I have completed the re-writes for my third crime novel based in Scarborough, The Art of Breathing. It has gone through various drafts each time commented on by writing friends Lesley, Kate and Felix, then Felix did a final go through to make sure the plot held together as a whole. I am very grateful for this support, as an indie, I certainly could not keep moving forward without it. I also had comments back from a small press I submitted the manuscript to. Along with their rejection, they included a couple of pages of my work annotated by their ‘reader’, which is very decent of them. My confidence in the observations did wane somewhat, however, when a question was raised over whether a university would have a bar? Hello?!
So now I spin hats, the writer has to make way for the indie publisher.
The Art of Breathing is booked in with a copywriter in June and then a proofreader in July. Hopefully the final version should be ready by the end of August. I have decided to re-package my three books – The Art of the Imperfect (https://goo.gl/JrGat2); The Art of Survival (https://goo.gl/6RPzk5) and The Art of Breathing – as a trilogy which I will launch in the Autumn. The three are stand-alone in the sense that there is a different discrete crime story in both, but they are tied into a trilogy because of the on-going narrative of one of the characters, Hannah.
There is a lot to think about and get right, for example: covers; formatting (different formats for the three methods of publication I will use); print runs; mobilising reviews/reviewers; perhaps a new website… I make lists, endless lists.
The Art of… trilogy is part of an on-going crime series and already novel four is beginning to ferment in my imagination. It will take the characters’ stories several years forward and will be based around the fishing community and themes of environmentalism. I am wondering about breaking away from The Art of… title. I’ve come up with The Photograph or The Girl in the Photograph – though maybe I am too late to jump on the Gone Girl bandwagon?
How do you come up with the titles of your novels, stories or poems?
