Redemption and Other Fic Related Babble
I've been in fandom since 1995. I started out in XF, writing under a different name. I gained a bit of a following as an author of MSR--Mulder/Scully Romance to the uninitiated. I used to describe my fics as Harlequin romances, starring Mulder and Scully.
An over-simplication, perhaps. But close enough.
At one point, one of my readers contacted me and said some very complimentary things, among them that she had a contact at Harlequin/Silhouette and had spoken to this individual about me, pitching me as someone who could write the kind of stuff their readers would enjoy. She gave me the name and phone number of this person, and I called them. We had a really delightful conversation about me and my work. At the end of the call, she said to me, "I'll read anything you write. Send me something."
I never did.
The reason for that is that I write for me. I write what I want to write when I want to write it. I'm selfish in that regard. And during that period, I was obsessed by two certain FBI agents. I would sit down to write my "original romance," and my stupid muse would whisper in my ear, "Wouldn't it be cool if this story had aliens?"
Flash forward a really long time into the future.
I've been writing in Supernatural since 2009. I started out with canonical Sam and Dean (gen and slash), but my world tilted crazily on its axis when I discovered J2AU. I'd be the first to admit it's my favorite flavor of fic in this fandom (try saying that ten times fast!) I don't know what it is about the guys. Their chemistry is something special and their public personae are flexible enough to lend them to a variety of settings and situations. They really inspire me.
After not writing for awhile, I posted my j2_everafter fic, Imperative, on February 20th. While the challenge requires a minimum of 2,000 words, I wrote over 24,000. This almost always happens to me when I write AU. I feel like a lot of time needs to be spent creating the world. I don't know if it was the timing of my posting (during a long hiatus), the prompt, my writing or just general this-is-season-seven-and-we've-seen-it-all-before malaise, but the silly thing sank like a stone. This is not the end of the world, nor do I want this to turn into a weird Why Don't They Love Me Anymore post. I have little patience with people who try to guilt readers into giving feedback and I really, really don't want to be a hypocrite about this.
The reason I brought this up is to explain where my mind is these days. I posted Imperative and then immediately sat down and outlined my Big Bang entry for this year. I've got the plot, characters, timeline, setting--I'm ready to go. Except...I'm really not. It's hard to get revved up for a new 20,000+ words story when you just posted one that didn't go over so well.
So that made me ponder what to do. Like I'd said--I have a story pretty well formed and ready to write. It's an AU, so there's nothing tying it specifically to Supernatural.
The wheels began to turn.
I have a friend who is a fairly successful independent write/publisher. She's been doing this for the last four years and has developed quite a following with the Young Adult market. She's currently trying to move from that genre into adult novels, and we've spent a lot of time talking about how you do the e-publishing thing. She started out as a fic writer, so she knows what that world is like. We have a lot in common. The more she talked about how she would recommend proceeding, the more intrigued I became. Ultimately, I thought--that's it! I'm going to take the plunge. My Big Bang fic is going to morph into my first e-published novel.
What the hell, right?
Then we spoke a bit more...
She talked to me about how it's a good idea to offer your first novel for free, at least initially, to drum up an audience. She showed me how, when she did that with one of her books, she had over 1,200 copies downloaded on the first day. She also said she tries to time releases for around the holidays as people tend to get new gadgets (iPads, e-readers, etc.) and are on the lookout for cheap downloadable stories. On the one hand, the timing is really pretty good. I'd have eight or nine months to work on this new piece before the Christmas season kicked off. On the other hand, she stressed how important it is to get people hooked first, so they look forward to your Christmas release. She mentioned she knew how tough it was to work on something for months and months only to have to give it away, but that's really the way to go. I reluctantly agreed, and then it hit me.
I've already got a novel length story completed that wouldn't be all that hard to adapt for a general gay fiction audience.
I'm talking about Redemption.
It's easily my most popular fic, and one that brings together multiple genres--romance, action/thriller, sci-fi--so it has the potential to attract a wider audience. It's pretty polished at this stage (though I know there are things I want to edit down/change) and changing out the names requires the click of a button. I'm going to adapt it and offer it as my first free novel.
Which means I need to pull it off the web.
I've decided the story will remain available through the month of March. But come April 1st, I'm going to take it down from LJ and pull what few chapters I put up on AO3 (I started uploading it there and never finished the process). Ultimately, this shouldn't be a huge deal for people. I've been around fandom long enough to know that if anyone finds an old rec link and wants to read Redemption in its original form, they can put a post up on spnstoryfinders and no doubt some kind soul will help them out. But I feel as if I need to put out a general notice.
So please spread the word. :-) I've uploaded a new PDF to the Master Post, so people can download a single file if they like. On the one hand, this breaks my heart to pull this from LJ because I'll lose all the incredibly kind feedback I've gotten over the last couple of years. On the other hand, I'm kind of excited about this new venture.
I'll keep you posted on how it all goes. :-)
An over-simplication, perhaps. But close enough.
At one point, one of my readers contacted me and said some very complimentary things, among them that she had a contact at Harlequin/Silhouette and had spoken to this individual about me, pitching me as someone who could write the kind of stuff their readers would enjoy. She gave me the name and phone number of this person, and I called them. We had a really delightful conversation about me and my work. At the end of the call, she said to me, "I'll read anything you write. Send me something."
I never did.
The reason for that is that I write for me. I write what I want to write when I want to write it. I'm selfish in that regard. And during that period, I was obsessed by two certain FBI agents. I would sit down to write my "original romance," and my stupid muse would whisper in my ear, "Wouldn't it be cool if this story had aliens?"
Flash forward a really long time into the future.
I've been writing in Supernatural since 2009. I started out with canonical Sam and Dean (gen and slash), but my world tilted crazily on its axis when I discovered J2AU. I'd be the first to admit it's my favorite flavor of fic in this fandom (try saying that ten times fast!) I don't know what it is about the guys. Their chemistry is something special and their public personae are flexible enough to lend them to a variety of settings and situations. They really inspire me.
After not writing for awhile, I posted my j2_everafter fic, Imperative, on February 20th. While the challenge requires a minimum of 2,000 words, I wrote over 24,000. This almost always happens to me when I write AU. I feel like a lot of time needs to be spent creating the world. I don't know if it was the timing of my posting (during a long hiatus), the prompt, my writing or just general this-is-season-seven-and-we've-seen-it-all-before malaise, but the silly thing sank like a stone. This is not the end of the world, nor do I want this to turn into a weird Why Don't They Love Me Anymore post. I have little patience with people who try to guilt readers into giving feedback and I really, really don't want to be a hypocrite about this.
The reason I brought this up is to explain where my mind is these days. I posted Imperative and then immediately sat down and outlined my Big Bang entry for this year. I've got the plot, characters, timeline, setting--I'm ready to go. Except...I'm really not. It's hard to get revved up for a new 20,000+ words story when you just posted one that didn't go over so well.
So that made me ponder what to do. Like I'd said--I have a story pretty well formed and ready to write. It's an AU, so there's nothing tying it specifically to Supernatural.
The wheels began to turn.
I have a friend who is a fairly successful independent write/publisher. She's been doing this for the last four years and has developed quite a following with the Young Adult market. She's currently trying to move from that genre into adult novels, and we've spent a lot of time talking about how you do the e-publishing thing. She started out as a fic writer, so she knows what that world is like. We have a lot in common. The more she talked about how she would recommend proceeding, the more intrigued I became. Ultimately, I thought--that's it! I'm going to take the plunge. My Big Bang fic is going to morph into my first e-published novel.
What the hell, right?
Then we spoke a bit more...
She talked to me about how it's a good idea to offer your first novel for free, at least initially, to drum up an audience. She showed me how, when she did that with one of her books, she had over 1,200 copies downloaded on the first day. She also said she tries to time releases for around the holidays as people tend to get new gadgets (iPads, e-readers, etc.) and are on the lookout for cheap downloadable stories. On the one hand, the timing is really pretty good. I'd have eight or nine months to work on this new piece before the Christmas season kicked off. On the other hand, she stressed how important it is to get people hooked first, so they look forward to your Christmas release. She mentioned she knew how tough it was to work on something for months and months only to have to give it away, but that's really the way to go. I reluctantly agreed, and then it hit me.
I've already got a novel length story completed that wouldn't be all that hard to adapt for a general gay fiction audience.
I'm talking about Redemption.
It's easily my most popular fic, and one that brings together multiple genres--romance, action/thriller, sci-fi--so it has the potential to attract a wider audience. It's pretty polished at this stage (though I know there are things I want to edit down/change) and changing out the names requires the click of a button. I'm going to adapt it and offer it as my first free novel.
Which means I need to pull it off the web.
I've decided the story will remain available through the month of March. But come April 1st, I'm going to take it down from LJ and pull what few chapters I put up on AO3 (I started uploading it there and never finished the process). Ultimately, this shouldn't be a huge deal for people. I've been around fandom long enough to know that if anyone finds an old rec link and wants to read Redemption in its original form, they can put a post up on spnstoryfinders and no doubt some kind soul will help them out. But I feel as if I need to put out a general notice.
So please spread the word. :-) I've uploaded a new PDF to the Master Post, so people can download a single file if they like. On the one hand, this breaks my heart to pull this from LJ because I'll lose all the incredibly kind feedback I've gotten over the last couple of years. On the other hand, I'm kind of excited about this new venture.
I'll keep you posted on how it all goes. :-)