Reflections on my Early Works

Looking back over what I’ve written over the years, I was surprised to find how much writing I have done. I knew of the three completed works – though the second version of the Hybrid-worlder came as a surprise. I did have vague recollections of some of the short stories I started, but the number projects and the fact that I have, over the last 40 some years, periodically returned to writing was something of a revelation to me.

Traditionally published authors often say that the process of submitting one’s work to editors (or in these days, agents) and getting rejected until one’s writing meets a certain standard (or fills a certain slot in the publisher’s business plan) is the best path to publishing. You hone your skills with each rejection and new work, until, at last you’re good enough for your work to see the light of day. It seems that I’ve followed a variation of that path. I collected my rejection slips early on, and then never bothered to submit any work again. In truth, it seems that I mostly never finished most of the writing projects, what with a day job, a family, the pre-computer writing process being very laborious, and the publishing prospects so dim. Yet I kept writing. It was only when computer technology became affordable that this spelling-challenged writer could feel confident enough to pursue a project to its end – and with the advent of self-published ebooks, pursue it to its ultimate end; publication. 

But is this way the best way for today's writers?

Ah… that depends on the writer, I suppose. I would not publish these early works today without major revisions. I can easily see now why they were rejected. And yet, as rough as they are, would they have harmed my prospects if I could’ve self published them back then? Speaking for myself, and knowing what I know today, I am certain that I would’ve been wise to at least post them on Wattpad, and perhaps, publish them as well after that, for on the whole, I think early works, as rough as they may be, won’t hurt your prospects in the long run. Why not?

First, because they will be likely read by only a very small sample of your potential market. First time, no-name authors struggle to reach an audience, so that any rough, early works don’t pose much of a long term threat to wider success later on. And you can always un-publish them when you feel that they have become an embarrassment.

Secondly, it seems to me that for most readers story is the king. If they like the story, they’ll put up with a lot so-so writing. And since you have to start somewhere to build a readership, why not start early? You have little to lose and a great deal of experience, and feedback to gain. So there seems to be no real reason to put off releasing even what traditionally published might call “practice” novels. Every journey begins with a single step and, ideally, every book should be better than the one before, so it is natural that early works will not be a polished as the most recent ones. I don’t think readers will hold that against an author. And again, early readership will likely be small – unless you get lucky and the book is really good. So why not?

In my case, self-publishing, if I decided to publish my work at all, was the only option I considered for my four books. First, because I knew I wasn’t writing commercially viably stories – books that traditional publishers would be interested in. Heck, one of the reason I wrote them was because I couldn’t find modern stories like them to read. Secondly, I was too proud, too old, too feeble, too lazy, and lacking the fortitude to go through the grueling, soul-sucking process of begging people to read what I’d wrote – or to make the changes that would no doubt be required to make them into a commercial product. And lastly, I’m too much the artist – I want my work to be my vision, without compromise. While I certainly don’t disdain artist, writers, musicians, and all the other creators who produce works designed to make money, my idea is to create something unique. And since most people know what they like, and like what they know, one’s best chance of commercial success is making something they know and like for the widest possible audience – hence, one sequel, one re-boot after the other. I make no claims to be on the cutting edge of anything, and freely acknowledge that I work within old established forms – impressionism, and the popular fiction of the first half of the 20^th century, or a little earlier. But I do try to put my own twist to make my work unique. And as an artist, I want control over what I create. Self publishing allows me to do that. What I publish is my own – from cover to cover. So for me, self publishing is the way to go, I just got there by a more traditional way because I came out of the traditional era of publishing.

So what’s up next for this blog?

First off, I will soon have some “exciting news” to share with you. And I’m only being slightly sarcastic. I think it’s pretty cool.

Then I'm planning several Bright Black Sea bonus features. I recently remembered that I had made some notes early in the writing process – a description of Belbania, a discussion of interplanetary trade, and a description of the Lost Star. At the time I was toying with the idea of adding notes at the end of chapters explaining in more details the planets and background information of what took place in the chapter – the idea that it would be in keeping with Litang’s initial intentions of making his account a simple, factual account of life aboard a tramp space ship.

And after that, I plan to post all the "noses" of the stories that I started as my next book and then abandoned as they exist today. I’ll talk about the stories I had intended to write and why I decided to abandon them.

So, all in all, stay tuned. Perhaps by the time I run out of things to post in this blog I’ll have a new writing project. Perhaps, or perhaps not. We’ll see.