I did a quick breeze-through of the final two parts, mostly doing spelling and obvious grammar problems, and I'm calling this good. Minus submitting to writing group (where the comments will be noted but not yet implemented), I'm not messing too much with Effulgent Corruption until after WorldCON at least.
There are still a few things left to do that I might tinker with. Before each chapter is a cute little quote about a specific god (one per part), but I got sick of writing them around part 3 so after that it just says "insert quote here." I wanted them to actually tie with in the current story but did an awful job at it (it was supposed to also be a cheap way to provide back story without too much expository dialogue during the actual book), so they haven't been done. That's going to require me writing them all completely separate from the actual book in attempt to make it so they don't suck, but we'll see. For now, I'm leaving them as "insert quote here." Deal with it.
Re-reading it I already have specific ideas for things that might actually require substantial edits. In terms of plot development, I'm fairly content with Drake's and Ciara's parts, minus minor tweaks. Rook's takes a significant turn in his second bit (Part 6) which I don't feel is foreshadowed enough before. Also his engagements with Grax are entertaining but also border on repetitive; cutting a hefty chunk of them will help the pacing. By the end of the novel I've better solidified their relationship to what I want, but it is a tad shaky early on. That's probably going to be the biggest edit (minus, of course, what alpha readers contribute) and I'm not exactly looking forward to it.
All that aside, ALPHA READERS. If you really want to read a 350k rough draft, I am more than willing to send it to you. It'll be a major "no details required" review, where I really only want a specific plot critique and ideas on what scenes do and don't work. No line edits, nothing too major. Just read through it and give me a hefty review. I honestly probably only need a couple of these, so if you are a voracious reader and don't mind reading something dark and depressing, let me know. I can provide any format, including Kindle or ePub.
Speaking of Kindle, I hesitate to talk about Paradise Seekers. My constant internet harassment of bloggers and forums has slowed as I tried to finish Effulgent Corruption, and as a turn the sales have gone from "mediocre" to "awful." I'm now considering making it free and saying "eff it" to Kindle publishing for now, but we'll see. It's also a tad harrowing to realize people you've known online for 10+ years (of which I have a plethora) won't throw down $1 to buy something to support you, or to help promote you. Those who have supported me: I really really appreciate it, and by no means wish to sound ungrateful. You are awesome and I wish you all the success you can get.
The point of this is that I did epublishing to "test the waters," and so far haven't been very impressed. Perhaps if I put more out on there it would help, but most people chuck short stories up there, and I can't write a good short story worth beans. I'm going to resume (or rather, return to my normal goals) pursuing traditional publishing means for now, but should things change I'll reconsider epublishing. Point being, you aren't going to see Steelgods 1 on there anytime soon. Sorry.
Speaking of Steelgods, since Effulgent Corruption is no longer wasting my time, I'm going to haul through Gears of Anbar now because I can (warmdown writing). I haven't fully decided on my next project following that, but we'll see what happens.
In the tradition of posting youtube videos, here's something Chuck threw in my direction. Yes, I still love Game of Thrones. No, I haven't gotten around to finishing the book yet. Derp.
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4 comments:
Regarding epublishing, you've got to give it time, and do your best to put out a high quality product. A lot of the people who are really making it now went for several months selling only in the single digits. The good thing, though, is that just because it isn't selling now doesn't mean it won't sell later.
Regarding purchasing a copy of Paradise Seekers, for me it was largely a question of eBook ecosystems. I know, it's only a dollar, but this is the first eBook I've purchased and I'm hesitant to start getting a collection until I have decided on Kindle/Nook/whatever.
That said, I've really enjoyed it and if you throw EC up for sale when it's all good and done I'll pick it up (hopefully by then I'll have a 'real' eReader so I don't have to use my BlackBerry). Oh, and you can charge more than $1 if you want to.
Ha ha, you used the wrong "through".
One word of caution: if you decide to make it free, it would be a good idea to go through and reformat it first.
The formatting in the copy you gave me is quite sloppy, to put it lightly; the auto-generated table of contents at the end clashes with the one at the front, and several of the jump points at the end of the status bar are missing. Also, the indentation throughout the ebook is extremely funky, probably because of artifacts from your word processor.
If you make your book free and it goes viral like mine did this weekend (it hit the #3 spot for general science fiction and so far has over 1500 downloads), all of these formatting issues are going to reflect poorly on you. Also, the teaser for Steelgods is going to throw people off if you've decided not to release it as an ebook at some point.
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