So, you’ve written your novel, edited it, pushed it and pulled it into an acceptable format and today is the day you have chosen to unleash it to the rest of the world. That’s right, you’re an author now and the world is waiting. You have chosen to self publish rather than traditional publishing which takes time and, lets be honest, the world waits for no one. After seeking out the most popular ebook publisher, you carefully upload your document, check the formatting, double check the formatting, hesitate with a tinge of ‘am I ready, is the world ready?’
Finally, you hit the button and ta-da! Within the next few hours, your work, your blood, sweat and tears in text form will unfurl its wings and fly into every household that is captivated by this new mysterious author who is invading the e-publishing world and taking no prisoners. You celebrate with a quiet pat on the back or a piece of chocolate cake on a refined sugar free day or you pop the cork on a mid range sparkling white wine thinking what the hell, it’s a great day, a first, and one which you will never have again.
But, after resisting the urge to check your sales for a while twenty minutes, you check and refresh the page just incase there has been an error. You tell yourself that, ‘No Sales!’ is okay today because, well, it hasn’t been out long and you’re a new author and no one has heard of you. Tomorrow will be different right?
Wrong.
Granted, this may happen to a chosen few but for the rest of us, we face days, weeks and maybe months of promotion, advertising and the unwelcome guest in our house which is self doubt.
It is tempting to shelve the writing career before it has truly had a chance to blossom but if you are anything like me, writing is not a choice it is a compulsion. If I don’t write regularly, I feel wrong inside like something is missing, a caveat waiting to be filled. But then, sitting, staring blankly at a computer isn’t much fun either especially if accompanied by thoughts of, ‘here we go again.’
Here is what I have learned over the last few months since my debut novel was published.
I am a nobody in a world of somebody’s, a fledgeling in a universe of the experienced and not even close to making a dent in the Times bestseller list. I am where many people have been and perhaps still are: the very bottom of a long and winding staircase, the top of which is shrouded in ‘members only’ mystery.
I have choices, so do you. We could quit and forever wander around the land of what if and maybe or we can get our heads down and focus on our next project whilst simultaneously resisting the urge to check our sale statistics. Books will sell whether we stare idly at the statistics or not. Rest assured, if sales were governed by observation, I would not be contemplating my worth as a writer.
Above all else, enjoy what you do. Life is too short to put anything off until tomorrow.
Finally, you hit the button and ta-da! Within the next few hours, your work, your blood, sweat and tears in text form will unfurl its wings and fly into every household that is captivated by this new mysterious author who is invading the e-publishing world and taking no prisoners. You celebrate with a quiet pat on the back or a piece of chocolate cake on a refined sugar free day or you pop the cork on a mid range sparkling white wine thinking what the hell, it’s a great day, a first, and one which you will never have again.
But, after resisting the urge to check your sales for a while twenty minutes, you check and refresh the page just incase there has been an error. You tell yourself that, ‘No Sales!’ is okay today because, well, it hasn’t been out long and you’re a new author and no one has heard of you. Tomorrow will be different right?
Wrong.
Granted, this may happen to a chosen few but for the rest of us, we face days, weeks and maybe months of promotion, advertising and the unwelcome guest in our house which is self doubt.
It is tempting to shelve the writing career before it has truly had a chance to blossom but if you are anything like me, writing is not a choice it is a compulsion. If I don’t write regularly, I feel wrong inside like something is missing, a caveat waiting to be filled. But then, sitting, staring blankly at a computer isn’t much fun either especially if accompanied by thoughts of, ‘here we go again.’
Here is what I have learned over the last few months since my debut novel was published.
I am a nobody in a world of somebody’s, a fledgeling in a universe of the experienced and not even close to making a dent in the Times bestseller list. I am where many people have been and perhaps still are: the very bottom of a long and winding staircase, the top of which is shrouded in ‘members only’ mystery.
I have choices, so do you. We could quit and forever wander around the land of what if and maybe or we can get our heads down and focus on our next project whilst simultaneously resisting the urge to check our sale statistics. Books will sell whether we stare idly at the statistics or not. Rest assured, if sales were governed by observation, I would not be contemplating my worth as a writer.
Above all else, enjoy what you do. Life is too short to put anything off until tomorrow.