May 23, 2012

Anatomy of an eBook:  Something Real

You might be scratching your head and saying, what happened to Man of Her Heart?

That's easy.  I changed the title.

As I was writing, one of my characters, police officer Terrence Gulliver, earnestly states how he's been looking for "something real" in regard to a relationship, and how he thinks he's finally found it with Francesca "Cesca" Perry, and the more I thought about that, the more I liked it, and the more I felt it would make a nice title.  I checked Amazon and saw just one earlier book with that title, and that is acceptable to me (one book with the same name is okay...three or four is not).  "Man of her heart," on the other hand, is something I can picture another character saying about her feelings for the man she has secretly loved for years.  That couple (entertainer Olivia "Liv" Oliveira and magazine publisher Brian Price) are featured prominently in this story, but their relationship does not wrap up here (you've been warned).  In fact, I intend to throw a real wrench into the mix that will likely leave readers muttering, "WTF?"  (You'll have to wait until the book comes out to see what it is.)  So I will still be using that title, but for the book that finally wraps up Liv and Brian's love story.

That said, it occurred to me that I need to step up my game if I expect to publish a new eBook every four to six months.  Yes, stuff happens unexpectedly that requires my immediate attention.  But too many times I've become sidetracked, and my writing is the first casualty, with nothing down on paper for three or four days at a time.  If that keeps happening it will take a lot longer to complete the book.

For the last few weeks I have been religiously knocking out 1000 words a day, seven days a week.  Only two days did I miss the mark and produce roughly half of that. I find that regular writing makes for higher production.  I look at my synopsis and decide what scene I'm going to work on ahead of time.  I often put down a "starter sentence," and then just type (or dictate, depending on whether I'm sitting at home, out walking, or driving to errands).  At the end of the day I hook up my recorder to my computer, open my Dragon software, and let it transcribe what I've recorded. Already I have most of the pivotal scenes recorded.

The next challenge for me will be the structure of the book.  I've already decided to make it Book I and Book II, the former taking place after Save The Best For Last closes, and the latter taking place after The Heat of Heat closes.  I feel it's best to go in chronological order and intermix the main romance with the secondary romance to keep things less confusing.  I'll have to start putting my text in order to see if anything is missing.

The good news is that I'm on target for fall publication, maybe even--dare I say it?--a late summer release?  After all, this is not a long book.  It really should take closer to four months rather than six.

Will I make it?  Stay tuned!