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.