Apologies one and all
A quick summary: I tend, like Jeffe, to fly by the seat of my pants. I use as many characters as I need to tell the tale. I think the smallest cast I ever had in a novel was about fifteen named characters.
The largest to date: 183 named characters. That one became a trilogy in paperback because it was kind of huge.
A quick news flash, because I think it actually IS relevant to the discussions of how to write. For the first time ever I am TRULY delving into self-publishing.
When Charles R. Rutledge and I sold BLIND SHADOWS we did so with the understanding that in addition to the limited edition there would also be a trade paperback and an ebook format available.i Frankly, no one I know of wants their work to only be read by 150 people, which is the actual number of limited edition copies out out.
When we did CONGREGATIONS OF THE DEAD we expected the same thing. It didn't out. The reasons are nebulous and not significant at the end of the day. What is important is that after waiting patiently and discussing the matter we decided to DO something about it.
The manuscript is getting a new editing job. The layouts are being handled by a professional. The book cover was designed by Charles and then finished professionally. The cover is directly below.
Let me clarify something: I am NOT a fan of self-publsihing. I feel that too many people do not take the effort to make the book readable. I've purchased more than a few ebooks and cringed while reading. I could say the same about quite a number of legacy-published books, but even the worst of them was better edited than a lot of self-pubbed books.
That is why we are handling things as professionally as possible. If you decide to go that route on anything, please, I urge, you, invest the time and money to do it the right way. What's the right way? Take advice from somebody better qualified than me to tell you. JA Konrath is pretty much the king of self publishing and best of all, he likes to advise people how to succeed in the market. Follow the link if you are genuinely interested. Anyway you look at it, this hold be an interesting experiment. First time in my life I've paid to have a book published.....
Good luck on your venture into self pub!
ReplyDeleteI have also picked up one too many poorly edited self pub books. There are poorly written books everywhere but with the self pub route you get a greater amount that cut corners.