Wednesday, May 30, 2018
report from the haiku trenches
The new e pluribus haiku has come out, and I am trying to back off and get perspective on it. Much of what I've done, writing a thousand haiku per year for about three years, has been kind of pointless, in terms of the attention or sales that I've generated. OK, so I did it for myself, really, to see if I could, and because that sense of traveling is always with me. And now I'll do a kind of traveling publicity for it. I'll put it on every twitter, on every blog. My publicity machine, such as it is, will get fired up and let the world know about it.
If it comes to its conclusion, which would be a single book, with about five thousand haiku, that was like a novel, that would be excellent. That would also be a lot of work. I find myself exhausted after just a thousand. The truth is, I started out ok - when 2017 was published, I took about a month off, but when I started, I was able to do five or six a day for a long time. I figured I had to do 3-4 a day if I could sustain it all year, but if I lose a month, I'm already up to about 4-5 a day. OK, so I did fine, May until about October. Then for some reason I swooned and was unable to write. This went on for a couple of months. I just couldn't pen one, for any reason. OK, so I don't force myself, I don't worry, I just move along, and I did. When I finally got back on track, I was ok again. Now I had to do 5 or 6 a day, but I did. ANd this carried on, right through the holidays.
But then I closed in on my thousand, right in March when I was supposed to. I saw the numbers reach up into 950, 960, almost done. Now, I shut down again. I simply had no more to say. Haiku Day (Apr. 15, my target) came and went; I couldn't finish, couldn't write a single one. I did some publicity hoping it would get me on track; it didn't. Logjam. Writer's block. Nothing happened.
I actually went a month, two months, before it clicked again. Finally I just churned a few out and it was over. I was sick of it. I wanted the 960 that I'd already written to be out there. I did it, pulled together the book, and put it out there.
It's the first thing I've published since my father died, in January. That actually set me back, that and noticing that my son was pulling in a thousand a month from a you tube channel. I get a little depressed knowing that I do all this writing, basically for nothing; I have a kind of reputation on kindle, and acx, but don't sell much in the way of hard-copy amazon books. This summer I'm working on making it so I have some kind of income; I'm starting with acx, and with my stories. If one reads a book for a living, one makes a living. It too may be paltry, but let's face it, poetry is not hauling in the cash. I'm reaching the point where I want some of my hard work to come back at me as I sit here in this chair, so I don't have to keep getting out of it, to make more cash. If I'm a writer, the world should recognize that and let me write.
The problem is, the stories are the same way. They have some audience; I make some money. I get noticed, a little. But, they're like poetry; there's a sea of words out there, and people can't distinguish this set from that set, and it takes a while to get a reputation, when you're doing your own publicity. I put my stuff on blogs, but who reads blogs? I have a page on Facebook, but who's going to find it? My Amazon author's page leads to my promo blog, but who reads either one?
Maybe it's time for some creative publicity....
Then again, here's the good news. I found out the other day, or rather realized, something I'd known for quite a while: we, here, in southern New Mexico, and you're talking Las Cruces, Deming, Alamo, Carlsbad...we are in the 5 - 7 - 5 area code. That's right, we have pop haiku phone numbers. Give us a call. Or better yet, come visit. If you change your phone, you too can have a haiku area code. Apparently, around here, they've had them all along.
If it comes to its conclusion, which would be a single book, with about five thousand haiku, that was like a novel, that would be excellent. That would also be a lot of work. I find myself exhausted after just a thousand. The truth is, I started out ok - when 2017 was published, I took about a month off, but when I started, I was able to do five or six a day for a long time. I figured I had to do 3-4 a day if I could sustain it all year, but if I lose a month, I'm already up to about 4-5 a day. OK, so I did fine, May until about October. Then for some reason I swooned and was unable to write. This went on for a couple of months. I just couldn't pen one, for any reason. OK, so I don't force myself, I don't worry, I just move along, and I did. When I finally got back on track, I was ok again. Now I had to do 5 or 6 a day, but I did. ANd this carried on, right through the holidays.
But then I closed in on my thousand, right in March when I was supposed to. I saw the numbers reach up into 950, 960, almost done. Now, I shut down again. I simply had no more to say. Haiku Day (Apr. 15, my target) came and went; I couldn't finish, couldn't write a single one. I did some publicity hoping it would get me on track; it didn't. Logjam. Writer's block. Nothing happened.
I actually went a month, two months, before it clicked again. Finally I just churned a few out and it was over. I was sick of it. I wanted the 960 that I'd already written to be out there. I did it, pulled together the book, and put it out there.
It's the first thing I've published since my father died, in January. That actually set me back, that and noticing that my son was pulling in a thousand a month from a you tube channel. I get a little depressed knowing that I do all this writing, basically for nothing; I have a kind of reputation on kindle, and acx, but don't sell much in the way of hard-copy amazon books. This summer I'm working on making it so I have some kind of income; I'm starting with acx, and with my stories. If one reads a book for a living, one makes a living. It too may be paltry, but let's face it, poetry is not hauling in the cash. I'm reaching the point where I want some of my hard work to come back at me as I sit here in this chair, so I don't have to keep getting out of it, to make more cash. If I'm a writer, the world should recognize that and let me write.
The problem is, the stories are the same way. They have some audience; I make some money. I get noticed, a little. But, they're like poetry; there's a sea of words out there, and people can't distinguish this set from that set, and it takes a while to get a reputation, when you're doing your own publicity. I put my stuff on blogs, but who reads blogs? I have a page on Facebook, but who's going to find it? My Amazon author's page leads to my promo blog, but who reads either one?
Maybe it's time for some creative publicity....
Then again, here's the good news. I found out the other day, or rather realized, something I'd known for quite a while: we, here, in southern New Mexico, and you're talking Las Cruces, Deming, Alamo, Carlsbad...we are in the 5 - 7 - 5 area code. That's right, we have pop haiku phone numbers. Give us a call. Or better yet, come visit. If you change your phone, you too can have a haiku area code. Apparently, around here, they've had them all along.
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