So. Another book drafted -- Bristlecone -- and off to my agent, to join the stack of unsold ones being hawked. Be nice if one of them got bought ...I have a potential book project of which I may not speak out there in the aether that might come to pass. I have to leave some space, at least for a while, in case it does sail into port, so whatever I start next has to be one I can slide to a back burner on simmer, which means it's probably not a good idea to do chapters and an outline and shoot for a contract. Unless, of course, I can get enough time on the delivery date so it won't matter.
There is also a movie script kinda-sorta flitting about that might need some things done to it, does it ever alight. I can't say anything else about it at the moment, either.
Having written most recently a S&S fantasy, a sort-of urban Buddhist fantasy, and a technothriller, and bearing in mind that if any of these sell the publisher will want an option on another novel, and probably a sequel to the ones in question, I kinda need to leave room for that, too. Plus any rewrites that might need to be done on the manuscripts in play.
But the slight -- albeit temporary -- gap does kind of open the field for the possibility of, oh, maybe a science fiction novel. Maybe ... space opera. Could possibly maybe even be a book in a series I've already done some work in. I dunno.
I have to do something, because I've had a book in progress since I started writing novels in 1980, and while this has sometimes been as many as three going at the same time, I need at least one.
What to do, what to do ...
Decisions, decisions ...
Having just finished the entore Matador series (again) including The Omega Cage, I sure as hell hope that you are considering a new Matador novel.
ReplyDeletePlease?
Pretty Please?
(Bobbe, work on him some more and get the other 2 members of the Core Four on the horn)
All right, all right. Here's the deal: I am going to tentatively start on Siblings of the Shroud. If paying work comes up, that gets priority, and SOTS -- got to like that acronym, hey, Kid? -- goes on the back burner.
ReplyDeleteNobody keeps saying, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" or I stop the car and whack somebody.
Grumble, grumble.
Way to taunt the fanboys!
ReplyDeleteHey wait. That's me!
Frak!
Ron
I promis to behave myself and to be understanding when paying work comes along.
ReplyDeleteJust knowing there is another book coming along will allow me to sleep through the nights.
Awesome! Here I was going to chastise you for even hinting at the possibility and needlessly getting our hopes up, but it sounds like it's not just a tease.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, I promise to be patient, not whine if there are a few detours on the way, and to elbow any of the other kids in the back if they forget the rules.
Can I just applaud madly? ;)
ReplyDeleteI have an erection.
ReplyDeleteAfter an opening like that, saying something like "I'd gladly endure a few hard whacks for the Matadors" seems a touch much...But I would. You give it to me both barrels so much anyway, I don't think I'd notice extra.
Also...YOU'RE the one who put it out there wearing a slinky dress and thong underwear. You can't let it simultaneously wiggle it's ass at us and then get uppity when we give it a playful smack.
Which raises an interesting thought. I'm assuming that over time the rights to your older work revert back to you, and possibly some of your work didn't sell at all (no accounting for taste!). Would you consider selling it online as per 'But What if I Did This?', I for one would be very intersted in purchasing it.
ReplyDeleteNobody keeps saying, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" or I stop the car and whack somebody.
ReplyDelete"Death came for him from entries in a blog..."
W00T!
Most of my contracts have reversion clauses, and if a book stays out of print long enough, I can reclaim it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't done this yet because it's been more trouble than it is worth.
Here's the logic: If the book was commercially-viable, then the people who have it would be selling it. If I take it back and offer it elsewhere, maybe I'll get a bite.
If I wait a bit, the publisher who bought it might bring it out again, and this has been more true than not. Some of the Matador titles stayed in print for more than a decade, went out, and then were brought back again.
Selling out-of-print titles here or on Amazon isn't going to be that well-paying a gig. Master of Pamor was an original novel that was unpublished when I uploaded it to the Kindle market (as well as to lulu.com and here on my blog.) While it has sold enough copies to be amusing, I'm not getting rich from those sales by any means, and that was a long book nobody had ever seen before. I'd expect my fans to jump all over it, but they didn't.
I had several fans tell me, Oh, if you put that on lulu.com, I'll buy it! But they haven't. Sales there are less than from the blog. I don't blame them -- five bucks versus twenty for the hard copy, and I make more money on the PDF anyhow.
Partially they haven't jumped on that title because I have different sets of fans.
Some like the shared-universe stuff -- Star Wars, Aliens, Net Force. They tend not to buy my original material.
Some like the original stuff and don't read the tie-ins.
Some like particular books -- the Matadors -- and don't buy anything else.
A few will buy anything with my name on it, but only a few.
The older books, I don't have efiles on, and they'd have to be scanned to be uploaded. Even with a good scanner and OCR program, this still requires formatting and editing. If I just used PDF's, the pages still have to be scanned manually, and frankly, I don't think it will be worth my time.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I certainly see your point. Guess I'll just have to hit those 2nd hand bookshops :). Take care and a Merry Christmas to you.
ReplyDeleteI'm a Matador fan (bet you'd have never guessed it) but I really enjoyed the Alien and Predator books you've done. The Indianna Jones book was a fun read also. Haven't read any of your Clancy books.
ReplyDeleteI just found a copy of The Trinity Vector and I'm about half way through it and enjoying it very much.
The Trinity Vector is DIFFERENT. It's not the sort of thing you expect from Steve, and as much as I love the Matadors (we're getting married next month) Trinity Vector is my all time Perry favorite. I'll probably get lynched and ostracized (in that order) from the other fanboys for saying this, but I wish they'd make a movie from Trinity Vector more than the Matadors. Unfortunately, if anyone ever does, it'll be the cable channel formerly known as Sci-Fi, and it will resemble the book about as much as Mark Hamill resembles an actor.
ReplyDeleteRe, The shared universe thing: For me, it depends on the universe. I like the Star Wars stuff because I like Star Wars. I like what He did with Clancy...But I wouldn't pick up a Perry-written Clancy novel just because he did it. The only thing I ever liked from Tom Clancy is "The Hunt for Red October", and by the time "Net Force" came out, I was completely uninterested.
I got into the Alien/Predator stuff because I was into "Alien" at the time, and it looked interesting. I never read "The Mask", because I didn't like the movie at all.