The Post-Publish Big Chop: Should I Fix My Fat Book Baby?
Now that my third book is LIVE, I can take a little time to reflect on the journey thus far.
In my launch day post for “Book 2: Pandora’s Poison”, I mentioned that I’d learnt a lot since becoming a published writer, and the book length issue was a huge part of what I’d learnt.
It continues to plague me to this day…
Back to the Beginning…
Usually, once readers start in on the book, it doesn’t feel nearly as long as it really is. There is a lot — a LOT — of dialogue, so it’s easy to flip through scenes.
I know my writing style is on point when it comes to DIALOGUE. My characters feel real because of it. And there’s a lot of it, so it helps you to dive right in.
The problem is, when you’re a reader used to 200-300 page books, and you see a new author clocking in at 500+………. yeah, it’s a hard sell.
While I think my story is worth the long read, and most readers did enjoy it, quite a few harped on the length.
Some said they read every word, some said it discouraged them at first but then they didn’t care, some said it was long but kept their interest throughout, and there was the odd one or two that mentioned skipping ahead or that marked it down primarily for that, calling it “long-winded” despite being such a good story.
But even my amazing blogger who gave it a fabulous, thoughtful review (and who eventually ended up doing an Author Q&A with me because she loved the book so much)… well, even she mentioned, in a nutshell:
“Fabulous story, but it just takes so long to get there!”
The thing was… whether in a good or bad light… it was MENTIONED. It was a TOPIC. And THAT might be the issue here.
I’d love to ignore it and hope I’m one day famous enough to not care. After all, Stephen King can afford to suck his teeth at short-attention-span readers, but even he noted that he went way overboard at times and lamented some of his longer works as he grew as a writer.
You see, sometimes… you’ve just got to kill those darlings!
Length as a Hindrance for Reader Interest
The problem is getting readers in the first place.
My book is already outside the genre norms as my characters aren’t “heroes and heroines” — fair enough. So, adding a super-long length on top of that… yeah, I’m just asking for trouble.
I recently ran a couple of marketing promo services and realised that bloggers preferred to simply promo the book rather than write a review… probably because of the length. So it feels like an uphill battle.
The thing is, I believe in the core of my soul that “published” means “published” and despite the ABILITY to do so, there’s only a small margin of what you really should “edit” once you hit that button.
So I’m still on the fence about cutting down Book 1.
It took me awhile to decide to “cut” my story into Books 2 & 3 and do some rewriting, but at least those weren’t published yet. Making a major change (like cutting 150 pages!) will require a LOT more effort.
I also have to consider what it would mean for future stories — as Book 1 had loads of minor characters with back stories since I knew I had plans for them later on. Sigh.
I don’t know if I have what it takes to “slim down” my first fat book baby. I’m glad that it is POSSIBLE, since I’m a self-published writer. And I know other indies do this ALL THE TIME.
But… still… sigh.
I guess part of it feels like… I’m a bit of a failure, if I have to go backwards and “FIX” my debut.
But… is taking this hit to my ego worth it, in the long run?
Planning for the long (book) trip
I myself don’t always look at book length before diving in. Most times, I just start reading and stop if my interest wanes. Usually, by 10% of whatever the length is, I’ll know.
But readers don’t all think like me. And some are voracious readers and have a very specific idea of what they’re looking for in a book.
Maybe I can’t hit ALL of their “wish list” items, but length can be a deterrent from the jump.
I guess it’s a little like thinking about planning a trip to Australia.
It looks great, I’m sure it’s great. Everyone who went tells me it’ll be great. But it’ll take me over an entire day to get there. So… I haven’t gone yet.
It’s not that I’ll NEVER go. I still WANT to go. I just don’t know when I’ll be prepared to make the trip. And in the meanwhile, I’m popping over to everywhere that’ll take me 12 hours or less…
And, if I’ve ALREADY gone to Australia or somewhere nearby (i.e. read another book by the same author) and I’m familiar with the journey, I’ll settle in and enjoy the 24+ hour trip, as I know exactly what’s coming.
Maybe I’m waffling on about “journeying” because my vacation is coming up and I’m excited! 🙂 But… well, you get the point.
A book is a journey. An unknown author is an unknown destination. So if the destination seems too far in the distance…
Yeah. You see where I’m going with this.
Going backward to go forward
If it were a single one-off standalone, then I would be more comfortable just leaving it in its chubby unwieldiness.
But I’m writing a SERIES. And while you CAN go straight to Book 2, I don’t recommend it.
Most readers will want to start at Book 1. Yep: the fat book baby.
So if it’s an issue that’s going to plague me and all future books in the series… yeah. I have to give it some serious thought.
In the meanwhile, I’ll hold off on promo-ing Book 1 again until I’ve made a decision either way… but in the meanwhile…
Sigh.
A book isn’t a piece of software. I shouldn’t need to do “patches”. It’s a piece of art. It should exist, intact, once revealed to the public.
And I’m an overachiever perfectionist. I don’t do “failure” well. And going back feels like failure. Republishing feels like failure. Needing to have a “Version 2” feels like failure.
But is “failure” worth it, to succeed in the long run?
Can “going back” help me to “go forward”?…
