If you’ve
been writing for a while with little results, it’s challenging to stay focused.
Your writing buddies may have landed contracts, launched a second or third book
or perhaps hit a best-seller list. While it may seem as if some writers achieve
success overnight, there is no such thing. A book or series will come to
prominence and it seems as if they materialized out of thin air, but the
reality is that the writer laboured over the book/s for months, did numerous
edits and re-writes before coming up with a product good enough to submit or
publish. A prime example of this is Michael Wallace who talks about his ‘overnight’ success.
Since we
know there is no magic formula, let’s talk about the building blocks of a
career in writing.
Apprenticeship - There’s no getting around it. We
learn to write by putting our brain in gear, pasting butt to chair and fingers
to keyboard. We may buy dozens of books on the craft of writing, attend
conferences and/or workshops. Some of us have Diplomas in creative writing.
Although they are useful, none of these tools can take the place of practical
experience, which we gain by writing short stories and novels. Over time, we
develop a style that is unique and with each new story our skill level climbs.
Build a Body of Work - If you’re convinced there is no
overnight success, you’ll also believe what I’m about to tell you. The best
form of advertising is your finished product—your book. All the advertising in
the world won’t be worth much if people buy your novel and it is full or
errors, plot holes and incredible situations. However, if you’ve written a good
book and follow that up with a few more that can stand on their own, you’ll have
the freedom to call yourself a writer by profession. That said, once you have a few books under
your belt, it’s time to find at least one method by which you can expand your
fan base.
Create a Loss Leader - I’ll state up front that I’m not a fan of giving
away my books, but I’ll also say that the one book I’ve made perma-free has
rewarded me. It’s been in the number one spot on Amazon several times in the
short story category and after a year and a half has fallen out of the top ten.
Between March 2012 and last month, that book was downloaded 165,580 times. This
is modest by the standard of best-selling writers, but the positive spin-off is
that gradually, I’m seeing an uptick in sales. If you don’t have enough books
to let one go free, you can offer a sample of something new in the back of your
current book, compile short stories or write a prequel for an upcoming novel
and use it as a deal sweetener for readers.
Yes, there’s
a D.
Don’t Become Discouraged - When you’ve worked hard to produce
a good book and sales are a trickle, or you haven’t sold to a publisher, it’s easy
to become discouraged. You’ve probably come across this data in one form or
another, but I invite you to read this article about thirty famous authors who faced rejection time and again. Self-publishing has
opened other options to the enterprising writer, but some struggles are the
same.
A career in writing is a marathon,
not a sprint and if you give up now, you’ll never know if you would have had a
respectable writing career. It’s also important to remember that your stories
will never have a bigger champion than you. Nobody can spin a tale the way you do
and if you don’t believe in your writing, nobody else will.
Keep
studying the craft. Keep writing. Keep believing.
Do you feel
less insecure knowing that overnight success is more of a myth than reality?
Are you prepared to keep working on that masterpiece you’ve yet to complete? Will
you continue putting your building blocks in place?
