2023 Year End Retrospective

This is the second year I've really taken my writing more seriously. I've released two novels, four novellas, and two shorts (I'm not including the second 'Rubber Order' novella in this list, as it was written in 2022).

Compared to last year, I've made twice as much money. For a ballpark estimate, that's approximately $2000 vs. $1000.

Not that much, in the scheme of things. Definitely not enough to live on, or to even consider doing anything differently. I'm not going to get rich from my writing, that's a fact!

Maybe next year I'll figure out how to advertise more effectively and reach a wider audience, but who knows? Fate is a fickle thing, and attention isn't always what it's cut out to be.

The sad truth is that hard work never pays off by itself; there's always an element of luck involved. Am I a lucky individual? So far, I wouldn't say so.

By The Numbers

I have arranged these stories in terms of total revenue earned, from top to bottom.

Target of Corruption

Words: 106,814

This turned out to be more of an epic fantasy story than I had anticipated when I first started. It was a complicated story to write, and it looks like it paid off in the end. I hope everyone who read it had a good time with it!

Please note that Bull Moon is also set in the same universe, and there are a few subtle references to this universe in that story.

Droneship

Word Count: 51,791

There's something about faceless drones that draws in the crowds, and I understand why. Faceless, brainless, and sexy serial recruitment always seems to be a winner. I'd like to write more drone tales next year.

Over Easy

Word Count: 54,983

Weird alien parasites and pregnancy turned out to be somewhat popular. This story could have been turned into a novel, but I'm glad I didn't take the time to do it - I don't think the concept had enough legs to support something that long.

Bugged Out

Word Count: 38,006

This did okay for what it was - a mind control tale without sex - how pedestrian! I liked the horror angles, and I think the ending worked out okay. I guess I'm not unhappy with this one.

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Word Count: 16,100

This was meant to be a squicky tale, and I think I did a good job of that. It got rated poorly on Amazon, though, perhaps because someone found the soft vore/transformation elements objectionable. I guess I'll never know, since nobody leaves comments.

Bull Moon

Word Count: 62,431

This was a disappointing dud. A hot tale about a demon lord turning earth women into his cow slaves sounds like a great, fun story! I think I executed it well, but it didn't appear to have much of an audience.

Training Betsy

Word Count: 52,460

Jury is still out on this one, but so far it's not looking good. I suppose if I'm known for weird, writing a more vanilla bondage story isn't going to get people interested. I couldn't advertise it in the usual places, either, which is probably the bigger problem.

Repopulated/Rubber Bees

Word Count: 81,652/26,039

These two are down here at the bottom because I didn't put them up for sale. 'Rubber Bees' was always meant to be a horribly squicky tale, meant for fun, not for sale, but 'Repopulated' was a huge miss on my part. I very much doubt it would have made much if I could have sold it, as my other dickgirl tale, Transference, is my lowest rated Amazon story (someone didn't read the synopsis).

I'm not happy with the color of the cover lettering on the Repopulated ebook, either, but I'm not motivated to fix it because I'm not selling it, so what's the point in spending the hour or two it would take to get it sorted out?

I hate to say it, but in the end, Repopulated really wasn't worth the effort I put into it. It was longer than novel length, ate up a lot of writing/editing time, and I've received almost no feedback on it. I doubt it's driven many sales.

That being the case, it's not likely you're going to see a lot more of this type of tale from me, unless I think up one I purposefully write for free sites.

Total Word Count 2023

522,032

I have included 'Soldiers of Darkness' (21756) and 'Dirty Hearts' (Approx. 10,000 so far) in the final sum, as those were written this year as well.

That makes a cool half million words this year, which quite frankly has smashed all of my expectations.

For all that work, there's been remarkably little return. I couldn't keep doing this if I wasn't deriving some intangibles to balance the equation. I don't know how long that will remain true, but as long as it does, I'll keep pushing forward.

Conclusion

Now, what should I take away from this? At least this year, it seems that corruption and droning is popular, whereas milking and strange alien transformations are not.

Training Betsy hasn't been out lot enough to get a read on that, but from the sales figures so far, it probably won't do all that well. This is probably due to the fact that I don't have good advertising channels for this kind of story when compared to my mind control tales.

There have been some surprising duds on my list, and surprising winners. Doll Factory, from 2022, continues to do well, and I expect it's going to become my best seller at some point in 2024.

Looking Back at 2022

Few might recall this, but at the beginning of the year I started with a list of story ideas and a bright eyed idea that I might be able to get them all done during the year. That didn't materialize, primarily because I found other, more interesting ideas to write, and also because I soured on some of these plans as time went on (that's only natural, I suppose).

Over Easy - Released more or less as planned, on March 21st.

The Lump - Renamed to 'Bugged Out' and released on September 1st. This one had some major plot changes before I figured out something workable.

Repopulated - Released for free on my blog on November 26th,

Mars Needs Milkers - "Cow aliens abduct a couple and turn them into breeding cows." I have the outline finished for this one, but after 'Bull Moon' didn't do so hot, I didn't want to tackle another human cow tale so soon.

Bull Moon - Released on July 17th, without too many major plot changes.

The Milking Hour - "Katy has just reached the age of maturation in her family of cows. She desperately wants to be a cow, but her family wants her to consider her other options. This goes off the rails when a lab, who's experimenting on cows, starts experimenting upon her."

This one had a fairly long outline, but it suffered the same fate as 'Mars Needs Milkers' after the release of Bull Moon.

Here is the cover I made for 'Mars Needs Milkers,' if you're curious. I don't really know if this story will ever see the light of day, but I'll probably use this if it does:

Other Story Ideas

After my current novella/novel is complete ('Dirty Hearts'), I'm thinking I would really like to write another drone/hive tale. I think it would be nice to write something in a similar style as Uzobono/Tabico's Aria of the Hive series.

Of course, it wouldn't be in the same setting, but I might borrow some hot/sexy ideas from that series to come up with a yarn of my own. That could be fun, right?

I don't have a plot or an outline figured out yet, but we'll see how it goes. No promises, this idea might be shelved, too, if a better idea comes along!

Final Thoughts

The verdict is mixed.

It seems hypocritical to be dissatisfied with the progress I've made this year. I've toiled away for long hours, eking out less than minimum wage for each work I've produced. Clearly, I'm not in the right genre to get the big bucks, and yet, I can't imagine spending those same hours writing something boring.

I do have some ideas for non-smut novels, but those don't seem to work with the audience I've built up here. Hot Pressed, a novel I wrote a few years back, contains fun mind control themes, but I had to write it under a different pseudonym, and in the end, few people picked it up and read it.

Many indie authors do worse than I have, yet it seems to be human nature to want more. To be more.

I think one of my largest complaints is that I feel disconnected from my fan base. I don't have much of a sense of community in what I'm writing, and I feel for the most part that I'm hollering into the wind.

Perhaps I should be looking for alternative ways to engage, like using SubscribeStar to provide early access to my works. Maybe I should also look into setting up an online tip jar.

Maybe I shouldn't do any of these things. It's hard to know without trying, through. Ah, well.

I can't change how I feel. I can only keep going and hope that one day, I'll be able to look back and smile about what I've accomplished.

I hope that you are able to do the same, dear readers, with whatever projects you have on your table.

Signing off for 2023,

Half Shim