…because there are no results. A couple of weeks ago, I offered one of my
best stories, Blackskull’s Captive,
for free on Amazon for three days. I put
out the word, and got some good feedback.
The idea was inspired by Charles Gramlich who had done the same with one
of his stories, with some decent results.Well, the sale lasted from Saturday through Monday. We were out of town that weekend anyways, so I decided I wasn’t going to even look at any results until the whole thing was done. I was hoping for a bunch a free downloads, which would lead to a few new sales afterwards, maybe a few sales of other stories, and a review or three.
Well, I did get a bunch of free downloads.
Other than that, not a tremor. It was disappointing, but not
unexpected. I have no name recognition,
and my stories are all just shorts, mostly in the fantasy genre. So, basically, the experiment was a failure.
And I’ve kind of decided to give up on the whole idea of
self-publishing fiction. I really should
focus on writing longer works if I ever want to be an accomplished writer. And submitting them to paying markets is
probably a better idea.
I do have another orc story complete, and a trusted reader
looking at it. Since it’s a continuation
of two previous stories, I might go ahead and self-pub it. Though I am actually thinking of just letting
is simmer for a while, writing a few more stories about the cast of characters
I have established, and putting them all together in a single volume. I’m looking at the same idea for the Blackskull story. I have a sequel started, with ideas for at
least two more.
I think my problem, actually, is much larger than
writing. I have a lot on my mind lately,
and a lot of worries. So, writing is an
effort to say the least. But, since
finishing school (more or less), I have been reading more, which always seems
to help with my creativity. So, who
knows?
In the meantime, I’ll probably just chip away at my various
works in progress, and not worry about my future as a writer.
3 comments:
I hate to hear that you won't be self-pubbing anymore, as I enjoy your work. However, you are ultimately the one who has to decided what is best for your career. Whatever you do, in short or long term, I wish you the best.
I was happy that I got two reviews out of the freebies I gave away, although one of those came from extra effort to change the story into PDF for someone who didn't have a kindle. I guess they felt obligated. I also got at least 4 sales after the freebie was over. So, it wasn't bad but it certainly was no huge success.
I'm not sure if you have any interest but Asimov Magazine is accepting submissions and so is Tor. You might have some luck getting your stories published through them and that would help get your name out there to a wider audience.
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