What's a fair price for a 500-page trade paperback?

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

...The Fifth Element was excellent, BTW... Probably inspire by the name of the planet..,

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Begging yer pardon, 'Lok; not bumping, just, I stumbled over a pic with my hideous claws on display from October that will make AAZH very happy if I share...
-I look here like old Luke Skywalker, Allanon from Sword of Shannara AND Tubersky got it on...




-Also this early 2010 oldy-but-goody, some hippy we know rocking Evil Jesus look -not a shoop, just redeye not fixed- w/ Devil Dog (named Polly, a coincidence, I **** you not - I also went to college at WPCC for a while - I AM magical, AAHZ)...

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

SO - Tuber's my butt-mommy and Elok's book is excellent.

-As you were, men...

[ZEE]

.

[Elok]

... right. Anyway. The book didn't really take off and I've been unable to find a way to promote it. This is because, as basically every reader has told me, it's really hard to get into. I started a sequel, made slow progress, got stuck, tried a radically different novel, ran into problems with that, and am now thinking about going back to Corban. As I see it, TCOL's biggest issue was its epistolary format. It made it hard to write, difficult to manage exposition, restricted my POVs, prevented me from doing good action scenes, etc. So I'm inclined to go back and do the damn thing right. I figure if Hollywood can reboot a universe, so can I. It's not like I blow millions of dollars each time, amirite?

It just raises the question of what to do with the original. I don't think TCOL is bad per se, just not as good as it could have been. It still sells the occasional copy. But I can leave that question until I've actually made a start on the reboot.

I'd also be substantially modifying the plot and adding elements from the aborted sequel. It would contain substantially more story, in a tighter format, and make one standalone novel instead of a series/cycle/trilogy/whatever.

[ZEE]

I apologize to Elok for ****ting up his thread. I have erased the offending post.

[rah]

Always move forward, never move back. Writing the sequel may generate more interest in the first book. Learn from you mistakes, don't repeat them. A lot of good books take some effort to get into. Just my opinion.

[Elok]

Well, I think this would be doing both. The changes to the plot I'm thinking about making would be pretty drastic; Yunise might never make it to Sau Margen, where the last third of the book takes place, at all. And the whole Northern plot arc, with multiple new characters, is nothing to sneeze at either. We'd see Babasalim and the civil war in the South. Really, what I'm thinking about is something closer in style and structure to Game of Thrones, where the focus shifts to distant parts of the world to show simultaneous events. Just without the nihilism, gratuitous sex, long digressions into coats of arms, and lemon-cakes. So, I guess, not like Game of Thrones at all. But a very different book.

(Thank you, AAHZ)

[rah]

Just without the nihilism, gratuitous sex, long digressions into coats of arms, and lemon-cakes. So, I guess, not like Game of Thrones at all. But a very different book.

Considering that GOT sold and your book didn't, you may want to think about adding a few of those things.

But really, use what you're considering for a new book. It doesn't have to be a sequel. Your first book could be considered a prequel.

Your first book was good in my opinion. ADD to it. If people like the second book, they're going to want to know what happened before.

You can treat the second more on it's own. Just start it with an action sequence or two and get them hooked before you go into the back story you need to bring them up to date. (slowly, in small doses)

BUILD, don't rebuild.

[Jon Miller]

Always move forward, never move back. Writing the sequel may generate more interest in the first book. Learn from you mistakes, don't repeat them. A lot of good books take some effort to get into. Just my opinion.

I agree with this, as I think that your first book was good.

I will note that quite often people who rewrote stories usually had a short story version (with limited release) and the final novel version (with more general release). In some cases, the original short story was better, and this is for celebrated authors. It is still sort of rewriting, which is what you are desiring to do now, and you keeping both in novel form is probably OK. But still, I agree with RAH... you are far better served to move forward and not stay where you are.

JM

[Jon Miller]

Well, I think this would be doing both. The changes to the plot I'm thinking about making would be pretty drastic; Yunise might never make it to Sau Margen, where the last third of the book takes place, at all. And the whole Northern plot arc, with multiple new characters, is nothing to sneeze at either. We'd see Babasalim and the civil war in the South. Really, what I'm thinking about is something closer in style and structure to Game of Thrones, where the focus shifts to distant parts of the world to show simultaneous events. Just without the nihilism, gratuitous sex, long digressions into coats of arms, and lemon-cakes. So, I guess, not like Game of Thrones at all. But a very different book.

(Thank you, AAHZ)

You can totally do the later part, writing a book set at the same time period but not a rewrite.

Changing it so that Yunise doesn't make it to Sau Margen might be interesting, but that is the sort of thing that usually writers only do when they go back ~20 years later. And it is often hit/miss.

JM

[Jon Miller]

I would say one of the most difficult things for a new author that is self-published is to get noticed. Amazon helps compared to the past, but really they play more to the people with a lot of friends/etc to get motion.

And I am guessing you didn't do too much of the old methods like go to book stores/etc.

JM

[Elok]

Well, here's how I see it: I've got an interesting world, but the story is not the best. In fact, for much of the book, there isn't a story for the main characters; from the entrance to the Citadel to the trial at Sau Margen, they're mostly witnesses to things other people do, and the story is a sort of recursion to explain what the hell just happened. I want to show it happening in real time, from the characters' own perspective, and give them agency. There's also the matter of my writing myself into a corner; the sequel stalled in large part because I'm stuck with Yunise in a place where she's powerless and Hafsheen is a third wheel. And I'm going to have to start the sequel with yet more regression to explain the backstory for the northern arc. It's just simpler, I think, to tell the story with everything in its proper place.

EDIT: I found, once it was published, that I didn't want to promote it because almost nobody I knew would even be able to follow it. One of my coworkers--a voracious sci-fi reader--tried, and found it impossible. Others likewise. I think it's possible that you guys like it because you like the author enough to invest the intense parsing effort necessary to extract the plot from the epistolary format.

[rah]

Think of it as the The Silmarillion. Something no one would read if it hadn't been for a later book. I liked your book because after the first 100 pages, I got into the characters and the plot. (and the poisoning scene)

I've read 1000's of books along with my brother. There were hundreds of times where I handed him a book and said, just get through the first 100 pages or so and it will pay off. (about what I said when I handed him your book)

You can have the book start years later so you can start wherever you want. Later in the book you can go back and explain how you got to the new point in small chunks to not chase anyone away.

Please remember this is just one man's opinion and do what you think is best.

[Elok]

I'd set a challenge for myself to get a book published by my 34th birthday. Which was good, in that it got me motivated to put something out there. But I was too proud and lazy and bound by my pledge to really make sure it was the best I could do. Worst-case scenario, I try and the attempt fizzles after a chapter or two.