The End of an Era

It’s been seven years.

I’ve worked at it.

I struggled with it.

And now, we’ve come to a fork in the road.

The Last Seven Years

Actually, I would say there were a few years before that that we should take into consideration. A couple of false starts, a previous version, in a different format, before the new format came into being.

What the hell are you talking about, Mr SloWord?

(Very few people call me ‘sir’. They’re usually not big burly men with tears in their eyes…)

The Festival

That’s what I’m talking about.

The Irregular SloWord BirthMonth Festival.

Seven years have come and gone.

For seven years, many writers, poets and essayists have given me the singular honour of hosting their work.

For seven years, the Festival has tried to present the written word, tried to shine a light on writers, of various genres.

For seven years, I’ve tried to publicise their work, present them to the audience I have, meagre though it may be.

Why the gloom?

Well, the Festival lasted a month every year, in terms of the posts published. However, for me it lasted considerably more. 

Yes. I’m a Virgo, on the cusp with Leo. Therefore, worry, nit picking, twitching over the most miniscule details is par for the course, and dealing with the various subcomittes here at SloWord.

Planning Subcommittee (Me)

Starting in January, I had to ask myself several questions. Should there be a common theme, a thread, something that connected all the works? What sorts of images was I going to use? What sorts of changes or updates did I need to make in the publicity department? When do I start accepting? How much time will people need to submit something? What will I need to create to publicise the submission window and process? Do I need updates to the T&C?

Submission Management Subcommittee (Me)

Next, I had to work on the submission teasers, the reminders, the notes. I had to design them, create them, modify them. Once the pieces started coming in, I had to store them, update the logs. Create the thematic template for the year’s pieces. Read the pieces. Go back and forth with writers. There were, in some cases, editing, development and proof reading. Then the upload, the curling of lips, sharp intake of breath at the lackluster template I had built. The tear down and rebuild of the template. Making sure all the SEO tags, categories, and so on were applied.

Rinse and repeat. Multiple times – see Virgo, Leo cusp.

The Festival Month Management Subcomittee (Me)

Then during the month, there was the business of making sure the work went out. Then came the publicity, sharing across various social media sites. The monitoring, replying to comments, on behalf of the author. Checking on stats and clicks, hoping that the authors got their audience to visit them.

Reception

Despite some diehard contributors, (hey, Indrani Ganguli!), the Festival never really took off.

I can think of several possible causes.

I’m not famous, for starters. My website isn’t famous and I don’t know too many people in the writing, publishing industry.

The one comment that haunts me still is one that said, “Yeah, I’m not going to contribute, because you’ll get clicks on your website.”

I put all the contributors links to their sites, works and their profiles ahead of the actual post. For, as I believed it, the objective was to share those links with those who came to read.

Data suggests, however, that neither I, nor the contributors, got too many clicks. So that’s another case where expectations, albeit low, were not matched by reality (or rather, were…)

AND SO, DUE TO POOR RESULTS:

The Irregular SloWord BirthMonth Festival is hereby coming to an end. There will be no more editions of The Irregular SloWord BirthMonth Festival.

I would like to thank all those who have supported it, those who contributed to it, and the few who have further publicized it among their own networks.

Folks, thanks for the memories, the ideas, the poetry, the essays, the murders, the thrills that you gave me the honour to host. I enjoyed reading them immensely!

Au Reservoir!

शुभकामनाएं!

Bonne Chance!

Alles Gute!

Tutto il meglio!

অল দ্য বেস্ট!

ਸਭ ਨੂੰ ਸ਼ੁੱਭਕਾਮਨਾਵਾਂ!

¡Mucha suerte

Tudo de bom!

So what happens now?

Remember the fork I mentioned at the top?

Well, I’m taking the left fork, out into the wilderness, through the forests, across the valleys and rolling meadows, with my bundle of good intentions wrapped up and suspended at the end of the stick over my right shoulder, and heading off down my own lonely path.

I’m going to move that time and effort into my own future works. I’m going to stop worrying about the failure of Uncommon Pie & Other Stories, the limited success of A Couple of Choices, and move on.

I have some faith that in 2027, two of my novels will make it out there into the world. One is in full-blown draft mode and the other is nearly there. 

That should free me up to work on the third novel, the second collection of shorts and a second play.

I hope to see you all somewhere, sometime.

Maybe, right here, for this website isn’t going down.

Maybe, I’ll see you at a bookstore, or library, or on social media somewhere, talking to people about that guy who thought he could help.

Maybe, I’ll learn that you have read my books and wrote a review. (Hey, stranger things have happened…)

Once again:

Thank you, everyone! It was a pleasure and an honour.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go.