Something important occurred to me this weekend. Something that placed a crap ton of pressure on me.
As I fleshed out the plot for the second novella, Lost & Found, I realized it is the single most important book in the entire series. Why? Because, we intend to give the first novella The Homecoming Incident away for free, as soon as we are able (it takes time to move it from .99 to free in the Amazon world). So, we’re hoping a lot of people will check out The Homecoming Incident for nothing and be inspired to take a chance on Lost & Found.
If they take that chance and don’t like Lost & Found, then they’re not going to invest any money in the remaining three novellas & five novels in the series. That’s another eight potential novels/novellas that won’t be read. And that’s a lot of work not being seen. Hundreds of thousands of words.
So, this second novella became a hec of a lot more important. And telling you only adds to the pressure to succeed.
It’s a good thing, though. I should approach every story as if it’s imperative to the success of the series. It was just that “Ah-Hah!” moment that kind of jolted me from “let me see what I can flesh out” to “Good Lord, years of work are now waiting for my timid fingers to type something brilliant.”
Only time, a good editor and reader’s opinions will tell if I’m successful or not.
No pressure…