I’m Eepy

Once again I am late to this. I did mean to write this blog post last night, but as of the writing of this, all I've been able to do once I get home from work is to collapse in a heap and sleep. Work this past week has been quite taxing - not necessarily in terms of workload, though I had been working overtime all last week - but it has been emotionally taxing, which is arguably worse.

Also, because I've been working late, I was unable to attend martial arts training in the week, which hasn't helped. I need my punchy-kicky time.

As life as a writer isn’t glamorous, there really isn’t all that much to talk about. I am writing, and it’s going well. I do think that this next serial will be alright, actually. I do wish I had more time to write daily. I really miss being able to sit down and write for two or three hours at a time. I’m still hoping that that will one day soon be my reality once more.

I’ve been pondering quite a bit on my situation and how I might find a way to make writing my full time gig without starving to death and getting kicked out onto the streets. I’m not any closer to an answer than I was before. I am just mulling it over.

In order to make real my dream without raising the price of subscription (I’ve been thinking about this, too. Times are tough, and I don’t want to charge more than $1.00 a month currently), I would need about 3000 Starlings (subscribers). Or I would have to sell adaptation rights to my books for ludicrous sums of money (and adaptation rights don’t really sell for that much; least not enough for me to “retire” (quit my job so I can write full time)). Or I would have to sell an extraordinary number of books. Given that I don’t have anything new coming out until next year, that is the least likely of the three, and all three are pretty unlikely.

Of course, I might be able to increase the number of Starlings a little, but that requires a lot of marketing, and I’m pressed for time as it is. Also, I don’t want to shove it down people’s throats. I would feel badly about it. But honestly, I think trying to increase the number of subscribers here would be the most attainable goal… Which is not to say that’s easily attainable. It’s just that of the three options, this seems to be the one I can do the most to bring about.

I wish I was clever in the way so many other writers seem to be. I have a great, if slightly depressing, imagination. And I have the ability to translate what’s going on in my head into some pretty decent stories, if I say so myself. These are the only positive things I can think of. I’m otherwise quite useless. I don’t have the marketing prowess so many others seem to.

Still, I’ve been thinking, and thinking, and thinking, trying to come up with ways to make my dream a reality. I’m seriously short on ideas.

I do have one idea that might help a bit. I decided to join Wattpad and upload my serials there as I prepare them for proper publication. The Timbercreek Incident is being slowly uploaded there. I won’t start releasing chapters until it’s finished its run on my blog. My hope is that I might reach new readers there, and maybe a couple of them will decide to support me. I’m not expecting big numbers to come out of this Wattpad experiment, but maybe one or two? A couple of extra would be nice.

I would also really love to start creating audiobooks; but I want them to be more than just someone reading the books aloud. I want a production: sound effects, possibly some music or ambience. Who knows? I would want this for two reasons. The first is that text-to-speech technology is getting really good. I don’t think people will need to buy audiobooks to have a very good, convincing read of their ebooks done for them by the AI tech coming down the pipeline. The second, much more compelling reason (to my mind), is that it would help so much with the immersion and emotional impact of the stories. Some imaginations need a little assistance, and sound effects (and perhaps some music or background ambience) seem like really cool, interesting ways to facilitate that.

Of course, for that I will need some funds; so I can pay voice actors (if I don’t do the recording), pay for the sound effects and music/ambience, maybe pay for an audio engineer to help me put it all together in a manner that is professional and sounds excellent (instead of whatever mess I manage to cobble together).

And as the added annoyance, I’ll need the time to do that. And in order to get the time to do that, I need to be able to step away from my current full time job without ending up homeless and starving to death.

Eh. I’ll figure it out. Somehow.

Or maybe get really, really lucky. Who knows? Until then, I’ll just keep doing the best I can and hope that it is enough.

Slán go foill!