Turning Bedtime Fantasies Into Books
I don’t know if you guys do this, but since I was a kid, to help me sleep, I imagine whole stories.
Each night presents a new episode in the Trinity Bedtime Fantasy Series. Some stories keep me so enraptured, I make myself go to bed early just so I can rest my head on my pillow and re-enter the world I created. These stories are almost always romances and usually involve some kind of apocalyptic or alien world.
It never occurred to me I could publish these stories. I mean, they felt so intimate to me. My invariably hot alpha heroes. My hot bedroom scenes. My angsty dialogue and otherworldly scenarios. It’s a world away from the stuff I began to publish when I became an author. A world away from the kind of stuff my big name publishers would publish.
But those stories are beginning to seep even harder and louder into my day-to-day life. Characters like the Thor-like alien warrior with skin that changes color and the scarred, savage planetary prince whose only weakness is human women are now insisting on being written.
So I’ve now decided to write those stories down which fizz and pop with drama in my head. I’m gonna put them on the page. But… do I want them just for me and maybe a select few friends to read? Microsoft Word documents emailed in the night to be read and discussed over dinner a week later? I thought doing that. But then I thought of all the readers out there who would be missing out on these stories that have enraptured me for so long.
Problem is, if I do want these stories published in the same way as my other novels are, there’s no way my traditional publishers would even look at them at as the genre and themes ate sooooo different from what I usually write… and from what they in particular publish.
So a thought occurred to me: How about I go hybrid. I don’t mean I’ve decided to go half machine a la Darth Vader (he’s half machine, right?). It means alongside my more traditional novels which my publishers help me publish, I’m going to publish these ‘bedtime fantasies’ myself. I’m gonna try out the ‘indie / self publishing’ thing I’ve been hearing about for years.
Not only does this mean I’m in control. It also means I can write and publish quickly. Honestly, trad publishers are like massive tankers that need turning in a storm when it comes to getting books out. But I write quickly: I mean, I’ve been known to write first drafts of novels in less than a month. Sure, I can’t just then plonk it up on Amazon. There’s a process involved: editing, proof-reading, covers, marketing… but even with all that, I’m pretty sure I can push books out a lot quicker then the tankers can.
So this is where my journey begins. Right after I post this, I’m going to sit down and begin putting the stories that are in my mind onto the page. I can’t WAIT to see what people think…