Another late entry tonight 😛
Tonight was the birthday dinner for one of Liz’s coworkers, and so we went out to WeHo to the Pearl rooftop bar and lounge area and had dinner and some drinks with her and some other cast mates. Twas a grand time indeed. I will definitely say this: all of the Ho’s casts have been cool and fun and nice – this one is no exception, and they’re a lot of fun to hang out with.
I worked today – made serious headway on this novel proof-read…and even though I am feeling so friggin burned out on this thing…it still reads well once it gets going. Those first 30 pages still definitely need some help, oh yes they do…but once the inciting incident happens, it’s quite fun. For reals. So, that’s good I suppose. Sigh…
I’m debating whether or not to hire a developmental editor for this one, or if I should wait and spend that money on a novel series that I’ve done some market research for. I.e.- I’m learning a lot by reading these books on indie authoring about what kind of work one can do BEFORE deciding on a series to make sure that there are going to be readers for that series, and writing it won’t be a massive waste of time. I did not do that for Starstuff, obviously. I just wrote it because I liked the story. I didn’t stop to look at what market it may or may not fit into…
So, throwing money down on a developmental editor might be a waste of time – the book could be polished within an inch of its life, but never sell because it wasn’t “written to market.”
And yes, as an indie author, you DO have to think about these things. Some day, I may turn traditional publishing – that day may come sooner than later perhaps, if someone became interested – and in trad pub, you have an agent and an editor making those decisions for you, oftentimes simply by buying or not buying book proposals. But if I am my own publisher, as an indie author is, then I have to do that market research and make sure that I’m choosing the right books to write.
Now, that isn’t to say I’m going to go chasing trends, or that I’m going to have to write something I don’t want to. Not at all. It’s really about looking at what the different markets ARE, and then READING those markets to figure out what people like about them…and what *I* like about them.
Every indie author that I’ve seen become successful started as an avid, mass-consumption reader first. They all read like crazy. I am taking that step to heart, you guys. I’m gonna read like crazy and let that inform where I can go with my first book series or two.
So, we return to the question then of whether or not it’s worth investing the money into Starstuff for a developmental editor, which is an editor that’s going to give notes on story and prose, an editor that’s going to have an eye for “this is what you need to fix and work on in order to read like a professional author.” Not all indie published books need to be at that level. It might be better for me to just get Starstuff proofread and published since it’s “kfinished” and then move on. If it does well, if I somehow wrote something that an audience is craving – awesome. I can crank out the next two books in the series, probably hire a developmental editor for those next two, and then I have a series with a flawed first book that nevertheless found an audience, and two kick-ass pro-level sequels to round out the series. Or, Starstuff doesn’t hit, and I haven’t wasted more money than I needed to.
I don’t know…I’m going to try and get some advice on how to approach it. We’ll see what some of the actual professionals will say about it, drawing from their experience and lessons they’ve learned.
That’s what’s on my noggin tonight. Tomorrow it’s more work. Work work work. I’m friggin exhausted…but so close, you guys. So close.
Good night!
Artwork tonight from Wadim Kashim.