Path Of Least Resistance / Happenings In The Outhouse 26-Sept-2025

When I first started down the self-publishing path, there was a lot of trial and error.  More so than I care to admit, and much of that is between me, myself, and I.

Wait, let's back up.  To the beginning . . .

Yes, that far back.  When I first got an inkling, an inner spark, that I wanted to be a writer.  That urge to see my books on bookshelves, and in bookstores around the world.  Okay, maybe that's going back a bit too far, since that was 2nd grade and I was around seven.  Let's push the clocks ahead to my first few college years at Bemidji State University.  That was when I first started to get serious about being a writer.  I had a goal of writing one page a day.  That's it.  Then it was a bigger goal to finish the darn thing.  And I did.  It was a 1000-page behemoth of a novel in the horror genre (way too long, I know, but what did I know back then?).  Then I studied the market and sent query letters out to literary agents.

Want to know what I did next while I waited for agents to get around to reading my queries?  I started the next novel.  It ended up being another 1000-page behemoth, but the writing and finishing was easier this time around.  Why?  Because I had already done it.

With 38 individual works that I have self-published at this point, I have learned a lot and have set things up to make each story easier than the previous.  Since there is a standard template, that's where I start each new story.  I don't have to reinvent the wheel.  It's already done.  The path of least resistance.

And when it comes time to publish each new work, I already have the files set up and I have a checklist of what needs to be done.  Easy peasy.

As time goes on for the next quarter and beyond, I will slowly be adding things to do.  Easy things that have the path of least resistance.  I love learning new things, but I'm taking it one at a time, not overwhelming.  If it was, I'd probably procrastinate.

Think Before You Post / Happenings In The Outhouse 19-Sept-2025

Think before you post on social media or anywhere else.  Take a second . . . and think.  "Should I post this?  What's the point if I do?"  If there is a hesitation or any kind of questioning, don't do it.  If you are trying to be clever and want to spout your fucking evil viewpoints to the world, God help you.  Because only God can reach into your soul and heal you.

In light of recent events, I have seen a fair amount of people post the most idiotic, stupid shit that just makes me shake my head.  It feels like a knife driving right into my heart to know that evil has invaded their soul so much.

I don't comment on these posts (trust me, I so want to, but then I ask myself why, would I help to change their viewpoint, to help guide their thinking, and the answer is I probably won't) but what I usually do it simply move on.  If I see enough of it from a particular person, I will either stop following them or hide their posts for a certain period of time.  Or, if it gets really bad, I'll block them altogether.

There are a number of authors back in 2018, 2019 that made it big and I followed them.  Then they spouted their evil, hypocritical viewpoints and that turned me off.  Guess what?  I unfollowed and never bought any of their books.  EVER!  And one used to be one of my favorite fantasy authors who started back in the 80's.  Never again.

Again, think before you post.

On a side note, my apologies on the profanity.  I usually reserve myself against it on this blog, but I decided to make an exception in this case.

Stealth Publishing Revisited / Happenings In The Outhouse 12-Sept-2025

I wrote this post back in 2018 about stealth publishing.

And it still holds true today.

Let me share what's happened in the seven years since I wrote that blog post.

I have 14 completed and published novels, 7 shorter novels (called novellas or novelettes, depending on the length), and close to 4 dozen short stories.  And those short stories will, over the course of months, will be published one at a time, and I will be putting some nifty collections together too.

I'm also brainstorming some nonfiction books with my blog posts as content.

And I am still learning new things . . . 

What are you doing today to further your craft?  It doesn't have to be catastrophic in nature.  Start small if you have to.  But, as the philosopher El Nike says, "Just do it."  Do it today.

Not A Dollar Store / Happenings In The Outhouse 05-Sept-2025

There are a lot of changes on the horizon.  So much so that I am excited for what the future is going to bring.

I am currently taking an online course taught by Dean Wesley Smith and Kris Rusch about creating your own short story market, and one of the things I learned in the very first week was about pricing your stories.

One trend I have noticed lately (and this may be purely psychological) are the number of books in the $1.99 range.  Short stories, despite them being short, should never be $.99.  It makes your work look and feel cheap.  So the starting point for short stories should be at $1.99 (the exception would be if you were a massive bestselling author, where you could start at $2.99).

Over the next few months, I will be reviewing all of my stories and pricing them accordingly.

Don't sell yourself short by selling cheap.  Cheap never wins.

This also works the other way too.  Don't price your work too high either.