What makes it all worth it...

The path of the self published author is a difficult and lonely one. When you first start its just you and a story adrift in the vast sea that is the internet. So you market, and you advertise, and you maintain a presence on forums, and you even keep a blog even though you have no idea whether or not people read it. Not only that, but even when you seem to have little traction you buckle down and keep writing the next story, and the next, spending hours and days and weeks putting thoughts into words. After a while you start wondering not if people are willing to pay for it, but whether they will want to read it at all.

So what makes it all worth doing? Why have I given myself the seemingly endless task that is the Tales from the Green series. It certainly isn't the money. With royalties at 35 cents a pop on Amazon I'd be better off spending my writing time working a second job at the grocery store on the corner. No, the things that keep me going are the small victories. Today I stumbled across someone on the Mobilereads forums who recommended my books to someone else, completely unsolicited. A few weeks ago I got my first review, a four-star one liner saying that The Wizard's Tome was enjoyable. Every once in a while I get a positive in my book threads on one forum or another. It is enough to banish the doubts for a little while, which lets me keep going.

So far what little feedback I have received from my readers has been positive. I know that one day the inevitable bad review will come to me like it comes to all authors. When that day comes I can look back at the little comments here and there about how people enjoyed my rambling stories about sprites and gnomes and flutes that turn into swords. Those kind words from my readers will be what keeps me going.

Site Updates

Finally got around to sprucing up the site. I've changed the template and going with a foresty theme in keeping with the Tales from the Green series. At any rate it certainly looks better than the old green text boxes on blue.

Of greater importance is the new list of links to your left. Contained herein are the links to other sites of interest to the indie author community. There are some hard working people out there who make the whole self-publishing dream a reality for the rest of us, so stop by their pages and give them a look.

Status Update: The Tainted Sliver

Good news, Tales from the Green fans (come on, I get to pretend there are at least some :p )! Book Three: The Tainted Sliver, will almost certainly NOT be the final book in the Ssvalith story arc as originally reported. I suspected as much all along as there is simply too much to fit into one volume without it being twice the length of my other books. Granted, I could finish the story in a trilogy, but I'd much rather make it a quadrilogy and not sacrifice on character development. There's also a few plot points I had in mind from the beginning that need adequate "screen time" to work. If you want to see the perils of a rushed storyline merely go to your local theater to see The Last Airbender movie. Then you'll see why I'm taking the time to do it right (btw, curse you M Night Shyamalan for messing up one of the greatest American animated series of all time!)

So, back on topic, the Tainted Sliver will still be on schedule for early 2011. It stands to be significantly more action packed than the first two installments as the war against Ssvalith gets underway. The first draft is nearing completion (75%), which means I'll have some excerpts ready once I'm satisfied with the end product. I know what you're thinking: always promising never fulfilling, but trust me when I say I am aiming for the highest quality I can muster. I may even try to find some beta readers if anyone is interested, so stay tuned!

Indie Books Blog

There's a new author interview I did for Indie Books Blog. Check it out here.

The Magic Flute on Authonomy

I've uploaded the first six chapters of The Magic Flute to Authonomy in my never-ending quest for a wider audience. You can read them here. Your recommendations will help push me up the rankings, so don't be shy!

Work work

/cue Warcraft 2 peons

For those interested I have corrected some minor issues with the margins in The Magic Flute. It's updating to Smashwords now and will update to Amazon...whenever Amazon gets around to it. If anyone needs an updated copy for any reason let me know at spamnotron(at)yahoo.com.

As an added bonus the new version contains an excerpt from The Wizard's Tome, but as a faithful reader of my blog you already own a copy, right?