Preparing for Another One!

Thursday, August 27th, 2009 | Posted by: Andrew Kent

I’m feeling a mix of dread, hope, and relief — I’m about to publish my second novel in the Johnny Denovo series.

The first book, “Spam & Eggs: A Johnny Denovo Mystery,” was greeted with a surprisingly positive set of reviews and readers who spontaneously wrote and called with excitement after finishing it, eager to know if a second Denovo book was in the works.

Fortunately, I’d used some time in the winter and on long trips (airplanes are a great place to write) to write a strong draft of the second book. I polished it over the spring while babying the first book through some stages of growth, and now it’s off to the publisher.

The dread I’m feeling is about the marketing and PR aspects of it. The second book has a much more obvious appeal to it, so I’m going to push it harder than I did the first book. Also, being a second book, I can legitimately talk about “the series,” and that increases interest for a good portion of readers who like following the same characters through different adventures.

Marketing and PR entail a lot of work — faxing, emailing, calling, printing, designing, formatting, ordering, delivering, cajoling, convincing, following up. It’s vital to the success of a book, but it’s also some of the least appealing work for a borderline introvert — a not uncommon personality type among writers.

The hope comes from the optimism that this book will please the current readership base, attract new readers, and make a splash. The hope is bolstered by early readers who have found the book hard to put down. And, among friends who’ve now read both books, there’s agreement that the second book is better than the first, especially in the pacing (and because an especially fun new character is introduced).

Here’s hoping for no “sophomore slump.”

And the relief naturally comes from finishing (writing, proofing) a second novel. Writing and revising 75,000 words (revision occurs multiple, multiple, multiple times even before it goes off to the publisher) is a ton of work. Fun work. Great work. Work I love. But work — time, effort, concentration, inspiration. It’s a relief to have all that packaged up into a book finally.

So, here we go again! “The Green Monster: A Johnny Denovo Mystery” should be out around September 7, 2009. Look for it on Amazon, BN.com, and a gajillion other places.