Wednesday, February 8, 2017

On Book Timing

As most of you know, I almost never stray into the areas of politics and religion.  The only time I've done so was as a writing exercise to see if I could pull off viewpoints that make me sound credible but that I don't necessarily hold.  I'm still not sure the readers of this blog could figure out which sides of the aisle(religious or political) I fall on.

None of this is to say that I don't pay attention to politics.  With the saturation of political coverage nowadays, you'd have to be obtuse not to see what's going on.  There are sweeping policy changes, new directions, protests, riots, and each side screaming so hard at the other that I'm surprised anyone has any vocal cords lefts.  Which brings me to book releases and how to properly time them.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a novel called Schism about a second American civil war.  It still requires some tweaking(I need to expand the final act, probably splitting it into two parts), and I initially planned its release for October of 2018.  That might still hold, but I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't find a way to release it sooner.

Our level of political discourse is insane.  I don't think I've ever found it to be more hateful and shrill.  I've watched people who've known each other for decades cut each other off over a political viewpoint or support for some policy or candidate.  I personally find that to be petty, but it's still reality.  So would a book about such a split do well right now?  It's certainly timely.  I think people of both sides would find something to nod at and something to froth over in Schism.

While I find the climate to be disturbing, that doesn't mean an author and business person shouldn't look to take advantage of the moods that exist.  Timing is such an enormous part of the success of any work that people will often write books for the moment in the hopes that current passions will ignite a firestorm.  If only Schism were complete now, I'd likely do the same.

It saddens me to say that I don't think political tensions will subside over the next couple of years, so my October 2018 release date is still probably viable.  In some ways, I'd like for the window to close, for that would mean people are able to calm down and discuss things rationally.  However, I just don't see that happening anytime soon...do you?

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