The author in Cinque Terra, Italy Usually I’ll write something about fatherhood (Dadhood, as I call it for reasons having to do with earning your title as a dad) and then set it aside for a couple of days. It never fails that I will rewrite, rearrange, and/or correct errors. It’s like an artist who has to take a few steps back to evaluate his work. I’m not doing that tonight. I plan a half hour at most on this when I usually spend six to ten hours on most articles. Thinking, researching, writing, rewriting, rewriting again, and searching for a photo to match with the article all takes time.
I’ve been thinking about dropping to one post a week lately. I have been doing two a week for the last 30-35 months. It takes a lot of time and I don’t mind that, if what I send out can help someone. I wasn’t going to do a Thursday post but here it is, 11:21 pm Central time (Thursday) and I am writing as I think. I guess I feel guilty. Because of a technical issue with my website, my readership the last three articles has dropped by 80%, so I’m a little depressed about the whole blogging thing.
As I type, I have no idea what photo I will use but I will choose one because that is my style. 99% of the photos I use are my photos. I love photography and the photos I pick were almost never taken for an article, an exception was a photo I took for the Chinese version of my book.
Another thing is my book never seems to sell because of my articles. (Hint: See upper right hand corner.) Sometimes I will get hundreds of likes on a blog post I wrote that I post to Facebook (Helping Fathers to be Dads). Often the articles will reference my book, but it doesn’t help my sales. I write to help children through their fathers, not to make money. But my book is the real tool to help fathers and that is why I wrote it.
Because I have a publisher, and am I ever happy I got one, I only get 80 cents or less per book sold. Self-publishers get about 90% of the book’s sale price, but they rarely sell as many books. I needed a real publisher because I want my book to reach as many fathers as possible. I have given away hundreds of them. To ever break even on what I have spent on editing, marketing, etc., I would have to sell 12,000 books. That doesn’t include the 15 years and thousands of hours I spent writing and researching.
So what you have read here is ‘stream of consciousness’ writing. No editing except what very obvious errors my computer highlights for me. It will not be my best article but it is likely not my worst either. Sometimes I look back on past articles I wrote that I thought were pretty good, and they disappoint. There are, however, about fifteen articles of the 250 or so I have written that I am really proud of.
I am also very proud of my book! Whenever I re-read it, I come away feeling that I could have done better, but not much. It was my first, and maybe my only book, but it gets my message across. I’ve never been a writer nor had any training in writing. But I was a son and I am a father. My book and this blog are simply a way to get a message out. A message very important to me, and one that should be very important to society for it is in the home where every good, and every bad thing begins!
Thank you!
Michael Byron Smith
PS. I actually spent 43 minutes on this article, not counting the photo I end up posting. Sorry for any errors!
I’ve been thinking about dropping to one post a week lately. I have been doing two a week for the last 30-35 months. It takes a lot of time and I don’t mind that, if what I send out can help someone. I wasn’t going to do a Thursday post but here it is, 11:21 pm Central time (Thursday) and I am writing as I think. I guess I feel guilty. Because of a technical issue with my website, my readership the last three articles has dropped by 80%, so I’m a little depressed about the whole blogging thing.
As I type, I have no idea what photo I will use but I will choose one because that is my style. 99% of the photos I use are my photos. I love photography and the photos I pick were almost never taken for an article, an exception was a photo I took for the Chinese version of my book.
Another thing is my book never seems to sell because of my articles. (Hint: See upper right hand corner.) Sometimes I will get hundreds of likes on a blog post I wrote that I post to Facebook (Helping Fathers to be Dads). Often the articles will reference my book, but it doesn’t help my sales. I write to help children through their fathers, not to make money. But my book is the real tool to help fathers and that is why I wrote it.
Because I have a publisher, and am I ever happy I got one, I only get 80 cents or less per book sold. Self-publishers get about 90% of the book’s sale price, but they rarely sell as many books. I needed a real publisher because I want my book to reach as many fathers as possible. I have given away hundreds of them. To ever break even on what I have spent on editing, marketing, etc., I would have to sell 12,000 books. That doesn’t include the 15 years and thousands of hours I spent writing and researching.
So what you have read here is ‘stream of consciousness’ writing. No editing except what very obvious errors my computer highlights for me. It will not be my best article but it is likely not my worst either. Sometimes I look back on past articles I wrote that I thought were pretty good, and they disappoint. There are, however, about fifteen articles of the 250 or so I have written that I am really proud of.
I am also very proud of my book! Whenever I re-read it, I come away feeling that I could have done better, but not much. It was my first, and maybe my only book, but it gets my message across. I’ve never been a writer nor had any training in writing. But I was a son and I am a father. My book and this blog are simply a way to get a message out. A message very important to me, and one that should be very important to society for it is in the home where every good, and every bad thing begins!
Thank you!
Michael Byron Smith
PS. I actually spent 43 minutes on this article, not counting the photo I end up posting. Sorry for any errors!
