The Demon King

I think I might have been going about The Demon King in the wrong way.

I've been approaching this project as if it were (a) something I would post on AO3, and (b) something I would write under the conditions of working with ADHD. If I continue on in this way, I probably can't expect to use traditional publishing routes.

I'm therefore going to need to make a decision.

Am I going to continue to post this on AO3 as a five-part series of 30k-word novellas? If so, am I eventually going to self-publish physical editions on Kickstarter? If I do that, would it be worth formally starting my own press? How would that work?

or

Am I going to try to get this traditionally published? If so, how can I restructure the story to fit within the confines of a 110k-word novel? And how can I keep myself motivated to write it?

I think I'd like to go the traditional publishing route, mainly because I enjoy reading traditionally published novels. Also, I lost all of my savings to the pandemic and suck at both admin and promoting myself.

Before I make any decisions, I want to sit down with the story and see if I can come up with an outline that would fit everything into a single cohesive novel. I think it might also be worth writing a query letter for the first part as a stand-alone novella just to see where that goes.

The Wind Waker

I think I've also been approaching my Wind Waker project in the wrong way. This is tricky, because academic publishers require you to submit a complete manuscript that's already ready for print and peer review along with a lengthy prospectus, while nonacademic publishers prefer a short pitch and sample chapter.

I've been thinking about pitching the project to Boss Fight Books, but this is also tricky, mainly because they have a very specific style. If I were to write the project for Boss Fight Books but then couldn't get the editors to read or respond to the pitch, then I will have an unpublishable manuscript that I'd have to start over from scratch if I wanted to publish it elsewhere.

Nevertheless, it's worth trying to at least pitch the project to them without writing the entire thing in advance.

Most of the books in the Boss Fight series are about 30k words long. I should therefore think of the project as a connected series of seven or eight 3,500-word essays. If I can come up with an outline and short list of annotated works cited, I can work from there to come up with a focal point for the pitch and a sample chapter.

If that doesn't work, I can pitch the sample chapter to somewhere like Gamasutra and start getting in touch with editors at academic presses to see how they would approach the project.

I guess I've always thought of myself as fandom trash who doesn't have anything interesting or important to say, but maybe it's time to start taking myself seriously. I think I probably panicked while racing against the tenure clock; but, now that I don't have to worry about that anymore, it's worth sitting down and taking the time to plan this project properly.

Demon King Reboot

I think the trouble I was having with my query letter for The Demon King was that the project was not marketable, at least not as I originally envisioned it. I therefore need to rebuild the story after reducing it to its essence, which is:

- postapocalyptic
- time travel
- romance

( Read more... )

I’ll need to put together a rough outline, but here’s the basic pitch:

Having used forbidden magic to cast himself into a distant future, the demonic wizard Ananth finds himself in the glittering royal court of the kingdom of Whitespire, where he seeks a powerful relic that will prevent the apocalypse that has decimated the world he knows. Knowledge of this relic is carefully guarded by the beautiful yet devious Princess Ceres, who has recruited Ananth as an ally to subvert a plot against her throne. Ananth allows himself to be drawn closer to Ceres, only to be faced with an impossible decision: Is saving the past worth destroying the future of the woman he loves?