Sunday, December 18, 2016


“Year End Summary”

This will be the last post to The Word Shed until January 9, 2017.  I thought this would be a good place to summarize what has happened in my writer’s life in 2016.

In my first post to The Word Shed, in the fall of 2015, I gave this as my reason for starting this blog:

I intend for this blog to be a "peek behind the curtains" of what it's like to imagine, create and bring to life the stories that people read, especially my readers (come on: I know you're out there). I have a number of books published through Smashwords and available at Barnes and Noble, Apple iBooks and other fine retailers. In future posts, I'll talk about them, how they came to be and where you can buy or download a copy. If you do buy or download, I'd sure appreciate it if you write up a review of what you have read, good or bad.



So here we are in mid- December 2016.  Here’s an interesting bunch of statistics.  I now have collectively 27 works up on Smashwords for download.  Since February 2016, 5519 downloads have occurred across all titles.  Somebody out there has been taking a look at my work. 

And, this week, I’m about to upload Episode 18 of my serial story Nanotroopers.  All episodes have in total seen 3640 downloads.  One of the more heartening developments is to watch what happens in the first 24 hours after I publish an episode at Smashwords.  Often, the episode will generate 30-40 downloads that very first day.  And Smashwords tells me that 6 readers have elected to be notified immediately by email when a new episode goes up.



What’s it been like this year?  A lot of work.  Writing takes discipline.  I’m currently still employed at a full-time job but expect to retire from that by September 1, 2017.  I am working on two stories on any given day: another Nanotroopers episode and the first draft of Johnny Winger and the Battle at Caloris Basin.  Splitting my imagination requires some mental gymnastics and some hard thinking and imagining when I’m not writing, like when I’m driving home, showering, working out…I’m always thinking about what comes next in one or the other of the stories.  Both stories are reasonably well outlined but I haven’t hesitated to veer from the outlines significantly if I think the stories demand it.  That adds to the work.

In recent posts, I’ve laid out what I plan to do in finishing Nanotroopers, Tales of the Quantum Corps and starting another Farpool novel.  These activities will occupy much of 2017, especially the first half. 

In a way, I’ll be sorry to say good-bye to Johnny Winger.  Battle at Caloris Basin is the final installment of Tales of the Quantum Corps.  Doing a serial like Nanotroopers, which explores how Winger came to be in Quantum Corps and some of his early adventures, has been a good experience for me, since I committed myself to a schedule of uploads and I’ve managed to stay on that schedule through Episode 17 (of 22).  The discipline of having to put words down and move a story forward and do it to a schedule has been very revealing to me as a writer, in terms of what is required in work habits etc.  You don’t have any time to fool around. 



Do I make any money at this?  In a word, no, and I don’t really expect to.  I do it because I enjoy it, and I’m gratified that there are now over 8000 downloads of all my titles, free and not-free, on Smashwords from May/June 2014, when I uploaded my first ebook file.  I feel a certain responsibility to my readers and that helps motivate me on those days when I really don’t feel like putting words down on paper.  Someday I must explore this idea of writerly motivation a little deeper.  I’d be curious to know what works for other writers and authors.



I write for the joy of expressing myself in words.  I write for the satisfaction of crafting a story and seeing it come together.  I write for the thrill of seeing readers download my work and wonder if they’re getting what they want from it.  Since I started keeping weekly statistics on downloads at Smashwords, I’ve seen many weeks where the total number of downloads has exceeded 100.  That has been an eye-opener for me this year.  That makes it all worthwhile, if I can bring some entertainment to a few people through my writing.



A couple of good reviews and one good unsolicited verbal review from a friend of a friend haven’t hurt either.



That’s what 2016 has been like.  I’m looking forward to 2017, retiring and doing what I love this full-time.  I still have to get my home office in shape, buy a good laptop and printer and look into what needs to be done (like updated covers) to juice up my downloads even further.

Have a great holiday and I’ll be back with you on January 9, 2017.

Phil B.

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