Taking Advice... Or Not.

The common wisdom in the unpublished world is this: You don't write the sequel until you've sold the first book.  Or gotten an agent for the first book.  Or something.  I've forgotten what their wisdom is.  Probably because I thumbed my nose at it.

Let's hop into the wayback machine. A few years ago, I was hip deep in something or other come November, so I couldn't participate in NaNoWriMo.  A friend of mine was in the same boat.  We both wanted to do the 50K word dash, but November was right out.  So we made a deal.  We'd do something in December instead.  I called it HoHoNoWriMo.  (I searched my archives.  This happened in 2012.)

What I wrote in December of 2012 was called Djinn II.  And it's the book I loaded for pre-order on Friday of last week - In Deep Wish.

Throwing all caution to the winds - and because I really wanted to - I wrote Djinn3 in the Spring of 2014.  About 4 months before I made the decision to begin my self-publishing journey.

Why am I bringing any of this up?  Well, partly because I think if you're out there and laboring under all the dos and don'ts of publishing advice you might want to think about doing it your own way.  And partly because having all these books written at least in first draft stage has made it immensely easier to get them out there in the world now that I've made the leap into doing this myself.

I guess my point is that if you believe in your story... really believe... don't let anyone's helpful advice stop you from moving ahead.  Sure, write some other stuff while you're waiting.  In between Book 2 and Book 3, write a different story.  Query that, if you're still trying for the traditional route.  But keep going.  You never know when you might decide to say 'screw that shit, I'll do it myself', and then you might need those other sequels to be ready in short order.  Jus' sayin'.

Anyway, In Deep Wish will hit ereaders everywhere on March 15th.  Up Wish Creek is set for sometime in August.  And I need to get cranking on Books 4 & 5 so I can release those next year, maybe.  Time and budget considerations allowing.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Oh, and if you're on Facebook, I created a new Page over the weekend for the Once Upon a Djinn series.  The link will take you there.  I'll talk more about my vision for that on Wednesday.

See ya then!