Man, I revised through about 4k words today…and wrote a 1.5k outline for Edenfall to boot. Not bad, considering how much time I spent putzing around reading publishing blogs and job hunting on craigslist.
Things are going well with WAFH; after a slight dropoff at the end of last week, I’m rebuilding momentum rather quickly. But then again, I’m currently at an easy part in the draft. Pretty soon, I’ll have to throw everything out and start from scratch.
Job hunting sucks…but what else is new? I signed up for an online TEFL certification course, to the tune of $250 (youch!). Hopefully, that will help land me a good teaching job in an advanced pay grade overseas.
I swear, the job market here in the states is so bad that I don’t see any other way around it but to leave the country. Maybe if I was a CS major, or had no qualms selling people crap they didn’t need, or was willing to wipe up elderly people’s butts after they’ve defecated all over the place…no thank you. In any case, teaching English is an adventure, and I very much look forward to it.
In the meantime, there are a few local graveyard job openings that might allow me to write on the side while I babysit a desk. If those don’t work out, hopefully I’ll find something else before my checking account dries up sometime in March.
I’m getting really excited for Edenfall. Last night, as I was falling asleep, I ran through the basic storyline in my head. Fortunately, I remembered it well enough in the morning to write it all down. It’s going to be awesome.
I’m also starting to rethink my philosophy on writing direct sequels. I used to follow Sanderson’s line of thought; it doesn’t make sense to finish the series, because if a publisher rejects the first book, they won’t be interested in the others. However, with ebooks and self publishing becoming more accessible and lucrative, the ability to put out a complete trilogy all at once is a great strength.
I’m thinking very seriously about putting Genesis Earth out there, but it’s the first book in a trilogy, and it would probably boost sales of all three if I could put them all at once. Aneeka gave me a good suggestion today: put out the first book for free, while selling the other two at a competitive price. Sadly, it will probably be a year or two before the others are ready…but my writing skills are constantly improving, so maybe I’ll be able to produce them a little faster.
Which brings me to a very interesting post I read on Dean Wesley Smith’s blog yesterday about writing speed. Thus far, I’ve been shooting to produce one polished book per year, but after reading that post, I wonder if I should shoot for more. Can I write two books a year and still maintain a high level of quality? I’m not so sure; GE and BSH both required five rewrites before I got them fully polished, and Mr. Smith’s numbers don’t seem to take the revision process into account.
This year, though, I’m hoping to produce two polished books: Bringing Stella Home, which I’ve already finished, and Worlds Away from Home, which is my current WIP. I’m only on the second draft, and there are tons of story issues, but I’m working through them fairly quickly. I’ll probably put in another two or three rewrites before the end of the year, and still have time to finish a couple of other rough drafts–Edenfall and The Stars of Redemption (third book), potentially.
Of course, if I land a job, that might throw a kink into things–as will traveling overseas. But as with all things, I’ll take those eventualities as they come.
(image shamelessly lifted from this site.)
Lol. Progressively I’m thinking there are more opinions than facts in this universe. Especially among verbose and opinionated writers. (See the following 😉 )
My opinion? Write what you want however fast you want to write it. There’s a niche in the universe for you!
However, I think your goal should be to write at least one book per year. And yet? One of my favorite authors only publishes a book every four years and she’s got a fair sized following, so even that isn’t a hard and fast rule. It may be a rule to keep yourself financially with your head above water, however.
Write well; write good books. <– For me I've discovered that both of those phrases currently include writing a prequel to go along with the book I'm working on. It's true that I'm planning both books to be stand-alones, but the quality is now exponentially better. The stories are richer, more fascinating to me.
There's nothing wrong with a creativity of approach! 😀
I do think you need to decide what path you want to walk, though. If you're going to go all digital, then go digital. If you want to go traditional, let the traditional publishers see that you're willing to walk with them more than a mile. You've already garnered interest in your books from your request for a full manuscript…. Digital is still all new and shiny and everyone has theories but no one really knows what's going to happen with it. I'd still suggest sticking with traditional for now and just continuing to write good books–even if that means sequels! 😀 It's that top-down approach, and traditional publishing is still at the top. You won't hurt in digital sales if your book gets passed in traditional forums but your books WILL hurt if you try digital first and no one reads of finds them.
I guess all the above means–your books' fate is in your hands. If a story begs attention–write it. Chances are someone else will like it, too.
Have you ever taken a look at snagajob.com.?It might be worth a look.