Metamorphosis
By the time Spring starts springing next year, all things being
equal, I should be the proud author of an ebook and a tree
book.
Although I've had a few flurries of activity getting the story itself finished, adding in a new plot twist and generally polishing and pretty-ing up, none of this has felt any different to the various re-writes of the story following a WW report or request from an agent that I've done over the years.
In the last week, though, two threads of activity have started which have moved the story along its metamorphosis into a book. It feels like my move to Germany all those years ago. It hung there, an idea in limbo, for months while I gathered odds and ends of information that "might be useful", rather like a bird might gather sticks for a nest that she'd build one of these days, or a hopeful girl collecting stuff for the "bottom drawer".
The first thing was a serious think about marketing - and the realisation that there's marketing the book and marketing the author. And marketing the book is the fun bit, the bit that I feel most confident about. So I have contacted an ex-colleague from my days in advertising who just happens to be nuts about old planes and 60s cars and the whole ripping yarn adventure thing and we've already got some nifty ideas brewing.
The second thing was meeting my publisher and some of her other authors last Friday for an informal chat as well as to see some initial sketches for a cover illustration .We all gelled instantly and, despite the lack of funds and a big name, I was happily impressed with how much on the ball she is, who she knows and what she knows!
It's got something of the feeling of a snowball now - the momentum is gathering and rolling into territories new for me instead of the cyclical write - submit - reject - critique- rewrite well-trodden path.
And, perhaps inevitably, a new idea flew into my head for a story that's got "best-seller" (I think) written all over it. But that will just have to wait.
Although I've had a few flurries of activity getting the story itself finished, adding in a new plot twist and generally polishing and pretty-ing up, none of this has felt any different to the various re-writes of the story following a WW report or request from an agent that I've done over the years.
In the last week, though, two threads of activity have started which have moved the story along its metamorphosis into a book. It feels like my move to Germany all those years ago. It hung there, an idea in limbo, for months while I gathered odds and ends of information that "might be useful", rather like a bird might gather sticks for a nest that she'd build one of these days, or a hopeful girl collecting stuff for the "bottom drawer".
The first thing was a serious think about marketing - and the realisation that there's marketing the book and marketing the author. And marketing the book is the fun bit, the bit that I feel most confident about. So I have contacted an ex-colleague from my days in advertising who just happens to be nuts about old planes and 60s cars and the whole ripping yarn adventure thing and we've already got some nifty ideas brewing.
The second thing was meeting my publisher and some of her other authors last Friday for an informal chat as well as to see some initial sketches for a cover illustration .We all gelled instantly and, despite the lack of funds and a big name, I was happily impressed with how much on the ball she is, who she knows and what she knows!
It's got something of the feeling of a snowball now - the momentum is gathering and rolling into territories new for me instead of the cyclical write - submit - reject - critique- rewrite well-trodden path.
And, perhaps inevitably, a new idea flew into my head for a story that's got "best-seller" (I think) written all over it. But that will just have to wait.
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19 Comments
http://www.biggles.info/
Interesting question about how long it's all taken - I reckon 5 years from starting to write to getting the final draft finished. So maybe 6 years in all before it hits the shelf. I had to take out references to a "digital camera" which had seemed OK a couple of years back but just felt quaint in 2011!
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