Great news for everyone who loved the first Brightwill novel: Work started on developing a second and a third book set in the same universe, featuring many of the same characters about three months ago.
What does this mean specifically? Well, right now I'm finishing "test chapters" wherein I try writing a good opening chapter and another chapter where the featured character begins telling a story, much like in the first Brightwill.
While that's being done, I'm figuring out what Brightwill II is about, specifically, what the ending is, and roughly how the story will go, beat by beat. These plans sometimes change a lot during the actual writing of the book, sometimes they only change a little, but it's important to have a frame to hang a novel on.
I expect all this work will be finished in a couple weeks, then I'll be able to actually start writing the text of the novel - the really fun part - when I'm not working on Spinward Fringe Broadcast 9.
Why is there going to be a sequel? Well, I fell in love with these characters. Much like with Spinward Fringe, the characters are drawing me back into the world of Brightwill, and they have stories to tell. I'm certainly not doing it for the money, because the first Brightwill is not very popular and it just didn't sell well. I'm happy that it's free now so a few people have little to lose if they want to give it a try. It's also easier to point friends to Brightwill so they can give it a try for free.
I'm keeping Brightwill II short, and only writing it in my spare time, when I'm not focusing on Spinward Fringe, because I love both universes.
I'm proud of both universes, and taking time in each of them is a great deal of fun. I hope to have another Brightwill novel out sometime this summer along with a Spinward Fringe novel.
RL
[Brigthwill is free wherever Ebooks are sold. If you'd like a print copy, they are available through Amazon, and some signed copies will be available on EBay soon.]
2 comments:
So the issue with Brightwill has nothing to do with the writing. You really need to advertise more. I am a huge fan of your work, but I had no idea it existed. Get a PR person involved, have them do some search engine optimization, and make more posts. You should also advertise via social media.
Or you could just get a publisher. Baen comes to mind. They love people who write really good stories, like you.
I went the traditional publishing route with queries and submissions on and off for over twenty years, at this point I'm happy with self publishing. I can also make a living this way, when getting published through traditional means would absolutely not provide a living wage. That's after making the assumption that any publisher would be interested in what I write. They don't just look for good stories and writing, they also look for manuscripts and styles that fit market trends, so even if I write the next great English novel, chances are it will be passed on because it doesn't have what the publisher is looking for. Sometimes it's vampires, or werewolves, or young wizards, or fresh takes on Snow White, or a singing barracuda for all I know. I'll be better off self publishing, decades of experience has made that clear.
When I said Brightwill didn't sell well, that's by my standards. By many market standards, all my books sell poorly when compared to the best seller charts and middling authors. My best work sells a few thousand copies over a few years, but I can make a living because I don't have a publisher, and agent, a publicist, and other people sucking the lion share of the cover price up before I get my royalty. For example, after all is said and done, the average author receives between 1% and 5% of the cover price of a paperback. That's after the publisher, distributor, and other management (agent, publicist, manager, etc...), takes their cuts. I may sell far fewer books, but I make a royalty of 31% and up after expenses. I can live on that, and have for about seven years now.
As for publicity, I'm okay. You're here, aren't you?
Thank you for your concern, Anonymous, readers are my publicity department, so every one of you counts.
RL
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