Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and these are my post-publishing stories of Five Strange Stories.
From Mars to Amazon
I have told the story of how my first book came to be.
Long story short, my mom and I were talking in the car one day. This blog was just starting. I was all pumped to take new leaps and bounds in my writing.
Soon I started sharing some of the success stories which had inspired my current path.
In particular was one Andy Weir and his novel The Martian. He found massive success after simply sharing his novel online then placing it on Amazon.
My mom looked at me and asked why I couldn’t do that. My bigger projects were still nowhere near done, but maybe I could still get something started.
Maybe I could make something out of some of the short stories I’ve written over the years. Something simple to have some practice in the marketplace.
And so, a couple months later, I ran my work through Kindle Direct Publishing. My self-published book Five Strange Stories would be the result.
Some time has passed since that anticipated release. Enough time for my blog to reach its fiftieth post.
Time seems right to share some of the other stories about Five Strange Stories. All the curiosities, all the worries, all the reactions that have come since release.
Launching the Literature
I never expected Five Strange Stories to launch to Martian success.
Weir already had an audience. I was just starting my blog. His idea came at exactly the right time. My idea was an experiment.
Mainly, I wanted to put something out there.
I wanted to have something to hold in my hands that I had written.
This is why the first month royalty check of $11.50 felt more like a humorous happening than a crushing blow.
I still remember running through those sales charts for the first time. Seeing those few precious sales scattered across the days.
As far as I could tell, every purchaser either knew me personally or was the friend of a friend.
I suppose that’s to be expected with minimal marketing. Still, I did feel proud.
Like I said, I mainly wanted to have a book with my name on it.
That feeling was half of what I was going for. The other half was learning how to self-publish on Amazon.
A surprise swarm of fans was indeed a distant hope, but I was fine. This book was written out of love for writing. I was not depending on it for a meal ticket.
Reading My Work
Of course, other concerns would soon emerge.
Five Strange Stories actually had no professional editing done on it. Sure, I had checked each tale countless times myself and let others read them, but I never paid anyone to take a red pen to it.
I still remember when I first found a few noticeable grammar errors in the published book.
This was during my subbing days at my old high school.
I was covering classes for the main freshmen English teacher. He had a good amount of daily prep time, and he left plenty of work for the kids.
So, I was able to take some time here and there to reread my book.
I saw errors as early as the first page.
Simple stuff. Things I felt I should have caught.
Honestly, I came pretty close to the sting of discouragement there.
Only thing which kept my writing spirits up was the senior English teacher, Donny.
The English department had found their way to my book. Pretty much every one of them had already read it by this point.
Moment Donny saw me, he asked, “Where did you learn to write like that?”
I blinked. Our English teachers are some of the biggest sticklers for grammar you’ll ever meet. Donny still cared about my writing despite all the apparent flaws.
I told him my success partially came from my teachers both there and in college. I shared the inspirations for a few stories and let him know where to find my blog.
Donny ended our talk with a simple request: “Keep writing.”
That gave me the push I needed to make some edits and update Five Strange Stories.
I even joked about the situation on my Facebook page. Said my first buyers would now wind up having rare versions of my first book with limited edition grammar errors.
They would have the surest proof of supporting me in my early days.
Reactions Abound
Further reactions to Five Strange Stories dripped in here and there.
My mom could barely get through a single page without tearing up. My dad loved every second of the read.
My paternal grandpa gave the book four stars. He said five stars was too much for a first book. He didn’t want to risk inflating my ego.
Though he did think my story “Legend of Sun, Moon, and Dog” was a great concept for a larger series.
A few friends went through Five Strange Stories too. High school buddies placed it in positions of honor on their mantles. My boss in the school dorms allowed a copy in the lobby’s display case.
One of my better conversation partners was one of my fellow resident advisers in the school dorms. He gave me a pretty good discussion on themes and archetypes in my work.
Deepest discussion came with the twisted logic of the villain in my story “The Dragon in the Mansion.”
Only negative reactions came from people questioning logistics rather than quality. People wondering how I would possibly be able to get this book into the hands of readers.
Always Another Step
I don’t lose sleep at night or wake up in cold sweats panicking over my first book’s sales figures.
I had a good experience writing and publishing Five Strange Stories.
More or less, I have achieved what I wanted to do with it.
This book was meant to be a beginning. I would have appreciated a bigger start, but I wasn’t risking my life on it.
Any reader who enjoys this book is a success in my eyes.
Releasing Five Strange Stories has taught me much about my craft. These lessons will guide as I keep fulfilling my unending desire to write.
I have already applied a few lessons in the release of my first poetry collection. You can bet I will take them into account as I keep working on my larger projects.
Kotcher’s Call to Action
If you like my content and wish to see more, then you have a few options.
You can find more posts on Five Strange Stories at the Books section of the cKotch.Com portfolio.
You could check out my books Five Strange Stories and Good Stuff: 50 Poems from Youth on Amazon. They are enrolled in the Kindle Matchbook program, so anyone who buys the paperbacks can also get the eBooks for free.
You can also check my Essential Posts page for links to some of my greatest posts to the cKotch.Com blog.
Finally, be sure to like my Facebook page and share it with your friends. I post a link there whenever a new blog post goes live each Friday at 5:00 PM EST.