Long Time, No Write, and some changes in direction

It's been a long time. I think my new goal will be to post at least once a week. I'd become discouraged in the last year or so because just posting, "I'm very busy at my day job and can barely write" over and over again would be pretty pointless.

Things have changed a lot for me in recent months, mostly for the positive. The bottom line is for various reasons, I'm now free of my primary day job. Now, for various other reasons, this doesn't mean I get 100% time to write (for one thing I have children, and I'm heavily involved in editing for my wife), but I do have a lot more time to write.

I'd hoped to have the final book in the Osland Trilogy finished, but I'm only about half-done. I'm not going to give any firm projected times at this point other than "before the end of the year", as I just seem to be terrible about that, and it is unfair to my readers. We'll see more going forward if I can do a bit better about that.

I've had a lot of time to reflect, even during the periods where my writing was fairly limited. There's a lot of types of things that are perhaps a bit more idiosyncratic to my tastes that I've avoided working on because I've worried they weren't "commercial enough." Some of this is an artifact of me being more interested in traditional publishing before finally committing to self-publishing and worrying about what agents might want, but the bottom line is I don't know if I've truly devoted myself to writing the kind of books, in general, that please me versus a mix of my pure ideas and what I thought I "had to write" to get an audience.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like everything I've published, but in the back of my mind, I've always been tweaking characters, plots, set-up, et cetera with the idea that those tweaks would help with marketability. Not saying that's wrong, and for many authors, their natural writing inclinations just line up better with certain audiences, but for me, I think it's led to a muddled focus.

As a result, I think I've produced a number of books that aren't as strong as they could be, even if I did like them, and I feel they were good books overall. I've very grateful for the readers who have enjoyed my books, but, at the same time, I wonder if I've been robbing them of a better experience because I'm letting these doubts influence my writing process.

The main reason I started writing was to express my personal creativity. I wrote for years (mainly short stories) without any thought of publishing or even, to be honest, other readers than myself. Back when NaNoWriMo first started, I realized I did have it in me to write a novel with proper motivation.

Now, those early efforts were completely unreadable, but they were good practice for some of my later books, which judging by reader reactions, are at least somewhat readable.

So, where do we go from here?

Well, for one thing, I'm going to just write what I feel like without a particular concern about neatly fitting into certain genres or expectations. Honestly, this doesn't mean I'm going to be producing something all that transgressive, but more I'm trying to return to why I started writing in the first place.

What does this mean in terms of my future writing? A few things really.

I intend to finish the final book in the Osland Trilogy (about half-way through that), but I'm unlikely to have a follow-up to A WOMAN OF PROPER ACCOMPLISHMENTS. I do appreciate the readers who liked it (the admittedly small number, if we're being honesty), but I think it was an experiment that didn't quite come out the way I truly wanted, but still, it was worth doing.

I'll primarily be focusing mostly on pure non-YA fantasy in the foreseeable future. Now, I may mess with sub-genres a bit, but probably nothing as directly identifiable as, for example, pure romance (not that I won't have romantic elements) or pure mystery. Many of my books will continue to feature strong and intelligent female protagonists as well.

I'm doing research on a project of, uh, well limited commercial appeal. I've been burning for a while with the desire to write a suspense/thriller set in Heian Japan. Although I'm familiar with the general history of the period, there's a lot of research needed to get the fine details right. Of course, just doing the research has opened up more plot possibilities. Now, this project can't get started probably for a year or so due to the research requirements, but if I have a true "dream" project, that one probably is it.

My core process going forward, and starting in mid-October (because I'm on vacation for a bit), will involve me working on one core main novel and rotating through serials (probably bi-monthly serials).

A sequel will be coming for MIND CRAFTER, but I don't have a firm ETC for that yet. I originally started work on that earlier this summer, but became a bit disillusioned for various reasons, but I actually do believe in the series and want to keep going.

THE FINAL CITY, the last in the Osland Trilogy, will be the primary novel focus probably until the end of the year, maybe sooner depending on how quickly I can get it done.

Why the serials? This is not really because I think serials are the light at the way or whatever, but honestly just because I want to be able to write a lot of different things at the same time. I want to experiment to see what kind of stories I'm truly enjoying writing.

One of my problems has always been the surfeit of ideas swirling around. Writing serials are a way that I can scratch that itch.

On the other hand, I get that some people despise that format, so I'll be putting serials into collections probably every 6 or 7 episodes. With each episode being around 15,000 words or so, that means the collections will be a novel-length bundle of work, and I'll be organizing them accordingly.

So, here's my general plan for the next three months:

1) Blog once monthly: This probably won't involve a lot of history blogging or interviews because at this point, I want to focus more purely on just getting words on the virtual page, but you may see an occasional interview or announcement related to friends of mine.

2) Finish up THE FINAL CITY, hopefully by the end of this year if not sooner.

3) Finish up the sequel to MIND CRAFTER by spring of next year. I actually have a draft, but it was written years ago, and I'm extremely dissatisfied with its quality, so there's a lot of work to be done.

4) Start on two serial bi-monthly serial projects. I'll reveal more about this once I'm closer to releasing episodes. Currently, I'm tentatively looking at November for the first serial release.

I feel good about where I'm going with my writing, and I've been pleased with the readers I've been able to reach at this point.

Hon no sekai no kakumei oh suru tame ni

I've been writing on and off for years. For most of that time, I never thought much about publishing. I wrote mostly because I have a deep urge to tell stories. All sorts of different types. I love developing characters, pondering their psychology, generating plots, et cetera. Sometimes I like to weave in complex themes and sometimes not.


Until recently, it didn't really matter. I participated in things like National Novel Writing Month, but those were nothing more than an exercise in fun. A couple of years ago, for a variety of reasons, I decided to get serious about my writing. Some of this related to me having very few creative outlets left. I started writing a lot more than I had been. 


They say you need to write a million words before you produce something publishable. Well, I may not have published yet, but I've produced my million words.


When you plan to do anything, you should know what you are doing. To that end, I began studying the business side of publishing--everything from querying to how film rights worked. Yes, in the end I'm just someone who wants to tell stories, but what good is a story without an audience?


A funny thing happened in the last two years. The e-book market has exploded. I blew it off at first. 


"Who cares?" I asked. The agent and editor blogs I was reading didn't seem to think it meant much.


The numbers starting growing exponentially.


"Well, it's easy to grow when you're starting at the bottom," I said. 


Yet, things kept growing. Even now, I'm dubious they'll continue growing as fast as they are but they could easily reach 25% within a year or two (if not more). It may grow or maybe it will stall out there. Despite what many people may think, CDs are still the predominant music format compromising 60-70% of music sales. So, let's assume (even though we have no reason to necessarily equate the two) that ebook sales hit at least around a third of total book sales. That's a good chunk. All the arguments about ebooks not "being there yet" or not satisfying some aesthetic urge are kind of pointless if a third of the sales are ebooks.


In 2010, 10% of total book sales were e-books. In the first few months of 2011, 20%. Now some of that may be the post-Christmas effect. I'll grant that. So, let's cut the increase in half. Say, it was 15%. Keep in mind here, it's not a matter of adding customers, it's a market of readjusting the existing market share. We could easily end up at 15-20% of total books sales (if not more) by the end of 2011.


So, why am I harping on all of this so much?


In April, author and small-press veteran Kristine Kathyn Rusch wrote a rather lengthy blog post where she offered evidence that the Big 6 publishers are significantly underreporting e-book royalties. While I encourage you to read the post (which discusses royalties in general), one thing I'll point out here is that she did not attribute this to active conspiracy. Instead, she suggested instead it may stem from archaic accounting procedures.


Now, many people have been critical of Ms. Rusch for her often rather strident indictments of the Big 6. I found her post rather frightening, but I kind of filed it away.


At the end of May, veteran agent Kristin Nelson (who is the agent representing several delightful authors I've discovered in recent years) had a post that ended with the following chilling statements:


"In four short days, I can already tell you two important things about this digital revolution.

1. Pricing is everything. Pricing a title appropriately will move a great number of books in a short period of time.

2. Publishers are under-reporting electronic book sales in any given period on the royalty statements we are seeing.

That's a fact."



Chaos! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!


Last week, agent blogger Nathaniel Bransford gave an interview at Writer Unboxed where he talked about the industry and his reasons for leaving agenting. Though he was most insistent that his agenting career was fine, and he was just more interested in being more involved in social media, one section really caught my eye:


But I won’t try and say that the flux in the publishing business played no role either. In my Year in Books post at the end of 2010 I talked about the “Big Squeeze,” and how hard it is for a book to sell to a traditional publisher and how difficult it is for young agents to start their career.


Let's sum this up. We have e-books growth exploding, we have the Big 6 underreporting royalties, likely due to archaic business practices, and we have agents having a hard time even selling books to the Big 6, anyway.


This does not sound like a sustainable system to me. It also sounds like a system in the middle of tremendous transformation.

Now, I've cited these three people, but I see these sentiments all over. I follow a -lot- of writing and publishing relating blogs and forums. People can stick their fingers in the ears and pretend it's 1999 (Hat tip to Ms. Rusch) all they want, but the old order is being swept away. Electrons are flowing over our paper and changing everything.

The question becomes: what happens when it finally all comes tumbling down?


I haven't a clue. We have agents now becoming publishers. Some have already received criticism for perceived poor quality efforts.


Author David Gaughran had a fascinating post the other day that points out the increasing trend of agents, including those closed to submission, of signing successful self-published authors.


This is all terrifying yet exciting. A tradition-bound, slow-to-adapt industry is being ripped to pieces and forced to change. Is this creative destruction or something far more sinister?


I've been following all of this unfold with great attention. For me, I just want to get my stories out to people, and yes, I want to make a little money. Currently, I have two jobs. I have two jobs because I need the money to support my family. I love telling my little stories, but I'm not in a position where I can simply just quit my jobs to concentrate on writing. My children enjoy eating. I enjoy electricity. Occasionally, I also enjoy water. 


It'd be nice, for instance, if I could replace at least of some my modest part-time freelance job with a modest amount of writing income. After all these years of improving my craft, this year I've started toying with queries and the like. Life overwhelmed me though and I'd only sent out a relatively modest amount.


Now, I find myself watching this huge revolution unfold and wondering what to do? Seriously pursue an agent? That takes a huge amount of time, they can't always sell a book and besides poor royalties, there will be the de facto "underreporting" tax on your royalties. Given the molasses-like speed at which the Big 6 have reacted throughout the decades, I'm dubious they'll get the royalty situation in-hand soon.


Should I start trying to submit to small presses? Submit to an e-press? Self-publish (oh, how what was once verboten is now permissible)?


I honestly don't know. People say, "Shut up and write" and I've been doing that. I'm at the point  where I'm a bit dubious of spending a huge amount of time focusing on getting an agent until the fundamental structure of the publishing industry has settled a bit. So, perhaps a two-armed approach. Though the bulk of my million words over the last ten years aren't fit for the consumption of the gentle reader, I have been slowly revising and editing (with the help of many wonderful critique partners) a couple of novels that I actually feel someone might pay a modest sum to read. One, I think, I shall perhaps try and submit to a smaller publisher. The other I could use as part of a self-publishing experiment.


Decisions, decisions.