More, More, More

I've been talking to some writer pals of mine, and they're all focused on having more than one book/series to shop around. I'm not talking those without an agent -- I'm talking about those with one already in hand and happy with their work.

It makes sense. Give your agent more to work with, more options to sell. After all, it's a subjective business.

My issue? I have no idea what to focus on.

I was working on some short stories with the idea that maybe I'd sell them, and if I didn't sell them, then maybe they'd be good writing practice. (Per some people, I need the practice.)

This was fine, but it doesn't another novel make. And I've heard rumblings that science fiction isn't selling like hotcakes right now, but fantasy is. (Tomorrow, it'll probably be something else, but I can only keep up with so much.)

So, does that mean I try for humorous fantasy? Straight fantasy? (Can I actually write without being a snarkmeister? I don't know, but the Magic 8-Ball says 'unlikely'.) 'Something else'? (And who knows what THAT would be..) Or do I just sit in the corner and tear a piece of paper up into bits?

Wait! I know! When in doubt...I think I'll have a drink and a ponder. (It's like having a Coke and a smile, only quieter.)

G.J. Koch

In Space, No One Can Hear You Blog

I'm an author and someone mentioned to me -- okay, a lot of someones mentioned to me -- that in order to grow my so-far-nonexistent fan-base, I should have a blog. Probably more than one. A plethora of blogs.

Now, I love writing, but I'm all about the idea of starting small and building up slowly. Mostly because I'm also a busy person who is, at the core, lazier than potentially anyone else in North America.

I mean, I write soft science fiction. Not the hard stuff, because that requires actual scientific knoweldge, or at least actual scientific research. I love my stuff, but I probably fall onto the side of 'softer than the Star Trek Tribbles episode'. We're talking -- I make it up and if I think "hey, it could happen" it's good enough for my form of government work. I'm not into the making it harder than it has to be idea.

So, the mere idea of a blog, let alone a plethora of blogs, daunts me. And the idea that I'm probably doing this for no one and to no one would depress me, if I actually thought about it. However, not thinking is, in reality, 'my thing', so I'm good.

So, here's to the beginning of a beautiful friendship between me and my blog and, one hopes in the deepest part of one's hoping place, some readers who may, one day, become so rabid for my work that they beat down the bookstore doors in order to get my latest brilliantly soft science fiction masterpiece before anyone else.

Hey, it's a dream, okay?

G.J. Koch