What’s next

It’s been awhile… I feel like I start nearly every blog that way anymore. I’ve been pretty busy with life these days, which has kept me from Lopico and kept me from blogging. But, that’s all okay with me. I’m really very excited about a couple of other things happening with me - first and foremost, I got married to a wonderful woman! August 29th, here in Chicago, I married the love of my life - who I happened to meet in Chicago, right before moving here. Secondly, my project that I’ve been working on in my free time has no longer been web based - I’m instead much more focused on completing my novel that I started in July of 2007. What this means for the future of Lopico is really pretty uncertain, I’m just not making it a priority right now. I’ve said that before a number of times, but this is the first time where I really feel like I’m letting go of it. There are many reasons, specific to the market and specific to me, that I really don’t feel that this is the best place for me to spend my time right now.

Though the market somewhat keeps me out of trying to force Lopico back to the web, it isn’t stopping me from writing. Writing a novel is actually somewhat similar to starting a web start-up. Each has a huge pool of people trying to make it, and typically starting out in their homes. From these masses, those that have the best connections and can pitch the gatekeepers - VCs for the web, publishing companies or agents for books - in the best manner will enjoy the most success. They are both huge markets with a few huge players and millions of smaller ones. It’s definitely going to be a new type of challenge for me - when I get to the point of being able to look for a publisher - but one that I am looking forward to. I really enjoy writing and think that this first work is actually pretty good.

If nothing else, I am really enjoying learning a new industry. Unlike the web, I’m not getting in at a hot time - like I did when Lopico’s launch coincided with the birth of Web 2.0 - so, I really have to produce a great product and manage my way into the right distribution channels. Or maybe I don’t. Maybe, I’ll take the self-publishing route, and use web as my spring board. Whatever happens, I do plan to use this blog to detail what happens as I go through the process, much the same way I used my first blog to draw attention to the process of building Lopico and the lessons I learned along the way. Of course, at that time having a blog held a little more novelty - maybe I should have written the novel entirely in 140 character tweets.