My 50K NaNoWriMo is sitting quietly on my hard drive, marinating in its piquant first draft juices. It's a corporate thriller, full of threats, intimidation, double-dealing, and innocent people used by indifferent forces to achieve twisted ends. Evil is sometimes thwarted, sometimes rewarded, and if virtue triumphs, then the game isn't over yet. This is a story I've been wanting to tell for years, and I'm glad the writing went the way it did for NaNoWriMo. I'll let this draft sit for this month, then start revisions in January.
This will be my next book, written in a different way and to a different standard than "Verbosity's Vengeance". Whereas the debut novel detailing the adventures of the Grammarian was a full-length novel of 108K, I'm going to make this one half that length at most. The production time associated with it should be a third of what "Verbosity's Vengeance" took.
In writing "Verbosity's Vengeance", I shared the angst and uncertainty of the writing process. While this helped to whet the appetite of a few people, it mostly drained me of the fire needed to re-write it. I spent a lot of time writing about writing the book, instead of just writing the book. That in turn extended the production time, which I believe cost me significantly.
Maybe it's oversharing to observe that most of the hopes I had for "Verbosity's Vengeance" have been crushed and stripped away by the experience of bringing it to the light of day. They were unreasonable hopes, of course, but as they were the hopes of a know-nothing, debut novelist, working with minimal support or backing, unreasonable hopes were to be expected. Now that uninformed hope has been replaced by a measure of experience, I'm better positioned to know what to expect the next time around.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
This will be my next book, written in a different way and to a different standard than "Verbosity's Vengeance". Whereas the debut novel detailing the adventures of the Grammarian was a full-length novel of 108K, I'm going to make this one half that length at most. The production time associated with it should be a third of what "Verbosity's Vengeance" took.
In writing "Verbosity's Vengeance", I shared the angst and uncertainty of the writing process. While this helped to whet the appetite of a few people, it mostly drained me of the fire needed to re-write it. I spent a lot of time writing about writing the book, instead of just writing the book. That in turn extended the production time, which I believe cost me significantly.
Maybe it's oversharing to observe that most of the hopes I had for "Verbosity's Vengeance" have been crushed and stripped away by the experience of bringing it to the light of day. They were unreasonable hopes, of course, but as they were the hopes of a know-nothing, debut novelist, working with minimal support or backing, unreasonable hopes were to be expected. Now that uninformed hope has been replaced by a measure of experience, I'm better positioned to know what to expect the next time around.
||| Comments are welcome |||
Help keep the words flowing.
Yeah, it's hard, isn't it? Those hopes.... quietly dashed as your "baby" langishes in Amazon's bowels... Everyone says "keep writing," though... I suppose it's the best an only way. Best of luck with this one, Tony.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cathy. I'm still writing, so there must still be a flicker of hope somewhere.
DeleteGood synopis there. "If virtue triumphs, then the game isn't over yet" makes a great logline.
ReplyDeleteAs for the initial sales, I was there too. The Truckalypse has sold dozens, not thousands, but sales continue to trickle in. If the thriller takes off, you can expect a small but noticeable halo effect on your other books. (And don't forget, you now have co-op partners to help you with the production side!)
They say the best marketing for your book is the release of another book.
DeleteIt's also healthy to remind ourselves that our debut works shouldn't take off immediately. Agents expect to lose money on the first book they sell from an author, and even authors like Helene Wecker and Saladin Ahmed, who garner massive critical praise and attention and even awards with their debut works, report not setting the fiscal world on fire. The best thing we can do is write the best next book we can. Time makes most successes.
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ReplyDeleteI think what we have to remember is that we are all small fish in the very big pond of Amazon. First books always take time to take off it is in the writing of the second and the third that people get to know who we are. My first Novella hasn't sold any since the first few months of its release. My second sells a few each month. As Larry said you will now have the support of co-partners to help you get the next one out there. Good luck.
ReplyDelete