“James, I have a man question, I know you only from your writing, your output is superhuman to me, but I feel if you focused on one subject, I believe that goal [greatness] is within your grasp, or is your goal not to become the great artist I see, am I naive or short on perception?”

-Ishmael

You are not naïve, Ishmael. You are asking me what any decent editor—such as Ann Sterzinger—would tell me. Focus on what you are best at, or what sells the best and forget the rest. The short answer is, if I focus only on Harm City I lose 30% of the readership, only on commentary I lose 60% and if only on one of the other categories 90% of the site traffic goes away.

1. What sells the best is “how to, self-help books,” for combat and survival, which I absolutely hate writing and in which I standout not one bit in terms of form.

2. What makes the most money, is ghost writing, which I disliked so much I will never do it again.

3. What brings the most readers is my commentary and review, which means nothing to me artistically, but I do it to satisfy the readership on the site and draw new possible readers for writing I actually care about.

4. What reaches the widest audience is my Harm City series, none of which measures up as decent literature and which I began writing as a means to learn how to write by doing it, as school was not an option financially, and I had failed in school at every level previously and had no expectation of success if I went into debt to attend a college. I enjoy writing Harm City as a diversion, but it means nothing to me, is just a journal, as this easy form no longer serves to advance my writing skill.

5. What means the most to me in terms of substance is writing history, which makes money for no author who exposes the truth and is a platform that resists form more than any type of writing except for self-help and technical. Writing history without the backing of a major publishing house or university is the road to poverty.

6. My personal sense of human duty to write on masculine matters is something which also brings very little interest and promises even less the wider the reading base expands, but which I do for my sons, grandson and fighters.

7. My sense of writing duty is vested in a narrow band of commentary focused on authors who influenced me like Robert E. Howard and Phillip K. Dick and there is no significant reader interest in this form.

8. What means the most to me in terms of form is writing fiction: sci-fi, adventure, fantasy, horror, historical and mythic. For a person of my odd bent, using realistic characters to examine the human condition will never result in enough sales to justify it as a sole pursuit.

9. The most demanding writing I do is Arуan Myth and In Words, essentially form exercises on subjects with little or no appeal to most readers, the purpose of which is merely to help develop #8.

So, Ishmael, what we have above is a combination of earning, drawing and retention “trash” writing in 1-4, intended to promote and support three categories [5-7] of obligatory non-profit writing and one category [8] of artistic expression. My hope is that writing in different forms will help me get better in the writing of fiction of a type that will never draw a large audience as it is focused on a tiny audience, being literate, non-emasculated men and explores themes offensive to the vast majority of human livestock.

Thanks for your support, Sir, and I am looking forward to meeting you in person next week.

-James