I'm so glad it's Wednesday. Know why? Because you WIPpeters are some of my all-time favorite online buddies, and I've been waiting all week to share some great news with you! Ok, maybe I shouldn't call it news. Developments is a better choice. Here's some new developments.
I'm working on my followup novel to The Beloved Daughter. But most of you know that already. What you DON'T know ... is that IT HAS A NAME!! My next novel will be called Not Alone. I have such high visions and hopes for the book and for what's to come after it's printed. In fact, as we speak I'm in the planning stages of starting a small Kickstart campaign in August so people can preorder copies (yes, I'm even doing international shipping because I love my WIPpet friends so much!).
Anyway, in addition to working on some of my pre-pub promo for Not Alone (the baby has a NAME everybody!), I've been working on something else really fun called The Beloved Daughter: Bonus Materials. See, after I ran my Amazon free promotional period for The Beloved Daughter, a lot of people read it and then downloaded my special-needs memoir, A Boy Named Silas. The blaring message these readers were sending me was, "We don't just want to read your novels. We want to know about you, too." Who wouldn't be flattered by that?
So I started working on a Bonus Materials ebook. Just picture a DVD. If The Beloved Daughter was the movie, this new ebook would be the bonus disc. So far I have character studies on each of the characters, outtakes (scenes I took out, with author commentary), sneak peaks (the first chapter of Not Alone, the NOW-NAMED followup to The Beloved Daughter), and my favorite part - Becoming Beloved: A Mini Memoir. In this section, I talk about my experiences writing The Beloved Daughter through to my post-publication depression last spring. I hope to show my readers that even though I write really heavy fiction, I also have what might pass in some spheres as a sense of humor. (Who would have thought, given what I write about, right?)
So... after that long introduction, today's WIP is from my all-time favorite chapter in The Beloved Daughter: Bonus Materials. It's in the mini memoir section, and the chapter is called... well, we'll get to that in a minute.
***
During the first month of its publication, The Beloved Daughter got only five-star
reviews on amazon. You can imagine what it did to my ego reading phrases like riveting and heart-wrenching, HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED (in all caps for emphasis), page
turner, and couldn’t put it down.
I’d check my review page every hour (although my
husband might argue it was more often than that), and whenever a new review
popped up I’d make some kind of meek comment like, “Got another five-star
today.” I even remember at one point thinking something along the lines of, Wow, I didn’t know my novel was that good.
Can you tell I needed some humbling?
My first four-star review came a month after The Beloved Daughter was published. I should have been ready for it. But I wasn’t.
***
Ok, so the chapter this WIPpet appears in is called "Reviewers’ Curse (or The Day My Best Friend Only Gave Me Four Stars)." So my chapter title (and subtitle) plus the nine sentences above, make a total of ten - perfect for a WIPpet post on July 10th!
Anyway, you'll have to read the Bonus Materials when it comes out to hear the outcome of this fateful day, but I'll give enough of a spoiler to let you know that my former best friend remains my current best friend, and that I no longer stalk my amazon review page.
(Very often.)
***
Blog Love: Thanks to K. L. Schwengel from My Random Muse for the WIPpet fun.
Random Fact: My very favorite bonus features from a movie is the deleted scenes from Rat Race.
Straw Poll: Like I mentioned, I'm getting kickstart campaign ready in preparation for Not Alone's release. Could you anonymously click on what you're most likely to do once that campaign is up and running? (No commitments, I'm just wanting a general feel to help me gauge where to set my fundraising goal.)
Now that is starting out WIPpet Wednesday with a BANG!! How exciting for you and all your loyal readers. :) I've peered at Kickstarter from time to time. You'll need to chronicle your experiences for the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteOh, and excellent WIPpet. I remember getting my first 3-star review. It was very honest but still stung until I realized that most of what the reviewer didn't like meant that I had accomplished exactly what I set out to.
Yeah, I'm curious about Kickstarter too. Of course I'll give you guys updates! Sometimes when you read em carefully enough those 3s can be big compliments, eh?
DeleteYAY for titles! For me, getting a title can be harder than finding knee high boots I like. Well, maybe not that hard. (Took me 3 years to find my last pair of boots.)
ReplyDeleteI think the mini-memoir is such an interesting idea! It also seems like you're having fun writing it. Best wishes for the kickstarter.
Wow - those must be some amazing boots! You'll have to post pictures sometime... ;)
DeleteI would post them, but after owning them a year and a half they broke just before summer started. I've luckily got great summer shoes, but I've restarted my search anew.
DeleteHooray for bonus features! That sounds like so much fun, and I love the bit you chose to share. I'm sitting here pre-review stage thinking "I would KILL for 4-star reviews," but if I'd been in your all-5 position, I think my reaction would be the same. :)
ReplyDeleteHaha, yeah, I thought I'd be a lot more level-headed about reviews than I actually was. I HOPE I'm getting over myself...
DeleteYay for a name!! And...totally just had that experience with the bff giving a low review. Awesome WIPpet this Wed.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny you can relate, Adrian! I hope BFF issues are smoohted over!
DeleteIt's so interesting to me to hear about your experience of self publishing Alana. And well done on all those 5 star reviews - you deserved them and don't let anyone tell you otherwise! I'll buy the sequel when it comes out. :)
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks Elaine! That's so kind of you to say!
DeleteHmm... I'm one of those people who almost never gives 5-star reviews for anything. I read the Lord of the Rings 35 times (loved it) but if anyone asked me for an honest review, I'd probably only give it 4-stars (and the movies 3-stars). So, I probably shouldn't be reviewing anyone's books too soon....
ReplyDeleteStill, the "back story" on the story sounds like it's going to be a fun project to write about. And a title! That's reason enough to cheer about--don't the titles often feel like naming a child? (I guess they do to you too, since you're noted this as christening.)
Yeah, it did feel kind of like naming a child in a lot of ways. I think I'm a better beta than reviewer, too. I can be pretty critical, but I'm also pretty shy about hurting feelings.
DeleteI think I voted. Maybe. My pop-up blocker had something to say about it, so I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteNot Alone sounds like a great name to me. I look forward to reading it. =0)
And, as for that "friend" of yours, I think you should just give them a piece of your mind.
Oh, I totally did give her a piece of my mind. She spent all of last night and this morning thinking I was irate.
DeleteOh good. She deserved it.
DeleteWhat a really great idea. If I like a book (and of course I did like yours!!!) I always want to know the story behind the process. Probably because I love to see how other people acheived their goals and what they learned along the way. (I've fallen in enough holes myself to be very open to learning from others!).
ReplyDeleteAnd just hearing you write about the star rating makes me feel slightly ill... I rarely review on amazon or goodreads because I hate star ratings. I love different books for different reasons and find the stars never really reflect that. Unless of course it's Patrick Rothfuss, because I turn sommersaults just thinking about his books...
But well done you. You deserve your slew of 5 stars!
Thanks Raweyn! I actually don't know Patrick Rothfuss. Tell me more! I'm excited about the story behind the story too. It's been a fun project to work on.
DeleteThe excitement in this post is infectious! I am sitting here with a big grin! I love the idea of bonus features.
ReplyDeleteYay for a title! Titles are the bane of my existence!
I love the WIPpet. I can totally understand that feeling, particularly after so many wonderful reviews!
Yeah, this title was a lot harder than all my others. So glad I don't have to keep calling it Junowrimo Draft 1, though! Glad you grinned! ;)
DeleteNot Alone - that's a great title and I love your idea of bonus materials and 'Becoming Beloved: A Mini-Memoir' is just genius! The funny thing is a 4-star review is really respectable but yes, amongst all those 5-star ones and it being from a friend... I think it will be really interesting to read the story behind The Beloved Daughter - it's the perfect kind of book for that idea to work.
ReplyDelete