I have tried, and I have failed.

The thing is, I’m no expert on the e-publishing business, nor am I well-versed on how the (flawed) traditional methods of publishing.  If you want that sort of stuff you have certainly come to the wrong place.

Now, I do understand why it might not be the best approach to write about your writing on your blog.  Does anyone really care about my progress on a current WIP that is tentatively titled The Hollows?  (If you are, I’m at 23,409 words).  Or do you really care that edits to the second book of Everything Theory will begin this week and that Book 3 is now officially underway?  Do you really care that inks for Birdwatching from Mars, Issue 2 are now wrapped up?

If you do, God bless you.  And if not, I totally understand.

I think I write those sorts of posts as a sort of accountability.  It’s almost like a journal of sorts, I guess.

Quite honestly, I’m not clever enough to come up with blog gimmicks.  I tried it with The Pub Interviews, but that garnered no interest.  I considered doing something music related, but ended up starting Scrapbook of Sound instead.

For the few of you that keep coming back to see what I’m up to, a big thank you.  And for those of you that recognize the “what to blog?” problem, please share some of your ideas in the comments.

Also, last week, I visited Independent Paranormal where I also discussed a bit about Everything Theory: Cold Compass.  You can read that here.

I have a few more guest posts in various places over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for those.

Meanwhile, as I try to get these guest posts in order, I have taken a small break from Everything Theory.  My current WIP sits at 19,300 words and is shaping up as I had hoped: quick-moving and spooky.  Once this one is wrapped up, I’ll start the first draft of Everything Theory, book 3.

Ah, how nice it is to make a schedule.  Now let’s see how quickly I can get side tracked with other projects…

So, as I decided to take a break between Books 2 and 3 of Everything Theory, I started thinking about a book that I almost started last year.  I figured I’d open up the file and check out the few notes that I had.

That was last Thursday.  Now I’m sitting at 16,400 words of a novel that I am actually enjoying the hell out of.  Without the hindrances of the back stories and conspiracies spread through the Everything Theory books, this story is allowing me to run directly into the madness of what is becoming a heart-wrenching sort of ghost story.

He stood motionlessly, cup in hand, staring out across his yard.  If someone had have been traveling down Foxtrot Road at that moment—perhaps on their way into town, headed for work—and looked into Richard Dansky’s front yard, they would have seen the distinct outline of a tall man.  Even in the darkest hours of morning, a passerby would have noticed Richard’s rigid and expectant posture.  Perhaps they would have noticed the way his chin was raised at an angle, his eyes closed, his brow furrowed.  They would probably assume that Richard was waiting with an almost inspirational gait for the southern Virginia sunrise as he thought about some unnamed task the day would bring.

This observation would have only been partially correct.

Richard Dasnky was thinking hard about something.  But it was not simply the familiar sounds of the country morning that he took in, but something hidden behind it, something that was carried on the air like an echo from a cave only he knew existed.

He heard something stir from behind him, from the other side of his open screen door.  Something in his house had moved—a peculiar occurrence being that he lived alone.  But things had been moving by themselves within his house a lot over the past few weeks.  There had also been voices, groaning whispers that he couldn’t understand.

He knew who the voices belonged to.  And despite not being able to make out any words within their garbled otherworldly voices, he knew what they wanted from him.  In fact, he had been awaiting their request for quite some time.

You look at sales numbers and, in tandem, the necessity of a 9-5 because your writing is still really nothing more than a hobby.  No matter how much time you put in, no matter how dedicated you are to the craft…sometimes you feel like your free time would be better spent learning to play the guitar again…or sleeping.

It makes you want to take the USB your stories are on and burn it.

Yes, this self publishing extravaganza is awesome and I am incredibly happy to have used it to get Everything Theory: Cold Compass out.  But then there is the marketing.  And I hate marketing.  It may be hard to believe it if you see my Twitter feed and Facebook updates, but I feel like a whore every time I post a link to my work.

Buy my stuff.  Read it.  Leave reviews.  Check this deal out.  Pay attention to me.   Blah.  This is the one part of self publishing that I can say without hesitation that I truly hate.

But hey, speaking of which, have you entered the Everything Theory: Cold Compass Giveaway over at Goodreads?

Oh, and The Masks of Our Fathers is just $1.00 for Kindle now.

Some evils are necessary but they make you feel evil regardless.  Yeah…just one of those weeks.

Next in the Everything Theory writing chain is to finish final edits for Book 2 and then start working on a first draft for Book 3.  The hope is to release Book 2 around the same time Book 3 is ready for final edits.

During this editing, I am working on two different projects.  I originally wanted to eliminate about 4-5 novels from my WIP pile, but instead I have decided to try finishing them (with the exception of one novel; I like the idea but am not talented enough to write it).

So yes…Everything Theory: Cold Compass is out and done, so now it’s on to the next.

For now, only the Kindle version is available.  You can get it here.

The Nook version should be available this time next week, to be quickly followed by good old paperback.  I’ll provide those links here as they come available.

Then of course, there is Book 2 (Blood Routes) which I have just recently wrapped up.  I expect that one will drop sometime in March or April.  But let’s not put the cart ahead of the horse…

Starting tomorrow, I’ll be here and there and everywhere, scattered to the ends of the internet with a blog tour to promote Everything Theory.  Tomorrow, I’ll be dropping by Independent Paranormal.  There are some fun stops along the way, so stay tuned for more appearances.  I’ll be posting the tentative schedule here as more dates are confirmed.

And please spread the word about Everything Theory..every little bit helps!

You know, I keep complaining that I have not been very productive as of late.  But I guess, really, the opposite is true.  Most of last year involved writing the first two Everything Theory books while tinkering on other WIPs in the background.

Considering that Book 1 is 84,ooo words and Book 2 is looking to flirt with 100,000 words, I don’t guess 2011′s word count was TOO bad.  (Also, you can add in roughly 80,000 more words between current WIPs Sleepyheads and two untitled projects).

Anyway…check back tomorrow for tour stops for the Everything Theory tour.  And tell all your friends!

This is a mindset that quickly got obliterated…

As writers, we always joke about editors and publishing houses as being the Gatekeepers.  And while we sometimes stigmatize them with pig-headedness and simply being very closed minded and only worried about bottom lines and the almighty dollar, I think they really do add a bit of insurance to writing.

Because while I know without a doubt that there is some stellar self published work out there, I also know that there is some utter crap, too.  I’ve seen it; I’ve smelled it.  Ugh.

Anyway, once I released my first book into the self-publishing wild, I knew right away that I would not regret it.  Despite a year of very lackluster sales, the idea that a book that I care deeply about (at the time, The Masks of Our Fathers) was now accessible for people to read.  More than that, it was getting good reviews.  People seemed to like it.  This served as a bit of validation for all of those agents and editors that passed on it.

Given that, I self-published a few other titles in 2011.  Among them was my odd little chapbook, The Only Moth Among the Dark.  I had no illusions that this would sell well.  It is, in fact, a nearly impossible sell: a narrative dark poetry chapbook that tells a story through interconnected poems.

I keep thinking about the decision to self-publish Moth.  I did it because it is really just an experimental sort of thing.  It’s one of those titles that a few will enjoy and a few will likely hate.  I admit…it’s the one thing I have written that even I would maybe consider to be a bit too confusing and difficult to digest.  Still, I like it quite a bit and enjoyed writing it.  (And hey, it’s only $1.00 for Kindle…)

Yet, despite all of this self-publishing activity, I still struggle with one thing: whether or not to self publish my second poetry collection, Sleepmaps.

See, it took me a while to get over the idea that the Gatekeepers knew what was best.  I went ahead and self-published novels and short stories after getting past that mentality.  But with poetry…something feels different about it.  Poetry seems more personal (to me, anyway).  It’s something I feel still needs to be given a blessing before released to the public.

But then again, there is the current poetry “scene”…a scene with which I am growing quite disgruntled.  In about 80% of all cases, if you want to submit a  poetry manuscript to a small press, you’re going to be expected to pay a reading fee or be bullied into entering it into a sponsored contest rather than an open submissions period.  These contests reading fees can range from $10 – $50.  And I understand the motivations behind it; the presses need to get their money from somewhere and those sponsors…well, maybe they expect a cut, too.  Still, it still irritates me.

If you enter one of these contests and don’t reach publication (or even a follow-up mention) you have essentially paid someone to read your work.  Lame. I know of several beta readers I could reach out to that would read my 72 page second collection of poetry for free…and they’d be happy to do it.

Granted, they don’t have a slush pile to mill through, either.

Last year I entered one of these contests…a chapbook contest.  It was exciting and forced me to better edit the small collection, but in the end, that’s just what I did…forking over an “entry fee” so that someone could read my work.

There are other presses that will only reach out to poets that they have taken a liking to.  This also makes sense to me, as it actually ensures a great working relationship between the poet and the press. Also, the press knows they are going to get quality writing.   But again, there’s a degree of favoritism and near-elitism there.  The only way to really get included in this route is to keep writing poetry, subbing to respectable markets, and work work work.  Getting your poems in front of people that “matter” can always help, too.

Now, let me shut up while I can.  I will state without reservation that I am not an expert on how the poetry market is run.  These are just observations from a poet that is having an increasingly difficult time finding respectable markets to send a manuscript to.

So I am still at a loss of what to do.  Sure, I could self-publish the book.  I could self-publish Sleepmaps today and you could buy it tomorrow. But part of me still feels that my poetry needs to be validated.  I need it to be accepted by someone other than myself before being ballsy enough to self-publish poetry.

Honestly, I feel I may already be at a loss, as I started my foray into poetry as a genre poet (horror) and the new book is not in that realm.  So I have no made it easy on myself…

Yes, the horrible stereotypes of self publishing are dwindling away quickly…I’d go so far as to say they have been erased completely.  But what about self published poetry?

Does it put a ding in a reputation you have worked for years to try to establish, or is it also slowly carving out a niche for itself in the self publishing world?

This is something that has yet to be seen, I think.  And until then, I fear that I will remain undecided.