Ask the Career Indie Author: Which incomplete novel should I finish first?
(This question popped up on a forum, and I liked my answer so much I thought I would share it with you. I won’t identify the sender, and I rewrote the question to hide any identifiable information).
I’ve always wanted to write novels, and I was going great guns for awhile. I have two mysteries that are nearly finished, and five more that range for a full outline to a couple of chapters.
Then life intervened, and I had to put my writing dream on hold.
I want to get back into it, but I can’t figure out what to do next. Should I finish my books? Which incomplete novel should I finish first? Should I develop my website and build up a group of fans instead? Or all of the above? I’m paralyzed with indecision, and at the same time, I feel like I’m sending my books out to be slaughtered.
What can you suggest to get me out of my slough of despond and whip my books into shape as part of a successful business plan?
You need to answer this questions first: What do you define as success? Money? Personal fulfillment from seeing your novels out there? The applause from your fellow writers?
That answer determines your orientation.
Personal Fulfillment
You have a vision for your books. You may listen to beta readers. You may learn from books and courses, but you have a unique vision and you want it out there.
Solution: Read your books (if you haven’t) and heed your inner voice. It’ll tell you what you think about them. Decide on which one you want to finish first and commit to doing that one thing. (Don’t calculate how much work you need to do, because if you’re already thinking that way, that’s what you’ll do. But if you’re an artist, you’d be better off listening to that inner voice.)
But before you start, commit yourself to finishing it. Straight through. Finish the draft, perform any revisions, and get it done. This is not negotiable.
If you set it aside, you will be teaching yourself never to finish it. Yes, I’ve heard the let it cool advice. I also know it doesn’t work for me. I have too many books cooling that I haven’t gotten back to. Like, 20-year-old books.
Money
Your question came in two parts. You wanted to know which book to finish, but you also asked for a business plan, so this answer is different.
I don’t know what kind of books you have, beyond their genre, but if you want to make money, there are three ways to go about it:
SERIES BASED ON YOUR WORLD: I hope I don’t have to explain this.
SERIES BASED ON YOUR GENRE AND PERSONAL BRAND: You write one-offs, but they’re all techno-thrillers. Or second-chance romances. Or Agatha Christie-like mysteries involving wealthy families. Or Westerns.
NOVELS IN WHICH YOU’RE THE BRAND: You write such distinctive books, and you’re willing to put yourself out there and build your image so that in later books, your name will be larger than the title. Think Terry Pratchett, Tim Holt, and Liam Moriarty.
In all of these, it may take several years and multiple books plus advertising and marketing chops to build momentum. Unless you already have a wide circle of friends and relatives willing to give you a boost, media connections, or good publicity skills, you need to think long-term.
This also means working on your prose and developing a distinctive voice and intellect that is uniquely you. You need to set yourself apart from the book-a-month writers who rely on constant marketing and advertising to attract readers who can’t distinguish their world and stories from the thousand other writers in their genre.
As for your uncompleted books, take a hard look at them and see if they fit into one of the three models. If they don’t, you may have to set them aside. Don’t feel bad! You know you can write a novel, you just need to write a novel people will want to read. A novel that declares what it is easily (title, cover, blurb) and will get someone to say, “I choose you!”
The one thing you have on your side is time and support. Mary Higgins Clark started this way, getting up an hour early and getting each book out one at a time. J.K. Rowling did it, too.
So can you.
