{"id":762,"date":"2015-01-01T11:45:56","date_gmt":"2015-01-01T03:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benjamincheah.wordpress.com\/?p=762"},"modified":"2015-01-01T11:45:56","modified_gmt":"2015-01-01T03:45:56","slug":"into-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/?p=762","title":{"rendered":"Into 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I look back, 2014\u00a0was the year in which I approached the cusp of achieving my professional goals. I published\u00a0Keepers of the Flame<\/em> and sold\u00a0War Crimes<\/em>, exceeding my goals of 2014. I’m working on other projects, pursuing my other interests, and one day I hope I can share them with you here. In 2015, I intend to build upon my successes, to carve out a space for myself as a professional writer and to fortify myself for greater heights.<\/p>\n

Far be it from me to guess at the shape of things to come. I do, however, have a few ideas for 2015, and a plan to guide my personal and business decisions. Here’s some of them:<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Publish the sequel to Keepers of the Flame<\/em>.\u00a0I actually finished writing it before publishing\u00a0Keepers of the Flame<\/em>. Titled\u00a0I, Eschaton<\/em>, it’s the second novella in American Heirs that bridges the gap between the first and second novels. I expect this to be complete by the end of Q1 2015. Ideally.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Publish more stories<\/em>.\u00a0While\u00a0War Crimes<\/em> might have been my first professional short story sale, it’s not the only story I’ve submitted for consideration. I’ve got a handful of others tucked away, either submitted or awaiting editing, in genres ranging from crime noir to hard science fiction to historical fantasy. I hope some of these will see the light this year, either sold or self-published. I also have a few ideas percolating in my brain, waiting to be born.<\/p>\n

3. Complete the current novel<\/em>. My muse is taking a break from American Heirs. Now\u00a0I’m working on the first novel of a new\u00a0series, tentatively titled Once a Conjurer<\/em>. This is a pastiche of different genres: urban fantasy, crime noir, science\u00a0fiction, and thriller. Think cyborgs, next-generation weaponry, magic guided by technology, summoned creatures from myth and legend, and an old-school re-reinterpretation of the preferred UF races. Think\u00a0Shadowrun\u00a0crossed with\u00a0The Witcher,\u00a0Cyberpunk 2077\u00a0with\u00a0Divinity: Original Sin,\u00a0Deus Ex with\u00a0Warcraft, and toss in Marcus Wynne, Jim Butcher, Marcus Sakey, Barry Eisler, Larry Correia, Myke Cole\u00a0and\u00a0Lilith Saintcrow. \u00a0More details in the coming months.<\/p>\n

4. Deliver a working demo of Odyssey<\/i>. Back in June<\/a>\u00a0I described the computer game I was working on. Odyssey: Remnants of Terra is one of the most satisfying projects I’ve ever had the pleasure to handle. The main events of the entire first act has been more-or-less scripted, and we are working on implementing mechanics and mapping. I am confident we can deliver a vertical slice by the middle of the year, and hopefully the first act by the end of the year.\u00a0We are still looking for talent, though. If you are an artist with expertise in pixel art, a coder familiar with RPG Maker VX Ace and\/or Ruby Game Scripting System 2, or a writer with a touch for sci fi, we’d really like to hear from you.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Explore other marketing options<\/em>. Facebook is tweaking\u00a0its algorithm again,\u00a0this time reducing the visibility of Facebook pages\u00a0with promotional posts. Unless, of course, the user pays for advertising. This makes it very difficult for indies on a minimal budget to advertise on Facebook. Furthermore, my page analytics shows that\u00a0my personal Facebook page\u00a0reaches much more people than the professional page, by orders of magnitude. There doesn’t seem to be much value in maintaining my author page in the future, at least in its current form. The question is how to adapt, and that is something I need to answer. I will also be looking into implementing other marketing tools, from pricing to pre-orders to an author newsletter.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0Expand non-fiction writing fields. <\/em>Long-time readers might know that I write for EastieBrekkie, the Pwee Foundation and Mothership.sg. Hopefully I will be able to find more clients this year and expand my repertoire.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0Blog more often<\/em>. I guess there’s no point in maintaining\u00a0a blog if I’m only going to write about something once a month. To make full use of this blog, I intend to blog about something\u00a0at least once a week. Be it politics, fiction, lessons or\u00a0anything else that comes to mind.<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0Establish partnerships with independent presses and magazines. <\/em>Working with Castalia House on\u00a0War Crimes\u00a0<\/em>was an educational experience. I hope I will be able to work with similar publishing companies to produce more stories of great value. That, of course, ties back to publishing more short stories.<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0Establish partnerships with local bookstores<\/em>. I’m contacting local independent bookstores and distributors, asking them to stock my books. Fingers are crossed; I’ll keep you updated in the future.<\/p>\n

10.\u00a0Teach the craft of writing<\/em>. For the length of my professional career I have emphasised the importance of the\u00a0craft<\/em> of writing, as opposed to the art. I think it’s time for me to put my money where my mouth is. In addition to blogging about it, I am planning\u00a0to organise workshops and panel discussions to pass along lessons from the road.<\/p>\n

I want to make 2015 the year in which I can take the first concrete steps to being a professional writer with sustained sales and a market share. Here’s hoping things pan out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I look back, 2014\u00a0was the year in which I approached the cusp of achieving my professional goals. I published\u00a0Keepers of the Flame and sold\u00a0War Crimes, exceeding my goals of 2014. I’m working on other projects, pursuing my other interests, and one day I hope I can share them with you here. In 2015, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}