Words Count
As I already mentioned earlier, I'm finalizing revisions to the SF novel that's coming out in August. It's got the longest tail of anything I've yet written, from concept to drafting to finalizing.
It's a relatively long novel (~118K words), which I think is okay for a SF novel. But I'm perhaps a little gun shy about long novels after how few people read THE CURSED EARTH (~136K words).
Since that one, I've willfully tried to keep most of my novels between 60-80K words, in deference to people's attention spans.
However, this SF novel was originally drafted by me several years ago, as I've said often enough, so it's reflecting that period of time (2011-2022) when I wrote big novels more often than not.
While I'm revising it, trimming here and there, this one is still going to be a big book. It has to be one book; it can't credibly be broken into multiple volumes. It needs to be one big book.
Anyway, it's amusing me as I sweat through my revisions, ever-mindful of the word count.
SIGHTSEER is coming out May 27, as you know. It's being appreciated on NetGalley, which is good (even some of the less ebullient reviews acknowledge that it'd make a great movie, so there's that!). My hope is more of the advance readers provide enough good reviews that I can market effectively around that and generate interest. We'll see how it goes.
My summer of Science Fiction keeps on cruising. Once I wrap up the revisions for the August novel, I'm diving into the trad novel that's itching to be written. I mapped out the characters and setting for it. This one'll have the long trad journey as I hope to entice an agent with a dazzling query letter and it finds a home with a trad publisher. We'll see how it goes. It's been so long since I mucked about with trad. First things first, and that is the writing of the first draft, which is likely to commence in a week or two.
This Trad Book will require tons of revision; I know that already (while also keeping to the <80K word count). It's going to have to be a lean, mean, reader-enchanting machine. I feel up to the task. Whether the trad world is up to it is another matter. However, that's the proper home for it.
Oh, and I may have already mentioned that I have three other books destined for Trad, if I can establish a beachhead with this one. As ever, hope goes well before the cart and the horses.
It's a relatively long novel (~118K words), which I think is okay for a SF novel. But I'm perhaps a little gun shy about long novels after how few people read THE CURSED EARTH (~136K words).
Since that one, I've willfully tried to keep most of my novels between 60-80K words, in deference to people's attention spans.
However, this SF novel was originally drafted by me several years ago, as I've said often enough, so it's reflecting that period of time (2011-2022) when I wrote big novels more often than not.
While I'm revising it, trimming here and there, this one is still going to be a big book. It has to be one book; it can't credibly be broken into multiple volumes. It needs to be one big book.
Anyway, it's amusing me as I sweat through my revisions, ever-mindful of the word count.
SIGHTSEER is coming out May 27, as you know. It's being appreciated on NetGalley, which is good (even some of the less ebullient reviews acknowledge that it'd make a great movie, so there's that!). My hope is more of the advance readers provide enough good reviews that I can market effectively around that and generate interest. We'll see how it goes.
My summer of Science Fiction keeps on cruising. Once I wrap up the revisions for the August novel, I'm diving into the trad novel that's itching to be written. I mapped out the characters and setting for it. This one'll have the long trad journey as I hope to entice an agent with a dazzling query letter and it finds a home with a trad publisher. We'll see how it goes. It's been so long since I mucked about with trad. First things first, and that is the writing of the first draft, which is likely to commence in a week or two.
This Trad Book will require tons of revision; I know that already (while also keeping to the <80K word count). It's going to have to be a lean, mean, reader-enchanting machine. I feel up to the task. Whether the trad world is up to it is another matter. However, that's the proper home for it.
Oh, and I may have already mentioned that I have three other books destined for Trad, if I can establish a beachhead with this one. As ever, hope goes well before the cart and the horses.
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