Welcome to the sixth writing club update!

I hope everyone has had a good November (and part of December (these posts keep taking me longer and longer into the month to post - they’re basically mid-month posts now lol)). These increased indoorsiness is often good for the types of projects we’re embarked on.

So without further ado, here are our dashing Participants for the month!

Have a great December and new year!

  • okasen@slrpnk.netEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    IIIII did not progress on my climate fiction. I might literally do so today after I put the baby to bed.

    My goals this month are business related. My other pen name (the cli fi sci fi one) needs a bit of love. I am currently selling 0 books because it’s impossible to buy them… because I was refusing to put them on Amazon. I hate Amazon with a white hot fury. If I do put my books up there it will be angrily. But… well my author storefront fees just went up Too High, and I haven’t had hardcover books for sale in a Minute because I haven’t been able to ship them out. Because I had a baby. But that was in June and I wanna be a more authory author again.

    My romance is doing well under that pen name. I’ve got a few subscribers on the serialisation platform. And some on bluesky now. I’ve been writing consistently, too!

    So goals: figure out a way to sell e- and physical- books again. If that’s via Amazon… so be it. But I’m gonna try hard for it to not be.

    • grrgyle@slrpnk.netOPMEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      The pull of Amazon is mighty, and I deeply respect your struggle to stay as free of its influence as you can. I’m just a “consumer,” so it’s easy for me to stay away and just go without, but as an independent author, it’s I’m sure, much more costly to remain principled.

      So would you say that the romance is easier to write, or maybe more rewarding? I can only speak for myself, but when I have trouble writing out a scene/character/story, it’s often because there’s some internal resistance. Like maybe some more “work” to be done before the writing goes more smoothly (which is also work, but different, lol).

      I am not at all an author, so you would know better than me, anyway.

      PS. Do you write personal letters, emails? You have a great correspondence style!

      • okasen@slrpnk.netEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        Apologies for replying so late!

        I succeeded in starting off of Amazon and found another good distribution method.

        But. Romance! I find that it’s more fun and escapist for me to write romance. I grant myself a lot more artistic liberty with it for some reason, whereas in sci fi I get caught up in details. There’s also a very strict structure to a true romance novel which I’m not an expert on, but basically readers expect a 3 act structure and happily ever after ending. I find the structure freeing kinda?

        Re: correspondence style, I find this to be such a cool compliment. I consider my email skills to be really good honestly, ha. Though I need to write more letters to folks. I enjoy it and always mean to do it more.

        And thank you!

        • grrgyle@slrpnk.netOPMEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          I grant myself a lot more artistic liberty with [romance] for some reason, whereas in sci fi I get caught up in details.

          That totally makes sense. I find I can write sci-fi defensively, like I’m imagining readers’ complaints and writing in little world building details as parries.

          But then I remind myself that my favourite sci-fi tends towards fantasy, or lo-fi, or focuses more on interactions between beings, so maybe I shouldn’t bother with an imaginary audience that I can’t relate with.

          Idk. Thoughts, lol.

          Glad to hear you’ve found a nonazon distribution solution! I hope it works out well.