Sunday, January 6, 2013

It feels a bit like giving birth . . .


. . . although not in the physical sense - more of a mental and intellectual one.  I sent out the penultimate edition of my first military science-fiction manuscript to several beta readers this evening.  I hope they'll provide feedback by the end of the month, at which time I'll send out the second manuscript (which is almost ready to go) while I go through their comments and make final adjustments to the first one.  I hope to have both available on Amazon and, possibly, Kobo within a few months, first as e-books and then, if the demand is there, as paperbacks.

It's a funny feeling.  I've been trying to learn the craft of fiction writing for almost eight years now, since well before I began this blog ago in January 2008.  My first efforts were dire, but I kept on plugging away at it.  I must have written the best part of two million words since I started, in an effort to master the art of fiction writing . . . and I still don't know whether I've succeeded.  I guess I won't know until I try to sell my work, and then the market will deliver its own verdict!

I've been published in book and article form in several non-fiction fields, and of course here on this blog, so I know I can do non-fiction writing reasonably well.  Whether or not I've got what it takes to be a fiction author as well remains to be seen.  I guess my beta readers will be the penultimate judge of that!  If they all hate it, it's not too late to scrap the whole idea and go back to writing non-fiction exclusively.  If they do like it . . . who knows?

Peter

5 comments:

Jess said...

Best of luck. You deserve it.

Anonymous said...

Congrats! I launched my first fiction collection, "A Cat Among Dragons," in mid-December. Have you looked at Dean Wesley Smith's blog? His article about covers for e-books served me well working with my cover designer.

Just try not to check your sales statistics too often once you get everything uploaded. :)

LittleRed1

Roger Ritter said...

Good luck! Jerry Pournelle says that you'll write at least 1 million words of dreck before getting good enough to be published. I look forward to seeing if you've succeeded!

Several years ago I did a review of one of your earlier stories that you posted (I think to the Highroad forum) for review. I had a couple of negative comments, but overall it was good. I'm looking forward to the release of your new books.

In addition to the Dean Wesley Smith blog mentioned above, Kristine Katherine Rusch is also blogging about how the publishing industry is changing due to e-books and the ability of authors to find an audience without the intervention of commercial publishers.

Both sites recommend that instead of focusing on sales figures, you should pretty much put the books out there, let people know they're available, and get on with writing your next book. The more books you have available, the better your sales will become. Let the books do the marketing for you and get into it for the long term.

Dirk said...

I'm very much looking forward to reading your full novel. Been waiting patiently since you first published your excerpts a while back. Good luck to you!

Samrobb said...

Congratulations! Looking forward to the chance to read your novel.