Things I Have Decided
Things I have Decided:
1. I’m going to keep writing BIPOC characters. But, I’m going to ensure that I’m not doing it just to tick off a box, because as much as I hate to admit it, I have definitely done that in the past. (Did I realize I was ticking a box? Maybe. Did I realize how terrible that was? No. Do I regret it now? Oh, yeah. Worst part is, I still like the book itself, I think it’s a good story. But yeah, it was ticking a box, and I’m ashamed that I did it. I’m not sure what to do with it, either - do I remove the book? Do I let it remain out there? I don’t think it’s harmful, as it is - just not helpful.)
I promise I won’t write a character merely to tick a box anymore. If a character is POC, it’ll be because it’s appropriate to the setting or premise of the plot. It’ll be an intrinsic part of that character, and not just a side note. I don’t want to be ashamed of my books, or the characterizations within them.
That means there are some ethnicities that I never write. And that’s okay.
2. I own my writing. All of it. I claim my writing. All of it. That means I’m not going to make my fanfic a secret any longer. I’m tired of being secretive on Twitter, and it was a relief to talk about Pen on azriona’s account. I need to find a way for Pen to claim azriona on Twitter - doing it on the website is easy, that’s just adding a page and a few links - but it’d be nice to tie the two together, somehow. I doubt anyone on Twitter is following Pen for Pen’s sake, anyway. I don’t want to make a second account… but it might make life easier, if I did, a little like how I did it on Tumblr.
3. There are some old Sherlock fics that I shelved. I don’t want to shelve them anymore. I’m going to finish and post the ones that can be posted, and I’m going to polish off Alphaverse and post it, too. I might even write Heart 4 - I think I can, now. And definitely, I want to finish the Mystrade stories I started but didn’t finish.
4. I’m going to open Pen’s writing from Omegaverse. There will be more non-omegaverse stories (like Alpha Spy story, which turns out isn’t so much omegaverse in the synopsis). I want to write more stories about older people, not young ones.
5. My sales have been pants the last few years, even for new books. I rarely make more than $100 a month. If I’m not making any money anyway, I might as well embrace it. I’m pulling all the books out of KU and I’m going to make the vast majority of them PermaFree or 99 cents. Let’s see if I can’t grow my audience so when I do start pricing books again, I can actually get something out of it.
6. And on that note: I need to pay more attention to the money. I used to keep track, I stopped a while ago. I need to start that up again, especially now, and see if I can’t at least cover my expenses over the next year, and then maybe determine what it will take to do that.
Goal: 500 people on my mailing list, before I can start charging for books again. Attainable? No idea. But I have to start somewhere. I had nearly 200 once, before the whole GDPR thing forced me to delete half of them. And I added about 10 people alone at the beginning of the pandemic, when I was running all those free books. I think I can, but it'll take a while. How long, I don't know. Luckily, I've got time. Cross-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment in either location.
1. I’m going to keep writing BIPOC characters. But, I’m going to ensure that I’m not doing it just to tick off a box, because as much as I hate to admit it, I have definitely done that in the past. (Did I realize I was ticking a box? Maybe. Did I realize how terrible that was? No. Do I regret it now? Oh, yeah. Worst part is, I still like the book itself, I think it’s a good story. But yeah, it was ticking a box, and I’m ashamed that I did it. I’m not sure what to do with it, either - do I remove the book? Do I let it remain out there? I don’t think it’s harmful, as it is - just not helpful.)
I promise I won’t write a character merely to tick a box anymore. If a character is POC, it’ll be because it’s appropriate to the setting or premise of the plot. It’ll be an intrinsic part of that character, and not just a side note. I don’t want to be ashamed of my books, or the characterizations within them.
That means there are some ethnicities that I never write. And that’s okay.
2. I own my writing. All of it. I claim my writing. All of it. That means I’m not going to make my fanfic a secret any longer. I’m tired of being secretive on Twitter, and it was a relief to talk about Pen on azriona’s account. I need to find a way for Pen to claim azriona on Twitter - doing it on the website is easy, that’s just adding a page and a few links - but it’d be nice to tie the two together, somehow. I doubt anyone on Twitter is following Pen for Pen’s sake, anyway. I don’t want to make a second account… but it might make life easier, if I did, a little like how I did it on Tumblr.
3. There are some old Sherlock fics that I shelved. I don’t want to shelve them anymore. I’m going to finish and post the ones that can be posted, and I’m going to polish off Alphaverse and post it, too. I might even write Heart 4 - I think I can, now. And definitely, I want to finish the Mystrade stories I started but didn’t finish.
4. I’m going to open Pen’s writing from Omegaverse. There will be more non-omegaverse stories (like Alpha Spy story, which turns out isn’t so much omegaverse in the synopsis). I want to write more stories about older people, not young ones.
5. My sales have been pants the last few years, even for new books. I rarely make more than $100 a month. If I’m not making any money anyway, I might as well embrace it. I’m pulling all the books out of KU and I’m going to make the vast majority of them PermaFree or 99 cents. Let’s see if I can’t grow my audience so when I do start pricing books again, I can actually get something out of it.
6. And on that note: I need to pay more attention to the money. I used to keep track, I stopped a while ago. I need to start that up again, especially now, and see if I can’t at least cover my expenses over the next year, and then maybe determine what it will take to do that.
Goal: 500 people on my mailing list, before I can start charging for books again. Attainable? No idea. But I have to start somewhere. I had nearly 200 once, before the whole GDPR thing forced me to delete half of them. And I added about 10 people alone at the beginning of the pandemic, when I was running all those free books. I think I can, but it'll take a while. How long, I don't know. Luckily, I've got time. Cross-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment in either location.