Tuesday, September 11, 2012
A little disheartened
So, I’m looking at sales for my Kindles…wow. I have sold a whopping three copies of my latest. I know that, logically, I shouldn’t really be surprised. I mean, who am I? I’m just some schmuck with a decent talent for writing, but almost zero name recognition. I have no “professional” credits outside an article in Dragon Magazine back in 1996. And besides all that, it’s not like I have put a lot of effort into promoting myself. I blog here, I post on Facebook…and yeah, that’s about it.
This was a fun experiment, but I’m starting to think that maybe I should stop with the $.99 short stories. Maybe I should concentrate on the longer-forms. Maybe I should try to get something professionally published.
The problem is, that takes time and effort that I have difficulty mustering. Admittedly, this is mainly due to my inherent laziness. But some of even that comes from the rest of my life. Kids really drain you of purpose and motivation sometimes. Especially toddlers. And working full time, while struggling through school…it all adds up. Sometimes, despite my best efforts, Resistance wins.
The other problem I face is the fact that there is a glut of self-published stories out there. Amazon and Smashwords have made it so easy for ANYONE to publish their stuff. I think the novelty is wearing off for readers. They are becoming more selective. And with so many selections to choose from, they can afford to overlook a lot of stuff. Also, with so much of that stuff being of poor quality (to put it mildly), how can readers know that one story in a hundred is actually worth the pittance being asked?
I guess the bottom line is, I’m having a pity-party for Tommy. The world is unfair. I suck. I’m never going to make it as a writer. Nobody likes me. Only my friends and family patronize me by telling me how good they think I am.
There, I think I hit all the major ones. Now, to get to work on my latest story.
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3 comments:
Well, man, I've had lots of stuff professionally published and my kindle sales ain't much better than yours. I don't know what the answer is. I certainly haven't found it yet.
Glad you got that out of your system. Now focus on the last sentence you wrote.
And hang in there. You never know what will take off. I wrote a blog post last June ('11) that had exactly 3 page views at the time. For some reason, it began to get attention about October. It's now the most viewed post I've done, with nearly 505 more page views than the second most viewed post. Keep writing. Eventually something of yours will take off.
You're writing and getting 'em out there, more than I can say.
As with you, toddlers & fatigue & laziness are allowing Resistance to kick my ass. I need to get back in the groove, I have deadlines and ideas piling up.
Swords (or rayguns, or machine guns, or whatever action weapons you prefer today) high!
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