A NEW VOYAGE-BOOK # 2

​If there are laurels to live on, all are short lived. As I was writing My DIARY My LOVE, the first book, I simultaneously wrote a second book. I have set a goal of re-writing and re-editing this next book so that it is published by no later than September 10th, of this year.

Now that the excitement of publishing the first book has worn off, several challenges lie ahead.
First, thumbing through the 190 pages I realized that, as in a previous post, there is not enough dialog between the characters. The characters themselves were interesting, but I could also say the same thing about a day at the beach. It was interesting. There is a need to eliminate parts of the narrative and replace them with more character interaction. Will it ever be enough, it may be too much, who knows.

The work ethic that I personally set for myself is that I have to work every day for a minimum of three hours each day on re-writing the next book. This means dedicating another 120-130 hours. "Why," some of my friends have asked me. "Because, I want each book to be better than the last, until one day I personally have written the best book that I could possibly write."

I am not looking to be Hemingway; I'll leave that up to someone else, who is far more qualified, to hold on to that dream. Nor do I want to sit around a small table at a bistro in France with group of intellects discussing world issues. Although sitting at a small bistro is alluring.

It's hard work, and I know with each book, if I truly care, the work and the challenge will only grow more difficult. Nothing of value that we desire comes easy because if it did it really would have no value. I know that I am redundant, because I have written about pushing myself and the effort it takes to complete each book. The alternative is giving up, which is far too easy, and far less gratifying.

Another major consideration in the future is the option of exclusivity with Amazon/Kindle versus Smashwords and the several eBook platforms of distribution. It comes down to marketing ones product. I wish that I had the simple answer because if I did I would share it with others.

As I begin working on improving the second book and finishing it for publication I will share both the good and the not so good of the next voyage.

Thank you,

Robert Stephen