Starting out to be a prolific writer means that certain decisions have to be made. One of the most obvious ones is, what are you going to write about? It has to be a topic or genre that you love, that inspires you to let your imagination run wild and come up with all kinds of fantastic and wonderful ideas. Ideas that you can share with the world, and have them want to come back for more.
In my case, that is adventure fiction, specifically in the fantasy/sci-fi bracket. I have a dozen ideas for adventures that span the galaxy, or the wilderness of a world no one has heard of before. I have ideas for epic tales that span a dozen books, and stories short enough to be read in a sitting. Stories of fantastic magic, epic heroes, stalwart space marines, and all points in between.
But here's the rub: It's easy to write these, but not as easy to publish them. Why?
Cover art.
I mentioned the issues I had with my fantasy anthology and getting a decent cover. Fortunately, I'm rectifying that problem now, and while the book might not actually be released by the end of the month, it will at least be ready to go by the 31st; Amazon takes a couple of days to release it.
So, I've written three mystery novels* and a multi-genre anthology of short stories in addition to my one published fantasy novel, The Chronicles of Meterra: Arrival. The four non-fantasy books had an advantage that Arrival didn't have: I can do those covers myself, using stock photos found for free on the internet.
As I mentioned yesterday, however, it's difficult to find photographs of knights fighting made-up monsters in an underground forest on the internet. So, that sort of thing needs to be commissioned, which costs money.
Now, in these glorious days of COVID-19 mania, money is both easy and hard to get at the same time. Easy, because the Canadian government is handing it out to anyone who asks for it. Hard, because I can't go out and work to earn it myself. And since I'm a new author, sales aren't where I would need them to be to finance further covers from worthy artists. It's a Catch-22. I need to make more money to buy cover art and pay for editing for new books, but I need the new books out to make the money.
And so, I feel that I'm forcing myself to write things I don't really feel all that jazzed about in order to reach my publishing quota. And that's not a good thing, because quality suffers when the passion isn't there.
Don't get me wrong; I like Cameron Vail and Bill Potts. It's just tough to get inspired to write them sometimes, especially when my subconscious mind gets way out there and goes off in directions that aren't even on the compass. It's like my mind is trying to turn these into a different kind of story. That might not necessarily be a bad thing, but I'm not quite sure how to take it at this point.
Anyway, while nothing is going to stop me from writing, I do need to be more selective and careful about what I'm writing, and how I'm going to reach my goal of 20 books this year. Once the fantasy anthology is finished, I'll be at six, with fourteen to go...and seven months to do it. Yikes. I hate putting that kind of pressure on myself, but I seem to do it all the time.
I could publish three other books tomorrow if I had covers for them. And that would be a lot of fun, because they are different kinds of stories. That's what drives me as a writer: Different ideas, a synthesis of what I've read and written before, coming together into something new and wonderful. Ideas that have been percolating in my head literally for decades.
Including the mystery idea that just came into my mind, one that I came up with a long time ago. Hmm...Maybe I can do the mystery thing for a while longer after all.
* Those three mysteries are, of course, Final Exam, The Missing Magnate, and Best Served Cold. Check them and my other books out at Amazon today, and spread the word about indie publishing.
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