Change of tactics

The point behind the previous posting was to lead into this, but it didn't quite turn out the way I meant, as I wanted this post and the previous one to be together (and titled "Change of tactics"). As I wrote it, I decided to separate the two.

What change of tactics?

As you know by now, I'm working on a lengthy fantasy epic (one to rival The Wheel of Time by the late Robert Jordan and now the brilliant Brandon Sanderson or even Tolkien's Lord of the Rings). But during a writers' group meeting this spring, one of our members brought in a how-to from the Amazon.com website on how to publish e-books. At the time, there was also an article published about a southern Minnesota author by the name of Amanda Hocking who made millions publishing on Amazon.com. After much thought, I decided to temporarily cease working on my fantasy epic and polish my serial killer thriller. In the past, I've tried to get a literary agent to look at it, but with no success. After sending 30-40 queries to agents, I stopped to work on the fantasy epic. But now I am back to the thriller . . . with the end result to publish it online.

Is that the end?

Far from it. I thought I'd spend a good deal of the summer and polish up the thriller, but it's not going like I've planned. In fact, it's going much better. Call it a maturing in my editing process, I'm going through each chapter extremely thoroughly, polishing them to a gleaming shine. I am only halfway through going through the initial round of hard copy edits, but then I'm doing the tedious act of making the changes on the computer and then going back through what I've written over and over and over and over again. I even read it out loud, which is something any writer should do to. If you read your piece out loud and are stumbling in places, your reader will too. (And so will an agent, for that matter, which could hinder you from even landing an agent to begin with).

So, where am I in this thriller? I have the first chapter completely done, hard and soft copy. Now, it's on to chapter two and three. And a total of 61 chapters total. This will take up the rest of the summer and a good deal of the fall too. In the end, I haven't completely made a decision on whether or not to e-publish it or try again with the agent hunt. I'm leaning towards the latter right now, because the story is just so darn good. I just hope that future fans will like the various genres that I write in. Many stick with one genre and that's it. I want the best of all worlds, and will always continue to write what I want to read. Fantasy and horror are my favorite genres, but thrillers, suspense, and mysteries are a close second.