After A Little Thinking….
I’m sure that, if my wife knew I was writing this post, she’d be a little upset with me. She prefers that I keep my “public persona” as clean as possible, and I admire her for that. But, at the moment, I’m a little upset and I’m going to shoot myself in the marketing foot.
Now that I’ve had a little time to think about what happened this morning, I’ll be flat honest: I’m pissed. I wasted an entire month of my life thinking that this would play out to be a fair start to a career, time I could have spent marketing Like Glass on my own, time I could’ve spent looking for another publisher. Hell, I was actually going to give up when I got the email from VHP, and I could’ve been working on my software development skills in this time, instead of worrying about building up an audience.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going back on what I said earlier — I’m still very grateful to both Ms. Williams and Ms. Quast for what they’ve done for me. I’m mad at myself. Instead of making sure that everything was signed, sealed, and delivered, I kicked my feet up and trusted that things would take care of themselves.
It was my own stupidity/naivete, and it bit me in the ass. Now I know better.
I don’t think I’ll be spending any more of my time pursuing agents or publishers. I’m satisfied with the job that CreateSpace does for production, and I’ll be a little arrogant: I like to think that I can do a fine job in creating the promotional materials myself. I won’t turn down a reasonable offer if whatever Gods there may be decide to send me one, but I’m not going to waste my time to pursue it further.
I also think that I’m going to leave the series with Shattered. I had originally intended there to be a third, final book in the series, but as much as I hate to leave it at two books, I feel my time is better served looking elsewhere for financial support (i.e. actually trying to do well at my day job, instead of just putting up with it until I get that “big break”).
Note that I reserve the right to change my mind at any time, and I probably will once I get over this. But that’s where I stand at the moment.
So, here’s the current plan: Like Glass is still available at CreateSpace; you can find info on getting a discount if you go to the Like Glass page (click the link at the top to get there). Shattered is undergoing review by some friends of mine, and further information will be forthcoming once I’ve received their opinions.
I may pull the plug on Like Glass at the first of the year, and I may not release Shattered to the public. I haven’t completely decided yet. But, as of this moment in time, what I just wrote is the closest thing there is to a plan, for better or worse. Just don’t take it as the gospel, at least not until you have a copy of Shattered in your hands and you see Like Glass still for sale in Febuary.
I need to get back to pretending to work. Again, thanks to Kimberlee and Mary — it was fun while it lasted.
–Matt
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