I had a much better start to the day yesterday. I was up on time. I was at my desk on time. And I started to catch up on a little of the backlog I’ve still somehow managed to build up again.
After feeding and watering the birds and the dog and emptying the dishwasher, I also put a couple of washloads through. One went into a spin and was hung up on the indoor clothes horse. The second one will have its spin today.
On Monday I should have started the publishing process for The Four Aces, but I hadn’t done it then, so I did that yesterday. Again, I underestimated the time it would take as I had to read through each of the four stories again.
I read through every story every time it appears in publication form. From 12 Stories in 12 Months to Words Worth Reading to Standalone to Collection(s). Every time it’s about to be published, I read it through again, making sure that the latest version is the best version.
The problem with a collection, though, including the bookazine, is I have to read through every included piece again, (a) to ensure it’s the best it can be, but also (b) so that it’s at least consistent with the rest of that publication.
So I allow myself an hour to get each publication ready, whether it’s a flash fiction standalone, an entire novelette/novella/novel, or a mix of all. And this time I had 4 stories to read through, none of which was a short flash.
That meant it took me a few hours rather than just the one. But then I had a brainwave, which only meant more work for me.
The 4 Ace stories are all backstories for the 4 main characters in the Stevie Beck Horvale mysteries, short and long. The Ace of Wands is Stevie’s story, The Ace of Cups is Maddy’s story, The Ace of Swords is Fal’s story, and The Ace of Pentacles is Vanessa’s story. That’s main character + confidante + law enforcement/romantic interest + antagonist.
Stevie Beck and the Body in the Lake is the first full-length story in the series. It’s currently around the 30,000-word mark but I’d like it to be closer to 40,000 words. A nice novella length. I wrote the shorter version of this story for the great novella challenge, which has a top limit of 30,000 words. But there’s still plenty of storyline left to get it up to longer than 40,000 words and, therefore, give me something to cut back on too.
I’m a firm believer that cutting is always better than padding. But expanding? That’s a different story.
Anyway, this brainwave…
Why didn’t I include the opening chapters of The Body in the Lake as a teaser at the end of the collection of 4 stories? Lots of people add opening chapters as teasers at the end of their books. Why didn’t I? Not only does this encourage readers who have enjoyed the stories, or who are curious even if they didn’t enjoy them that much, to buy the book, it also gives me a reason to get the book polished and published sooner.
Great idea, Diane…
…apart from now, instead of 4 stories to read through again, I had 4 stories and 3 chapters to read through and format again.
And that’s what took the bulk of the day. Quite a bit more than the measly 1 hour I’d originally allocated.
So, The Four Aces, including the opening 3 chapters of the first book in the series, is now in the publishing machine and will be out on Monday 29 September.
I still have the publicity graphics to make and the blog post to write. But I already have the templates for both the graphics and the blog post.
I started to write a lot more here about the life of a short story and the progress it makes through my folders. But I’ve decided instead to make that a single, standalone post for the Patreon, when I get it up and running. I’m starting to collect ‘articles’ like this now and keep them all together in folders in a single Scrivener file. I have blog posts in this Scrivener file, book reviews, and articles on writing.
The articles on writing will go towards another writers’ guide in the future, once I’ve finished the last 2 Diary of… books. I’ve also decided to serialise Project Management for Writers on the Patreon. I already have the first 2 books in this series, but I may as well get them all up there as I go along.
The draft ideas at the moment for the Patreon are:
- Ideas for Writers (where to find them and what to do with them)
- Notes for Writers
- Project Management for Writers
- Free Fiction Friday (this will appear on the Patreon before it appears on the website, probably as a ‘Something for the Weekend’)
Newsletter subscribers will still get their free story per issue once I pull that particular finger out. And I’m also toying with a writealong, for either Patreon or newsletter subscribers. I want to get the current novella challenge finished first, and the jury’s still out on whether or not to continue with 12 stories in 12 months. But I think I’m going to aim at the Patreon going live in the new year.
The Patreon is there, by the way. It even has one post – an introduction to me. Free of charge. I mean, who’d want to pay for that?! (I *think* it’s live, but I don’t know, so if anyone feels like checking…?) But it’s definitely a work in progress and I want to ensure I have enough material for at least the first year, see how it goes.
In the meantime, Ten Short Stories: Wordsworth Shorts 31 – 40 will be available on Monday 22 September.
I think that’s a great idea, to put in the teaser for the full novella. It’s something I do in my books, and something I love to read in other books!
But yeah, it all takes a lot of work. . ..
Congrats on the Patreon!
Thank you!