Time, Time, Decision Time

The new year is fast approaching and I'm thinking about my game plan for 2011. I haven't gotten many bites for Kings & Queens, a few, but nothing substantial, but maybe there's a reason for that.

I'm thinking more and more about what I want for Kings & Queens and I'm not so sure landing representation for that novel is the right thing. Here's why:

In the industry, Kings & Queens would be considered Young Adult. Hands down. But, it's sequel, Sapphire Reign, which opens ten years later with some of the same characters, is clearly Adult, even though one of its five threads is a teen's perspective.

In YA, the whole book needs to be about and for teens. SR is not.

But I believe readers will want to catch up with old friends, even though their story picks up ten years later. The industry cares about shelving. Readers do not. They just want good books. And if your first book is good, they'll jump to the second, at least out of curiosity. And I really want a series. I do. I don't want just one book. I want 2 or 3.

Sapphire Reign is good. I mean, really good.

It's not perfect of course, what book is, but it's way too good to be shelved in my own library or tossed into File 13. I'm surprise I wrote the thing. It's dark, it's gritty, it's twisty, it's romantic, it's hot, it's tense, and it contains tenacious characters that many pre-readers have already fallen in love with and cheered for.

And Sapphire Reign is so different than anything I've ever read. I know there are books with braided story lines that crash together in the end, but mine has 2 adult perspectives, one teen and a child, all pertinent.

You'd think my book being different would be an asset, but with nothing to compare it to, nothing to point to and say my book is this-meets-that, it makes it difficult for the pros to see the marketability in that.

I was offered an opportunity to publish Kings & Queens with a smaller outfit, but I think I want to hold off for now.

So, my plan is to finish Dropping Like Flies and hopefully get repped for that. Once I have a book or two out or a little bit of popularity, I will either self-publish my other books as a series or go with an outfit that will allow me to keep them together.

I've been refining my covers and I'm excited about the way they look. In a publishing house, you have no say about cover design or content. I want to be in control. I want to publish both and for them to be together. And I might want to pen a third. Maybe. But I want the option, should a plot reveal itself.

I have a vision and I'm not so sure the industry would share it.

Does that make sense? Am I stupid?

~Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.