Perhaps it’s the budding writer in me, but I can’t shake the feeling that I ought to start my first post with something profound and attention-grabbing. Perhaps I should be wracking my brains out trying to come up with something uniquely personal and yet universally relatable.

But having spent a while now obsessing over how to build the website (and developing a greater respect for coders and webmasters), I know that if I allow myself to become too consumed by all the things that go along with trying to promote one’s own writing nowadays, I’ll be keeping myself from doing much actual writing.

As I write this post, I’m addressing an audience that isn’t even there yet (and may never be). It’s hard to know what to write when many things are still up in the air. And when they settle, where should my focus be? Here? On social media? Or should I be focused on my other projects?

It’s a question that will hopefully become clearer over the coming weeks. At time of writing, I don’t even know if this blog will become a regular thing. I’ve written hundreds of book reviews on LibraryThing over the years – some of them even worthwhile – and that’s always been my outlet. I enjoy it and hope it will continue. But will traffic – if it comes – necessitate a focus here, where I can prompt people towards a mailing list? Every new writer is told the mailing list is the most effective way of building an audience.

The only thing that is certain at this time is that the website is up and running and Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog is available to read right now, exclusively on Amazon Kindle. The future course of my fiction writing is dependent on a number of circumstances, not least the reception Wanderer receives and the size of the audience it generates. It could take off and provide me with options and opportunities, or it could sink like a stone and make this first post my last.

This is a new experience for me, so don’t hesitate to share your opinions (this is the Internet, after all). You can do so here in the comments, in an Amazon review, or through the links posted on my Contacts page.

– M.F.