I was checking my Amazon stats today, as I do obsessively every day, especially when I'm running ads as I am right now, and I noticed something amazing. Yesterday, September 20th, marked the five year anniversary of this wordsmithing journey! That's wild to think about, and there's a lot that can be unpacked with that thought, so I decided I'd maybe make a random, off schedule blog post about it.
Firstly, what an amazing journey it's been. When I was a kid, reading Stephen King and fantasizing about being a writer when I grew up, it was always living in a massive house, spending 80% of the day taking naps or sitting outside, sitting at my giant mahogany desk for a few weeks of the year and churning out novel after novel, to the adoration of my worldwide fanbase. It was the life that everyone dreamed of.
Being a child is so fun.
I think, if my midlife memory serves me correctly, I wrote my first stories in grade school for some artistic project that had been assigned. They weren't good, obviously, but the laminated pages, held together with plastic, spiral binding, had my name on the cover and that was what mattered to me. I'd done it, it was real. At least as real as it could be at the time.
I won't bore you with another retelling of my story - if you want that you can read the bio on the website - but writing was always something I dabbled in throughout the years. As life got in the way of reading (movies, YouTube, parties, the wild twenties) the writing waned as well, but every time I burned through a new book, the back of my mind tingled with the urge to pen my own words.
Then came the grown up job, the free time at work, and the start of a story that would become Fall Winds Blow. When I look back on it now, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, that cements the beginning of this journey, the first steps into telling myself I can do this, the first attempt at throwing words to the world and seeing what comes back. And what did come back? People seemingly enjoying them and wanting more. Friends and family telling me how "cool" it was that I had put something out. It was the first time people had said the phrase "published author" around my name. It felt amazing.
Do I have issues with Fall Winds Blow? Of course. Many, if I'm being honest. I rarely point people toward reading it nowadays, because it's...rough. I spent three weeks, writing nonstop at work, as ideas came to me on breaks and lunches. I went back when it was finished, because I knew I needed to edit it, even though I wasn't quite sure what that meant. So I looked through it for typos and obvious problems, corrected what I could, and pushed it out to the world. Formatting came free from Reedsy, the cover was built by hand with my limited Photoshop skills, and with basically no money spent, it was out there. Did I use the word crisp wayyyyy too much? Yes. Did the story start with the main character (a grizzled detective with a drinking problem) waking up? Yes. Like I said, I have issues with it.
But again, it was a real thing that I could hold in my hand. And that was priceless to me.
Psyconics was next, and the plan being to produce a book a year was heavy on my mind. I'd just moved into my own apartment, alone for the first time, and I was going to do it. But spring of 2020 had different ideas. The drastic change to life, work, and everything in between was a shock that took a long time to get past. I also set the goal of it being the first full-length novel, which basically doubled the amount of words I thought necessary to tell a story. I had to push to get it done. A large chuck of time was also spent crafting some short stories and submitting them to places online, in hopes of cementing myself as a "real writer", whatever that means. A lot of rejections, with a lot of "you have talent, please send us more in the future" came back, and did a number on my already flimsy mental health during that time. I didn't write for almost a year.
Then I decided that self-publishing was equally as legitimate, and no one would tell me otherwise. Especially not myself. So I feel back into it full force. Psyconics was done in 2022, this time with a professionally created cover, and actual full attempts at editing (still not quite sure what to look for, but I went through and rewrote some sections that didn't seem to fit, and that seemed closer to what people meant by that). It went out with some ads, the first attempts at social media promotion, and the dream of someone that I didn't already know in real life reading it. It found a small audience, still mostly people I knew, but overall everyone seemed to enjoy it. It had improved the flimsy craft of the previous one, and that's what mattered.
That became the goal. Improve each time. Grow.
The Path of the Divine Order seems like it came from nowhere, if I'm being honest. Again, I had just moved to a new apartment, had found my writing routine and an idea for a story, and in 6 month I had a manuscript that seemed decent. This time, another professional cover, a beta reader, and a line editor (to catch the inevitable typos I ALWAYS miss). The focus on writing as a business grew, and social media presence and promotion became a goal. Release was the best release as of yet, reviews from people I'd never met were rolling in and positive, and friends started to encourage looking into release events and book signings. Things that sounded real. The steps of a for real writer. Some would even say an "author".
I'd found the groove, I'd started to find the audience, and I needed to keep at it. Bound To Parish was the next idea, and the business plan was in full effect. Early promotion, building hype, finding comparable media to help sell people on it. Pushing through the hurdles of three complete rewrites of the manuscript, including one from the AMAZING developmental editor I found (Shellah, I still can't thank you enough). Another professional cover (which I still love to stare at to this day) and actual ad runs to foster page reads. It helped that I fell in love with the story, the setting, the characters, and the world I'd crafted. It also helped that it was the fourth attempt and the advice I'd consumed over the years had finally started to sink in.
As I write this, and part of the reason for writing it in the first place, is that I've crossed a small milestone. In no way is this a brag or a boast, in many ways it's meant to humble me as someone in the presence of such amazing authors across the board, but for me, it's something to celebrate at least.
As of 7pm today, I've officially made $1000 with my words. It's a small number, especially considering the five years that it's taken to get here, but it's massive to me. It means that people have enjoyed the stories. It means that the books have sold, in whatever small doses that may be. It means that the plan to continue to improve with each new story has actually succeeded.
Even now, I have two ideas that I'm working toward, and although I've been slow on progress this year, winter lends to writing and although whatever comes out next year may be later than I'd hope, something should come out next year. And we'll hope it builds on what I've already established. Mainly, we'll hope that people will enjoy it just as much as they've enjoyed everything else.
If you read this, I hope you have enjoyed anything you might have read from me as well. I hope I've been able to give you a few good moments as you've digested the words I put on pages. And I hope there's much, much more to come.
Thank you - for everything.
-Dave
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