FULL BLEED: NOT ALL HOUSES ARE HAUNTED BY THE DEAD

Hey folks. Yeah, it’s been a minute. Last time I posted here, I’d just finished up the first draft of My Gifts Are Hungry. Well, the second draft really. That first draft is the maybe fifty pages of raw plotting, that whole skeleton. In this case, there were another couple rounds of putting stuff in different places and changing the fundamental nature of the “antagonist” in the book, which forced some other stuff to be written a little more fully. Made for a slower process.

Last week, I finished up the read-through and markup, which is part line edits, part fixing the stream of consciousness, part recognizing my structural tics and trying to break them up and part oh let’s give some foreshadowing here and set up some red herrings here. That version is in the hands of readers now. I might even get feedback before heading into the Kickstarter for it on May 1 or 2. I’d rather it start with the work week when people are sitting in front of their computers and looking for stuff to distract them from their jobs. I depend on it.

This last stretch of time has been setting up the Kickstarter page and figuring out all the stretch goals. I’m just keeping things modest, simple. Little bits of art here and there. If I was really organized, I’d commission art from one of the many artists I know and maybe offer a print.

But here’s the thing. That changes the size of the mailing. And the durability of the contents inside. Makes everything incredibly expensive. And lemme tell ya, it’s tough enough to keep things in line with costs going up. I still feel like I’m charging a bit too much for the books themselves, but it’s hard to have it work otherwise and that’s with using the cheapest but still quality POD setup I can access. Yeah, fun fact. POD doesn’t and can’t scale. And most of the places offering these services are price-locked at the sizes they are. Printing a small run of books now would just be more expensive, and guess what, about the same quality. I’m not doing prestige editions. I’m well aware of my place in things. I’m trying to offer a good book for the price.

My ability to do that is compromised slash attenuated by where I am in this whole publishing industry thing. Which is to say, I’m not part of it. That’s the only reason why I’m still writing. I also understand that my saying this marks me as a guy who’s fortunate slash privileged enough to be able to do this and not have to worry about getting paid (too much) for it. But let’s be clear. What I make in a Kickstarter campaign and take home for the time I put in? Yeah, that’s utterly mental. No sane human would make that trade. I’d do better working at McDonald’s or In-N-Out for a month.

It's not about the money. ‘Cause there isn’t any. Hell, there’s barely any except at the top, top, top of the business. And that’s every business from art to music to comics to writing to custom felted animals to whatever you could think of. It does suck. I don’t know what to do about it. I don’t know how to fix it other than walk away and set absolute limits for how much I interact with the business side of things. I can only do that for me.

Oh, that goes for marketing, too. The whole buying ads and trying to buy reach? Yeah, no.

Can you imagine looking at the average ad-supported web page or Amazon listing and thinking: “Yes, my ad will be the one that cuts through all the noise and tickles the algorithm just right. My ad will be the one goon in the army of ten thousand thrown at John Wick who catches him off-guard and puts one right between the eyes and then the Boss will notice me and love me like the father I never had.”

That’s a sucker’s game now. Everything is ads. How is yours going to cut through? It isn’t. And hell, if Amazon knew how to make yours cut through, they’d tell you so they could take sixty-six percent of your digital sales AND take the tax in advertising that made that sale even possible. Say please and thank you to Amazon.

And I’m done doing cold outreach to podcasters and influencers and account holders on Instagram and TikTok and UpScrolled or whatever. Those are about juice and I don’t have any. I know that I write good books. I also know that I don’t want to become genre famous to fight the Genre Wars and harvest those likes and reblogs. I’ll still allow myself to get pulled into the outskirts of these sorts of things on Bluesky, sure. But I’m not about to make it my (whole) personality. If you want to talk to me about the books, great. I’m right here. The whole hat-in-hand thing? Nope. Done. Not that I’m gonna go full Pynchon or anything, but I’m not chasing klout at the moment. You can’t steer the Howling Pit. You can’t ride it out.

But I will be a little more forceful than usual in messaging over the next couple months or so. Sorry. I already have a set expectation of how things are going to go, but I’d like to add some more readers to the ranks. Maybe sell some folks on all the Hazeland books at once when they buy their first one. That’s a leap of faith, folks.

What else, what else?

Returning to Los Angeles/Orange County next week for a short visit. Wonder-Con for a day on Friday. Maybe visit the Museum of Neon Art. Maybe go to Cole’s before they close their doors for the last time. Maybe take in a tour from Esotouric. Probably take a lot of pictures. Hopefully see some folks.

Then I get back and… start writing the next book? Which is tentatively titled Air Burst / The Pearl (thinking of doing it in the form of one of those Ace Doubles but not sure how to pull it off.) But yeah, I gotta get started on planning this one if I’m going to have a draft after Christmas. We’ll see what real life has to say about it.

In the meantime, stand by for a lot more about My Gifts Are Hungry.

Get your masks ready, kids! It’s almost time!