I think I’ve pretty much settled on going the print-on-demand Lulu.com route with my Princess Bride book, the one that got orphaned when its publisher died. And even though I won’t be published through a traditional publisher, the traditional publishers are rethinking their way of doing business anyway, according to Business Week Online:
A new scheme set to be announced in early April, dubbed the Caravan Project, calls for books to be delivered simultaneously in five formats -- hardcover, digital, audio, print-on-demand, and by chapter....
Six nonprofit publishers (three are university presses), No. 2 retailer Borders Group (BGP ), a few independent bookstores (not Tome on the Range, however), and publishing wholesale powerhouse Ingram Industries are participating in Caravan. The first step: Publish 24 books initially across the five formats in early 2007. Funded by a $250,000 MacArthur Foundation grant, the project is relatively small, Osnos admits. "But we don't have to be big," he adds. "We just have to show that this model is irresistible to everyone in the chain -- to authors, publishers, and booksellers. We can't continue to print 10 books to sell 6." Adds Tom Dwyer, director for adult trade books at Borders: "We never want to underestimate the public's desire for information and choices. This lets us put our foot in the water."
And it’s funny that The Onion has a story this week with this headline:
It's Funny How What You're Saying Relates To My Novel
Because what Business Week Online is saying relates to my novel. Sort of.
I’ve never written a novel before, but I have written screenplays as well as fan fiction odysseys long enough to qualify as short novels, and I’ve had tons of ideas for novels that I just never got around to writing. So when I was struck by lightning recently with an idea for a near-future science-fiction novel, I thought: I can’t let this go, I’ve got to write it and not let it get tossed aside like all the other ones have. And the more I think about the concept and the characters, the more convinced I am that it’s viable and will work as a novel... and also that the way I’ve decided to write it will work, too.
What I’m gonna do is write it as a serial, and post chapters online. If I can write three to four thousand words a week -- and I think that will be doable, although on the other hand I do tend to be more ambitious than realistic -- then at the end of six months I’ll have a finished novel... or a first draft of one, anyone. Cuz I’ll be mostly making it up as I go -- I have a general idea of where I think the story and characters will take me, but I know from my other fiction-writing experience that the characters often take over and go where they want to go.
It’s tentatively titled Three Days, and I hope to get the first chapter posted some time in April. I’ll probably start a new blog for it -- and I’ll be sure to let you know when it’s up and where it is.
Oh, and I do hope to avoid it coming off like another story in this week’s Onion, one with this headline:
Science-Fiction Novel Posits Future Where Characters Are Hastily Sketched
But I trust that my readers will offer constructive feedback if that’s the case.
3 Comments
Leave a comment