I’m not ready to do so just yet (and possibly never will be), but considering what I can do to make the trilogy I’ve failed to find an agent for during the past year more attractive, I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the elements in book three is probably more of a hook than anything else.

I think the main problem with the first book – and the series in general, but it’s the first one that I try to sell – is that the idea doesn’t compress down to a simple sales pitch. (The book I’m now submitting to agents is easier to express in a couple of lines, so I’m hoping for more luck with it.)

Considering whether any large-scale changes can make the book more saleable, I have considered whether this element from book three could be expanded, and brought forward. (I also have ideas for where the element could expand beyond the end of the story, but can’t really go there until I have a plan for the initial story.)

It’d mean large-scale structural changes to the story that I’m not sure would even work. Each of the parts it relatively stand-alone. The second has maybe more of a lead in to the third, but even so, I wouldn’t want to spread the revelations about this element over three books, and it’s used to resolve a problem in the third book.

I’ve considered trying to compress them into one larger novel, but apart from the problem that’d make it too long to sell, I don’t know that it’d work structurally. I like the current structure, and feel I’d just be losing good stuff for no real gain. If it’d make the story stronger, it may be worth considering. But purely to give it a stronger hook for marketing doesn’t feel like sufficient justification.

I’ve also started considering abandoning the series (at some point in the future, not yet) and just using this element elsewhere. It could even keep parts of the story attached to it, simply being approached from another viewpoint. Although on its own it’d be more of a horror story, or maybe a dark urban fantasy. Whereas the current story is far lighter and more upbeat (though my view of upbeat may differ slightly from the general consensus). The darker story could possibly be more attractive to current markets, but I don’t know that I have any interest in writing it right now.

I suppose the idea is there if I ever do give up on this story. I’m just not sure how to tell whether it’d be better to push ahead with it as it is (either continuing the trad pub grind or self-publishing it) or using the element for something that may be more commercial. Possibly I’ve just been listening to too much advice from mercenary/practical writers. Cannibalising the stories won’t destroy them for me. It’ll just mean they won’t have a wider audience, which they may never find anyway.

Or maybe I should just move on to the next project, and leave this a few years until my hopes for it have finally been suffocated in a cold bed, late at night.

Yes, I might be getting bleak over the issue. So, y’know, happy holidays.