Should I start work on a sequel before I have sold my book?
I finished the 1st draft of my book, and have put it in the freezer(as I asked about in this question). I was planning to start work on a sequel of the book in the meantime.
But I was told by someone that I should not work on a sequel till I have sold my first book, since if I can't sell the first book, I will never be able to sell the sequel either, and all my effort will be wasted.
Is this good advice? As it means all the effort I put in creating the characters, themes, Universe(it was a Sci-Fi/Fantasy book) will be wasted.
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Brandon Sanderson in lecture 13, Brandon's Revision Process (which is online on his YouTube channel), explains his process thus:
- First draft
- Continuity
- Polish
- Give to Alpha Readers
------------------------
6 months break
------------------------
- Work in Feedback from Alphas
- Give to Betas
- Work in Feedback from Betas
- Polish
I may have forgotten a step, but that is not important here (watch the video). What is important is that Brandon lets his manuscript rest for half a year to gain some distance from it that will allow him to better rewrite.
And during this break,
he writes the first draft of the next book.
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it never hurt anyone to get a head start on their next novel. in my opinion, beginning the sequel shows a lot of faith in your first novel. you know it's good and is going to be published. go ahead and write, we all know that writing is a contagious disease. not to mention, if you're a true writer and storyteller at heart, once you start you can't stop!
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I say heed the Muse. If there's a story burning to be told, go ahead and write it. No effort is wasted. Even if your novel and its sequel are never published, you will have the experience of creating a universe and writing a sequel to an existing story, and you can always use that experience when crafting another story.
Besides, who knows how long it will take to sell your first book? And if the publisher wants a two-book deal, or the first one (a different story) gets bought, now you have two additional completed novels under your "brand" to offer the agent/publisher.
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