xxoo

That said, there is the running out of money/cardboard box issue to consider. And the needing a deadline to finish something thing. But I think I’ll do my best to have a completed book to offer for the option on #3.

That’s understandable. But of course, you can always block bots from caching certain things on your website. For example, if you decided to put the Cambodian novel online on its own page you could create a robots.txt file to tell the search engines not to cache that specific page.

You can read more about it at robotstxt.org.

I believe you could also use Adobe Acrobat (if you have it or know someone who does) to allow the story to be read online, but not copied, saved or printed elsewhere. I’m pretty sure this would block the search engines from caching as well, but would also deter someone from trying to repost your novel to another site.

I moan and complain a lot, but like a lot of people, I think that the deadline construct is ultimately very good. Sometimes I think it’s insane to write a book in that amount of time, but it does show you what you are capable of, and sometimes takes you just that extra inch.

Having said that, I think you should try this experiment, because I’d bet you have great reserves of natural discipline. And you live with a writer, so you’ll have someone to pace against.

Writing something sold only as a vision is damnably nervewracking. I’m not sure I want to do that regularly. he NEXT book I have the idea for I think I’ll just go ahead and WRITE and then see how the publishing world feels about it…

Okay, so is this a YA Elvis fighting monkeys with knives, while crickets go swanning about dressed in sparkles? That would be awesome!

Or a monkey Elvis! Even more awesome!

Fighting with knives against winged pixies who play cricket!

(I don’t even know what a mangosteen is, or else that would be part of the fun too.)

I am gonna have the phrase “monkey Elvis” stuck in my head ALL DAY.

You write how you need to write. And what you need for one book may not be what you need for the next.

As for outlines, eh. A writer friend sold sold 10+ novels without ever writing an outline. The first time she was asked to write one, it panicked her so badly that she wrote the whole book instead, in twelve weeks! We won’t discuss the toll that took on her health.

When it comes to an author with a track record, a house is looking for a rough map, an indication that the author can go from A to Z. If the outline stops at C, L and Q, but the book stops at F, N and T… really, it won’t be a big deal. Not if you still get to Z (and haven’t suddenly switched to another alphabet).

Sending folks to this thread from my own blog, http://lsparkreader.livejournal.com

On the other hand, though, I’d rather just get a finished manuscript in my hands rather than worry about whether I’m contracting a book that won’t pull together. Of course, there are all those complicated clauses in contracts when such things happen, but it’s just much easier for me as an editor to have a manuscript in front of me that I can say “I like it; I’ll buy it,” or not.

But there is something about that creative process in the outline stage that I really like, when you’re talking about an overarching series. I like being able to know the big picture and therefore help an author work within that framework. I like seeing the work from the very beginning and mentoring a new author. It’s something I think few editors get to see nowadays, because of the nature of the industry.

Now, both my examples don’t cover the situation of writing a standalone book under deadline, sold on an outline and three chapters. If the writer had a solid background–having written a novel or two before, even if unpublished–I’m more likely to trust that they can finish, which is I think the situation you encountered with your first book.

oh, and about that novel-that’s-not-published-yet: are you still trying to place that now and then? or perhaps any plans to go the scalzi route and make it available online?

let me just put in a bid for this as well. couldn’t you just put up a note to your younger readers saying “this is an adult novel, read at your own risk”?

i’m just being selfish, of course. I wanna read it!

Have you run this past your agent?

that said, i am always keen to experiment, and the one thing i haven’t done, ever, is write a book outside deadline. so i’m also planning to do that in the next year or two, on top of the books i’m contracted to write. it’s good to be challenged, instead of just contracted. if i don’t set those challenges for myself, no one else will.

so good on you, justine. i will watch your experiment with great interest! (confident that it will be brilliant success)

Scott has two distinct writing careers, of course. His young adult stuff and then his adult sf. Some of which is very adult indeed. So far there’s been not a lot of crossover between the two. But I think that would be a wee bit different if he had one of his adult novels online!

I have not yet given up hope of finding a publisher for the Cambodian novel!

Are you talking about finding a publisher here, or about putting the cambodian novel online? Perhaps I’m wrong, but the people who hang around here aren’t strictly young adults, I think, and they would strike me as a prime target for this online book (talking about me me me here, of course ).

Simone: Ha! I suspect that they‘re prolly not compatible goals.

Lawrence: And even then it doesn’t always work does it?