Collective Plans
Posted Fri, 10/07/11
My plan for the Collective Obsessions Saga is to eventually combine all eight titles into one volume. The idea has been in the back of my mind for several years, long before I finished writing the books. Because of my contractual obligations to Club Lighthouse Publishing, the "plan" will not come to fruition until 2014 or thereabouts.
The novels are currently being released in stages. A new title comes out every few months, or up to half a year. The series will be released in it's entirety by the end of 2012, hopefully. My multiple contracts run from the actual signing to two years after the release date of each book.
I'm a huge fan of family sagas and gothic collections, but prefer the works to be contained in one volume. Frankly, I'd rather not buy several books when one will cover the lot. Merging all titles in the Collective Obsessions Saga will make for a very long read. However, surely I'm not the only one who likes big books.
Now that novels are quickly downloaded in e-book fashion, presenting all eight books together as one is not such a far-fetched notion. Printing and shipping costs are a thing of the past, neither of which are required with e-books. As much as print book-lovers might disagree, electronic reads are not a fad. In fact, they are far outselling their printed counterparts in today's market. E-books are not going away, which is a good thing. Think of all the trees that are being saved in the process!
I was curious about the end result of one book, so I've spent the last few days linking them together and proofing for errors or formatting issues. I created three versions: one for e-book conversion (which must be saved as a filtered web page), one with Canadian/British spelling and one with US spelling and grammar. The final tally is utterly amazing - on average, the book runs 1,471 pages with a word count of 820,454.
Since the book is technically eight novels in one, the numbers are hardly surprising. Still, the amount of writing and work (research, editing, et al) is mind-boggling to me. That it was created over a time-period of more than twenty-five years hits home for me on occasion as well. Where in blue blazes did I find the energy and motivation to keep pressing on to finish the books? Or keeping a common thread through so many words, scenes and dialogs?
I liken the writing style and theme to several sources, which influenced me throughout my life. The two most prominent are Dorothy Daniels and Marilyn Harris, with smatterings of Victoria Holt, Susan Kay, Bertrice Small and the late (but great) Kathleen Woodiwiss.
The many different literary styles somehow mesh and work together in my head. I'm not sure how, but I gave-up questioning it a long time ago.