This is a Post In Which I Brag About My Accomplishments
…because this is my website and I can, also because I never brag and it feels good.
Sometimes I look at the subheading at the top of this website and think “I’ve been doing this for three years past a decade? WTF was I doing that whole time and why do I still feel like I have so much more to do?”
Then sometimes I remember things. Such as:
1) I’ve managed to carve out a reliable secondary income for myself through self-published ebooks. And to those who continue to attach shame/failure notions to self-publishing: wake up and smell the new economy. I’ve made more money through self-publishing than I’ve made through all the stories I’ve sold combined.
2) Speaking of those stories: I’ve had over twenty-five of them published in nationally-distributed print magazines. Remember magazines? They used to be pretty popular, and ubiquitous. Those old issues of Men, Freshmen, Mandate and Torso sitting in a box in your uncle’s closet? There’s a chance that there’s one of my stories in there; and trust when I say that they were not easy to get into and they paid pretty damn well.
3) I’ve contributed stories – fiction and essay – to over seventeen books. Print anthologies, mostly – the kind you used to buy in bookstores. I go to the library, and there are my stories. I’m still getting published in these. They’ve never paid well but damn if credits like Best Gay Erotica 2011 don’t look good on my resume.
4) So far I’ve had one single-author volume published through an independent press. It’s illustrated, for fuck’s sake. And it was a finalist for a goddamn Lambda Literary Award. My first book.
To my readers: love and gratitude. To the bitches: suck it up, swallow it down and don’t expect a call tomorrow.
9 Comments
Jun 29, 2013 @ 16:21:05
Other reasons to brag: because I spent the majority of my time reaching these accomplishments stuck inside with my head buried in a notebook or laptop and because nobody gives a shit about writers. NOBODY’S GOING TO CARE IF I DON’T.
Jun 29, 2013 @ 17:56:09
Proud of you, Nathanielson.
Jun 29, 2013 @ 18:05:16
I love you!
Jun 30, 2013 @ 14:21:52
can’t understand why there would be any hatin’ on you… keep up the good work! xoxo -bc
Jun 30, 2013 @ 21:09:20
I think a truth that I’m getting at here is how I’m often unaware of how I’m perceived, especially as it relates to my accomplishments and positive attributes.
Jul 02, 2013 @ 16:15:47
I’ve followed your work since back in the day, not long after you started this website. You write well, I always enjoy what you write, and I always get a hard-on. You’ve accomplished a lot for yourself and for your readers. Always appreciative!!
Jul 06, 2013 @ 11:16:12
If I lived anywhere near Philly, you’d be my new best friend. I wish I was half as talented a writer as you! Not only do I own one of everything you have on Amazon, I have even read your stuff on Nifty and on Handjobs.
I know what you mean by anthologies and magazines not paying very good coin. I have had a dozen short stories in magazines like “FirstHand,” “InTouch” and “Indulge,” and the money I got for those pieces would not even buy me a good used car!
Dude, you got it. Now go out there and flaunt it!
Jul 08, 2013 @ 23:57:52
you peaked.
Jul 10, 2013 @ 20:51:06
Thanks Mike and Karl!
rawb: Sorry I don’t want to fuck you.