Should I release my novel now... or miss a golden opportunity?
I just finished writing the first draft of my novel. (BTW, this is my first)
As luck would have it, something just popped up in the news which is directly related to my story. The topic has been trending on Google for months and is still going strong. But the problem is that I was planning on spending the next 2 years editing. My book isn't ready for release. Not by far.
Here's the options I've brainstormed so far:
- Start a blog and build a readership I can later market my book to (but the blog will require a time commitment and pull me away from my novel, delaying the release even further)
- Release an average to above-average novel now... and a second edition in 2 years
- Split my book into 4 parts (100-150 pages each). Release one book every six months
- Sigh and say this wasn't meant to be (doing some research, I estimate it will take 10-20 years for this topic to start trending again)
- Quit my job and get this book out there now (haha)
Any advice on what I should do?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/45096. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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From experience, just hitting a pop-culture trend head-on isn't necessarily going to make people read your book. Keep in mind, when a trend is hitting, there's plenty of competition. The people who strike it big in those situations are the ones who were solidly ahead of the trend in the first place. So you may be overestimating this opportunity, even in the scenario of a 100% ready book.
With that said, it sounds like you're self-publishing. If that's the case, there's little downside to serializing your book online, one chapter at a time, either on a blog you create for that purpose, or on the best pre-existing platform you can place yourself on. Of course, you won't want to do this unless you're confident of the quality of each chapter as you publish it. Given that, however, you can catch the trend, build an audience, get early feedback, and still publish a completed, polished-up book at the end of the process. Traditional publishers tend to be much more wary of work that has already appeared in one form or another, but if the work is popular enough online, a traditional publisher will have no qualms about snapping it up. At one time, it was common for novels to first appear in serialized form --nearly all Charles Dickens' work first appeared that way --and it seems like this is making a comeback in the internet age.
It's too early for me to give a report back on the outcomes, but I'm actually doing this right now with a timely non-fiction book that I wasn't able to place with a publisher. Instead of bottom drawering it, I'm serializing it online on a well-known professional blog. There, I have the advantage of the host blog's platform and audience. If it does well enough there I'll either try again with the publishers, or potentially even self-publish. (Meanwhile, I'm getting paid per installment --the most income I've made from my writing in years.)
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45108. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Don't try to chase trends.
Everyone wants to be the next best thing. The perfectly timed topical hit. If that works out for you, great. But don't try to make it happen.
Even if you finished your book next week, it's too late. The topic may have been around for months, but it will be gone by the time you get published. If not gone, then it will be coming at the end of the news cycle when readers are already tired of it.
If the topic really is that strong, it could easily have a resurgence in a couple of years. Maybe triggered by the release of your book, though I wouldn't count on that.
Let your publisher decide about marketing angles. If you're self-publishing, then worry about that when the book is completely 100% done and being released. A hot news cycle at the time of release might change the timing or marketing slightly, but that's it.
It might be different for nonfiction but your work is a novel. A well-written novel transcends news cycles. A well-written novel can also be 8-18 years old when it gets a reader surge due to sharing its subject with something in the news.
Just finish the novel and try to get it published. Let news cycles do their thing without worrying about them.
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