It turns out my cover designer is going to help solve my categorization challenges. Who knew? While I have no clue yet about the cover’s ultimate design, just discussing tone and imagery with the designer is clarifying matters. He’s asking good questions. I’m giving dumb answers, but less dumb each time.
As mentioned in prior posts, my novel does not fall cleanly into a genre. But it has some definitive characteristics. The way I originally explained the story to the designer, with an overemphasis on the key scenes, it sounded dark like a psychological thriller. But it isn’t dark. There’s a light-hearted, almost playful tone to much of the prose. There are dark-ish moments of violence and death but they aren’t scary or chilling like a horror novel. Sad, maybe, but not disturbing.
Many of my favorite authors (Christopher Moore, Douglas Adams) are funny. Sometimes they’re laugh-out-loud funny, but most of the time they succeed by spitting out passages with creative wording, unexpected phrase combinations and brimming with unusual characters. My hope is to capture a similar creativity with my writing. I’m not funny, unfortunately, but I certainly seek to be entertaining.
So maybe the Psychological category in Literary Fiction on Amazon won’t be the ideal location. There’s more research and thought required but I feel like progress has occurred despite my ineptitude.
Developmental Edit
Also this week, I engaged an editor to perform a developmental edit. Holy expensive part of the process, Batman! First lesson: don’t go into this process with a 7-week deadline. I sought bids from several editors and more than one declined the request because the deadline was too short. Next time I’ll give at least 4 months of lead time. It helps to have a plan instead of winging it.
With the editor’s schedule, I expect to receive the deliverables back by August 31. So, if you happen to know me, that’s the day I’ll require beer and hugs to get through it. By then I’ll have the cover done and, if I’m going to publish in September, very little time to perform the edits satisfactorily before pressing the big red button. Several of the items on the pre-publishing checklist will have to be complete.
While I don’t have a concrete plan at present, it is taking shape. Know what else is taking shape? The plot to novel #2. I have most of the main characters set and a semblance of the story in place. The novella is in draft form and marinating, which gives me some time to think. If I can pull it off, I’d like to release novel #2 within six months of novel #1. With the addition of DEMERGENCE (book 0 in the series), that’s 3 pieces in 6 months. Then, if it takes me a year to finish novel #3, maybe my small number of readers will forgive me.
Until next time!