one is the loneliest number

I've been thinking about sequels lately. Most published authors give advice to looking-to-publish authors through websites and blogs, and an important point seems to be the need for sequels. Here's the gist of what I've learned: publishers get a thousand hundred billion manuscripts a day from hopeful authors, and they can only publish approximately one. So they have to narrow it down to make it easier for them, since they certainly don't have time to read a thousand hundred billion manuscripts. If it wasn't submitted by an agent, it's probably out. If there's no cover letter, it's probably out. If that cover letter isn't well written, it probably means the manuscript isn't either, and so it's probably out. And if in that cover letter, it doesn't mention that the author is hard at work on a second novel for their publishing pleasure, it's probably out.

The thing is, books are what make authors popular. I know, it was a surprisingly revelation for me, too. But the key letter there is the 's' hanging on at the end. Books, as in plural, as in many of them.

If an author writes one book and it's received well, that's great. For a bit. Until people forget about that book and that author. Then the book ends up on the back shelf of the bookstore, probably hidden behind a bunch of Twilight books. And no one buys it any more, and the author is very sad, and the publisher is even sadder because they're the one that just shelled out all the money to publish the book in the first place.

But if that author then releases a second novel, there is lots of fanfare and hoopla, and people will buy it. People who bought the first book and liked it will buy the second book, maybe even if they don't know what the second book is about. People who bought the second book and liked it will find out that there was a first book and buy that too, making sales for the original book go up again. Rinse and repeat to keep authors, and publishers, happy and not broke on a street corner with a cardboard sign that says "Will Write for Money".

So publishers are looking for authors who are going to publish more than one book. It doesn't necessarily have to be a sequel, but most of the time it has to be something in the same genre as the first book - they're looking to attract the same readers again and again, after all.

So I've been thinking about sequels. Originally when I heard about this, I got depressed. I'm only writing one book. It's stand alone. There's not a sequel for this thing. Guess I'm a failure.

And then, in usual Thistleswitch fashion (i.e., out of the blue and completely unexpected) I realized that I could write more. Not more stories about Niko, Merry and Aries - their story is being told here. But I can definitely write more stories about the world that they live in, where castles on glass mountains have elevators to reach them, heroes can never die, and people can Shift into tapdancing spongecakes on a whim. And once I realized that it's the world and the style that needs to continue, I realized that I had at least three ideas for stories.

Of course, writing sequels implies writing sequels. I've kind of been nervous about finishing just one novel, and even though it's going well, I still feel hesitant. Once I tell someone, "I'm writing another book," it becomes something that I can't change my mind about. If I get bored, or I hate it, or the whole thing makes me want to sob and throw my computer out a window, I still have to keep writing it, because that's what's expected of me. I don't know that I can do that - writing was never really a feasible job option in my head, because of that. If I have to force the story, it sucks, and there's nothing I can do about it.

So then I think, well, maybe I can finish Thistleswitch and get a second novel about half (or more) done before I try to publish. That way I'll probably be okay with the second one, I'll know I can finish it, and I'll at least have two books to offer. Though that means it will take a bit longer to publish, I think it'll be okay. Better than having publishers just toss the whole thing in the garbage can.

As of now, the hope is to get to the end of Thistleswitch by June 30. I figure that's about 30,000 more words, which is about 1,000 words a day, which is (theoretically) completely doable. After that, I'll pass out a couple copies of the full thing to people so they can read it and do a killer nitpicking of it. And I'll go back through and fix stuff and change stuff and what have you. I'm not sure if I'll start work on the second book during this stage or not - I think it depends if I think I can carry around two stories in my head at the same time without exploding. We'll see.

Meanwhile, I've already got my sequel brainstorms document in Word for all my ideas. And I've already gotten my uber-vivid-you-must-write-this-story scenes for one of these ideas. And I already know the main characters for one of these stories as well as I knew Merry and Niko when Thistleswitch first appeared. So, as of now, I think I can do this.

Sequels. Yikes.