My Lord, a new posting

(originally posted October 11, 2011)

Over the last day or two I have reread the earlier entries on this blog, the last one posted more than two years ago. How’s that for consistency? It was an interesting process, stirring some feelings I’ll never forget, and others I scarcely remember. I do recall how bold it felt, taking my serialized stories to the internet for the first time. There was a website to be created and installments to post. For the first time in the course of a depressingly bland retirement I was really pumped.

Yet, when those installments were up and running, who knew the stories were there, waiting to be read? It’s one thing to have your work go unread because prospective readers have looked it over and decided it’s not for them. I can deal with that. To be overlooked because no one knows you’re out there was somehow less satisfying. So I spread the word myself in a modest way, then reminded myself I would keep on telling my stories, whether or not anyone read them. That too, was less than satisfying.

Then in time it was on to the next step. I have some idea why I finally pushed for an e-book presence for these stories. And I know why I insisted that it happen on my own terms. That it ever came to pass was perhaps a matter of dumb luck more than anything else. But, however it happened, I am left with a new, more daunting version of the same old question. How do I let potential readers know we’re here, waiting to be read?

You can tell from earlier postings that it took me a while to get past my own self-consciousness about the stories I tell and the way I tell them. Thankfully I got over most of that. But it’s one thing to accept what I’m doing, but something else to brag about. (Isn’t that what marketing is?) So now I find myself planning a very modest Facebook ad campaign. Hopefully I’m prepared to accept the truth it may reveal. In a matter of weeks I may have more proof than ever, solid empirical evidence, that what I’m writing just doesn’t work for prospective readers. I don’t want to know that -- but I do.

I’m not a fan of long, rambling blogs. So I’ll keep this short, and be back here next week to explore what comes next. 

Thanks for reading,

GS