Here’s Don D’Ammassa, yet another one of these reading forces of nature (about 1 book per day), on Servant of a Dark God.
This first fantasy novel gets kudos from the outset because the setting was sufficiently different from the usual to make me perk up after only a couple of chapters…This series shows a good deal of promise mixing workmanlike writing with some genuinely interesting ideas. More
Well, I’m less than 300 words from my original estimate of 140,000 words. The problem is that estimates are notoriously unreliable. Especially when most of the invention comes during the draft phase. It appears I have 20-30k more words. So I’m back down in the 80% finished range. But here’s my goal for completing. I hope to deliver it at somewhere around 170,000 words, maximum.
BTW, let me tell you this story is exciting me–the giant dogmen of Toth that breed monstrous dogs called maulers, a tall insect like creature called ungar that are stealing souls for their magic, wurm fields, battles, mysteries, traitors, our first meeting of the woodikin and Harnock (the one bred by Lumen to be a superior warrior), a wonderful sleth called Eresh who was completely unplanned and completely delightful, plus some incredibly delicious character situations.
Oh, baby. This one is shaping up with all sorts of delights. Of course, if I don’t execute, readers will just see it as a mess. So it’s back to work.
The copy edits for CURSE and RAVELER are finished. The artist has also begun working on the cover for RAVELER.
The next task is to review and add anything necessary to make the ending of CURSE and the beginning of RAVELER work in their new roles.
And then it’s pub time. Getting very close now, folks.
If you enjoyed Bad Penny, you can nominate Frank, Sam, Carmen, and the gang to be considered for The Whitney Award.
Here’s how it works. The public nominates novels they like by LDS authors. A panel of judges reads through all the nominations and selects no more than 5 finalists for each genre. Then a “panel of industry professionals, including authors, publishers, bookstore owners, distributors, critics, and others” vote on the nominations. The winners get some good PR and exposure. It’s not Oprah, but getting the word out is critical, and every bit helps.
To tell the judges to consider BAD PENNY go here: Whitney Nominations. You have until December 31st.
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.
Because of so many reader requests, I think it’s time to explain.
Alas, I must report that she ran off with a no-good tramp. I’m sure she’s realized her error. Either way, I’ve formed a posse. We’re hunting her down.
That’s the true story. For those that want the boring press release that obscures the facts, you may read what follows.
The first draft of Curse of a Dark God was delivered to the editor in August of 2009, two months before Servant of a Dark God was released. That draft had some issues with a few of the story lines. These issues crept (they did not run or slouch) into the text because the author, stressed about an aggressive deadline, decided to adopt the fix-it-when-you-finish-just-get-er-done-you’ve-got-a-freaking-deadline methodology of writing.
But a book of 230,000 words is a big old momma. And if something in a beginning chapter is off, it wankers a whole heck of a lot of story that follows, much like a line of dominoes. But it’s not just one story line. This book had multiple interconnected story lines. So issues in one line rippled out into others. What this meant was that the changes that needed to be made weren’t wee things that could be dealt with in a few weeks. When the dust settled, it was clear the book required a substantial rewrite, even though the draft contained gobs of cool story.
So much for that fix-it-later experiment. You can be sure the author won’t be using that on large books again.
So the author wrote another draft of 245,000 words and delivered it in August of 2010. The story rocked. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication on size (and there’s no use in having a drama about what was said and who was at fault and why fairies are always tiny hot chicks; despite our best efforts, life is full of bumps; the best thing to do is learn from them and move forward). The book actually needed to be in the 170,000 – 180,000 word range. Same as Servant of a Dark God.
In a 10% edit, you’re tightening a story, cutting out the fluff. In an edit designed to reduce the book by 30% or more, you’re cutting off arms and legs and removing things like livers. The story can’t survive such cuts unless the thing was obese to begin with and just needed to go on a diet. Unfortunately, Curse of a Dark God draft 3 was fairly lean, given the amount of story it contained. It was NOT a candidate for Biggest Loser.
The upshot is this third draft is going to be another major rewrite. Which means, given publishing lead times, that it’s going to take a number of months to get it on the shelves.
(fricken, ricken, grumble, frag a friggen nack)
Because I’m just starting on the outline, we don’t have a delivery date yet. As soon as we do, I’ll post it.
I apologize to all of you expectantly looking forward to the next book. When I started this series, I promised myself that I would not leave my readers hanging. I was determined that my books would come out in a timely fashion. And I have been working like a devil to do just that, but sometimes things happen. What I can promise you is that this draft will go quickly. Furthermore, I already have book 3 outlined. It should go quickly as well.
I know some of you are asking why? Why, the word limit? Aren’t there are plenty of monster books out there?
There are. In fact, about half of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books are roughly the length of draft 3. Publishers do sell fat books. However, the bigger the book, the harder it is to make it profitable.
First, bigger books cost more. There’s the cost of the additional paper and editing, but there’s also the extra money to ship and store.
Second, you can’t put as many copies out in the stores. You can’t because they take up more of the space that might be allotted to an individual book. So instead of being able to have stores stock four or five copies of a 120k novel, they can only stock two or three of a big old momma in that same space.
Third, bigger books cost you, dear reader, more money. Sure, the publisher might eat some of the additional costs, but some of those costs will be passed onto you.
So because of the increase in cost, the publisher needs to sell more copies; however, the limit on display space and the higher price make it harder to sell those additional copies and actually may lead to selling fewer copies.
Do you see the bind?
This doesn’t mean big books can’t be profitable. It just means that it’s not as easy. It’s a bigger risk. Part of me would want the publisher to take that risk. But the other part of me knows that slow and steady usually wins the race. Neither I nor the publisher want to gamble the long-term viability of the Dark God series. Now, if Tor was doing this all in paperback, this might not be such a big issue. But we’ve got the sweet hardback/paperback deal. And business projections have to be done in that world.
So the short of it is that we’ve run into some business limitations, and it’s going to take me a bit more time to deliver.
I wish I could announce a date at this time, but I can’t. I’ll finish up the outline for this draft and run that by the publisher around Christmas. Then it’s back to work. I promise that what you’ll get will be my best. And that’s what you want, anyway, even if it takes a bit longer to get it into your hands.
Mysteries, reversals, zing, stunts I’ve never seen in any thrillers, a bit of romance, and lots and lots of action. All set in the amazing landscape of Southern Utah’s Grand Staircase.
The backstory summary is 6 pages. The outline of events is 10, single spaced.
I’m feeling it, folks. This sketch of the story has got the goods.
One more pass to tighten up plants and make sure I’m hitting the progression points for the A and B stories, and it’s time to write. Just in time for the big Christmas break.
Speaking of that, merry Christmas to all my blog readers!
I just mailed my galley edits off to Stacy. My baby is now out on her own. And whether she sinks, swims, or squishes is largely out of my control. I’m excited and anxious. Here we come September 15th!!
I’m wishing I could do one last story edit. But I suppose that’s just par for the course. I’d be doing story edits until the fulness of times. I’ll just have to take what I have and will learn from this one as it plays with audiences and roll it into the next. I’m going to be very interested to see how this plays.
I also just saw the map. It’s very nice. Love the style. I’ll see if I can’t post it here.
And I got an estimated publication date–September 15th. I found out there are two dates, actually. A shipping or release date when the books start leaving the warehouses. And then the date (publication date) when they estimate (a few weeks later) the book will be in stores. The book should be in stores on the 15th.
I expect the cover to be out soon as well. I told my agent I’d try to work in a big-bosomed blond into the series just in case. Not because she’s particularly fond of well-endowed ladies, but because she told me about another author’s book about a Hispanic woman with an initial cover that depicted this Hispanic woman as a blond with mucho clevage, toting a big sword (just to be clear, it was the blond toting the sword, not the clevage). Hey, miscommunications happen. I don’t know which publisher it was with, and to the departement’s credit, they were able to revise. Still, I thought I’d be ready.
And now back to book 2 in the series.
