Here I am at the edge

2017 will be a new beginning for me This year, I started a story about a vampire romance -   https://www.books2read.com/u/mdKnxX  - this is one of the many stories I aim to expand in the New Year. I haven't done vampire romances before so this story will be a challenge for me.

Can things improve? This picture shows how I see my life as a writer; one long struggle against the tides of fortune. The ship in the picture in my writing, despite a highly successful science fiction series, and numerous sales platforms on Draft2Digital  I cannot sell 10 e-books a month.  If it weren't for the fact that one day this month, the Forgestriker series sold a whole series, this would be my worst month on Draft2Digital with seven sales. I would like to think things could improve, but even with the addition of three new titles nothing appears to be selling.  I have many ideas for stories, but with a lack of sales, my belief in the work has gone.

The changing facets of my writing My early days The friends who've read the largest selection of my work will recall that I made an early reputation as a ghost story writer.  Those days are now behind me, tonight I draw the final breath out of the dead carcass of my reputation as a writer of ghost stories.  @Draft2Digital   buyers are more into  @scifi , so there is no reason to write my ghost stories.  The glory days  The days of Mark Johnson Four years ago, this story won an award for me. In the time since it hasn't sold a copy. #BestSeller To me, if nobody else, I don't deserve this title. Sure, Forgestriker (the book) is soon to net her 400th sale , and the series passed its 700th sale,  but the massive sales of one book in over 45 don't class me as a best seller - in my eyes. So, as you see, my reputation meant nothing in the long run. I had to adapt to try to get some sales, and I failed badly.

Why not write for free? Being paid to write  The idea of paying to read my stories appears to be an alien concept to my readers. While I write my blog, and it's FREE the blog will continue to thrive. For the last year or two, I have considered and rejected the idea of putting my stories on here FREE . If not to you, my time is valuable to me.  Why write for free?   Let me be brutally honest with you, despite what my friends may tell me about being one of the best sci-fi writers they read - writing does NOT, nor will it ever pay. In 18 months, I averaged less than $1.50 a week, and this is considered good.  Now, you can see my dilemma; writing doesn't make my time worth the effort, on the other hand, why should I put it on here FREE ?  This blog gets over 300 readers most days, but this leads nowhere. I asked myself many times - Is it popular for its variety, or because it's free?  My friends will say variety is drawing the readers in, I tend t...