- Spend a few years writing a novel: CHECK
- Spend over a grand on editing: CHECK
- Write in a genre no one reads: CHECK
- Luck out and get a free cover from a great designer: CHECK
- Give it away for free: CHECK
I know. I’m crazy. Or stupid. Or both. Here’s the reality: There’s a hell of a lot of books out there, most of which are genre fiction, most of which sell a lot better than books like The Field, which is considered Literary Fiction (sorry for all the “whiches”). So why even bother writing it, you ask? A few reasons.
Practice Makes Progress (It’s not PERFECT anymore, my daughter constantly reminds me)
The Field is my first novel. I’ve dabbled–unfinished “books,” short stories, sketches of things that never came to be, but I’ve never written a complete novel. Side note: For those of you thinking about writing a novel, PLEASE start with the short stuff first. There is so much worth and catharsis in finishing something, and the shorter it is, the more likely you are to FINISH.
Anyway, I decided to dive right in with a 100k+ novel–whittled down to a little over 93k words after publication. I won’t get into the details of the why of things, just that I decided to do it, and I was going to finish it. I learned so much during the process. After a year of leaving my 50k-at-the-time manuscript to stagnate on my hard drive, I read it. Man, it was crap. I had some work to do. So I picked up some books on writing, ones of particular note being Stein on Writing and Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.
I’ve read them numerous times since and always pick up something new. After going through draft after draft, I hired an editor. I learned even more things, namely how much I sucked. After two rounds of that and another round of proofreading, I published.
The point here is that I was forced to do a lot of work, which forced me to learn a lot. I’m a better writer for it, and I continue to voraciously read both fiction and craft books because no one is ever done learning. Although I recommend not starting with a full-length novel if you haven’t written anything yet, I can’t say I’d do it any differently.
Reviews
If it’s free, thousands of people will read it, love it, and rush to Amazon to write reviews, right? That was my thinking. At the time of this writing, The Field has been downloaded nearly one thousand times. I know, it’s not much in the grand scheme of publishing, but it was something, and that something should yield at least a handful of reviews, right?
Well, not really. It’s worth one review, in my case. You can read about it here. But the novel still has around a dozen downloads a month with no advertising whatsoever. I’m sure I’ll get another one any day now … any day now.
People Will Read It
As mentioned, people still download it. Read it? I’m not sure, but that’s the idea. If I eliminated any entry cost, people would be more likely to download it and maybe read it. I know it’s out there on Kindles and other e-readers, just waiting to be read. Maybe someday they’ll get around to it.
Not Free Forever
I don’t plan on keeping The Field free forever. Once I release a few more titles, I’ll charge for it. Right now, since it’s all I’ve got, I’d rather keep the barriers absent. If you haven’t picked up a copy, you better do it now. I’m about done with a draft of something else.
That’s all for now. If you have any questions or suggestions, please comment below.