Boarders writing a novel

[Lord Patrek]

Another thing you guys can do promotion-wise:

Peruse the people who review works similar to yours on Goodreads and who have big followings. Get in touch with them and ask if they'd be willing to give your books a shot. If they are fan of tales similar to yours, chances are they might be interested. A positive review from them posted on Goodreads could help you get more exposure and sell more books.

[The Grey Wolf]

3 hours ago, Lord Patrek said:

Don't you have any complete work you can ask him to read and review. As I mentioned, an anthology comprised of stories from unknown and unpublished writers could be a hard sell.

But if you have already written a book that he likes and reviews, then it could help get things in motion when the anthology comes out.

This anthology would be my first publication. Also, all my novels are unwritten as of right now. Two of my co-authors have had short stories published by magazines though. (I have rough drafts of all our stories but being what they are I need to polish them. At least all the artwork (two colored pictures with background, two black-and-white pictures with no background, one map, and the front + back cover) is complete.)

https://hiddenhistoryofwesteros.tumblr.com/post/623488709658066944/back-cover-for-my-upcoming-book
https://hiddenhistoryofwesteros.tumblr.com/post/623488595964067840/front-cover-for-my-upcoming-book

https://artistsnclients.com/uploads/3hs/jobs/491684_AAbusalih_Map_V1.jpg?1
https://artistsnclients.com/uploads/3hs/jobs/491685_AAbusalih_Map_V2.jpg?1

[Lord Patrek]

Best of luck to you guys!

On my end, my pace has slowed down a bit. During the first 6 months of writing The Evil That Men Do, I maintained a pace of nearly 75 pages a month. The 7th month saw me write "only" 50 pages. Which is still faster than the fastest I used to write. For my second manuscript, I maintained a 32-page pace per month, so there's that. All of which now amounts to 503 manuscript pages and more than 140,000 words.

My story is split into two timelines. In late April, after alternating between the past and the present since the beginning, I elected to focus on the past until I reached its end. Since that timeline is essentially the bulk and the heart of the story, I felt it was a good idea to do so. And it was! Finished that part in late September, and it was a bit hard to get back into the swing of things for the present timeline. 

But it now looks as though I've gotten my groove back and everything should get easier. If all goes well, I want to finish this novel before the Holidays.  

[Lord Patrek]

Since we've been talking about this, when the author invited me to be part of her annual blog tour, I asked Gail Z. Martin to elaborate on traditional publishing vs small presses vs self-publishing in a guest blog post. Since she uses all three to publish her works, I thought it would be interesting to get her input.

You can read it here.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Almost finished the first draft of The Blood Hour, apart from maybe six flashforward chapters. It'll need a lot of work in the second draft, particularly dialogue and characterisation for some of the secondary characters. 

I'm tempted to leave it during November and go back to it with fresh eyes. Maybe do Nano. I've a few other projects I want to write; 

An historical novel set around 1814, where a wealthy privateer/secret naval intelligence agent returns to the family home by the elderly father who disowned him, to protect his late elder brother's son from a rival family. I did start a novel with the same character, set just before the Treaty of Amien, detailing his dismissal from the Royal Navy, thereafter becoming a privateer and pirate before being forced to work for naval intelligence.

I've also got a partial plan for an action thriller (Tomb Raider meets Clive Cussler) where an adventurer/collector is hired by a rich couple to retrieve a very rare, expensive still-drinkable bottle of wine as part of their attempt to join a very elite club. Problem is, it's on the Titanic.  The story starts with her and her crew finding a crippled US submarine in North Korean waters, the crew dead, and they need to scuttle it before the NK navy find it. 

Thirdly, for years I've been wanting to write a thriller, sort of Pale Rider meets Broadchurch. 

Fourth, there's my contemporary supernatural police mystery novel, Diabolic Immunity, which I started eight years ago. I did finish a first draft a couple of years ago, but I want to re-do most of the last third. IT wouldn;t take too much time to finish so long as I'm happy with the amended outline, but as I work for the police as staff, and volunteered as a volunteer police officer for 8 years, I'll need to send it to them to read over and be satidfied I;m not breaching any confidentiality. This novel is set in the same universe as my Sooty Feathers novels; while there are some nods to it, those books aren;t required reading for this one.

But the above need too much planning to start writing tomorrow or Monday, so I've decided to start Lucifer & Son, Sooty Feathers #3. My plan is still very rough for it but I know the characters and the setting. With the above, I'd lose to much time googling stuff. If I can get the 50k done, that's almost half the novel, giving me a very good chance of getting it finished before the end of next year and sent to the publisher. 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Derfel Cadarn

[Lord Patrek]

Personally, I've never quite understood the Nano craze. It's perfect to help people not used to write on a regular basis to really focus on a project.

But it's impossible, for me at least, to come up with something halfway decent in just a month if we're talking 50,000 words.

I believe it can be a good way to get a newbie started, but the objective remains something of a joke. They should focus on writing consistently, which is what it's all about in the end. It's getting the ball rolling that's hard. . .

[Lord Patrek]

For those who want to do some self-promotion on Reddit, there is a new thread that allows you to do so:

 

[Derfel Cadarn]

26 minutes ago, Lord Patrek said:

For those who want to do some self-promotion on Reddit, there is a new thread that allows you to do so:

 

I’ve posted on that thread past two weeks. Not found anything to suggest it’s particularly viewed :/

[Lord Patrek]

Too bad. Still better than nothing, I guess.

You guys should definitely consider reading and reviewing each other's books. Perhaps that would work better?

[The Grey Wolf]

3 hours ago, Lord Patrek said:

For those who want to do some self-promotion on Reddit, there is a new thread that allows you to do so:

 

I'll give it a shot. Finally finding time to write despite med school. Fingers crossed I'll finish the second draft for my last story soon.

[The Grey Wolf]

19 hours ago, Lord Patrek said:

Too bad. Still better than nothing, I guess.

You guys should definitely consider reading and reviewing each other's books. Perhaps that would work better?

I'm all for that once its done.

[The Grey Wolf]

Is that reddit link a weekly thing?

[Derfel Cadarn]

12 minutes ago, The Grey Wolf said:

Is that reddit link a weekly thing?

Yes a new one appears every week i think

[Lord Patrek]

I have no idea. I thought it was a rarer occurrence, which is why I posted it here.

[The Marquis de Leech]

I've just had a productive day finishing off a 2,300 word piece about a cursed painting.

[Derfel Cadarn]

On Sunday I managed to get 3 pages written of Lucifer & Son but have decided I don't want x3 unfinished books in progress. I've almost finoshed plotting out the changes I need to make to Diabolic Immunity, Dash & Goodfellow book 1 ,and will try and finish it this month. A lot of the early stuff has been edited over the years so it hopefully doesn't require a massive amount of work. 

In the original version it has the undead getting victims through people smuggling, but then I streamlined it by having the victim being an urban explorer found murdered in the city centre. It leads to the detective exploring old tunnels beneath the city (most real), as well as finding a buried Victorian street the extended Central Station was built over. That's sadly more of an urban myth in Glasgow; there are rumours old shop fronts of Alston Street can be found beneath the station, but it was pretty much demolished when the station was extended at the end of the 19th century. I've found some old cobbles where the modern paving has broken away at the end of the station (now a car park) but that seems to be largely the extent of it. 

There is a 'ghost' Victorian platform which can be visited on tours, which I've also incorporated into the story, as well as the 'ghost' station buried beneath the Botanic Gardens. I've since decided to incorporate part of the old people trafficking plot back into it.

One thing I liked about Perdido Street Station is the idea of Hell having an embassy, so I've incorporated Heaven and Hell embassies into the story, with a mysterious threat leading to a truce between both. The main undead villain has an alliance with the Hellish embassy, assigned diplomatic immunity (hence the title).

The two main protagonists are Kalam Dash, a detective constable, and Kate Goodfellow, a constable killed on duty 26 years previously, who is returned to the world with no memories of the preceding years. 

The city's supernatural community is an uneasy collection of vampires, werewolves, magicians, earth-bound angels and demons; vampires are no longer the dominant power like they were in the 19th century - the Sooty Feather novels detail in part this loss of position. It's not necessary to read Resurrection Men etc, but there are a couple recurring characters.

When it's done, I'll either try and find an agent again or submit to my publisher. Not sure the big publishers are taking urban fantasy at the moment; the only ones I can think of are the Dresden Files and the Rivers of London series' (excluding the paranormal romance ones of course). 

[Lord Patrek]

Given how lucrative the urban fantasy market is, I'm pretty sure most publishers would be interested in any good manuscripts in the subgenre.

Then again, since most of them are often quite alike, I figure you need something with an edge to differentiate from the rest for them to want to take a chance on it.

[Lord Patrek]

Out of curiosity, after posting on the Reddit thread last week, did you sell some books? Did you see an increase of traffic on your social media outlets/website/blog?

Anything at all?

[The Marquis de Leech]

8 hours ago, Lord Patrek said:

Out of curiosity, after posting on the Reddit thread last week, did you sell some books? Did you see an increase of traffic on your social media outlets/website/blog?

Anything at all?

I've previously posted on the reddit thread. It never made any difference for me.

[Derfel Cadarn]

4 hours ago, The Marquis de Leech said:

I've previously posted on the reddit thread. It never made any difference for me.

Same. If I comment in a thread advising on books I liked or commenting on a specific book thread ie Lynch, Hobb, etc I’ll get some likes. 
I’ve posted three or four times in the weekly self-promotion thread and had 0 interaction.

My Amazon UK book rankings for Resurrection Men and its sequel, Lord of the Hunt both spiked esrly in November so I know I’ve sold at least one copy of each this month, but nothing to suggest that was Reddit; could have been due to Facebook, Twitter or this forum.