As I dig back into my non-fiction book for the first time in a week, I actually had an email from a reader today asking when it would be out. Considering that my books are not massive sellers, that’s really encouraging, even if it’s just one voice. If at least one person is already waiting for it and reaching out to me, then I can assume that there will be others as well, and it should crawl along as well as my other non-fiction books.
My non-fiction books are not tremendously profitable, and I do not expect them to be. It is at least a labor of . . . well, not so much love as obligation. I feel like I ought to share the knowledge I have of this scholarship process to help others. For now, since I don’t have any full-length fiction out, these books are also my largest source of writing income. It’s nothing that could ever be sustainable, but it is good for the bootstrapping stage until I can produce fiction for a broader market.
That reader email today reminded me that I don’t have much time to finish this book, though, if I want to get it out in time for this year’s scholarship application process so that it has the best possible chance of helping readers. I may have to figure out a way to double down on the time I spend on this.