It's a Long Way to the Top...

For those keeping track, I don’t post nearly a fraction of what my esteemed colleagues do. They’re good about putting words to current thoughts regarding writing, medieval combat, or whatever is happening in this world or Galhadria. I’m grateful to them for their commitment and their willingness to share.  Honestly, I struggle with it.  I’m not really a ‘unpack your thoughts’ kinda guy.  But there is a subject on my mind which I can try to distill into a pithy blog post.  Here goes…

I just watched School of Rock again recently.  Partly because we hadn’t seen it in a while but also because we wanted our child to see it. Maybe it’s just me with a bad case of ‘old man-itis’ but it doesn’t seem like they make many movies like this anymore.  I can bemoan soulless live action remakes, cynical nostalgia reboots, CGI-hell superhero cinematic universes, or bloated star-crammed action sequels full of muscle-heads, but there’s a reason why those films and tv shows are being shoveled towards us as fast as we can consume them. They’re the entertainment equivalent of eating at McDonalds every day– high calorie and ultimately empty. 

But watching School of Rock was a breath of fresh air, I must say, with Jack Black just being amazing and hilarious as usual.  During one part of the film, they play a song from AC/DC called “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Want to Rock and Roll)”-- which is a sort of autobiographical tale of the difficulties encountered as they worked their way to popularity. It really struck a nerve with me. 

So if you haven’t been following the rollout of my book, The Neversleep Scrolls, after writing the entire manuscript fairly quickly, my plan was to launch the book as chapters published in weekly episodes. BUT not just that, I was going to use AI tools for both the artwork and the narrator to create these amazing video episodes and have it be a serialized story coming out on a regular schedule and released on three different platforms for maximum audience engagement.  I didn’t have a ton of subscribers to my youtube channel yet, but my expectation was that it would slowly grow until it reached a saturation point. And by the time the full book was released, I’d have a huge audience clamoring for the print edition and the sequel.  So all that happened, right?

(Check it out here— and Subscribe)

It can be easy to fall into the trap of having a distorted expectation for what success will look like. Just write a great book and people will line up to buy it. No?  Okay, well, maybe asking strangers to buy a book is too much, but just put it out for free. No one likes to commit to that much reading? Okay, I’ll make it an audiobook. Still too much time investment?  How about short 15 minute episodes which are easily consumable and have pretty pictures to go along with it.  Eh, no one gives a shit.

I have to admit that I’m pretty disappointed in the results so far for the launch of my book. I thought more people would have found it and been raving about it to their friends– and the whole thing would be a sensation by now. Granted it’s only been a few months since I launched and there’s not even 20 episodes out yet. But honestly, it’s really hard to get your work out there these days. Even for major studios putting out a known franchise with millions in advertising– there’s a lot of competition for attention. Every day is a fight. And you don’t get there automatically. AC/DC played hundreds of dive bars and spent years performing before they made it.  I’ll have to keep their advice in mind as I continue to work toward success. I hope you’ll come along with me on this journey.

It’s a long way to the top…