Steve Chiarelli’s Blog

I have been pretty lackadaisical about updating this blog. Between working full-time, obligations and responsibilities at home and trying to make some headway on my new novel, both my web page and this blog have suffered.
The present economic state is not a good situation for a new author trying to break into the publishing market. Without a major publisher behind you it is very hard to get noticed unless you can pour hours upon hours of your time into blogging (on your own and others sites) and participate in discussions on popular writing or book sites (or Amazon). But if you spend your time doing that, then you fail to put out anything new to keep readers interested. It is a catch-22. And trying to get a publisher to take a chance on a new author in tough economic times is also verging on the impossible – profits is the key to success for them and they thereby rely heavily on their established authors to provide that guarantee of sales in times like these.
Having said all that, if you don’t keep plugging away, if only for your own enjoyment, a little bit of recognition and that slight possibility of ‘making it’, then you didn’t have what it takes to begin with.
I have been plugging away at my second novel, tentatively titled Muckydum, and I’m really enjoying the process. The story has taken shape and I’m quite excited by the prospects of how it could end up. Currently I have about four different ways to see it through to the end. I’m just waiting to see what happens along the way until I decide which path I’m going to take.
Hopefully in the future I will be able to spend more time to see what else is going on in the community. And I will try to keep this blog going.
Take care,
Steve