Time to take stock.

Time to take stock of my writing career.

I entered into this with the hope that I could get one book written.  Then to get that one book published.  That was my goal.  Just to prove I could do it again.

But I kept on writing and writing and enjoying it, and before I knew it I had a body of work behind me.

I've had five books published this year by Books of the Dead Press.  I've got another book coming out in early January from Ragnarok Publications.

So I'd say I succeeded at my original goal.

After stuttering on my writing for a year, then exploding for a year, and then keeping up the pace for another year, I've really slowed down in the last quarter of this year.  I've been sort of involved in trying to get people to notice what I've already written.

It is a hard task.  Much harder than the actual writing.

I make small incremental attempts, and really don't see much happening.  But nothing will happen unless I make the attempts.  So I've been trying.

It's frustrating because I now know it is within my grasp to get a book in the top ranks of the bestseller lists of Amazon if just everyone who wished me well would just buy a book.  It's .99 and 3 minutes of effort for my readers -- it's everything to me.  The cost is low on their part, and the reward is high on my part.

But you know what?  The books have garnered good reviews -- and not just in that initial phase of friends and family being supportive, but over the last half year or so the reviews have continued to be good from casual readers.  That's really encouraging.

I believe the main force I'm dealing with is entropy, and with people simple overwhelmed by choice and the barrage of media messages.

But what are you going to do?  What can you do?  I've come close to begging a few times -- hell, I probably have crossed that line.

I've been impressed by the steadiness of Roy at Books of the Dead.  He has great credibility in the horror genre, and has several books that have done very, very well. He's got a #1 book right now.  (Not mine, unfortunately.)  My book sold way better than I could have accomplished on my own.  I'm very thankful that I hooked up with him.

And I'm excited by the enthusiasm of Ragnarok Publications.  It's almost infectious how delighted they are with the progress of their company.  I'm very happy to be on board and hope that Tuskers will do well for them.

So I need to just keep writing, and enjoying myself, and remember that I've already far outstripped my original ambitions.