I was surprised by a bit of nostalgia today. Prior to getting down to writing the next book, I decided to archive all the files related to Dagger; couldn’t bring myself to delete everything like I probably should. So I made a new folder on my Dropbox, named it DaggerArchive, and stuffed every old file into it. Felt like something was ending, with Air on a G string mellowing out the environment.

And now it’s on to The Borg Conspiracy. I’m not sure if I can use that title with all the connections to the StarTrek series and so on. My story is not about the Borg of the television series, but is a somewhat cynical reference to the series made by one of the characters in my story. I think it’ll pass the legal department but we’ll see. I’m remembering ‘Sita Sings the Blues‘, a brilliant movie that was killed off by inadvertent copyright infringements. It’s worth a viewing if you haven'[t seen it yet; it’s on my list of best movies ever. I don’t think that Conspiracy is going to have those problems.

Conspiracy is pure sci-fi.

But I’m not done with Dagger quite yet. The print edition still has to be released – on CreateSpace print-on-demand. The proofs should arrive next week, and I pass them out to my proof readers for final checks. The worst part of the business lies ahead – marketing. And I know, that’s my first mistake. Marketing is not ahead; it’s now or it’s too late.

A few weeks ago I had all kinds of great plans for marketing. I talked about them with my friend Stephanie who has published several books. Now it all sounds so impossible. I was going to do readings all over the country, and visit indie bookstores, with armfuls of books, and sell, sell, sell. Hundreds of books, thousands of dollars.

But what looked good on the drawing board doesn’t look half as good in the real world. That’s the real trouble with self-publishing – writers are not necessarily marketers. Frankly, I don’t know if I can do this. My inclination is to forget about marketing and get on with the writing.