Challenges

I’m nearing the launch of what has become book one of the Robin Randle Stories. The one thing I hadn’t received yet was the copyright registration information. So, I go to the copyright.gov website and ask them when they think I might hear back on the copyright registration. When I wrote this book, I had no idea that I would ever write a second one around Robin Randle so when I registered the book it was titled The Robin Randle Stories. This book is one story that I broke down into two books. Being the creative person, I am I knew that these two books were really just called books. The BOOK or novel if you like, was called The Robin Randle Stories! The week after I contacted them I got a letter. I’m thinking it’s my copyright registration information but no.

The copyright office didn’t understand. They didn’t get that the two books inside the novel were just called books as a term of art. They decided to reject my copyright because they thought I was publishing a compilation. Sigh. I guess they never looked at the manuscript I sent them. So, how was I to fix this? I panicked for a minute then sent a few emails asking for opinions and lacking any I decided to remove any and all references to the two books being called books from the manuscript. Then I gave the novel a new title. That was the only plus in this whole fiasco. The new title is The Madness of Robin Randle and I will note on the cover that it is a Robin Randle Story. Everything has been resent to the copyright office and they are good with the changes.

Fortunately for me this change had minimal impact on the platform I have been building for the book’s launch. Robin has a website – http://robinrandle.com. I’ve been boosting Facebook posts building an email newsletter list. Slow going but it is coming along.

During this same time period the writing of the next Robin Randle novel hit a snag. I found myself trying to fit a square peg in a round hole but not realizing it. After rewriting the same chapter five times I got it! I didn’t understand how part one of the novel (no more books) was supposed to end. Now I do and it impacted part two. Things have become focused now and flow much better. Funny how the subconscious mind watches all this stuff and steps in when you are about to screw things up. A challenging last few weeks.