Turns out that Beware of Light doesn't sell many copies not because it sucks (which it doesn't–I have it on good authority), but because everything I've done during and since launch was wrong. Huge thanks to Mark Dawson for teaching newbie authors like me what's what in this business.
So I have until May (when I can escape KDP Select) to fix all the marketing stuff surrounding the book and myself, and hopefully I'll be able to pick up more readers by then. Anyway, starting with June I should have options available that will let me use unholy magic to summon a couple thousand readers. We'll see how it goes.
When you rewrite something important, like the executive summary of your paper or the first page of my book, my advice is not to look at the version you have.
Give yourself a week, forget what you have there, and just start from scratch. Otherwise you will subconsciously pull your new text to what you already have, and it can make it a waste of time.
They tell you to be authentic on the internet. And by they I mean friendly, charming, slightly quirky people.
Sure. If you are a nice person, and you need to get over your shyness to let other people bathe in the warmth of your presence, then it's a good idea. But hell if it's for everyone.
Half the time, my issues have issues. I am not a pleasant person to be around, or at least I believe so, and even if outside of my head I'm the greatest guy in the world, screw it, because I live inside my head, and piling my crap onto other people's plates brings such guilt that all the authenticity in the world can go and screw itself with an industrial drill.
I loved Stephen Fry's Mythos. The myths of Ancient Greece were one of my favorite stories when I was a child even if they were available only in rather bland and partially censored Soviet form. I still remember the book called The Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece by N. Koon, and I owe much of my love for literature to the stories of Kronos eating his children and Athena coming up with a brilliant reward-slash-punishment for Arachne's blasphemy.
Fry's retelling contains the myths of Titans and Gods: there is no Heracles, no Illiad, no Trojan War, because the stories of the Gods alone take up four hundred pages, and with all the heroes we would have had eight hundred—a size that would have stretched the the book's ability to be entertaining. From what I can tell, the text stays close to the sources while Fry does his best to inject a little levity into the story and make his unique voice shine through.
If I have one semi-complaint, it's that this is very much Stephen Fry's work: with the same wit and flourish that he speaks with, and in the beginning that was distracting for me. I usually prefer authors that do It didn't bother me one bit by the time I finished the book.
2018 is here, and it's time for New Year resolutions!
First of all, I will get more people to read my professionally written, most wonderful, exorbitantly beautiful novel. I will start by marketing it to owlbears, I think. Yes, planning on the first of January is the best!
Second, I'll be more authentic and less snarky Or I'll try at least, because part of my authen . . . authenti . . . authenticity, yes, is my snark. So separating the two is a pain. But life often gets difficult enough without me being smart at people.
