James A. Hunter
patreon
So stop, Collaborate and Listen!
🕑 Added 2024-01-08 20:57:13 +0000 UTCHey y'all! I wanted to thank everyone for taking a look at the first few chapters of the second instalment. After sifting through all the feedback, I've decided to go back and do a little doctoring/rewriting.
I don't plan to scrape the Howler ARC--I still think it's sold--but there are other changes that will make the book stronger overall. Most notably, I need to tweak the ending of book one. Nothing to do with the battle with Funtime Frank, but rather how I handled the aftermath of the battle. In the original version, Dan and company go straight from the fight to the Hold without divvying up the loot/relics or hitting a Progenitor Monolith first. This is a dumb move, especially because Dan knows that everyone and their brother is gunning for him. Sure, the Howlers MIGHT be friendly, but they might not be as well, so going in unprepared is a bad choice. Honestly, I knew this in my gut, BUT the book was just getting too long. Typically, 150K is a hard cut off for most single books (it mostly has to do with audio production costs because we pay "per finished hour" and ever 10K words is another finished hour).
Adding in the loot and relics would've pushed me closer to 160K total which increases the cost to an already very expensive book, so instead of dealing with the loot, I pushed Dan to go to the Hold which was out of character and dumb.
Which is why I'm just gonna bite the bullet and rectify that. It means I'll need to rework the ending of book 1--maybe add an extra chapter or two--but it will 100% make it a better book. I'll also need to rewrite the opening scenes for book 2 and tweak some of the other book 2 chapters, but ultimately that will let me launch into the action much more quickly with the second volume. I hate rewrites, but I firmly believe this is the right call. That does mean, it'll might be a little longer (though hopefully not TOO long) before y'all get new chapters, but I think it'll be worth the wait. Thanks again for all the feedback and support. I've written A LOT of books and I FUCKING LOVE writing Discount Dan. And because I love this series so much, and really want it to succeed, I'm dedicated to doing this thing the right way even if that means I have to take another pass and do some story-telling tune ups. Please stick with me a little longer and thanks again for all the feedback and support. Y'all are the best.
Comments
NoodleGod
That sounds like a reasonable set of steps to take. Good luck! I hope you sell a bazillion books!
