Daily Silence

An auspicious sound in settled dust

Hey! Where do we go now?

The release of a new book has come and gone with quiet and limited fanfare.

📼 Nightly Noise Vol. 1 — One sun sets, another rises

My collection of short stories. Nothing more than a quirky idea to transform the in-between bits of my writing into a slightly more ambitious concept.

Although this is all perhaps merely a half-truth.

I was originally very worried toward the end of last year that more than just my sales were slipping. Only a single book released in 2025, Significatorius, and it certainly didn’t bring any fame or fortune.

Now, I already had a new idea brewing, but there was a quicker option floating around as well.

Everything I’ve written in this newsletter.

Particularly the flash fiction that flares up from time to time.

And that was it.

The spark.

So, I found all the blurbs and unfinished sections that were meant to tell at least part or parcel of a story.

And then I put them together into more or less definitive editions.

I will admit, the laziness in me wanted to leave it all “as is” at first. There is a contrived excuse around how it would be better to leave all the writing in its original unrefined state.

Fortunately, a clearer head prevailed and I reread everything multiple times, sometimes making drastic edits and changes.

As with the sketches my little sister made, I wanted to make sure this book was truly worthwhile.

A few months later and I was satisfied with the product.

It was finally time for release.

I didn’t expect it to go quite so poorly.

One sale over the entire release week. To add insult to injury, that’s across all my books.

Expected Outcome

Now, this begs the question of what I thought would happen.

To be perfectly honest, I never expected Nightly Noise Vol. 1 to explode in popularity, but I did believe there would be a handful of purchases or reads on Kindle Unlimited.

And to be fair, I did drop the book into the aether without building any real audience anticipation.

Some of that is again, laziness, but the lingering issue below that surface level critique is how uncomfortable I felt with the hard sell of old content.

I have the unfortunate character trait of caring about the truth.

Repeatedly telling people my new book is nothing more than a repackaging of what’s already on Substack isn’t the best business plan.

That’s enough whining though.

I also want to add that I am indeed very happy with how Nightly Noise Vol. 1 turned out.

There’s also a creatively selfish reason for my happiness behind the release.

Most readers would have no reason to notice, but I stopped including any flash fiction while I prepared the book. I wanted there to be a hard stop and clear delimitation that defines Vol. 1.

Adding to the publicly available short stories would have made that time frame much more messy.

So if nothing else, I’m finally free to start working on another stockpile that may one day become Vol. 2.

And I do enjoy letting myself write without any greater obligation.

Words & Stories

Now, if nothing else I owe myself a deeper explanation. I am someone who keeps quiet for too long. I undervalue my own ambition and contributions.

In many ways, a soft nudge from my oldest sister was all it took for the scraps of a story to become the Epic of Maneus. She took the time very early on to read my ideas and share her thoughts.

I took her words to heart, lighting a blazing fire that fueled mountains of inspiration.

In a somewhat similar series of events, an understated influence that led to the creation of Nightly Noise Vol. 1 was a suggestion from my uncle.

He told me to try writing shorter fiction.

My books trend toward the longer side. A bigger commitment than many may be ready for. The benefit of the doubt can only go so far, especially for an unknown indie author like myself.

Outside of any sales, I think this book serves its purpose well as a way to ease people into my writing.

If a reader finds my words enticing, then there’s much more waiting after the last page.

For better or for worse, that’s what I really care about.

Inviting people to speak and sharing a conversation.

Until next time,

—JMB