Focus On Fiction

Focus On Fiction

I haven’t been very active online of late for several reasons. A bit of a low mood is one of them, and then I’ve been on holiday for a couple of weeks, but the main reason really is figuring out what exactly I want from my time online with Spilt Latte going forward. Now that I’ve formed the new Press and released my first book, ‘Alice on the Air’ (which I’d love for you all to buy), I’ve spent a little time deciding how to proceed. I’m wary of being sucked into the Influencer or Content Creator domain that most self-publishing authors, myself included in the past, often find themselves in. I want to write, not create content, but this is the modern world, so I’m aware some form of middle ground needs to be found.

I have very limited social media, with Substack being the only platform I use at the moment, and I’ve been on it for a while now: around six months. During that time, I’ve tried a few different types of posts and essays, playing around and trying to figure out how exactly I want to use the platform, and I think I’ve come up with the answer.

As much as I’ve enjoyed writing about film and subgenre, and maybe I still will from time to time, It’s not what I want to put the majority of my energy into. And I like blogging, and will continue to do so once a month with my Journal of a Coffee Shop Author blog, but it’s not something I intend to do every week anymore either. Too quickly, they started to feel like content rather than a need. A scheduled post rather than a passion.  I enjoy them both, but it’s not why I write.

What I want is to fully turn my attention on Substack and my website to Fiction. Writing Short Stories, Flash Fiction, maybe some Micro Fiction and serialising ideas. I want Spilt Latte to be about writing and literature more than film (despite cinema also being a passion). I want to publish short stories whenever possible. Serialise some of my tales that fall between shorts and books. Spend more time developing my work and getting my books to the level I want them to be at. Curate short story collections and produce the odd Fix-up novel.

I want to improve constantly as an author and embrace new challenges within my work. I know short-term that won’t help me business-wise, and sales really are very poor and in need of a boost, but I want to write long term. I want to be doing this for the next twenty-plus years, so writing and storytelling has to take priority over essays and blogs. Published work over internet content.

Self-publishing is difficult. As stated, sales for my new book have been terrible, and I know I’m not alone in that regard. A lot of us are struggling. But I feel like the best counter to this feeling of dread as I watch my sales chart flatline and the royalty checks shrink is to write more. It is to create more stories I’m proud of. Publish more novels, and hope new readers join me along the way.

I plan on working out a better, less vague strategy for marketing my work in the future, but for now I just want to enjoy the feeling of creating. At some point, as mentioned, the business side of things will desperately need to come together before I run out of money to edit my books and short stories, but that’s a problem for the future. At the moment, I want the Focus to be on Fiction.

I won’t put a new schedule out like I had for my essay as I don’t like publishing my work until I’m happy with it. But I will try and put new short stories out fairly regularly. If not every week, then hopefully every fortnight. This should hopefully lead to a few new short stories a month, to go alongside whatever serialised ideas I run weekly.

Alongside creating more of my own work, I also want to read a lot more short stories and maybe even books from Substack authors as well. In the past, I’ve always tried to champion self-publishing authors and fun short stories, and I’d like to get back to that. I’ve shared a few things when I can, but I feel like I can do more in that department, and that will be part of how I spend my time online going forward as well.

So yeah… that’s me going forward. Writing more stories and hoping to naturally grow my readership without selling my soul to YouTube. Wish me luck… and buy my latest book ;)