The Man In Orange - my first novella

[ZacYates]

Hi all,
For the last four years I've been working on a little novel titled The Man In Orange, the first of a handful of books "starring" chopper pilot Maxwell Hughes. I've taken the chance to enter it into a competition, marking the first time I've put it out there for folks other than close family and friends. I'm working with an editor to fine-tune things so, if the competition is a no-go, I plan to self-publish as an eBook and a limited run of hard copies. I've been turned down by two Kiwi publishing houses so I think self-publishing is the way for me to go.

I'd be grateful if anyone interested could read it and, if you like it, share with your friends and anyone else you think may be interested.

Thanks.

www.inkitt.com/stories/68199?ref=v_3a7877d6-3217-485f-8344-0c6806726b32

[johnnyfalcon]

Hey Zac, have read it and posted a short review on-line. Reads like I imagine an aviation-oriented short story should. Have you ever read "Patterson's Volunteers"? A full novel that allows more character development but written in a similar tenor (you'd enjoy). Good on ya mate!

[ZacYates]

Thanks for your review, that was an amazing boost to my confidence! I've never heard of it so I'll have to track it down.

A friend who actually flies 500Cs has taken a look and given me some feedback on some of the technical aspects, so I plan on updating the story this weekend.

[camtech]

Hi Zac,
Not read your work yet, but can comment on the self publishing route.
My wife (a children's poet, playwright and self proclaimed drama queen) has had 5 books self published, plus two teacher resource booklets, so we are well aware of the process.

From our experience: - Edit, edit, edit. We thought we had got it right - both of us (including reading it backwards!), a drama teacher, a professional editor, several grandchildren, and even then a 7 year old grandson found a mistake a word missing!.
Once we are as confident as we can be, we get a draft from the printer, and edit it again! If we find any tweaks (which have mainly been extra spaces between words, no spaces, (read Trevor Bland's story "From Rags to Rivets" to see what I mean), then we get another draft done.
Printing is not cheap, so look at how many you think you can sell before committing to printing. We get ours done locally by a very well known company, because we can deal with them directly. On our third book, they had major problems with the weft of the covers and also with moisture in a huge batch of paper. They accepted responsibility and actually gave us all the printing seconds, which we have been able to sell at a much reduced price, and we payed a reduced printing cost.

Good luck with the journey.