Approaching Year Three

...and plans have changed while optimism has been a struggle

One of the original purposes of the Talking Pulp Press Substack was to chronicle the creative process behind the Barbarians of the Storm book series and related projects. That means covering the good and the bad. So, as I look forward to next year, the third on this BotS ride, I have to discuss what has happened and what has changed.

Very early this year, things were looking up. In January of 2023, Swords Against Bastard, Book III (but 4th overall) in the Barbarians of the Storm series was released and it immediately sold better than any of the three BotS books before it. At least, for that first month. At that time, my trajectory kept going upward and pretty quickly. The long-term plans I had seemed like they could happen much sooner than originally thought, and I was happy. I genuinely felt like the hard work was paying off and that out of all the creative paths I had followed, of which there were many, this was the one that was finally going to pan out for me.

Then something happened, and I slid into one of the worst years of my life apart from just the creative side. In fact, it was the worst year that didn’t include the death of a very close loved one.

But let me focus on the creative/publishing side.

In February, it’s like everything that was succeeding, fell off of a fucking cliff. My sales started dropping rapidly, my engagement on Twitter absolutely died, my hugely successful promo threads (not just for me but for other creators) no longer got the immense reach they once did. It was baffling, maddening, and it felt like the rug was pulled out from under me.

While Elon Musk started making major changes at Twitter (now X), I noticed engagement and impressions drop by a significant margin. Sure, over the year, my follower count has gone up, little by little, but the actual engagement and impressions are maybe ten percent of what they once were despite new people always trickling in. Although, they aren’t trickling in like they once were. It’s like a chokepoint has been created. Granted, that doesn’t mean it is deliberate, it could just be an issue with so much shoddy code being messed with.

I don’t place blame on Elon or X, it is his company and he has the right to do whatever the hell he wants with it. I only hope that it is something that resolves itself, as more changes and updates to the coding happen. It also doesn’t mean that X is the real cause of this, but the correlation, the timing, and the same results happening to others I know, makes it seem like X is the culprit.

Regardless of that, it’s on me to find a new path that works and that’s something I’ve worked tirelessly to do. However, alterations and changes on my end don’t seem to matter much. Although, I have been marketing in generally the same way for nearly two years now and maybe what was once incredibly effective, just isn’t anymore. And with that, I’m trying to think of new ways to overcome this mountain.

One thing that I was working on developing was entering the live streaming avenue through VTubing. I recently posted an article on why that was on indefinite hold (see here). However, I’ve had some new ideas associated with it, that could lead to me at least getting the ball rolling. This initial idea would have to be something I do on the Twitch side due to it being music heavy and because of YouTube’s insanely liberal use of the copyright strike and banishment, regardless of fair use or the intent of the content.

The other big, overly ambitious ideas I had, which I wanted to explore in Year Three, were the development of a video game, more art heavy books, audiobooks, comics/manga, and eventually, action figures. However, my momentum from a year ago is gone, the trajectory has changed, and it’s been a rough road contending with that and trying to figure out how to adjust to it. Life’s bullshit has only made it harder, but I hope to have the life shit figured out within the next few months. And frankly, I’m tired of talking about all the hardship bullshit and just want to move forward in a way that allows me to focus on everything associated with the Barbarians of the Storm universe and its expansion into other areas. Because, as I have said in the past, I set out to create a new, large IP. I’m not just trying to craft a book series. I want something that can fill the void the mainstream has created after destroying countless beloved legacy IPs. That being said, a lot of long-term thought goes into what I am trying to accomplish, pitfalls be damned.

Anyway, this is a sort of year-in-review with a preview of what’s ahead. I’m not where I hoped to be from my vantage point at the start of 2023, but I cannot let these challenges and the adversity beat me. I am determined to finish the book series over the next year or two with bigger plans for BotS beyond that. I’m not ready to count this as a failure and throw in the towel. I only hope that once I get to the end of this main saga of books, that I have grown and generated enough interest to justify expanding into these other avenues. Even if I don’t, I’ll probably still move ahead because I’m insane, often times to my detriment.