Thanks for sharing details of your journey thus far, and for sharing current metrics. “My Welcome E-mail includes an invitation to purchase my novel, each new subscriber has some chance of converting to a sale.” …what other methods have helped create sales that are within your control?
Definitely, thats why each chapter is designed to stand on its own as much as possible. Its much easier to write 20 good short stories, and tie them together later.
The one Im currently working on will be good enough to put out into the world. The goal is to have it as good as I can make it by this time next year.
I have been puzzling over this paragraph for a few minutes: “Intelligent people … tend to be attracted to incentives. For both men and women, the litcel to celebrity pipeline has dried up almost completely—now only the alphabetical autists remain.” What is litcel, I wondered. If incel means “involuntary celibate”, might litcel be shorthand for “literary celibate” and wordcel for “word celibate”? That made no sense, so I googled but the search came up empty.
Therefore, allow me to point out that your readership extends beyond those fluent in the Mars Review of Books, and we (I) would appreciate a bit of help. 🙏🏾🙏🏾
Other than that, this is a super interesting post, and I have begun listening to your interview by Leaf Box.
Bravo and Happy New Year! I've been watching this story unfold since Ross's review, and got quite involved with Hyun Woo over the nature of the novel (thank you for that). And I finally got around to buying Incel. Keep up the good work -- you're an interesting, vital, voice, imao. And again, Happy New Year!
Good stuff, ARX. As a relative stranger who somehow stumbled on your stack this year (or late 2023, can't remember), I've been happy to see your growth and wish you all the best in the coming years. You strike me as a bit more of a Stoic than a Buddhist, but there's obviously a lot of overlap there. Either way, a good attitude to have as a writer. I'm also intrigued by one of your footnotes and will have to send you a dm about it.
Want to throw this right back at you and say THANK YOU for writing the book and this blog. Reading Incel, finding your writing here on Substack was a.. truly defining moment for me in terms of locking back in as "a big reader". So thank you!
Well, sales-wise, you're doing much better than I. So, congrats, and may your current trajectory continue. I made a few comments to certain parts of your post. They are:
“In the case of literary fiction—the only wordcel arena that I care about—said lottery ticket takes the shape of a novel.”
Yes, because the literary novel, unlike the genre novel, helps shape the culture.
“Years ago, when my traditional life path wasn’t working out, I used to cope by internally referencing my novel as a sort of pillar of meaning. In the process, the various problems of my life dissolved into the background, replaced by the relative importance of the only thing I really cared about: my book.”
My ‘novel(s)’ were not pillars of meaning, but diversions, craft, story-telling, wishful thinking, and escape, mostly penned while I was working full time, married, with two children and a mortgage. When I ended up divorcing, I got a whole lot more written.
“The paradox of artistic ambition: it’s vain and narcissistic, it’s notice-me-senpai energy (however senpai might be construed); simultaneously, it really is something that you do for your soul. It’s a fundamentally spiritual exercise.”
Yeah, okay. And it’s better than someone working day after day to make a bomb to blow up a large number of people.” 😉
“A second, more truthful explanation: I really thought I’d written the next Fight Club-tier work about modern masculinity. I thought I had lightning in a bottle.”
Maybe you did. But maybe the people who now run Big Publishing knew it, and that’s why they would not let you (and other male writers) in the club.
“Well—famously, it’s been said that the market is never wrong. The level of demand is the level of demand. Surely this is at least partly correlated to a book’s value, is it not?”
How can there be demand for some (physical) thing, like a novel, if that something is invisible? I would argue that the people who now run publishing and therefore, literary culture, ‘disappear’ certain works if they run counter to their theology.
“Writers sometimes cope by pointing out Moby Dick was an obscure work until after its author’s death “
😊 Damn! I was just going to point that out when I read the above. But I see that sad tale (what happened to Melville-dying in obscurity) not as a literary salve, but as a reality. It IS a fact.
“One day, I decided to stop feeling disappointed.”
Good strategy. I’m trying too. But I will not give up my anger about what has happened to the culture and publishing. And I’m not going to shut up about it. Fuck the Literati. A pox on their houses!
Good one, Guy! You go!
Please keep an eye out for my next post... Wham! Bam! Writers’ Slam!
Just purchased a copy. Looking forward to reading.
You won't regret it!
Thanks for sharing details of your journey thus far, and for sharing current metrics. “My Welcome E-mail includes an invitation to purchase my novel, each new subscriber has some chance of converting to a sale.” …what other methods have helped create sales that are within your control?
Appearing on podcast interviews + regular blogging, that’s about it!
Did invitations for Podcast interviews come about through blogging?
Yes, virtually all my success is attributable to Substack.
Well, that’s encouraging. Thanks.
I thought I could write a novel in a year, and I did. At least Im not so delusional that I believed it was good enough to put out into the world.
I think it possible, but it’s much easier to write a novella in a year - shorter works are easier, I think.
Definitely, thats why each chapter is designed to stand on its own as much as possible. Its much easier to write 20 good short stories, and tie them together later.
The one Im currently working on will be good enough to put out into the world. The goal is to have it as good as I can make it by this time next year.
I have been puzzling over this paragraph for a few minutes: “Intelligent people … tend to be attracted to incentives. For both men and women, the litcel to celebrity pipeline has dried up almost completely—now only the alphabetical autists remain.” What is litcel, I wondered. If incel means “involuntary celibate”, might litcel be shorthand for “literary celibate” and wordcel for “word celibate”? That made no sense, so I googled but the search came up empty.
Therefore, allow me to point out that your readership extends beyond those fluent in the Mars Review of Books, and we (I) would appreciate a bit of help. 🙏🏾🙏🏾
Other than that, this is a super interesting post, and I have begun listening to your interview by Leaf Box.
Bravo and Happy New Year! I've been watching this story unfold since Ross's review, and got quite involved with Hyun Woo over the nature of the novel (thank you for that). And I finally got around to buying Incel. Keep up the good work -- you're an interesting, vital, voice, imao. And again, Happy New Year!
Good stuff, ARX. As a relative stranger who somehow stumbled on your stack this year (or late 2023, can't remember), I've been happy to see your growth and wish you all the best in the coming years. You strike me as a bit more of a Stoic than a Buddhist, but there's obviously a lot of overlap there. Either way, a good attitude to have as a writer. I'm also intrigued by one of your footnotes and will have to send you a dm about it.
Sounds good!
I've been mentioning your book where I can in the context of 'incel lit' and 'why men don't write'. I will do so more often.
The publishing industry doesn't want to hear what you have to say, that much is obvious.
Want to throw this right back at you and say THANK YOU for writing the book and this blog. Reading Incel, finding your writing here on Substack was a.. truly defining moment for me in terms of locking back in as "a big reader". So thank you!
Appreciate it!
Well, sales-wise, you're doing much better than I. So, congrats, and may your current trajectory continue. I made a few comments to certain parts of your post. They are:
“In the case of literary fiction—the only wordcel arena that I care about—said lottery ticket takes the shape of a novel.”
Yes, because the literary novel, unlike the genre novel, helps shape the culture.
“Years ago, when my traditional life path wasn’t working out, I used to cope by internally referencing my novel as a sort of pillar of meaning. In the process, the various problems of my life dissolved into the background, replaced by the relative importance of the only thing I really cared about: my book.”
My ‘novel(s)’ were not pillars of meaning, but diversions, craft, story-telling, wishful thinking, and escape, mostly penned while I was working full time, married, with two children and a mortgage. When I ended up divorcing, I got a whole lot more written.
“The paradox of artistic ambition: it’s vain and narcissistic, it’s notice-me-senpai energy (however senpai might be construed); simultaneously, it really is something that you do for your soul. It’s a fundamentally spiritual exercise.”
Yeah, okay. And it’s better than someone working day after day to make a bomb to blow up a large number of people.” 😉
“A second, more truthful explanation: I really thought I’d written the next Fight Club-tier work about modern masculinity. I thought I had lightning in a bottle.”
Maybe you did. But maybe the people who now run Big Publishing knew it, and that’s why they would not let you (and other male writers) in the club.
“Well—famously, it’s been said that the market is never wrong. The level of demand is the level of demand. Surely this is at least partly correlated to a book’s value, is it not?”
How can there be demand for some (physical) thing, like a novel, if that something is invisible? I would argue that the people who now run publishing and therefore, literary culture, ‘disappear’ certain works if they run counter to their theology.
“Writers sometimes cope by pointing out Moby Dick was an obscure work until after its author’s death “
😊 Damn! I was just going to point that out when I read the above. But I see that sad tale (what happened to Melville-dying in obscurity) not as a literary salve, but as a reality. It IS a fact.
“One day, I decided to stop feeling disappointed.”
Good strategy. I’m trying too. But I will not give up my anger about what has happened to the culture and publishing. And I’m not going to shut up about it. Fuck the Literati. A pox on their houses!
Good one, Guy! You go!
Please keep an eye out for my next post... Wham! Bam! Writers’ Slam!
Glad you liked it, Paul.
“See, only when you’ve washed out of every other possible domain of success in life can you truly become a writer of literary fiction”
💯
Congrats on a fine year. Best of luck in the next
Keep grinding, I am proud of you,
Remember, don't play to the gallery
You're book is your soul
Love it man, thanks for your writing.
it’s been inspiring following your journey, best of luck in 2025 sir