Here’s the new ad I promised last night:

The music is by Kevin MacLeod, but I’m thinking about swapping it out for something of my own later. I just couldn’t make a good score in GarageBand.

Comments (0) Nov 07 2009

I finished a second draft of the book a week ago, adding a couple of characters and a subplot, and now I’m working on the third draft. By third draft, I mean that I’m taking each chapter and rewriting it.

So why rewrite, you ask? Tone, mostly. This week, I wrote a short story I’d like to include at the end of the book, and I’m really quite happy with it. But it made me realize I was putting in too many jokes into the main novel, which I figured were too much of a distraction from the main story, which is rather dramatic.

I also realized that the ending seemed a bit abrupt, so I’m sprinkling in a few references to what was going to be a big secret. Plus, part of my business model – sequels – would be hard to implement if I kept that a secret.

In that vein, I’ve renamed the book “Section 51: The Empty City.” The original name, “Emptiness,” was just kind of lame, and Section 51 was the name of the series I’ve had since the beginning. (Since before the beginning, in fact.) I’ve owned www.section51hq.com for a month or so for this. (The more obvious domain, without the “HQ”, is owned by a cybersquatter. Grr.)

But what is Section 51, you ask? You’ll just have to wait for the answer.

In other news, I’ve been working on a new ad for the series. I’ve redone the main character using the excellent Michael 4 character from DAZ3D.com, so the ad I have would need to be reworked a bit anyway. Plus, I’ve moved the setting from a fictional city (which I had needed to use when the project was an animated series) to Albuquerque (a much more believable locale for the story), so the buildings are inaccurate. And, since I’m planning to publish in early 2010, the “SUMMER 2011″ graphic was inaccurate anyway. The ad isn’t ready quite yet – I still need to add in music and tweak the animation – but when it is, I’ll have it on the front page of this site.

And I have a few ideas for some viral advertising that came straight out of rewriting Chapter 3. (I kind of fantasize that this is going to be one of the coolest marketing campaigns ever for a self-published book.)

Comments (0) Nov 07 2009