May: Tweaking The Plan

For a year the path to e-publishing had been clear, but now things have become muddled with uncertainty.  Even though progress continues, the way ahead no longer seems as giving of itself.  Time has begun to slow while also whizzing by.  The Plan to e-publish, as it was, had to be altered.  (You can go back and check the beginning of this blog to see how "The Plan" originated.) 

The Old Plan was to release each part, (then, three parts, and now, four stages) beginning in July, as e-books, throughout the rest of the year, and then release the paper versions once, or as the final stage is released.  To some extent the plan has not changed much.  Yet the release dates will be bumped to later days.  When will the first stage be available?  I cannot say as of yet.

I want to bring you the best possible product that I can.  For me to rush it, just to keep to the early plan, would be foolish.  This delay of publishing is not a bad thing; it may actually turn out to benefit the overall quality of the finished novel.

The movie Jaws always seems to come to mind when such setbacks occur.  They had so many problems with the mechanical shark that they had to be more creative in order to finish the movie.  It was on the boat, as the cast and crew were waiting on "Bruce" the shark, that they made some of the film's greatest scenes.  All the delays required rewrites and allowed for more takes, which helped greatly.  The problems also meant that more and more underwater POVs would be needed along with an iconic musical score to make up for the mechanical shark setbacks. But, in the end, it all helped to make Jaws a better movie.  I'm trying to keep that in mind as July draws closer and closer, like a shark in the e-publishing waters.     

The big day of this year is November tenth.  Why?  It marks the day one year prior to the opening of the story in Monarch.  That is the latest possible day I am willing to consider releasing Stage One.  So, if you are interested in knowing when you might be able to get your hands on the novel, there looks to be a time frame of about four months in which the first stage will be released.   

D-DAY:  July 1st - November 10th


-aap