I began a work that's written in a series of episodes. Recently I realized that the series was very quickly going to leave my current genre because it would be too difficult to force some installments to please those readers.
The concept follows the efforts of the leader of an alien race, Vespa (the leader of a hive-colony alien race) as she returns to earth after a long time away and decides to 'improve' on the genetics of their own race (Vespans) and to 'improve' on the genetics of Sapiens (Humans) by controlling / governing / guiding / breeding with Sapiens.
Mainly, the concept aligns with Ancient Alien Theories about aliens having populated the earth. I'm taking concepts often explored in the show hosted by Tsoukalos and turning it into a full, complex work of fiction and tying together ancient history in Egypt and Peru (and other countries) with alien invasion concepts in a modern-world setting.
Question 1:
Now, in my current genre publishing stories in small-story installments is entirely acceptable and many authors see success with such stories. Are installment serials as accepted in the Sci-Fi community? Or would it be best to at least release it in 50K (or so) sized story parts? [Currently I'm aiming for a 10K installment each month.]
Question 2:
There will be graphic birth, use of violence and other tactics to control and govern Sapiens (humans), animal studies (etc). It's a very ethically-questionable story concept. Can't take over the world and an entire species without cracking a few eggs. Aliens have their own ethics.
Now, with Erotica [the genre it's in now] there are limits to content. Amazon, for example, does not permit non-consensual/rape stories. Thus, I haven't written that into the story, yet, but it will be there - even if I don't write such scenes down. Do they have issues with this for Sci-Fi? (I'm thinking the answer is no - but I'm asking just to be sure).
Question 3:
I have just two installments written, between them about 20,000 words. Sex heavy, of course. Should I rewrite them to reduce the amount of explicit sex? Which brings me to:
Question 4:
How much explicit sex is the Sci-Fi community tolerable of?
Now, I know that some people just don't like it (any sex) - don't want it (sex or romance - which my story will have plenty of no matter how much I reduce the word count for sex scenes). I hope these individuals will see my story for what it is based on blurbs and know that 'this is not for me'.
That being said, I also know that if people wanted explicit and lengthy sex scenes at every turn they'd shop in Erotica for those stories. So clearly I'm going to reduce and cut down on such elements. However what I'm unsure of is 'how much to cut back'?
Any feedback on this would be grateful.
Note: I'm shifting this series to Sci-Fi based on feedback from authors within my genre after they read the first two installments. One such individual pointed me to this forum to address this issues in more depth so here I am, fish out of water.
The concept follows the efforts of the leader of an alien race, Vespa (the leader of a hive-colony alien race) as she returns to earth after a long time away and decides to 'improve' on the genetics of their own race (Vespans) and to 'improve' on the genetics of Sapiens (Humans) by controlling / governing / guiding / breeding with Sapiens.
Mainly, the concept aligns with Ancient Alien Theories about aliens having populated the earth. I'm taking concepts often explored in the show hosted by Tsoukalos and turning it into a full, complex work of fiction and tying together ancient history in Egypt and Peru (and other countries) with alien invasion concepts in a modern-world setting.
Question 1:
Now, in my current genre publishing stories in small-story installments is entirely acceptable and many authors see success with such stories. Are installment serials as accepted in the Sci-Fi community? Or would it be best to at least release it in 50K (or so) sized story parts? [Currently I'm aiming for a 10K installment each month.]
Question 2:
There will be graphic birth, use of violence and other tactics to control and govern Sapiens (humans), animal studies (etc). It's a very ethically-questionable story concept. Can't take over the world and an entire species without cracking a few eggs. Aliens have their own ethics.
Now, with Erotica [the genre it's in now] there are limits to content. Amazon, for example, does not permit non-consensual/rape stories. Thus, I haven't written that into the story, yet, but it will be there - even if I don't write such scenes down. Do they have issues with this for Sci-Fi? (I'm thinking the answer is no - but I'm asking just to be sure).
Question 3:
I have just two installments written, between them about 20,000 words. Sex heavy, of course. Should I rewrite them to reduce the amount of explicit sex? Which brings me to:
Question 4:
How much explicit sex is the Sci-Fi community tolerable of?
Now, I know that some people just don't like it (any sex) - don't want it (sex or romance - which my story will have plenty of no matter how much I reduce the word count for sex scenes). I hope these individuals will see my story for what it is based on blurbs and know that 'this is not for me'.
That being said, I also know that if people wanted explicit and lengthy sex scenes at every turn they'd shop in Erotica for those stories. So clearly I'm going to reduce and cut down on such elements. However what I'm unsure of is 'how much to cut back'?
Any feedback on this would be grateful.
Note: I'm shifting this series to Sci-Fi based on feedback from authors within my genre after they read the first two installments. One such individual pointed me to this forum to address this issues in more depth so here I am, fish out of water.