Failure IS An Option

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.

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