CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Freeman’s Choice. This science-fiction-fantasy blend took me twenty years to complete, as I tried to do the ‘sensible’ thing, and ‘get a “real” job’. Now, it seems I am doing the sensible thing, and this novel will see the light of day, but should it see the light of day? If I were starting out in this crazy career, just this minute, in this new world of publishing options, it would have seen the light of day without twenty-six years of experience behind it. When it hits the shelves, it will be the best story it can be, and I can’t do better than that. Will the next one be better? Well, I’ve been writing for six more years since I finished this one, so there will be a difference. But will it be better or worse? I always work towards better, but every reader decides for themselves, and our opinions don’t always align. There are some stories I don’t particularly enjoy writing, or that I enjoy but I don’t think will find an audience, and the readers love them—and there are o...

So, earlier this week, someone asked me if independent publishing was “worth it”, and I had to sit back and take a good look. I’m not making anywhere near what I would call a living wage, so I thought about it: My first response was this: Well, it's not a get-rich-quick scheme. And it's a lot of work. Ask me in twelve months’ time when I haven't been neglecting the release schedule. Sales plummet when releases aren't regular, and short work doesn't sell well. If I had to weigh profit against effort right this minute, I'd say no. If I were to take into consideration the sales when I *was* putting things out or writing regularly, I would say I could work towards a living in the young adult and romance genres in the next five or so years. So, now, I'm working at maintaining a regular release of short work, getting the young adult back on-line first, and then following with a mix of novel-length dark fantasy and romance, but I also write under dif...

Yeah, I know, right? You’all thought I was already a writer. Well, so did I, but I was a writer who had to have a day job, who wasn’t allowed to devote herself to being a writer full-time and so I never felt quite real. See, and that’s wrong. Because I was a writer. I wrote with the idea of making a living from it, but I came to realise that I also wrote with the knowledge that I would never be allowed to go full time, that making a living from it was a long way away, even unlikely, and then that wasn’t true any more. In the last six months, I’ve had to come to grips with some fairly major changes, both to things I thought I knew, and to personal circumstances, and that hasn’t been easy. For one thing, I lost my job. Actually, I was forced to choose between accepting having working conditions withheld and keeping my job, or completing the degree I had started with the permission and encouragement of my boss. “We not only support this kind of thing,” he’d said, “but we encourage ...