Self-publishing by the Gutter

Fabulous cover! Grats, Norman!

That's almost one sale every two days in September. Nice!

Looking good. And great to see that Doctor Luke hasn't completely lost its momentum.

I don't know the answer to that, Norman. My assumption is that those fees won't show up on your final summary of royalties. I've never seen a minus number on any of my reports from Smashwords and I'm sure someone has returned at least one e-book in the last year.

Hmmm. Shame to see DLA slowing down so much. Here's hoping this is as low as it goes. Still, I'll be publishing my figures tomorrow, which will make your numbers look a lot better.

Good news on the possibility of a new novel though. Good luck with it.

My October was one of the worst months ever. we can commiserate together.

I made three sales in October and all of them were from people I knew and were curious about what I had written.

I use to be addicted to checking my sales 12 times everyday on Amazon.
Well, October cured me of that.

Interesting read--thanks for sharing and good luck with your continued journey!

How's the new novel coming along?

Norman D Gutter said:

Pretty good, Rob. Thanks for asking. Last night I went past 27,000 words. It seems to be running short of what I thought it would be. I might be done at 60,000 instead of 75,000. That might be too short for a spy novel. But I may be wrong. Perhaps some of these middle scenes will run longer than I think they will.

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Sounds like you're making some good progress, Norman. That's what we like to hear. Write on!

Norman D Gutter said:

but at least I can still write them.

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...the only real criteria required of a writer.

Will the spy novel appeal in any meaningful sense to the same readership that have bought your earlier books, or is this a stab at new territory?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with following your muse wherever it should go - that is the joy of self-pubbing.

However, if it's sales you seek, then the genre-hopping has consequences. If you leave your readership behind, then you're starting over with the new book. Which means that every book is effectively your first book, i.e. unknown and untested.

You write as you, so the themes you produce will likely appear in anything you write, because they are linked to your personality. But genre boundaries are real - they represent reader groupings, not the diktats of publishers or booksellers - and people really don't cross them much. That's why authors are advised to use pen-names when they write for different genres.

Having a foothold in more than one genre offers great variety. I think you need to be able to service those different footholds to generate sales in them - else you are left with literary orphans randomly strewn through Amazon's catalogue.

This is what I'm learning from the experiences of others, though I'm happy to be proved wrong. As you know, when it comes to sales, I can hardly be considered an authority. I'm just following the logic.

If you're not actually writing for sales, then enjoy the freedom. Freedom is good. If you do want sales though, then a strategy of concentrating your forces rather than stretching them across the line may produce better results.

I hope you'll take this as it is intended, and not as undue criticism. It is not actually important to be a commercial writer, if that is not what you want to be - the fact that others demonstrably want to be sellers should not be construed as the only way forward.

I'm also impressed by Doctor Luke's Assistant selling better than mine (and it's not exactly a super hot genre is it?) and getting ten reviews, mostly positive.

You're in a good position in that you have a choice. Good luck.

Norman D Gutter said:

Well, I can't sell books (only 1 sale in Dec so far), but at least I can still write them...

So I may be halfway done already. At this rate I'll have another novel that won't sell as early as February.

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Norman, I think the sentence I bolded above is going to be my new mantra! It takes some of the pressure off, because, hey, the book isn't going to sell anyway, so relax and have fun writing it! I love your spirit and thirst for writing. I've lost a bit of that this fall and am itching to get it back.

It's cold outside my local Starbucks where I'm snagging their free WiFi, so I'll make this short.

Hang in there! There are many more months coming to write books that won't sell!!!

Norman D Gutter said:

Rob:

No offense taken. You are absolutely right. This is why I hesitated to start writing this.

My dilemma a couple of months ago was I didn't know where to go next with my writing. I had four projects occupying gray cells:

- a sequel to Doctor Luke's Assistant
- a sequel to my baseball novel, In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People
- the novel I'm now working on, China Tour
- and a second non-fiction book in my intended series Documenting America.

I didn't know where to go next. So I decided to write the first chapter of each of the four books and see which one felt right for the moment. The first chapter of China Tour rolled from my brain to the keyboard with almost no effort. Either of the other novels made more sense, in that they were related to a book already out, but those first chapters came with greater labor. Also, China Tour is a stand alone book, not part of any series. So, by conventional wisdom I'm doing it all wrong, and I recognize that. Your logic is correct.

My hope is that I get this book written and published, get it behind me, and then maybe I can concentrate on those two sequels, plus a prequel to DLA that's been rumbling around some. Though you're right again: that's not a hot genre, and to pursue it more also defies logic. Alas.

NDG

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No reason why you can't do the sequels later. No deadlines to meet - you are your own publisher/manager/agent. Publishing is a long game, and ebooks don't go out of print.

And while it may not be a hot genre, it is still a genre. If you're comfortable with it, you can make it home (or 2nd or 3rd home). If it fits, wear it. If your readership in a genre grows, and if they connect with you, you won't care where it ranks compared to other genres (which rise and fall according to fashion anyway). Connecting with readers is probably what motivates most writers. We write so that others may read. Financial incentives are secondary, and are a poor guide as they tend to blind, rather than open the mind (which is the writer's greatest asset).