Yesterday, I started writing the second of four novels I intend to write this year. The novel is called “A Darkling Nine,” and I project it to be around 110,000 words.
In a break from my indie ways, I plan to run this past a handful of agents before I decide what to do with it. I have said publicly during interviews in print and podcast form that I favor having one foot on the indie side of the fence, and another in the tradpub side. But don’t worry, I still plan to release “Fishpunk” and other new material indie style.
Why this one? It’s the start of a new series in a unique environment. (Yes, Mike Stackpole, I can hear your opposition to this decision from all the way over here!) It’s a series that I don’t plan to parallel with any other work, and it is open ended.
This decision is strategic, not tactical. In that respect, it’s very similar to why I used KDP Select when I released “Rigel Kentaurus.”
I can see a number of scenarios where I kill a deal and release this novel indie,but I’m hoping to avoid those possibilities. Specifically, any broad non-compete clause that would strangle my indie side would be a deal-breaker. Any kind of nebulous reversion clause would be a deal-breaker.
I could be setting myself up for disaster by voicing those deal-breakers, but I figure it saves everyone time because I won’t sign such a contract anyway.
Enough about deal-breakers. I’m glad to be writing long fiction again, and glad I managed to start so quickly after my last novel. This is, for me, probably the most challenging novel project yet.