While Pander-monia is happening next year, I am having a bit of a quandary. How much should I pander? Yes – I want to make money, but the one reason why I’m going the self-publishng route is because a lot of the ideas I have aren’t necessarily what one would call “marketable”. If I send something out, I want to be the only one with responsibility for what I hath wrought.

For example – I have an idea for a novel that can be summed up by the phrase: “Breaking Bad with body parts”. Sure, I think it’s a great idea. The story of one man being made to be so desperate for money that he descends into distasteful criminal behavior that borders on illegal. Should I write it? If I wanted to have this traditionally published, the answer would be an amazingly simple ‘Hell, no!’. Not only is the whole idea distasteful (Apotemnophilia), but it is not original. The notion of someone succumbing to evil is not a new one, and the aforementioned show (my favorite) did it much better.

Then again…I think this would make a very good body horror novel, and that’s a genre where there isn’t a whole lot going on. The last one was written in 2015. While it’s a staple in horror movies, and that’s there the genre really blooms, I think there is enough space for something new. It’s not even really about body horror as it’s a polemic concerning greed.

The whole reason I’m doing Pander-monia is to make money. Every moment I spend writing next year should be spent writing something that’s going to turn some sort of profit (except for YA. I don’t have that sort of skill-set). However, the other side of this is: when I write something I like, I am so much more productive.

I know that I have a lot of time to think about this, and I am leaning towards just this sentiment:

I’ve got a few months to think about and plan for it if I do it, or even if I don’t do it right now. My first novel needs to get written during December so I can get it ready for publishing by the end of January and try to get one novel written a month (700 words a day, 3 times a day is 2,100 words. 2,100 words a day for 30 days is 63,000 words – enough for one novel). The whole goal is to stay busy, get prolific and push myself.

But, what do y’all think? Is this a tempest in a teapot? Me trying to fill in another blog post to maintain some sort of continuity? Should I cater to the fickle crowd, or boldly strike forward? Let me know and also – feel free to buy a book (on the right hand side of this blog) and sample some of my writing.

Well, with all that said, I bid you all a fond farewell for the week. I will be back next time, hopefully with something a little more worthy.

Ta-ta.

I’m trying to get more organized in how I write, so to that effect, I am going to outline my plan for next year. Because I like giving things cutesy, punny names – I hereby declare 2022 Pander-monia!

Have you switched over to Reddit yet? No? Good.

I have a couple of tools at my disposal that I really don’t use as much as I should if I want to make this whole writing thing a little more profitable than it is now.

One of them is a subscription service (then again, what isn’t?) called Kindletrends. This goes through the top 100 in various genres and tells you what’s selling, what the most popular key words are, what do the top 100 covers look like and other vital things to help one market or write. Let’s face it, I’m a one-man band here. As much as I would like to think my cannibal romance book is destined to be a New York Times Bestseller once it’s finished, I do have to put out things that are going to get looked at and hopefully bought. I’m going to use the keywords and other trend things to give me a head’s-up on what’s popular. Let’s face it – if 50 Shades of Grey can be successful…so can I!

The other tool is called KDSpy. This one measures the popularity and uniqueness of various keywords. It tackles the same issue that Kindletrends does, but from the other end. With this, I can find out what other keywords I could use, and how often they’re used – the idea that if I use a popular keyword, I run the risk of being overlooked because I’m not in the top 10 or 25.

What I’m trying to do is maximize my visibility.

Of course, I can hear you screaming at the screen: “WHAT GOOD IS BEING VISIBLE IF YOU’RE NOT PUTTING OUT WORK?”

This is the second part of the equation. Next year it’s going to be a novel a month. Can I maintain that sort of pace? I can do it in November, and I have done it before. I can do this. All I have to do is really, really set aside my ego a little and…pander.

Yes, it does gall me a little. I think I have some great independent ideas, but no one’s going to see them unless I get my name out there. The best way for me to get things out there is to work more towards the marketing end of things. Like I said, I have these tools and I’m not really using them. I really, really need to start putting out material. I need to get King levels of prolific. My big ideas will have to wait until I can spare the time.

There are other things I have: beat sheets, editor programs and word processors whose name doesn’t rhyme with Schmicroschmoft Schmord. This is me putting my drive to the test. If I fail at this, then I really need to relegate this to a hobby. This year, I’m going to finish up a couple of projects that I’ve started and try to clear the table a little.

Wish me luck.

Also – I’m going to want pictures of adorable pandas. Just to help me carry on. Thanks in advance.

This is the last day I have to do overtime at my Dreaded Day Job ™ and that really messes with my day and my sense of time.

I thought today was Tuesday.

I’m going to get back on a regular schedule with commenting on WandaVision and how no one is not really talking about it’s one really, really good quality. I did finish the first draft to my novel, so now begins the fun part of rewrites and hopefully haranguing someone into beta reading it for me. When that’s done, I promise to get back to Valentina’s Feast and finish that. Afterwards…maybe Agonizing Alibi Day and hopefully that will get me to September when I’ll try to do something literary to carry me to the end of the month.

I promise, I have not forgotten about any of you, my patient readers. I’ve got (admittedly) way too many irons in the fire. Monday, I am going to start whittling them down.

I pray for your indulgence just one more week.

Sorry I was completely absent last week. I’ve been trying to wrack my brain about how I would continue the next installment of “How I Would Have Done It Differently” with Barbara and Diana. To be honest, I kinda summed up everything in the first installment: we would see Diana be the diplomat, the ambassador, and a peacemaker. We know she can fight, but this would show us a different side of her,

Anyway, with that out of the way – I have good news! I’ve finished the rough draft of my challenge/sweet romance novel! Romance with Advantage will now rest of a couple of weeks while I work on another neglected project. Second will hopefully be done in a month and once the cover photography by yours truly is finished, I will release it and hope to God it doesn’t stink as badly as I think it will. I have to admit that romance is not my chosen genre, but I was challenged by a good friend to dabble in it. I think after this, my next work is going back to a genre I am more comfortable with: fantasy. It was fun to try something new and we’ll see what happens.

Beyond all of that – there is little in the way of news on my end. I’m giddy to have finished something and gotten it out of the way, and happy that I’ve tried something new. In that vein, I will cut this short a little bit, but I will be back next week with more thrilling tales!