot. You might want to meet the thousands of people who already bought the book you rejected.