The Death of My Blog

Hello Freaky Dreamers! It has been a crazy long time since I've done a blog post, and there are quite a few reasons for that. Is it that I don't have anything else left to say? NO! I have plenty to say, in fact probably more than ever before. For the first time I feel like I've started down a path that leads to real legs for my writing from a business perspective, and that has taken two primary forms: YouTube and Podcasting.

What I'd like to talk about here today in what very well could be my last blog entry (but probably not) is how I got to this point. A while back I spent a solid year trying to find an agent to represent my first novel, From the Music Box. Not a publisher...just an agent. I got zero bites. Not a single request for a full manuscript, nothing. A full year. I know time goes by quickly, but a year is a long time to spend on anything, especially with nothing to show for it. I got very discouraged and turned back to writing short fiction for a while in an effort to restore my confidence. At some point in 2019 I looked back and realized that I had quite a library or short fiction. A very small selection of this was available on my website, but the vast majority was just sitting on an external hard drive, sad and lonely. I knew there had to be a way to get these stories out to people. But I ran into a significant problem and that came in the form of not having any extra money to put into self-publishing.

I researched publishing with Amazon and a dozen other self-publishing houses out there and it all came down to money. I didn't have money to spend on boxes of books that would sit in my garage, and I also didn't want to be charging people forty dollars for a paperback collection of short stories in order to use an on demand service and turn any kind of profit. I felt that I had hit a wall at the end of "hobby" and on the other side of that wall was a way to turn my love of horror and writing into a legitimate business.

As with most things in my life, I found YouTube WAY after everyone else did. I didn't even really start watching videos on YouTube until 2018 and by that point I started realizing that there were people on that platform making money. Real money. Supporting themselves in some pretty lavish lifestyles by providing entertainment or advice to people on a regular basis. Of course, the people who had been there since the beginning when YouTube was just starting out had an advantage. There was a lot less competition then and they have had years to develop their communities, but that didn't mean that it couldn't be done...right? Audiobooks do well for many reasons, and after some research I realized that I wasn't the first person to utilize YouTube as a platform for audio versions of the written word.

Since I had done a lot with music in the past, I had most of the equipment that I needed. Microphones, a computer, an old USB interface and thanks to Apple I had both Garageband and iMovie to get me started. In March of 2020 I "started" my YouTube channel with one video. This was not the official start to my channel but I knew that if I didn't just pull the trigger and get something out there I would keep dragging my feet until the timing was "perfect" which of course would never happen. A little while after that, I uploaded a channel trailer (which probably needs to be updated) to let people know what was coming. I started social media accounts using the channel branding and began putting the word out that something was coming.

On October 1st, 2020 I uploaded part one of "Watch the Child". I had a well mapped out plan to upload one video every two weeks. Not much, but it's what I could do based on the little time I had on a daily basis to devote to this endeavor. I uploaded more stories, I blasted them out on social media, I joined a bunch of horror related Facebook groups and flooded them with links. Since I have always loved music, I added some original instrumental dark music to the channel. To boost content I started doing some "true story" videos called "True Nightmares". I've done one video of just me talking about my inspiration as a writer regarding the first story I uploaded, Watch the Child. Within the first seven months of my channel now I've reached 125 Subscribers and almost 7,000 views. It's not making money yet, but I'm on my way, and we will see where it leads.

My original intention from a podcast perspective was just to duplicate the stories that I was putting on YouTube in an audio-only format. I did two episodes and then really just forgot to keep up to date with what I had uploaded on my YT channel. At some point I decided that I wanted to do something more with the Podcast, something different that could stand on its own if for some reason the YT channel fizzled out. So I half rebranded the podcast from Happy Nightmares, to the Happy Nightmares Podcast and changed it into just me talking about things related to the paranormal. And I have been able to mostly keep up with a weekly schedule since they are shorter than my stories and require less editing time. Keeping up with the podcast and the YouTube channel has really sucked up every second of my free time and so this website and my blog have suffered as a result. I'm sure I'll pop back in here now and then and maybe if things start taking off more and I am actually able to put more time into my vision then this will be more a part of it. But for now, its YouTube or bust.

If you haven't already, check out my podcast and give the YouTube channel a try. I'd love to know what you think. There is more going on there than meets the eye. :)