So, as to requested comments and to (other) comments.
Yes, I am quite comfortable in reading a book in the range of 350 to 400 pages. Further, I actually enjoy that length. Why? Simply put, there are a LOT of books out there, some of them quite good, some moderately okay and, well, the others. When I get into a really good book, I don't want it to end too, too quickly because I then have to find another book and, very likely, I will get the lesser quality. So, if it is good, length (assuming it is not padded and then it won't be good, right?) is not at all a problem.
Oh, and I have been in the thriller genre for decades; I read very little sf these days.
You mention writing a novella in chapters, including behind a pay wall. It is my recollection (only from reading about it, not from first hand experience!) that, essentially, that is the way that authors such as Dickens made their living in newspaper serializations. Therefore, what you suggest is simply an update of Dickens; not bad company, eh?
I MIGHT be interested in paying for a subscription. Why the hesitation? Truthfully, I have absolutely too many subscriptions now and I am trying to cut back as I am a) spreading myself too thinly (a mile wide and an inch deep, you know) and not reading all my existing subscriptions; and b) as a retiree, the bucks are a bit of an issue. Having said that, yeah, I would think about placing you in the "rotation" in place of "X".
Hmmm .... reading WIP (sorry, as a retired accountant, that is how I have for decades referred to Work in Progress, which was how we recorded the value of time expended before billing) vs. final product. Truthfully, that is an interesting thought but having never seen a writer's raw WIP I don't know what to say. I can imagine that it provides a perspective on how one writes but after that .... ? I just don't know. All I can say is you should probably try it. I may like it, I may not but nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say.
Here is a thought ... if you are going to go forward with that, perhaps think of a website where the WIP is accessed through a button for WIP and the finished product is a different button. How one does that with a blog I don't know but perhaps there are ways ... buttons in the blog taking one to different sections of your website?
And yet another thought. You mention that you are considering longer form fiction that might take longer to write. You further mention that you might drop back to, say, one "longer" book a year but you are simply compelled to write so that could be a problem.
[Irrelevant sidebar: I am a retired accountant and when active I had many artists as clients, including artists who taught art for a living. From time to time I was asked to speak to classes about the Business of Art and what that meant for taxes, record keeping, etc. I always started those talks by acknowledging that they (the students) weren't doing the art simply as a hobby or for fun but that they were compelled to COMMIT art (an intentional verb). I expect that you are the same about writing.]
Back to the prior, prior paragraph. Do the "big thing" and become known for the "big thing" but also publish [sorry!] "little things" on a regular basis. So, the "big thing" would be published as one would normally do so but think of the "little things" as a separate imprint, such as "J. Kevin Tumlinson Quick Hits" or some such.
The concept of publishing research and "interviews" is, to me, quite interesting. First off, in a thriller, it seems to me that there is simply a great deal of background that one need to understand to write anything. So, a book might reference something (oh, a weapon or a way of travelling or how the military is organized or how the bad guys get across international borders) that is often summarized very quickly in the book but takes a great deal of background. Further, the characters require a certain amount of fleshing out in the novel but only enough to move the plot. By contrast, an interview allows that character to "speak" about so much; in fact, you might find that that character is SO interesting that it is deserving of a series of it's own. Put yet again differently, you may as well get paid for those hours you put in when doing so much prep work, so monetize that work in your blog.
I mentioned above that I was a retired accountant who had many artists as clients. All sorts of artists, ceramics, sculptors, oil paints, watercolorists, installations, writers and so forth. I learned that there were just a myriad of arts and artists. What I also learned was that I was tremendously envious of their creative minds and I further learned that I just did not have that spark of creativity; I was perpetually impressed / depressed (simultaneously, to be sure) at a) their creativity and b) my lack of creativity so I simply accepted my failings and concentrated on enjoying their skills and incredible vision. That is a long way of saying that in my retirement years I would have enjoyed trying my hand at writing but that is simply not a realistic project for me so I take great joy in reading the skill of others, for example, that fine "creationist" J. Kevin Tumlinson.
Busy Dutch woman that I am (reading wise) :), I have only read The Lucid (it’s on my Thacker pile) and your free Dan Kotler so far. Loved them both though,so I’ll buy the first Dan Kotler novel today.
I like getting to read novels while in progress. My best friend is a novelist and I proofread for him, from first drafts to final drafts.
Wow, you've been busy, Kevin. I like your way of polling the readers of your newsletter to get a feel for what they want. This is my first time here but I'll weigh in on two of your questions:
1) I would not read a thriller that was 300-400 pages. I love reading and love stand alone books but that would be too much of a commitment for me.
2) I like serialized fiction. I like finding new writers/authors here on Substack who create it. But I also am trying to not be online so much/staring at a screen for so many hours a day. When I read serialized fiction here I tend to print it out and read it in the evenings.
I've toyed with the idea of doing printed serialized fiction of my own (so people could enjoy it whenever they wanted AND get something more exciting than bills in the mailbox!), but haven't taken the leap yet. Would love your thoughts on this idea.
Thanks for the great article, I'm looking forward to checking your work out soon.
I've been thinking about something like that—printed serialized fiction, physically mailed to subscribers. I've taken some inspiration from my friend David Viergutz, who has done this to a phenomenal outcome. Check out his "Scaremail" business: https://davidviergutz.com/collections/scaremail
Wow, how funny! I will check out Scaremail for sure. Thanks for the heads-up; I hadn't heard of this before. I think it would be a fun endeavor--I was picturing some special "extras" in each packet--the story, plus some funny reading-related stickers, tea, etc. And maybe little notes from the characters themselves? You could be really creative with it.
However, I have a tendency to jump into things with both feet and then realize all the cons and/or challenges I never thought of when I started. So this is a back-burner project for me at the moment.
I'm going to come back with more later, since I'm on daughter duty and must grab a little bit of sleep. But before I forget, two quick comments (or a comment and a question).
Comment: something you might offer paid subscribers that would be relatively easy for you, given all that you already do in video/audio: offer an audio version of your posts. Not a podcast episode, just an audio. If you're like me, you struggle with wanting to make posts free because you don't want to deny anybody the possibility of reading your prose (or poetry or screenplay or....), but you also want to offer something special for paid subscribers. An audio version offers something extra, while the whole world can benefit from the content. Substack does a decent job of transcribing, and so you might even do the audio first and then clean up the transcription for the post.
Question: Even though you are slowing down in a way, I am amazed at how much you get done in a week—multiple podcasts, Substack posts, Author Anchor, self-care, walking the dog, Bible study, time with Cara.... You've hinted at it with your take on discpline+flexibility. How do you keep going, man? Just reading about it exhausts me.
It’s so weird… people always call that stuff out, and yet I constantly feel like I could/should be doing more. I feel guilty that I’m “too lazy” to do more.
The injustice to you and others is that I don’t have a good answer to the “how do you do it all” question. Except, perhaps, it’s all down to that “put first things first” principle. I developed some habits, and I make sure I maintain them. The days when I don’t feel dark, and I get anxious.
Probably a terrible answer. It’s essentially, “I get it all done because otherwise I’ll have an anxiety attack.”
1. Yes, I am comfortable reading a thriller or sci-fi around 350-400 pages. I'm quite comfortable them going up to 500 pages. After that, I find that too much filler is inserted.
2. I'm not a paid subscriber - I have a hard enough time keeping up with free email/newsletter content that I prefer to pay for books/novellas, etc. instead of getting an advanced look at it.
3. If I were a paid subscriber, I would love the behind the scenes stuff, especially around the research (I'm a social researcher for work, so love hearing about other's research process, especially when it comes to writing books).
Good stuff as usual. Being an aspiring writer, I'm a slow fiction reader - especially if I need to read some non-fiction for research. So, 300-350 pages is the upper limit for me.
From my limited experience, collaborations are more demanding than solo efforts. As an aside, in one thing I'm writing, I use [brackets] to denote when his AI System is talking to the main character in the print version (the audio version chokes on special characters so I have to edit them out before publishing there!)
So, as to requested comments and to (other) comments.
Yes, I am quite comfortable in reading a book in the range of 350 to 400 pages. Further, I actually enjoy that length. Why? Simply put, there are a LOT of books out there, some of them quite good, some moderately okay and, well, the others. When I get into a really good book, I don't want it to end too, too quickly because I then have to find another book and, very likely, I will get the lesser quality. So, if it is good, length (assuming it is not padded and then it won't be good, right?) is not at all a problem.
Oh, and I have been in the thriller genre for decades; I read very little sf these days.
You mention writing a novella in chapters, including behind a pay wall. It is my recollection (only from reading about it, not from first hand experience!) that, essentially, that is the way that authors such as Dickens made their living in newspaper serializations. Therefore, what you suggest is simply an update of Dickens; not bad company, eh?
I MIGHT be interested in paying for a subscription. Why the hesitation? Truthfully, I have absolutely too many subscriptions now and I am trying to cut back as I am a) spreading myself too thinly (a mile wide and an inch deep, you know) and not reading all my existing subscriptions; and b) as a retiree, the bucks are a bit of an issue. Having said that, yeah, I would think about placing you in the "rotation" in place of "X".
Hmmm .... reading WIP (sorry, as a retired accountant, that is how I have for decades referred to Work in Progress, which was how we recorded the value of time expended before billing) vs. final product. Truthfully, that is an interesting thought but having never seen a writer's raw WIP I don't know what to say. I can imagine that it provides a perspective on how one writes but after that .... ? I just don't know. All I can say is you should probably try it. I may like it, I may not but nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say.
Here is a thought ... if you are going to go forward with that, perhaps think of a website where the WIP is accessed through a button for WIP and the finished product is a different button. How one does that with a blog I don't know but perhaps there are ways ... buttons in the blog taking one to different sections of your website?
And yet another thought. You mention that you are considering longer form fiction that might take longer to write. You further mention that you might drop back to, say, one "longer" book a year but you are simply compelled to write so that could be a problem.
[Irrelevant sidebar: I am a retired accountant and when active I had many artists as clients, including artists who taught art for a living. From time to time I was asked to speak to classes about the Business of Art and what that meant for taxes, record keeping, etc. I always started those talks by acknowledging that they (the students) weren't doing the art simply as a hobby or for fun but that they were compelled to COMMIT art (an intentional verb). I expect that you are the same about writing.]
Back to the prior, prior paragraph. Do the "big thing" and become known for the "big thing" but also publish [sorry!] "little things" on a regular basis. So, the "big thing" would be published as one would normally do so but think of the "little things" as a separate imprint, such as "J. Kevin Tumlinson Quick Hits" or some such.
The concept of publishing research and "interviews" is, to me, quite interesting. First off, in a thriller, it seems to me that there is simply a great deal of background that one need to understand to write anything. So, a book might reference something (oh, a weapon or a way of travelling or how the military is organized or how the bad guys get across international borders) that is often summarized very quickly in the book but takes a great deal of background. Further, the characters require a certain amount of fleshing out in the novel but only enough to move the plot. By contrast, an interview allows that character to "speak" about so much; in fact, you might find that that character is SO interesting that it is deserving of a series of it's own. Put yet again differently, you may as well get paid for those hours you put in when doing so much prep work, so monetize that work in your blog.
I mentioned above that I was a retired accountant who had many artists as clients. All sorts of artists, ceramics, sculptors, oil paints, watercolorists, installations, writers and so forth. I learned that there were just a myriad of arts and artists. What I also learned was that I was tremendously envious of their creative minds and I further learned that I just did not have that spark of creativity; I was perpetually impressed / depressed (simultaneously, to be sure) at a) their creativity and b) my lack of creativity so I simply accepted my failings and concentrated on enjoying their skills and incredible vision. That is a long way of saying that in my retirement years I would have enjoyed trying my hand at writing but that is simply not a realistic project for me so I take great joy in reading the skill of others, for example, that fine "creationist" J. Kevin Tumlinson.
Busy Dutch woman that I am (reading wise) :), I have only read The Lucid (it’s on my Thacker pile) and your free Dan Kotler so far. Loved them both though,so I’ll buy the first Dan Kotler novel today.
I like getting to read novels while in progress. My best friend is a novelist and I proofread for him, from first drafts to final drafts.
I can handle any form:)
Wow, you've been busy, Kevin. I like your way of polling the readers of your newsletter to get a feel for what they want. This is my first time here but I'll weigh in on two of your questions:
1) I would not read a thriller that was 300-400 pages. I love reading and love stand alone books but that would be too much of a commitment for me.
2) I like serialized fiction. I like finding new writers/authors here on Substack who create it. But I also am trying to not be online so much/staring at a screen for so many hours a day. When I read serialized fiction here I tend to print it out and read it in the evenings.
I've toyed with the idea of doing printed serialized fiction of my own (so people could enjoy it whenever they wanted AND get something more exciting than bills in the mailbox!), but haven't taken the leap yet. Would love your thoughts on this idea.
Thanks for the great article, I'm looking forward to checking your work out soon.
I've been thinking about something like that—printed serialized fiction, physically mailed to subscribers. I've taken some inspiration from my friend David Viergutz, who has done this to a phenomenal outcome. Check out his "Scaremail" business: https://davidviergutz.com/collections/scaremail
Wow, how funny! I will check out Scaremail for sure. Thanks for the heads-up; I hadn't heard of this before. I think it would be a fun endeavor--I was picturing some special "extras" in each packet--the story, plus some funny reading-related stickers, tea, etc. And maybe little notes from the characters themselves? You could be really creative with it.
However, I have a tendency to jump into things with both feet and then realize all the cons and/or challenges I never thought of when I started. So this is a back-burner project for me at the moment.
I'm going to come back with more later, since I'm on daughter duty and must grab a little bit of sleep. But before I forget, two quick comments (or a comment and a question).
Comment: something you might offer paid subscribers that would be relatively easy for you, given all that you already do in video/audio: offer an audio version of your posts. Not a podcast episode, just an audio. If you're like me, you struggle with wanting to make posts free because you don't want to deny anybody the possibility of reading your prose (or poetry or screenplay or....), but you also want to offer something special for paid subscribers. An audio version offers something extra, while the whole world can benefit from the content. Substack does a decent job of transcribing, and so you might even do the audio first and then clean up the transcription for the post.
Question: Even though you are slowing down in a way, I am amazed at how much you get done in a week—multiple podcasts, Substack posts, Author Anchor, self-care, walking the dog, Bible study, time with Cara.... You've hinted at it with your take on discpline+flexibility. How do you keep going, man? Just reading about it exhausts me.
It’s so weird… people always call that stuff out, and yet I constantly feel like I could/should be doing more. I feel guilty that I’m “too lazy” to do more.
The injustice to you and others is that I don’t have a good answer to the “how do you do it all” question. Except, perhaps, it’s all down to that “put first things first” principle. I developed some habits, and I make sure I maintain them. The days when I don’t feel dark, and I get anxious.
Probably a terrible answer. It’s essentially, “I get it all done because otherwise I’ll have an anxiety attack.”
To answer your questions:
1. Yes, I am comfortable reading a thriller or sci-fi around 350-400 pages. I'm quite comfortable them going up to 500 pages. After that, I find that too much filler is inserted.
2. I'm not a paid subscriber - I have a hard enough time keeping up with free email/newsletter content that I prefer to pay for books/novellas, etc. instead of getting an advanced look at it.
3. If I were a paid subscriber, I would love the behind the scenes stuff, especially around the research (I'm a social researcher for work, so love hearing about other's research process, especially when it comes to writing books).
Good stuff as usual. Being an aspiring writer, I'm a slow fiction reader - especially if I need to read some non-fiction for research. So, 300-350 pages is the upper limit for me.
Yes on the length of a book. Suits me just fine.
From my limited experience, collaborations are more demanding than solo efforts. As an aside, in one thing I'm writing, I use [brackets] to denote when his AI System is talking to the main character in the print version (the audio version chokes on special characters so I have to edit them out before publishing there!)
Oh! That’s something I’ll need to keep in mind! Thanks for that.