Wanna read a book?

February 28, 2019

Wanna read a book?

You wanna read a book!

Not that I've given up on my goal of publishing Sliver of Light traditionally, but... Medium gives me a chance to exploit social media and a ... well, readership of some description. I don't have a lot of faith in what popular media wants... and that's understandable. Popular media doesn't know what it wants. Something different, samething different.

Whatever happens to the expectations of the loudest demographic - not the largest - I'll write the way I write. The good news is that there's been a recent uptick in the sales of my books. Nothing that will pay any bills at this point, but improvement is just that.

There's no question I'm on the mend, and that's also good news. I'll be able to start making decisions about that game I mentioned last post. I may or may not have mentioned it here, but I am part of a two person development team for the ACME Resource Pack for Minecraft. It's relevant because it eats up a good portion of my time every time there's an update for the game proper.

Proper. Well, how about "official". Regardless of how I feel about how Mojang does things, I look forward to being able to switch gears, not to mention having a normal level of energy to throw at these projects. I'm getting there... and that feels good. Sometimes you don't realize how low you've sunk until you have a contrast to compare with.

Anyway, there's a schedule for the aforementioned novel up at my main blog, Hastypixels.com - so if you're interested in that, check it out.

Ta for now!

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Most recent blog posts from Simon Woodington...

Everything Matters

I won't stop until I do

Bonehealing and other stuff

Most recent blog posts from Simon Woodington...
Everything Matters I won't stop until I do Bonehealing and other stuff

Feedback

honestgamer - March 01, 2019 (08:31 PM)
Publishing chapters of a novel you hope to get published through traditional media is generally a bad idea, but it may be that traditional media isn't the way you want to go at all. The ebook has certainly given authors other ways to reach writers, as you've discovered. Writers self-publish and throw stuff on the Kindle store all the time, and some folks do pretty good at that. Some can even turn that into more conventional publishing deals. A popular technique I've seen is to split a novel into several small "books" that someone like me would never dream of buying, but that someone like my wife might decide to purchase for $2.99 or whatever. Or an author will make a series and make the first book free, hoping to hook readers who will then buy subsequent volumes at a standard price. The old rules have gone out the window, a lot of them, which is good because it means anyone can get published. The hard part, then, is marketing it...

hastypixels - March 02, 2019 (08:45 AM)
You've had a similar experience as me, I can tell. So few writers make a living as writers that I don't hold the expectation for myself. Rather I see it as a hobby in which I hope to have others enjoy my work, but that's not even my first priority. I'm writing for me, and anyone else who benefits from what I've created is secondary. They have to be.

I'm not Tolstoy, nor am I Ellison ... but I do have something to say, and have managed to establish myself somewhat, mostly through fanfiction novels. I don't do what publishers find comfortable - my works usually would involve cross licensing with no small degree of headache, but my fanbase has been positive and receptive. I don't sound too defensive, do I?

My plan is to self publish - as always the hard part is getting readers to pick up the story, so, as I was able to generate some interest publishing short stories on Medium, I figured why not? This is an adjunct to marketing as well. My books are picking up in sales - my Smashwords account actually has a balance now. As for marketing... yeah, well... I'm not great at that. I am persistent, and I know that counts for something. I've certainly gotten better at writing the marketing material - I can throw off summaries and synopsis at the drop of a hat these days.

I suppose the point of it is to keep going and accrue that experience until I'm satisfied with what I've accomplished. My gauge is me, so - if I had aspirations that were larger, I'd surely be disappointed. Even writing for HonestGamers improves my presense overall, so that's something I'll keep doing for the forseeable future.

Feedback
	honestgamer - March 01, 2019 (08:31 PM) Publishing chapters of a novel you hope to get published through traditional media is generally a bad idea, but it may be that traditional media isn't the way you want to go at all. The ebook has certainly given authors other ways to reach writers, as you've discovered. Writers self-publish and throw stuff on the Kindle store all the time, and some folks do pretty good at that. Some can even turn that into more conventional publishing deals. A popular technique I've seen is to split a novel into several small "books" that someone like me would never dream of buying, but that someone like my wife might decide to purchase for $2.99 or whatever. Or an author will make a series and make the first book free, hoping to hook readers who will then buy subsequent volumes at a standard price. The old rules have gone out the window, a lot of them, which is good because it means anyone can get published. The hard part, then, is marketing it...
	hastypixels - March 02, 2019 (08:45 AM) You've had a similar experience as me, I can tell. So few writers make a living as writers that I don't hold the expectation for myself. Rather I see it as a hobby in which I hope to have others enjoy my work, but that's not even my first priority. I'm writing for me, and anyone else who benefits from what I've created is secondary. They have to be. I'm not Tolstoy, nor am I Ellison ... but I do have something to say, and have managed to establish myself somewhat, mostly through fanfiction novels. I don't do what publishers find comfortable - my works usually would involve cross licensing with no small degree of headache, but my fanbase has been positive and receptive. I don't sound too defensive, do I? My plan is to self publish - as always the hard part is getting readers to pick up the story, so, as I was able to generate some interest publishing short stories on Medium, I figured why not? This is an adjunct to marketing as well. My books are picking up in sales - my Smashwords account actually has a balance now. As for marketing... yeah, well... I'm not great at that. I am persistent, and I know that counts for something. I've certainly gotten better at writing the marketing material - I can throw off summaries and synopsis at the drop of a hat these days. I suppose the point of it is to keep going and accrue that experience until I'm satisfied with what I've accomplished. My gauge is me, so - if I had aspirations that were larger, I'd surely be disappointed. Even writing for HonestGamers improves my presense overall, so that's something I'll keep doing for the forseeable future.

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