Post 4: GCR You Bastard
You were right. I did not like what you had to say. I actually took a bit of offence. I half-expected pats on the back left, right, and center, then you came and did exactly not that. But you were right. I am humbled. I got ahead of myself and just all round cocky. All I could see was the money. It was no good.
Then you came along and pissed all over my world. Thank you. I needed that. You made me realise that I was doing it all wrong and for all the wrong reasons. You made me realise that if I am going to do this, then I should do it right. Instead of churning out garbage on an as regular schedule as possible, I should rather take a step back and reassess. I should take pride in my product. I should take pride in my writing. Quality over quantity.
So I have canned the idea of releasing a novella every month and just focus on the short stories. They will also not be weekly, but bi-weekly. That will give me two weeks to write a 3000-5000 word story and then some. I can focus on it for two weeks and make it as good as possible. I will continue releasing these short stories until they have a strong following, no matter how long it takes, and then look into selling them instead of giving them away for free.
I will not write anything else until I got the short story thing on firm ground. It will have my undivided attention.
I have been doing it like that for two days now and I have to say, I actually enjoy the writing more. I am not even thinking about the money. Just focusing on making it the best it can be and it feels as good as f...
Photo: Workstation has been upgraded a bit. The screen is just on lend though. I have to give it back once the person who lent it to me needs it again.
Would agree that you need to do something you enjoy, or can add value, if you do it well the money will follow, even though it may take years.
Have you considered starting a blog?, you could write short stories there, or review others etc. If your blog takes off you could even potentially monetize that, but it would also be a vehicle which you could use to sell books through (have an Amazon store on your blog for example). Blogs are also good for marketing via twitter etc.
From my experience, it can be enjoyable, I started my Dividend Tycoon blog (knowing nothing about websites etc) with the intention of perhaps making some money down the line, but quickly realised it not worth focusing on that as you first need to write good content. It has been a year and I do not make any money out of it, but it has helped in other ways such as clarifying my investment process and thoughts. I do almost no marketing and site is fairly basic, but think that if I keep doing it and enjoy it, something good will flow from it, although most likely not financially. I prefer to make my money from shares, mostly long term, but a little trading too, so making money from the blog is not necessary or a priority. However, in your case where this is where your talents and enjoyment are, and given you are driven to do a lot of marketing etc, I think it could potentially be a good platform for you.
Just my 2 cents. Good luck.