A sad announcement today: POROUS will be no more.
The story, of course, will live on, but it will breathe a little closer to my chest, tucked into my breast pocket. Noomi and Silas have plenty to tell, but their story needs to be more guarded, more careful, before it sees the light of day.
I’m making this decision for a few reasons. First, and most importantly: Quality. I worry that, by writing these installments late at night on Sundays before publication, I’m sacrificing drive and momentum for pretty turns of phrase and too-easy story hooks. I’m losing sight of the long-term story in favor of the instantaneous, and I can already tell it’s hurting the book as a whole. Without a larger vision, a more detailed outline, a more precise scope, Noomi and Silas will never get off the ground.
Second: I have other, more profitable projects that take precedence. I’m going into deep-sea editing mode with THE REAPING, and I don’t expect to draw breath until either publication or harvest, whichever comes first. So, losing an evening a week of already-limited time to focus on a project that, at least for now, has no financial potential – well, that’s not exactly smart business policy. I’ll continue to work on POROUS, but not at the rate I’ve been doing, and hopefully, now that pressure’s off to deliver a chapter a week, the story will grow in new and different ways.
Third: I’ve been told that, if I ever want to seek representation or possibly try to sell POROUS to a publisher, I have to take any long-form chapters down off the web. That agents won’t touch a work that’s been self-published – in any form, whether on Amazon or on a blog – unless you’ve sold tens of thousands of copies. A dream, yes, but that’s certainly a long way off. While for SEEDS we believed wholeheartedly that self-publishing was the way to go, POROUS, I think, might have a different shot with an agent or a publishing house. It’s a strategy I’m not 100% committed to yet, but nor do I want to rule it out. And word on the street is that publishing these installments on my blog means, essentially, I’m destroying my chances of ever heading down that path.
So. There will be no more POROUS. For a long, long time.
I am sorry. I feel as though I owe you more, and I can guarantee that those readers who have stuck around since the beginning will get first options at beta-reading, should you choose, when the time comes. That might be years from now – or it could be six months from now, I don’t know – but, if you’re still interested, the offer will stand. And if not, well, hopefully you will have moved on to greener pastures and better stories 🙂
Thank you all for reading, encouraging me, and making that dream more than just a wisp of mind-space. Thank you for helping bring it to life.
POROUS will stay up on my blog and on Wattpad for another week. But after Memorial Day weekend, I plan to take it down, and retire it solely to my Scrivener. So if you want to finish it, now’s the time.
Alas, I’m not sure what I’m going to write about for #MondayBlogs now…
The Z-Axis 
I think it’s amazing you went as far as you did with Porous on the blog and feel privileged to have been able to join you on part of that journey. I think it’s a testament to your writing talent you could write a chapter each week without a long outline and obviously without the time to sit and edit fully. It’s not something I could do.
Saying that, your decision is completely understandable especially if you want to take Porous further, which I definitely think you should.
Good luck with all your many exciting ventures and I’ll look forward to finding Porous again sometime in the future. 🙂
Thanks so much for all your kind words, Joanne. I really appreciate you saying that – and I’m deeply grateful to you for following the story so closely, and providing loads of helpful feedback. Cheers, and thanks as always for your support!
Amira, this decision makes good sense. I’ll miss reading the chapters as you post them and would love to be a beta reader for you–but I know that what you’ve heard on the street is correct. And you should be able to keep your options open for whatever publishing path seems right to you for this work when it’s finished. I’ll be cheering you on.
Thank you, Lynne! I’m glad to hear you validating this choice especially since you have so much experience in the publishing world. To me, it’s a sign that I’m on the right path, that you’re on my side 🙂 Thanks so much, and I’m very grateful to you for following along thus far.
Sell 10,000 yourself and publishers love it. Sell 10 and they won’t touch it.
Aye – the blessing and the curse of self-publishing. Hit the skylines, and you don’t need an agent/publisher, but they all want you on board – hit the gutter, and no one will help you out of it.
Whether you decide to publish traditionally or independently, I think this is a great idea. You’ve been quite generous to share your work as a free blog serial for as long as you have. From a reader’s stance, there does seem to be a great deal more to look forward to, and I know I’m not the only one who will be looking forward to the official release date of Porous.
Thanks so much, Jess. It was definitely a hard decision to make because I’ve enjoyed working on it so much, but it deserves more than the attention I can currently give. I’m really glad you’ve been there along the way to give me feedback and help push me in the right direction. Cheers, love.
What a fantastic experiment this was in reader participation. I’m glad you did it, and maybe you can do a MondayBlogs post on how reader comments influenced you and how writing a blog serial shaped the early story. It’s a hopeful change I think for Porous. Holding it close to you for a while will allow you to breathe easy and mull things over to make sure you make the best choices for the overall story. That’s something worth waiting for, n x