I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
-Thomas Edison
I am a writer. I do something else roughly between the hours and 9 am and 6 pm to pay the bills, but I am a writer. And to be a writer, unless you have great connections, a famous last name, or juicy Hollywood secrets to spill, means getting used to failure. A lot of it.
I wrote my first book, an intertwined collection of short stories, and self-published it with Amazon, totally excited that I’d achieved a lifelong dream. But I had no idea how to market it. I tried blogging, social media, paid advertising, raising and lowering the price, but nothing seemed to work. I thought finishing the book was the hard part, but this was the worst. I did research after the fact to figure out what I did wrong. I didn’t build a readership BEFORE publishing. I didn’t tweet. I didn’t hire a professional graphic artist or proofreader. I was clueless.
So, I have a second chance. I’ll try and do things right, maybe even succeed. I’ll spend days submitting my book(s) to literary agents, and if no one bites, I will self-publish. I will blog on the regular. I will design a beautiful cover. I will tweet. I will get more followers. And, after doing all that, if I still only make $6 in sales, I’ll buy another coffee and pastry with my earnings, sit in the corner of the coffee shop with my laptop and start all over again. 9,998 chances to go.
Hahaha, this quotes looks familiar, most of the scientist I guess they have this in their lab for inspiration 🙂
Ha! Probably so…
Thank you for sharing this part of your writing / publishing process with us so candidly. And keep on writing! More power to you!
Thank you!
My pleasure!
It’s all about not giving up… Good luck!
Thanks, same to you!
That’s the spirit! Keep it up. 🙂
Awww, thank you!