On Friday, I blogged a list of questions about
self-publishing. Now, slowly, I’m trying to find the answers. One of the
questions was this one: “Is
it true that publishing a "book-a-year" is no longer enough? Are our
readers demanding extra books, even if they are nothing more than long short
stories?” I’ve
seen several people try to examine the assumptions behind the statement, while
other authors are testing the water by issuing small volumes between their
longer works or by publishing a short story here and there. Recently author Lee Child filled a gap in his
Jack Reacher series by publishing a short story in Esquire. John Grisham has published a book of short stories, called
Ford Country. And Sharan Newman, one
of my favorite medieval novelists, now has a book of stories out. In Death before Compline, she explains the
origins of these stories, many of which have been published before, and by
doing so introduces new readers to her ten Catherine LeVendeur novels. It’s
a fairly recent development--made easy and accessible by the proliferation of
e-readers and an audience hungry for inexpensive new reading entertainment. I
suspect that most authors have had readers finish one book and immediately ask,
“When is the next one coming out?” This is one way to answer that demand
without lecturing readers on how long it really takes to write a book or
resorting to publishing dreck. Once
I thought about the issue without breaking into a cold sweat over how long it
takes me to write something, I realized that short pieces might be the answer
for me as well. When I first started
writing my next book, The Road to
Frogmore, I pounded out 50,000 words, and then promptly trashed over 35,000
words because they didn’t have a whole lot to do with the story I wanted to tell. I even wrote a blog post about it a year or
so ago, in which I described “killing my darlings, “ which referred to all the
minor characters whose stories I had cut out of the manuscript. Those bits and
pieces were still lying around – good stories and interesting characters who
simply didn’t fit. I left them by the
side of the road because they didn’t belong in this novel. Until now! In my own attempt to test the idea that readers
are eager for new material and will gladly pay small amounts for a quick fix
from their favorite characters, I’ve put together a small volume of stories and
character sketches, meant to fill the gap between Beyond All Price and The Road
to Frogmore. All of these interesting people may some day become main characters
in novels of their own. But for now, they serve two purposes. Through their
observations and experiences they shed additional light on what life was really
like during the Civil War. And more important, they form bridges between the
stories I have already told and those that are yet to come. I hope some of you
will enjoy Left by the Side of the Road:
Characters without a Novel. You can get the e-book free for three days,
starting tomorrow, Tuesday, July 24, at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008K32SZ4 |
