Jan 18, 2020

Good day and Happy New Year! (Is it already too late in the month to still say that?)

Just a quick update on the latest. As previously reported, I sent back to my editor, Sarah Nivala, the revised manuscript for Bane of All Things on Dec. 13. This, if you recall, was the revision based on my first Editorial Letter that I received from Sarah back in September.

Earlier this week, Sarah sent back Editorial Letter #2 with their assessment of where the manuscript now stands. In short, the end is in sight. But as Sarah notes in the Letter:

 “A question we ask ourselves quite frequently at Inkshares when addressing the quality and marketability of a novel is this: ‘What is it about this novel that necessitates its publication?’ What this really means is that we need to see what it is about a novel that makes it utterly unique. We don’t want to publish works that will fade among the crowd of their genre; we develop stories that offer readers a singular experience … what it is that will make critics and readers alike ravenously devour it?”

For a book, a movie or a TV show, it can be hard to predict or engineer success. All we can do is put out the strongest product we can. What does this mean in BoAT’s case? At this point, it’s about doing further work on the characters to make them more well-rounded and engaging for the reader, raise the stakes by digging deeper into the true nature and motivations of the Big Bad Guy, and offering more sweeping spectacle in terms of the sharing more backstory of this world.

If this sounds like I literally need to sit down for a fresh interview with each of my characters, as if I were producing an episode on each of them for the Biography Channel, you’re right. It is a good time of year, after all, to sit back for some relaxed and honest conversation. 

My intent is to turn this around by end of March.

Thank you again for your faith and support. It typically takes 18-24 months for a book to be released from the day a publisher first agrees to take it on. I am doing my level best to shorten that cycle considerably with BoAT. (FYI, the one-year anniversary of when Inkshares said yes is April 29).

Cheers

Leo