Sunday 4 March 2012

"Hi, how's it going?"

Hi, and thanks for asking.

February has been a good month, I think:


  • I've submitted quite a few stories to magazines and anthologies and had one acceptance so far.
  • I've written two new stories, and am currently struggling with a third that might be called The Man The Dogs Hated. Despite its short length I'm having a lot of trouble with this one.
  • I got £90 of book tokens from work and was like a kid in a candy-shop for a good few hours in the local Waterstones.
  • Sales of both The Other Room  and The Shelter were really good; I presume this is still the after-effect of so many e-readers being sold at Christmas, but during the odd optimistic moment I like to think it's because I'm actually an okay writer.
  • I won a copy of The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.

So yes, not a bad month, all told. As to what comes next, I'm not sure. I have enough stories that I think are good enough to self-publish another collection straight away, if I wanted to. And given that sales of my other self-published books seem to be on an upwards path an the moment, the temptation to do this quickly is quite strong. 

But then I also worry that I need to be thinking long term, and getting as many stories out to as many different markets as possible, in order to build an audience the old-fashioned, slower way. And maybe I should be thinking of trying to get a second collection out via an independent press anyway, rather than all under my own, somewhat limited, steam. I'm honestly not sure at the moment.

But to end on a less self-absorbed, boring note, here's a song from the new Tindersticks album:


2 comments:

Cate Gardner said...

Sounds like an excellent month, James

Alain Gomez said...

With a post title such as this I really think you should leave a whole bunch of comments to continue the conversation =p