Greetings Readers,
Daddy’s Invisible Ouchy (DIO), my first kid book (of a
planned series of 12), has taken over my life. I didn’t expect it to be
anything more than a little sidebar. It was to be something to do when it was
too difficult to write the darker horror pieces I’m already known for.
When I first launched DIO, it received immediate attention, and everyone seems to love it! It started to sell, and a local web magazine wrote a piece about me after conducting an interview. The work is unique and powerful in a way that I
understood, but didn’t know if anyone else would see it.
It hasn’t all been fun and games, however. Issues with the
new publisher for this project and distribution channels have been problematic.
Marketing and advertising are incredibly expensive. Self and hybrid publishing
is a real job I really didn’t want.
On the upside, the American Legion has published a piece on
it in their web magazine Legiontown, and Military.com is also considering a
piece on their webpage. These channels give me some great reach with their
enormous audiences. Now, if my publisher can keep up with any surge in demand,
that’s the concern.
Then there are the people who want a dozen copies free. For
my own small batch inventory, I spend more per copy than the retail price, so I
try to gift copies only to close friends and folks I’ve known for some time.
Still, I’ve gifted almost as many as I’ve sold, at least in the early days.
But it’s not about the money. It’s about helping the
families the book is intended to help. The money is important, though, to
continue outreach and sequels.
Dealing with cash flow, media inquiries, and all the rest has
arrested, completely, my writing. When I had time to write, I had to face a
deadline from my colleagues at the Gettysburg Writers Brigade. I’ve managed to
complete and submit a short ghost story (which I’ll post here per usual). I
still have time to work with my editor and get back to work on the promised
sequels to Sigrunn and Salem.
Most of my readers of Sigrunn loved it, but became irate at
the ending, which I felt was a fun cliffhanger for the sequel. The demand for
the follow-on tale is huge, and so I have to apologize to those who have been
waiting. Yes, people are still discovering this book today, though it was first
published in 2018.
Then there is my desire to transition into film and
screenplay work. I’ve been working on a local project with a rookie director
and crew. We’ve made progress at a snail’s pace while learning quickly. The
project was planned for the early summer, but will consume at least a year.
I’m in a writing mood and looking at joining a retreat on a
fellowship program to escape some of the day-to-day drama and chores of a world
that won’t leave me alone to work.
Be patient and hang in there with me as I haven’t forgotten
the work I committed to, the sequels, though I’m not sure I’ll be returning to
the horror genre beyond Salem’s sequel. I’m being swallowed by the work on my
kid/family titles at the moment.
The links to DIO and the two current web articles about it
are linked below.
https://www.legiontown.org/ownwords/14553/daddys-invisible-ouchy
And available here:
https://a.co/d/2kwuRvY
https://store.bookbaby.com/book/daddys-invisible-ouchy
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