One of my favorite bands says “It’s
a long way to the top, if you wanna rock’n’roll”. Well, I’ve been officially published now for
six months and, in that short time, I’ve spent I-can’t-tell-you-how-many hours
promoting Procythian Reign. In even this brief half-a-year I’ve spent as
an independent writer, I think I can say: it’s pretty long way to the bottom of
the heap, too.
I’m not writing this for sympathy,
or to publicly bemoan just how taxing and difficult it can be to be a
writer. In fact, every article by every
author I’d ever read on the subject told me to expect a long, hard, frustrating
road. So, I anticipate nothing different
for myself. And, though I haven’t paid
any real dues to speak of, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that
writing can be a demanding, time-consuming task that yields some pretty slow
results.
I’ve read a few books about how to
become a literary commercial success. They’ve
been informative and helpful. I’ve
gleaned much inspiration from their ideas.
I’ve incorporated as many as I can and dedicated as much time as I could
spare and some I couldn’t into getting into the public forum. But all of that work which has yielded little
in the line of commercial success has made me come to a conclusion: These
people must not have day jobs or they wear a cape and tights under their
going-out clothes. I do as much as I
physically can, but there just aren’t the hours in the day.
I’ve decided that I need an
assistant. (How I'm going to pay him is another story for another blog.) I have plenty of work for
even a full-timer. I could keep him busy
for weeks just filling out review requests.
That isn’t counting the hours I spend on Twitter and researching
promotional opportunities. I could
really use a hand putting together the second Procythian Reign trailer I’m trying to produce. There’s also a Facebook page which has gone
sorely neglected, and a new author-based website that I’ve been trying to get
off the ground.
Of course, only I can do the
interviews and more personal correspondences with people who have actually
responded to review/interview requests.
I need to be the one to dedicate more time to working on this blog and
cultivating my small but growing fan base.
It’s my face that should be out there peddling Procythian Reign print book to small book stores all over town. I need to do the face-to-face and make those
precious inroads into the book industry.
I also need time to do something
novel: write. I’ve had a first draft of Procythian Reign’s sequel, The Proceena Crusade, written since
before I released Procythian Reign. The problem is that I am spending every
moment I can steal away from my other responsibilities trying to generate excitement
for my current book, I have had precious little time to work on my newer
projects.
But I swear I'm not complaining. In fact, I’m very happy to say
that there’s a lot of reasons to be excited about the direction my career as a
writer is taking. I am working 10-12
hours on my off days(sometimes more). The kids are back
at school, so there’s more time, now.
Reviews, positive reviews, are beginning to trickle in.
I’m beginning to get opportunities. I’m making contact with people who can help
me reach out to readers! Many of these
are coming from visiting the local book stores.
Even the ones that don’t carry my book are putting me in contact with
those who can help me, and I expect to have some very exciting news in the
near future!
So, there is real sign of life! I’ve
been able to do a number of interviews, including a character interview of Eric
Phillips of which I’m really proud. I
can see a future for my Facebook page. I’m expecting that trickle of reviews to reach a steady stream in the near future! I
have done a guest blog for another writer and think I’m getting the hang of
this blogging thing.
Yes, there’ll be more posts…a lot
more in the upcoming weeks and months. I
already have an idea for the next one.
But I’ll have plenty of blog material coming up soon and I have more
ideas for future installments of Greetings
from Proceena! Thank you to all of
those who’ve taken the time to follow this blog and welcome to all who have just
started.
It may be a long way to the top,
but I plan to enjoy the ride. I hope
you’ll take the trip with me!
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