Friday, August 1, 2008

This Is My Day off?

After doing so much work the first four days of this week and being in between books, I figured today would make for a good day off. Unfortunately, I have been focusing so intently on my writing the past month, it just doesn't shut off like that. I did manage to get myself to the 7-Eleven to buy myself a soda. My first in about four weeks. It was a pleasant treat.

It was also nice to get up at 5am and not immediately start cranking away, so I guess I can revel in that, but I chose to call Moose at 8am (that's 11am east coast time) and update him on my progress. I let him know that the latest book was available for him to listen to. I normally send him updates every chapter or two, but this time I finished the book before letting him in on the fun because I wanted to make sure it had a certain level of consistency.

Anyway, we talked about the next book and it gave me some ideas which is a good thing. After all, that's why it is a semi-collaboration. I plan to start outlining tomorrow and writing on Sunday. Hopefully, all goes well in that department. If I can start writing and eek out another 1000 words it could be my second week in a row with 7000 words. Keep your fingers crossed.

I have recently been thinking ahead to the point when I plan on starting the second draft and final draft. My original plan was to come out here and write as much as I could by the end of November/early December and start serializing to the web in January. Some things have popped up that lead me to believe I may want to change that game plan. Namely, the iphone 2.0.

I'm sure most people's initial reaction is: "What's the new iphone got to do with your book?"

The short answer is: "As much as I want."

In a nutshell, the new iphone "system" allows people and businesses to create their own applications to sell for the iphone. They are then sold in the istore for people who want them. One of the apps that people are coming up with are ebook readers. And since I am looking to serialize my book as an ebook,... you get it yet?

That's right, I've spent all morning looking into publishing information for publishing my serial for the an iphone. Alas, after several hours there is little information on the subject because it is such a new topic of interest. I'll likely have to ask an expert directly.

A serial is the perfect medium for telling a story on the iphone. A long 120-150 thousand word novel I can only assume is a bit daunting on such a small reader, but a story that is broken down into small 13-17 thousand word chuncks is a lot more palatable and a bit more ideal for, what I suspect, will be shorter reading sessions.

The basic reason I started looking into this is precisely because it is such a new topic. I figure there is no sense in waiting six months when I can be a part of the ball as it's starting to roll now. The worst case scenario is that I won't be given a shot because I am unpublished and I go back to "Plan A" of releasing it online myself.

As for the title, I question this being my day off essentially because after several hours of research, I feel more exhausted than if I had been writing all morning. My next stop: send a voicemail to that expert I mentioned above.

3 comments:

deniz said...

How come you never consider the possibility that a publisher may actually want to publish your work? Won't publishing it online wipe that possibility off?! Well, no that I'm not aware of the difficulties of this option, I've gone through that myself.

Doc Brown said...

Actually, times are a changin'.

These days there are a lot of good writers and they're all trying to get things published. With so many writer's competing, the major publishing houses really don't have to commit to anyone new unless they can be almost guaranteed that the book will be successful.

It can be helpful to get it published at a smaller publisher, if you can show them that you already have a thousand or more people following your story online.

Publishers don't really promote their author's work. We have to do that ourselves and giving it away is one way of getting attention for your work. Another method is to turn it into a podiobook, but I don't think I have the voice for that, I don't know people who do, and I don't have the equipment.

Besides, serials like what I am writing, really work better in a monthly venue (that's my opinion). Most specialty reading magazines no longer publish serials and stick with short stories. Serials have become a dead form of story telling, but it could make a revival in electronic media.

deniz said...

You are right. Even here... Even the publishers who admitted that they liked my work, were not eager to publish it. So I had it printed myself for the same reasons. But than you can never get into the distribution chain. And a book like mine would never be popular because it is a bit difficult to read. Nowadays I think maybe I can use it as a skeleton of the story and turn it into a novel. Well, maybe a set of novels. But then... I am too busy with my work. ANd this is not something that you come home from work and do, right!!

Good luck. If you ever plan to have it published over here, let me know!!