Greetings, you! I’m about to update you on current projects, and also complain. Prepare yourself!
*Dismal coffee sipping noises*
I’ve been working on with Bloodkeep (at editing now) and the rough draft for Substation 7 (Title to change most likely) but that said I’ve had something else on my mind as of late.
So as a bit of backstory, I’ve been writing nearly ten years. That may come as a shock to some of you as I’ve only been on the scene for the past four or so, but there you are. I’ve bled a great deal upon the page, and the bleeding part I’m quite over, I can write without difficulty, but it just seems like I’m not seeing the kind of results I want. I need to find a way to sell my work, or at least get supported for it. Any ideas?
To give you a rare peek into my secret basement: My typical month of ebook revenue is no where near sufficient to pay for my family (getting one sale is a highlight in my day, LOL), and while my line of real-life work is perfectly good, the various surprise expenses of family life have left me in a state of financial insecurity. I can’t pay for Bloodkeep’s cover without risking missing actual bills, so that’s definitely out of the picture. I have no effective sales funnel as of yet to channel prospective readers into, cannot afford to run any ads, and really I’m just worried that I’ll be continuously marginalized to a point where I’ll just have to give up the dream of doing this full time and go back to giving away all my writing for free.
You’re a smart sort, what do you think I should do? I’m very consistent in my output, so the creation of the content isn’t a problem, but when it comes to “moving” the products themselves into the hands of readers its a real pain in my side.
Bleh, but on the other hand, I probably shouldn’t complain. After all I’ve gotten so many projects done over the past year that I shouldn’t really slap myself too hard. I just have to try more things, and push forward with what I already know. I’ll find a way.
*phew* Right-o, then! Rant finished.
Here’s what’s going on, get excited:
-Bloodkeep: ~99k words (yes, quite a lot!) and in editing now. You’ll see vampires, werewolves, both of those parties getting murdered in massive numbers, and even a surprise appearance by me! Yes, I’ll be a character in this one, for only one chapter, but still. It’s all quite necessary to build up the “Higher Universe” of The Inkrealm, so I hope you understand why this one doesn’t quite pertain to the usual rising and falling of action expected in most high-quality novels that we are so accustomed to in our modern society.
-Substation 7: ~17k words. It’s going smoothly, the first half of the book looks like an easy write (I’m shooting for much lower than my fantasy, about 40-50k words for this one) but I just need to decide what horrible secrets I’ll reveal in what order. Thriller is a totally new genre to me, but I’m very much enjoying flexing my huge medialing muscles in this brand new way.
-Nocturna League 6: ~4k words. The most recent start. I should have lots of time to finish this up, so expect to see this finished much earlier than you’d think. It’s pretty fun so far. I haven’t visited these characters in over a year, so I’m really excited to lick up Colette’s tears again and ensure that they’re salty enough for The Captain.
-Halloween Short Story: ~5k words. Another fast mover. I realized I haven’t really talked much about other holidays in Aerna other than Kingsday so I felt like it would be fun and spooky to do another story with Chaos’ minionry. Coming up with new minions is always a great joy, and the segments can practically write themselves.
Project considerations done, let me tell you about some musings over the horizon.
-I’m considering starting a patreon. I’ve done a fair amount of research into the platform, and from my analysis it seems as though that I produce more than enough content to make it worthwhile for readers. I won’t change up my strategy all that much. I’ll still publish mostly on amazon and have lots of interaction on my facebook group, but chiefly this will be a good way for readers to “subscribe” to my writing. For a pittance of a monthly fee, I could deliver my draft-material to my excellent readers every week! I’m certain other benefits, like audio editions, ebook editions, and physical copies of the novels would also be manageable without much fuss, especially if it would result in a small net gain for me every month. I’m still weighing the pros and cons, so if you have any input I’d love to hear it!
-I’ll be revamping the shop in a few months! Sometime, most likely early spring, you could own your very own minion mug! Yes! Ever wanted Cooking Minion’s smug-ass grin on a mug? Ever wanted to low-key promote my writing without having to embarrass yourself in front of your friends? Well very soon you’ll have all that and more! It’s all still very much in its fledgling phases, so don’t expect much news about it for the coming weeks (months), but do expect news about it eventually.
-Do you like spending time with people far away? I do! The Kell Inkston Group is taking off with fun polls, book lore discussion, and general friendly nonsense. Perhaps you’d like to join? If you read this far you’d probably like to join. Here, click this and join.
I’ll be sure to write more often. Sorry that you barely hear from me these days. I’m just super busy.
All the best,
Kell
Coffee... WRITING!... COFFEE!! 