They don't bring me flowers anymore (thank goodness)

Richard W. Fairbairn

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I've spent a long time working on my favorite novel, Beyond the Starport Adventure. I began the project in about 2013, took a break to write a dark sci-fi thriller, then resumed checking and proofreading / amending BTSA.

but...

I realise that I can never make BTSA as good as I'd like without completely starting again. I don't want to do this and instead plan to make it the best it can be before moving on to other things.

I just wanted to ask opinions on this. Someday, I hope that my writing will be popular enough that people may look back at BTSA and say "hmnn, I liked it but it was so flowery and verbose". I have sequels planned for BTSA and the writing style will be tighter and much less flabby. My voice will remain the same, but my writing will be (I hope) better.

Thoughts anyone? Are there any famous authors who have done something similar? Happy to hear!

best wishes

Richard
 

mccardey

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I've spent a long time working on my favorite novel, Beyond the Starport Adventure. I began the project in about 2013, took a break to write a dark sci-fi thriller, then resumed checking and proofreading / amending BTSA.

but...

I realise that I can never make BTSA as good as I'd like without completely starting again. I don't want to do this and instead plan to make it the best it can be before moving on to other things.

I just wanted to ask opinions on this. Someday, I hope that my writing will be popular enough that people may look back at BTSA and say "hmnn, I liked it but it was so flowery and verbose". I have sequels planned for BTSA and the writing style will be tighter and much less flabby. My voice will remain the same, but my writing will be (I hope) better.

Thoughts anyone? Are there any famous authors who have done something similar? Happy to hear!

best wishes

Richard
I don't think it's a great plan, honestly. If the first book of a series isn't tight, it's unlikely that people will move on to the second, much less look back from the end. That may have been something that happened in the dim past, when writers were thinner on the ground, but in these days, where anyone with a computer can be a writer, I think there's more need than ever to really make things shine. Very few second chances, and readers are an unforgiving lot now.

On the upside - if it's simply a matter of words, I don't think revising will take you as long as you think.

FWIW
 

AW Admin

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I don't think anyone should publish a book that they know isn't as good as it could be.

And I'm moving this to Self Publishing, since this really isn't a Basic Writing question.

Why ask someone to buy something that you know has flaws?
 

M. H. Lee

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If it were a standalone, I'd say fine, publish it. We're all constantly improving as writers (I'd hope) so your next novel will almost always be better written than your last one.

But if it's going to be a series then you really need the books within the series to be consistent so that readers who buy and like book 1 also like book 2 and on down the line. If you have too drastic a change between books you'll lose readers and will struggle to replace them with ones who like the newer style better because they'll have to get through that book 1 that they may consider poorly written.
 

Richard W. Fairbairn

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Bed time now. Thanks for great feedback everyone. Just wanted to add that I am correcting BTSA now and am working with my partner to proofread and revise it. I guess I don't think I'll ever be happy with it, but I do intend to "fix" it as much as possible.

warm regards

Richard
 

Richard W. Fairbairn

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Hi,
I didn't quite know if you were being serious or not, sorry. What did you mean?

best wishes

Richard
I hear a lot of advice that you shoudln't write a sequel for a book which hasn't sold, but I personally think there's quite a lot of value to finishing the series in a lump.
 

Richard W. Fairbairn

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Thanks, I did want to write all three at once but got distracted by other projects. Once I finish the first seven episodes of my current work, I'll finish this trilogy.

best wishes

Richard
 

ironmikezero

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I'm essentially in agreement with Harlequin.

I'm finishing up the fifth, and likely final, book in a genre mash-up series, none of which have been released yet. As I concluded each successive volume, I revisited the previous book(s) to ascertain consistency, tweak a bit of foreshadowing, and expand certain aspects and possibilities of characterizations and respective back stories. In short, every new volume offered insights and inspiration that suggested improvements to the prior volume(s); the first book benefited considerably from modifications inspired by subsequent books in the series. This pattern continued, proving to be eminently satisfying--especially for my beta readers, who have been hounding me for more, despite my likely intention to conclude the series. So, I offer my personal, albeit anecdotal, experience as evidence that an earlier book in a series can benefit from subsequent books in the same series (mine certainly did).

The point is that if you hold off on releasing the first book in your series, pending completion of subsequent books, you always have the option of revising and improving the first--until you release it. Release dates are aspects of marketing/promotion; that strategy will be up to you and/or your publisher.

Whatever you decide to do, best of luck!
 
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Harlequin

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yeah, that's similar to my experience although you're much further along than me.

I think I made it about 4 chapters into book 2 before realising I needed a substantial readjustment of details and events in book 1. Ended up totally overhauling the ending (again!) and one of the main characters. =S

Every bit further I progress into #2 (projected 4 total) has me compiling yet more notes for changes to #1.