…by the standards the publishing industry has for measuring failure: With all the novels I’ve written, not one has been a “bestseller,” whatever that means. That means I’m also a failure in the eyes of the editors of the NY Times “Book Review” section (most small press and self-published authors are failures using that metric). Guess what? Borrowing Rhett Butler’s phrase, I don’t give a damn!

There are many reasons for my attitude. Here’s one: I’ve had a lot of fun telling my stories since I started thinking about publishing them in late 2000. (Maybe not so much fun after finishing a manuscript—see the previous article—what comes after that is often painful for any author.) I do everything I possibly can to make these stories entertaining, exciting, and relevant. I think they’re as good as anything other authors produce. Maybe even better! As a very young man, I knew I could tell a story as good as anybody else’s, and I wanted to do just that. The problem was finding the time to do the writing.

Here’s the most important reason, though: I consider each story a success if it entertains, excites, or seems relevant to at least one reader. That’s a different metric the publishing industry ignores as well as many readers; The industry never considers this in its quest to make oodles of money exploiting authors. And, in that sense, a large percentage of my books are a success! Take that, you people hooked on “bestsellers” and the NY Times “Book Review”!

These two measures are really all any person needs to determine their success as an author, or even to call themselves an author. Many writers probably aren’t satisfied with them—especially if they’ve left their day-job to write—or they get discouraged and quit after the first book that doesn’t sell thousands of copies. Some of them might peruse my oeuvre and wonder if I’m a masochist (is that a more appropriate word than “failure” in my case?), because they don’t accept my two metrics as valid measures of success.

All the above brings me to my third reason to continue spinning my yarns: I had this burning desire to tell my own stories since I was a kid. I was an avid reader even then, reading far beyond my age as determined by an educational system that has always taught to the average. I knew I could tell stories as good as those I was reading, so that my goal was to do it. Life got in the way of achieving that goal; I had to choose other work that could support my family more easily than a writing career. There was a lot of competition even back then. And I didn’t have Dean Koontz’s wife backing me up—I wasn’t even married yet!

But that burning desire never died. When I could find the time to do it (busy jobs in academia and then R&D often took up my evenings as well as my days), I returned to satisfying that desire to write. I don’t pretend to be the only author with that bio—in fact, I have many author friends who have a similar one—but that bio goes a long ways to explain my output. (I often describe this by saying my muses are really banshees with Tasers who pressure me to tell my stories!)

So I didn’t begin publishing my stories as an ego trip or just because self-publishing is easy. In fact, when I started, it was either go the traditional route or use a vanity press. I found the latter option appalling, so I tried traditional. I thought an agent was required (I didn’t realize at first that small presses often don’t require them, using only an acquisitions editor instead), so, after 1000+ rejections, I tried some POD publishers (Xlibris and Infinity, which still exist); ebooks were just starting up at that time, but I experimented with them too when they came along.

The rest is history. I’m now a mongrel, both self- and traditionally published. Sure, there have been potholes in the road. I wrote about one not long ago involving Amazon (contributing to my decision to boycott them from now on)—in general, this online retailer thinks it’s the center of the publishing universe, if you believe their bots actually think. (No “help desk,” of course; or maybe those bots are just asleep.) Dumb bots, but maybe the people programming them are dumber?

I’ve also had more than my share of trolls as reviewers, and flagrant piracy, the latter to the point that I have no idea how many readers each book has had—how do you count those readers who have purchased or downloaded pirated ebooks? (Mark Coker of Smashwords pays no attention to book pirating; he even goes out of his way to encourage it, which is why I’m seriously considering boycotting Smashwords more too by using Draft2Digital!)

There are many other slings and arrows of misfortune in my writing life, but my reasons listed above still make it all worthwhile. I shall continue to publish my stories, one way or the other. Damn the torpedoes (and the NY Times)! Full speed ahead.

***

Comments are always welcome!

Palettes, Patriots, and Prats: Esther Brookstone, Book Four. After book three in this series, you might have thought that I’d leave it as a trilogy and send newlyweds Esther and Bastiann van Coevorden off to enjoy their golden years in peace. Ha! Not with my muses, who are really banshees with Tasers. This one starts with an innocent castle tour with a duke and duchess, but trouble soon finds the artist of a painting the crime-fighting duo observes there. Esther and Bastiann become embroiled yet again in fighting an international conspiracy. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (not on Amazon or Smashwords).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

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