Trapped

AFTERWORD by Joe Konrath

This was the hardest book I’ve ever had to write.

Not because of the violence. I was okay with the violence. Unfortunately, my editors weren’t.

In 2007 I wrote a horror novel called AFRAID under the pen name Jack Kilborn, and that landed me a two-book deal. My publishers wanted a book similar in tone to AFRAID, so I pitched them the idea for TRAPPED and wrote the first few thousand words. They placed an excerpt for TRAPPED in the back of copies of AFRAID, hoping to release the book in the winter of 2009.

Unfortunately, my editors hated TRAPPED when they read the whole thing.

Personally, I liked it. The novel was more intense than AFRAID, and probably a little meaner and gorier (maybe more than just a little), but I believed it kept with the same theme and tone of the first Kilborn book. Namely, regular people in a dark, confined setting, confronted with an overpowering, horrible threat.

Since I wanted to get paid, I rewrote TRAPPED according to the editorial notes I’d been given. I don’t believe it made the book better, but it did make it different. I toned down a bit of violence and sex, added a bit more violence in other areas, changed a few characters, cut a sub plot, and wrote a new ending.

My editors hated the rewrite as well. So I put TRAPPED away, figuring it would find readers eventually, and instead wrote ENDURANCE, the third Jack Kilborn book in my two-book contract. My editors liked ENDURANCE, but wanted me to make some significant cuts. Having been down that road before, I told them no, and I pulled ENDURANCE from publication.

So now I had two intense horror novels, ready to publish. All I had to figure out is what to do with them.

During the 18 months I’d been working on TRAPPED and ENDURANCE, I’d turned some of my older books (written under my real name, J.A. Konrath) into ebooks. To my surprise, they sold like crazy. Rather than pursue traditional print publication, I decided to avoid do it alone and release TRAPPED and ENDURANCE myself.

So which version of TRAPPED did you just read? The rewrite, or the original?

This one you just read is the rewrite. Though there were some scenes I liked more in the first version, I think the rewrite hangs together better, and it is the one I prefer. That one also is more of a direct sequel to AFRAID, where the previous version only alluded to it.

But is the rewrite the definitive version of the novel?

I don’t believe so. I can see going back to this book in a few years, putting in all the parts I cut out, and making some sort of “fully uncut” edition.

Until then, if some intrepid readers are interested in reading the first draft of TRAPPED, I’ve included it in this ebook after the excerpts from a few other novels. It’s not completely edited (this was a first draft), so expect some rough spots and some typos. But people have been asking me to see it, so who am I to say no? I love my readers, and if they want it, I’ll let them have it as a free bonus.

What are the differences between the two? The first draft of Trapped is darker. It has some sex in it. Several different characters. A different sub-plot. A different ending.

It’s so cool that ebooks allow authors to publish first drafts in conjunction with final drafts. I expect more and more ebooks to contain extras like this, because the format lends itself to extra content.

If you do read both versions, and plan to write a review (which would be very cool of you to do so), please rate the one you preferred rather than average them together. The goal of this extra content is to make the fans happy, but if you like one of the versions more than the other, please don’t punish me with a lower review because I gave you a choice.

And if you’ve finished this book, and you’re shocked by how horrifying it was and wondering what kind of lunatic could write such a ghastly story, just remember: this is only fiction. No one was actually killed and eaten during the writing of this novel.

As far as you know…

May 26

Chicago, IL