Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Taking the Plunge...

Well folks, I have a pretty big announcement to make. If you follow me on Facebook you probably already know, but if not... I've decided to self-publish "Rebel Heart." I'm still working on some last minute edits including an epic war with myself on whether or not to make the whole thing 3rd person (instead of having Julienne's part in 1st and Alex's part in 3rd). What do you guys think? If it's clearly delineated, would you be miffed by the shifting tenses?


As you can see, I went ahead and designed a book cover. After two days of fiddling fighting with Gimp, I finally got this result via Mircrosoft Powerpoint of all things! I'm pretty pleased it, to be honest! I'm hoping to have everything edited and up for sale by July, so stay tuned for more updates. I will of course document the ins and outs of this process as I go along. I'm sure it's going to be a wild ride!

8 comments:

  1. Tough call on the POV, but I would ask yourself a few Qs:

    - why did you write the POVs the way you did -- was there a reason? What do you think might be lost by changing them?

    - have you read any other books with a similar set-up for comparison?

    My first stab at a novel I wrote from about 4 POVs (two were "extras" that only popped up every so often with the other two as the main characters). Now, that's a lot of characters. I was challenged to ask WHY do I need 4 POVs? Did I need them?

    So I looked for books in my genre that had multiple POVs, and in YA it was difficult. I found some with two but only one with as many as 4. And while I liked the book, I realized that 4 POVs was irritating; I kept wanting to go back to the characters I liked. That was my personal preference.

    I think knowing how other books in your genre handle alternating POVs is the most beneficial thing you can do. I can't think of a book I've read that has one character in first and the other in third, so I would definitely consider why you are structuring it that way. It doesn't mean you need to change it, but I think you need a good reason why.

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    1. Thanks for your thoughts Stephsco. I had a hard time connecting with Julienne when I wrote her in 3rd, so I switched to 1st. But I feel 1st has its drawbacks because then all of the other characters are seen through the lens of one character. So I started writing Alex in third as well as one other later character. But I stopped there. I thought it was wholly unique until I started reading Laurie R. King's Mary Russell series. Mary is in first while her husband and other characters are in 3rd.
      I had one beta say they didn't care for it and then one agent say they just couldn't market it (on top of the time period), so I'm in a real quandry for sure.

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  2. Yay! Oh, best of luck with this, Caroline!

    I admit--I prefer when a story stays in first or in third, and doesn't switch except in some super-specific instances. That might just be me, but it's also more standard...so I guess part of the question is, is it worth stepping outside the standard and risking people "not getting it" and thinking poorly of the book because of it? (Not fair at all, but something I usually consider...)

    Gorgeous cover! You've got quite the eye!

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    1. Thanks for your comments, Rowenna. Regarding the cover, I tried not to do the headless thing that all historicals seem to do now. :-)

      As for the switching...geez, I still don't know. It's a lot of work to switch completely into third. I read it and I think that it's not that confusing. So...yeah, I'm still on the fence.

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  3. Lovely cover, Caroline! And good for you for self-publishing. Let me know if you need any help as I have some knowledge in that area.

    I love multiple POV stories, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about switching between 1st and 3rd person depending on character. I would think most readers would be fine the whole book being 1st person, or being 3rd person, as long as they knew which person's POV they were reading at each point.

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    1. Thanks for your thoughts, Kate. I'd love get any help about the self-publishing thing. Shoot me an e-mail if you have a chance.
      The switching from first to third is definitely my frustration. I'd say that 2/3 of the novel are in the 1st for Julienne, the main MC, and then the other 1/3 is devoted to Alex and a later male character. But that's it. Oh what to do, what to do!

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  4. Wow, great job with the cover! And what a courageous decision.

    I won't comment on the POV ;-) But do let me know if you'd like me to finish my critique... it sounds like you're ready to go with it anyway.

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    1. Did we not finish, Charlotte? I might get you to go ahead and finish up then. I'll shoot you an e-mail in a bit.

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