Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Matthew Buckley => Topic started by: Firemeboy on March 28, 2006, 03:35:21 PM
-
I thought I would post progress to my next book here in this thread. So far I've written 2 and a half chapters. All of them can be found here (http://stu-inst.usu.edu:16080/fikiwiki/index.php/Main_Page).
The first two chapters are pretty solid, but chapter three is 'in progress'. As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm writing this book in a wiki. If you would like to post comments, or even 'play along' by editing the text, feel free. I don't know how it will all work, but it should at least be interesting.
I've also got a few chapters that I'm mulling over in my mind, and if you want to shoot out ideas for those chapters, you can do that as well. Go to the community portal to see the random stuff.
-
Chapter Three is pretty much done. I will likley tweak it a bit more, but it's mostly complete.
On to chapter four.
-
Chapter four and five are done, although five will likely be moved to a different location.
I'm struggling with the pace of the story, but I think it's tightening up...
-
I've combined two chapters, and written another, so five chapters are now complete. I'm pleased with the pace.
I'm off to Japan, so I don't know how much I'll get written over the next two weeks.
-
Chapter six is up.
-
Does your contract allow this sort of thing?
-
I don't see why it wouldn't considering he's not charging people for this. He's not trying to publish this book since, after all, this whole publishing industry is nothing more then oppression of ideas.
-
Most publishers would count publicly displaying the whole book on your website (free or not) as a form of publishing. Most publishers pay for the exclusive right to publish your book (until it goes out of print)--meaning that you can't publish it yourself.
-
I can see that, though FireMeBoy has stated he doesn't have much use for plublishers in general and that they hurt, not help, authors. So this is pretty much his way of rebelling against the publishing industry. Not that I agree with his statements just putting out what he's said.
-
:) That might be stating it a bit too harsh. Although if I have intimated that in the past, my thinking has changed. I think that publishers are vital and valuable to an author. Had I self published my book, I would likely have sold 15 copies, instead of the 3500. Covenant has been excellent to work with in almost every way, and extremely helpful
There is a risk that by putting the entire book online, Covenant won't be interested in this book. I'm hoping that they are still willing to publish it. I may have to pull it down when they are ready, but I will try to convince them to allow me to leave it up.
So far I've had two people drop in to edit the book. One other person left a note saying they liked it. There have maybe been a few more people read all of the chapters, most of them family members. I think if Covenant was publishing this tomorrow, the fact that my book has been online would have zero impact on sales. I would be willing to bet that of the 5000 or so people who have read my book, about 6 of them know I'm writing my second book online, and I can probably name the six.
But I could be wrong. We'll have to see. Either way, it's fun to be writing again. I honestly didn't think I would get around to this sequel, and the fact that I am writing it in a wiki excites me (and helps with my Ph. d.). So it's a good thing either way.
-
Most publishers would count publicly displaying the whole book on your website (free or not) as a form of publishing. Most publishers pay for the exclusive right to publish your book (until it goes out of print)--meaning that you can't publish it yourself.
That seems a bit too rigid an interpretation. If that was the case, then anything I ever wrote, including a blog, a letter to the editor, or a post to a discussion board would first have to be run by my publisher to make sure it's OK. I think the only time I have to give my publisher first rights of refusal is if I'm looking for somebody else to publish my work. I think, and maybe Rob can correct me, that if I wanted to publish it myself (and make money), I could without getting permission from them. Only if I'm looking for a third party publisher do I first have to go to Covenant.
But I guess it's all academic because I already ran this by my publisher, and they were fine with it. Which may mean that they have no intention of publishing it, or that they don't think it will affect sales.
-
Seven and Eight are up...
http://stu-inst.usu.edu:16080/fikiwiki/index.php/Main_Page
-
10 chapters, all done and put to bed.
http://stu-inst.usu.edu:16080/fikiwiki/index.php/Main_Page
The book is currently at about 100 pages. Chickens was 220, so I'm roughly half way there.
I've struggled through the middle section, although I think it's turned out well. The ending should move quicker because I have it all worked out in my head.
Do any other writers do this? They have the climax in their mind, but they've got to write a whole book, just to get there?
-
Yeah. Brandon often says middles are hard.
-
Finished through 13...
stu-inst.usu.edu:16080/fikiwiki/index.php/Main_Page
-
So, I submitted my second book to my publisher last week, and they have got the evals back. I'm a bit discouraged.
I wrote my first book for adults, and it turned out the kids love it. Elementary schools are the target audience. So I wrote this second book keeping them in mind.
The evals came back from the adults and they all love it. They also sent it to a 10 year old kid who loved my first book. He says it's not as funny.
So first I aimed for adults and the target ended up being kids. Now I aim for kids, and the target ends up being adults.
I can't seem to hit my audience. I'm not sure what will happen, they will likely send it out to some other kids to get second opinions. And I may have to 'funny it up' a bit. Add a few fart jokes.
-
Never mind...
-
What? Did another kid read it and say it was funnier than the first book?
I do think that targeting one's work to an audience can be quite a conundrum. I think a lot of movie sequels and kids' movies suffer from it.
-
No, the reviews came in and they were really good, at least from the adult perspective... The kids gave it a 'good' (not an excellent), but the adult evals were much better than I thought, so I'm excited. We'll see what happens.
-
You know, most segments of the publishing industry agree to buy the book and are almost done making it before they send it out for reviews.
-
Welcome to the crazy world of Mormon literature. It's like dad left town for a while and forgot to lock up his publishing house.
-
Yeah, most places give you an advance, then the author writes the book, then it's sent out for a review.
In the LDS world, you write the book, they send it out for review, they publish it, and then if you are lucky they send you a few bucks.
-
Book pushed back to May, not April.
And I lost my first scene. :( It was a right funny scene, too. I'm going to take a page from the great House of Mustard (who may have taken it from Brandon), and post the scene to my blog one of these days.
They always cut out the best bits.
-
http://chickenarmpits.blogspot.com/2007/01/cutting-room-floor.html
-
Ha ha ha ha ha... Oh dear.
Hilarious. And I can totally see why.
-
Yeah, but I guess people have different ideas of 'inappropriate'. This is actually based on an experience my wife had (it wasn't her that heard wrong). I told my boys the first chance I had.
Maybe I'm corrupting the poor little beggars. :)