Why Write A Novel In A Week?

Here’s a mirror post from my other blog.

With The I-Spy Murders launched, my efforts are now geared to write a novel in a week.

I’ve been a writer for over 30 years. I’ve classed myself as a novelist for the last 10 years or more. I’ve been self-publishing through Amazon and Smashwords for the last year, and at the beginning of this year, I signed my traditional British whodunit series, the Sanford 3rd Age Club Mysteries to Crooked Cat Books.

Why, then, do I want to write a novel in a week?

It’s all about raising visibility. Many people assume, novelist = bone idle git making a fortune by dreaming up stories. If we’re talking about me, bone idle git probably fits, and I spend my life helping people suspend disbelief while they read my fairy tales. But making a fortune? I wouldn’t mind making a living.

My books don’t sell by the megaload, and it’s not because they’re crap. Most readers agree, they are good. If you don’t believe me, check out the reviews for The Handshaker. Readers rave about it.

My problem is that not enough readers rave about it. It currently sits on about 1600 Kindles (because it was free for a time earlier in the year) and yet only five people  have read and reviewed it. Even if all 1600 had done so, that’s no guarantee of higher sales.

Visibility, you see. I’m swimming in an ocean of wannabes and only so many are spotted. I’m not alone. Reading the material from some of those wannabes, they’re hard pressed to write a shopping list, but amongst the dross, there are many fine authors at work. Without thinking, I can reel off half a dozen names: Danny Gillan, Lesley Cookman, John Hudspith, Pam Howes, Rebecca Emin, Richard Hardie, Glynis Smy. None of these authors is associated with Crooked Cat Books. If I wanted to add my fellow Crooked Cat authors, I end up with a list of near on two dozen names in less than a minute.

We all have one thing in common. We’re trying to raise our profile trying to get noticed. There are as more ways of doing it than you can shake a stick at, and there are hundred of websites giving (sometimes selling) advice on how it’s done. I’ve not found any method to be particularly successful, so I’ve resorted to an old trick: write more books.

Oh. Right. It’s that simple is it?

No, it’s not simple. Writing a novel is long, arduous and complex process, but it’s what I do. Ideas are plentiful, themes, easy to come by, and I write in specific, popular genres, mainly crime, both cosy and hard-boiled. The longest part of the process is writing that first draft.

Common sense dictates that even if I achieve it, I could not keep up that level of production without turning this week’s phart attack into a proper heart attack. But what it will do is give me an insight into alternative methods that will further allow me to produce more books and (hopefully) help raise that magical visibility.