It has been an interesting couple of weeks since I started this experiment in self-publishing in ebook format.

I now have 6 short stories, an anthology and Changers' Summer, my YA SF novel, available as well as a free short story to tempt people into buying the collection.

I have joined a couple of forums, bought a couple of adverts and have the promise of some reviews for Changers' Summer which should start to come in over the next month.

Now I feel is the time to start writing again rather than carrying on promoting. It seems to me, looking at the Kindle Boards forum, that some new writers get swept up in the excitement of their first book and the promotion of it. They spend all their time tweeting and facebooking, mentioning their book on forums; dreaming up new ways that they can cross-promote their book with other authors and lose sight of one thing: a book is not a career.

If you are going to be a writer then you need to write; away from the distractions of the internet, of social media. In the old days a writer only knew how well they were doing from the quarterly royalty reports. Then, we got Amazon sales rankings that people could obsess over. Now, you can check your kindle sales on the Amazon KDP site as they happen….

I have around 7 short stories which have been through critique groups but which have never quite gelled enough to be sent out. My target for the next couple of months is to work through these and get them submitted and out into the world. I am also 8 chapters into a new SF novel, plus I am working through the outline for the second Changers book.

So plenty to do and the act of getting the stories out on the Kindle, of getting some sales and some good reviews has motivated me to start writing again.