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North to South

Illustration by Poelosophy

Indonesian artist, Poelosophy, created some concept art for my novel. There is an exhibit in Dublin, ‘North to South’, which features aboriginal art from Northern Europe and South America. The exhibit is the setting for a scene entitled ‘Big Daddy Pharma’.

Thank you for leaving encouraging words for me when I wrote about the impossible task of getting promotional work done. I’m still processing ideas and will be working on them as I go. Feeling like giving up is part of the journey. But I was amused at suggestions that I should actually toss my project. Hold on a second. I haven’t tried everything yet.

North to South – illustration by Poelosophy

And I am quite sure that if someone were to lend me their celebrity friends and let me slobber all over them in the club, my novel would get downloaded really fast. A Russian woman who pretended to be a German heiress, and stole millions, has deals with Netflix and Shonda Rhimes. Other people, who look different, would be rotting, anonymously, in jail. So let’s be realistic about what’s going on out here.

In the past, I would have been totally destroyed by “delete your book” remarks. But Fifty Shades fan fiction 365 Days was optioned by Netflix. The film skyrocketed to first place last weekend. It tells the story of a gangster who kidnaps a woman, ties her up, and assaults her for an entire year so she will fall in love with him. Even the people who said they hated it, watched it to the end, and uploaded reviews to their YouTube channels. In other words, the release was a success.

If that film is out there, it means two things. One, thinking in terms of ‘good writing’ or ‘bad writing’ is unhelpful. Two, the universe now needs to be balanced, so I will be publishing my novel.

Perceived quality is not a metric that can be influenced by hand-wringing. Instead of telling people what they should/shouldn’t like, I should focus on finding (a) people who will read anything, (b) people who like everything they read, (c) people who like to read full-length novels on mobile devices and (d) people who collect ebooks.

The search continues …

Have a great week ahead.

By ΠιCΘLΞ

Life is short, so let’s be decent.

29 replies on “North to South”

I second someone above about the art work. It is awesome! I also happened to to browse Netflix and see the exact movie you mentioned. It caught my attention at first but did not catch on. I ended up watching the 28 min. Marco Polo instead. I probably followed to the full 2 seasons.

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I’m glad you found something entertaining to watch. Whatever they did to attract everyone’s attention, it has worked. At least they’re having fun over there. Thank you so much for your kind words about the concept art. The artist is pretty young and I think he will be happy to hear everyone’s response to his work. Have a warm hug for your day.

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Oh dear God, why did this movie have to be Polish? I’m deeply embarrassed.

I really can’t get much further than “50 Shades of Gray fanfic.” Those books–at least the excerpts I’ve seen of them–were terrible, terrible writing. They didn’t deserve to be published, much less have fanfic inspired by them.

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There is a lucrative industry for 50 Shades fanfic. The top comments on the YouTube reviews that I watched were, “on behalf of Polish people we apologise.“ There was a string of apologies going down the comments. I watch Polish films (with subtitles) so I thought this film must have been a satire that someone at Netflix misunderstood.

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I know a couple of people who self publish and get read enough to make it worthwhile – or at least satisfy the itch! I also read ebooks, I tend to think its better not to chop the trees down, so sometimes I like to read them for that reason, and its cheaper! Other times, I do like to have a physical book in my hand, something about it – I agree with those who love them, but I’m not overly sentimental – unless of course its someone I know! ❤

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Thanks for commenting, Ogden. I’m sure there’s a formula for success. From what I’m hearing romance and erotica have a huge market and are guaranteed sales. I’m not bendy like that. I’m a collector of physical books so I am very sentimental. But I’ll collect e-books because I have no space.

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