Unpublishing a book is like....

Getting a divorce.

It smarts. But I had to do it.

My foray into the fast-paced world of writing fast and dirty was a bust. I conceived the idea for Razor Wire for the brand-spanking-new Kindle Unlimited program. It was designed to be read in installments, ending in a cliffhanger like a thriller television show. I'd outlined 6 'episodes', wrote 3, and then Kindle Unlimited changed its royalty structure for payment and the serial format lost its value overnight.

I bundled the installments, thinking I would come back to the series in future to write Razor Edge and Razor Close.

Heh. Well, here's the thing. I lost steam or my mojo or whatever that thing is that makes a writer connect to a story long enough to get it out. I tried many different methods to get going again but my brain wasn't having it. Creatively, the series was dead in the water.

And dead sales-wise too. I think I sold less than 10 ebooks and 5 print books that were mostly pity sales. A local fan said it wasn't anything like my other books. Yeah, well, a girl's gotta try new things or she becomes stale. I'm not sorry I wrote it because it pushed me out of my comfort zone to explore a new sub-genre. I think of Razor Wire as a creative experiment in writing to market, in which I proved to myself that the book market is a moving target.

Razor Wire is unpublished (or is in the process) at all retailers as of today. CreateSpace will still sell the print edition. My plan for the thriller is to go back to my original idea and publish it as a trilogy. I'll beef up the story, explore some themes I rushed through and go deeper into the psychology of the characters. I believe there's a good story there and I didn't give it its due. I'll release the serial in July in three complete installments. CreateSpace will get the complete edition for print at the same time.

Writing fast is dandy for first drafts, but the process has to slow down after that to get to the good stuff. Lesson learned. It only hurts a little. Lives were not lost.

Takeaways:

1. Stick to your vision.
2. The story wants to go the way the story wants to go. Be the pencil.
3. Slow down. You are creating worlds not making a cheese sandwich.

Daniel Razor and his troubling sidekick, Charlotte Dawson, will return new and and improved in the summer. Bigger and brighter in three juicy installments. 

Write More. Write Fast. Write Now.

I'm hard at work every day on two new short series for Kindle Unlimited. I write 3000 words a day. It's not easy. The back is the first to go. The wrist is next. I have 20 years of writing experience. There's no excuse for a pitiful word count anymore. (Except blogging. Blogging is a good excuse.)

Tips For Increasing Word Count:

If you're just starting out, the best thing you can do for yourself is just write like hell. It's going to suck. But it's easier to fix words than it is to come up with new words. Write out of sequence if that helps. Write the bits you're interested in. You can knit it all together later. Revision is your friend. Don't worry, you'll get there. But not until you have a first draft with a beginning, middle and end.

If you have years of writing experience and just want to squeeze more productivity out of your writing time:

1) Know that you can write more. If I can do it, you can do it. Don't listen to the voice that says you can't. You can. You already know how to tell a story, it's a matter of typing it.
2) Don't think when you're writing. You can think later. If you get stuck thinking, skip to the next most interesting thing in your story and think about that. You'll want to write it and hey! there's no reason why you shouldn't.
3) Revise as you go along. Hah! I thought I couldn't do this either. But it's amazing how the brain will cough up corrections to scenes, adjust dialogue, add details, etc. if you just let it do its job.
4) Set a word goal and keep a beady eye on the number. It's your cookie--your validation--it loves you. Feed it and watch it grow.
5) When you get to the end of your novel and it resembles a novelette, DO NOT PANIC. This is where the fun happens. Go back to the beginning and flesh out the chapters with description, deepen dialogue and character, add bits of business. You'll be amazed at how painlessly word count grows to full-length novel.

To Outline or Not to Outline, That is the Question.

Some very prolific writers swear by their outlines. Based on my own experience and hearing from other writers, I think the outline works for a particular type of brain. Many authors start with an outline and then scrap it. I start by writing a first draft and the outline emerges from there as I go along.

If outlining exhausts your creativity when it comes time to write, don't bother with them. If you are inspired and excited by outlining and write like a white hot genius when you get to work, count your blessings. Keep what works, chuck what doesn't.

Is it possible to write a book in one month? I think it is but I think first and foremost, it's better to learn your own mind and take the time to say what you want to say. Ultimately, that's where the real joy of writing lies.

Humanity and Indie Publishing

I couldn't think of a better title for this post which is really a potpourri of this week's events in Writing for My Life.

1) Sales in August fell off a cliff. The benefit of falling off the sales cliff was that it was going to happen sooner or later, right? I was cured of watching the graph thingy at KDP because it was too depressing.

2) Plagiarism seems to be a hot topic among indie authors these days. Plagiarism (for those too busy plagiarizing to use a dictionary) means "to steal ideas or passages from another's work and present them as one's own." - Collins English Dictionary. In the exchanges I'm reading online, the offenders argue that because they made changes to the original work it's all copasetic. Dear Plagiarizer: It is not. Write your own stuff. (and look up copasetic) I have more thoughts on this subject but it's been a busy week so onward!

3) Lots of traffic from Turkey this week so a big shout out to all my visitors. I wrote a thesis paper on Turkey when I was in high school so I feel like we're old friends. Nice to shake virtual hands! Think of my sales cliff! Buy a book!

4) Piracy. I found a pirated copy of Iced Under on an ebook site, heavens knows where or how or why, but there it was buried in pages and pages of mysteries. When I made it available for free, I assume it got passed around as books do. So until I am as popular as Grisham, no more free ebooks. At least one person out of 7 billion will have to buy the book first before passing it on. The humanity!

5) Diet. I'm on one again. Must lose weight for daughter's wedding to get into Mother of the Bride outfit. So what I want to know is how am I supposed to write if I can't eat Skittles?

6) Spent the day correcting minor errors in Wanton because that was soooo much easier than writing a new scene in Wastrel. (Confused about plagiarism? If you find writing a book is easy-peasy you're probably stealing it.)

7) I have a book event on Saturday! Authors' Day at the Wakefield Market in beautiful downtown Wakefield, Quebec. From 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. I will be selling print copies of Iced Under, The Grey Lady and The River Bride in a 3-Book Gift Pack for Christmas at a shockingly low price. So get over here!

8) The winners of the Goodreads Giveaway were Cassandra Edwards, Sausan Sumar and Dorothy Huckaby. Signed copies of The Grey Lady were popped in the mail on Tuesday so it is anybody's guess when your books will arrive, ladies. I love Canada Post but ... well. You know.

That's me for another week. Be nice to each other.

On Receiving One's Editorial Letter

One edits. One does not blog. Or wash. Or visit people (the real ones at least). Or get out of the bathrobe. Or vacuum up dog hair. Or eat sensibly. 

I AM DONE! The edited manuscript has been sent! I'm exhausted. But the book is better. It was not very good before. I have no idea how agents and editors see diamonds in the dull, bloated rocks that come across their desks. X-ray vision, they must have.

Kudos and kisses to all the steely-eyed agents and editors who do far more than midwife books into print. All a midwife does is deliver a perfectly beautiful baby. An editor has to crawl into a writer's mind and root through the gunk and the booze and the excuses, sweetly whispering "I know you left the story in here somewhere, dear. Don't you worry, we'll find it." And then she pulls out her scalpel....

I hardly felt a thing.