The Writing Life

The act of creating “Art” is simple compared to letting people look at it. For three years, I spent most free moments working on a time travel novel. I'd read through it at least 25 times, virtually rewrote it twice and considered doing it a third time. It wasn't always easy, but I got through it and did what I intended to do – I threw it out there to be judged.

The response has been good and given me a bit of ego boost. Writing is lonely and you never really know if it has been worth all that time until it's too late to take it back. It's nerve-wracking, but satisfying when people like a creative work you've made.

Then there are the ones who don't. And with the internet, these “critics” have no qualms telling you how they feel.

I got a two-star review on “Time in the World” on Amazon. Here it is in its entirety:

“This is an interesting and well-written book which does not have an ending. None of the mysteries are resolved, there's no special reason for the book to end at this point rather than some other point, and clearly the whole aim of this book is to convince you to buy the next installment in the series ... which I won't do. If this had been a complete novel, it would have been pretty good. As it is, I won't trust this author with any more of my time.”

My first reaction when I read that was, “What the heck has this guy ever done?” Now, I think I'm more amused by it than anything. I still don't care for the two stars – that can impact whether Amazon pushes the book and a bunch of other sales algorithms. So those two stars could hit me in the pocketbook, but I'm probably overreacting on that.

The more I read the review, the more I realized that I accomplished everything I set out to do.

First sentence: “ This is an interesting and well-written book that does not have an ending.” The key words are “interesting” and “well-written.” It proves I know what I'm doing. I would argue that the book does have an ending, but I understand the reviewer's point – he doesn't like book series. Honestly, I can't argue with him much there, I don't care much for a series. Harry Potter kind of drove me nuts and I've clearly been intimidated by the Game of Thrones books.

“Clearly the whole aim of this book is to convince you to buy the next installment in the series …”

So why did I choose to make this the first book of a series? The reviewer answered the question himself, to get people to buy the next installment in the series. Despite what both of us feel, though, this is the market. And I do want people to buy more of my books. Plus, I kind of like the characters and situations I created and feel like I'm kind of just getting started with it. There also is a feeling that I spent all that time working at creating a world, I can't just abandon it now.

I wonder if that's how some other authors felt? From what I've read, Tolkien actually did create Middle Earth specifically for “The Hobbit” but that his friends and publisher kept encouraging him to expand and write more about all the elves and stuff. So he did, but like anyone who has every worked in a genre that required the creation of a whole other world knows, you got to come up with a back story to at least explain in your mind what is going on. I'm not a big fan of the fantasy genre, but I certainly appreciate the amount of work that goes into creating a world.

Despite negative reviews, though, I'm getting good response to Time in the World. Especially as its expanded outside of friends and acquaintences. It's sort of like being a parent. You show everyone photos of your kids and you hope that everyone finds them as adorable as you do. Some will, some will pretend to in order to spare your feelings and others will pretend there was never a photo of a kid and think of excuses to never bring up the subject again. I've been a journalist for nearly 20 years and know that it's impossible to please everyone. It's taken me years, but I do my best not to worry about critics, unless they have good things to say.

But I am human, which means I've got a fairly healthy ego. So it's nice when the ego gets fed. Last week brought two very nice ego strokes my way. The first was the royalty report on my books for the month of June. The second was a book signing in Eunice, New Mexico.

One of the things you learn about dealing with Amazon is that you can constantly check how many books you are selling. It's real convenient and a great tool to check the effectiveness of marketing schemes, but can can quickly become an obsession. Ask writer friends about their numbers and you'll see a look of anxiety flash across their faces. Then anything that comes out of their mouths will most likely be a lie. It's a lot like fishing.

So I was looking at my daily and weekly numbers, sometimes asking the computer screen how come more people weren't buying my book. It was looking like it would take some time to recoup all the costs associated with getting this thing done and out there. What I was neglecting to consider were sales outside of the U.S. and when I got the monthly royalty report, I got a very pleasant surprise. Which was what I call, “Very Cool.” Except now I've got more to be obsessed about, so it has come with its curses.

The second little ego stroke was a book signing at the Eunice Library. For a couple of years in the early 1980s, my mother was a librarian there and I spent many hours hanging out there. It's kind of an anomaly, I know. I'm large like a football player, but have always loved libraries. So when Kim, a friend from high school who works at the library, asked me if I would drive down for a signing, I could not say no.

I broke even on the trip, but it did my ego well. Plus, I got to see some old friends and talk about old times. How can you put a price on that?

For everyone who came out to the library, thanks for stopping by to say hello. And special thanks go out to Travis, who bought more books than he probably should have.