We all get down. We all have successes, no matter how small. Finished that first chapter? That’s a win if it’s something you’ve never done before. Stuck halfway through your book? We’ve had that, too.
Lamentations are sometimes good for the soul as long as it doesn’t become the story of your life. Find what’s wrong, fix it, and move on. This business is hard, really freaking hard. What is your time worth? How is your time best spent? What is the value of an hour of your time? In my first ten months I calculated that I had earned approximately 18 cents for every hour invested (before expenses). But then things turned around because I started working hard on the right things. I didn’t complain, only brought up problems and possible solutions.
Sometimes the right solution wasn’t one I was looking at. I never scrapped any words, but I did rewrite a lot of words until they told the story in the best way for the readers. Remember. The readers are the final arbiters. If you never finish a story, then you will be forever challenged by the demons that exist only within your mind. You could write the worst book ever, but how do you get better if you don’t have anything to adjust from? One story is simply a benchmark from which to improve. You can always unpublish a bad book and disconnect it from your name later when you have better books for readers to judge you by.
That brings us back to 20Booksto50k(R). We have over 31,000 members. Some folks are treating this group as a blog, and that’s not going to work. Stuck with only six chapters to go? What are you doing about it besides saying that you’re easily distracted or that you’ve fallen out of love with your characters? I don’t know what to do about that because only you can finish telling your story. Find where it went off track. Make it a good story, at least the best that you can tell. We’ve started the MVP threads so you can evaluate the most-viable product, get input while the story is still in the early stages. Story is king! So are your covers and your blurbs, but only after you have the story.
Lamenting failure will get you some emotional support, but finding your way out of a hole by improving your author business is what this group is about. No one can help you if you can’t finish your book, or after twenty-five books, you won’t listen to advice regarding why they aren’t selling. Adjust from one book to the next. Listen to the readers of your genre. I’ve recently wrapped one series up early (after nine books from a planned 25) because it wasn’t selling. I also canvassed my readership to find why another series wasn’t selling when it is top notch and right in my genre. They gave me some input – I rewickered the blurb, redid the cover a fourth time and now have a massive promotion set for early July to get people into the series. It’s what I’m doing about it because I’m not going to let good books languish. I know they’re good books because once the readers get them, they are hooked – that’s what a high read-through rate tells me.
See the bright side of life and I think you’ll find that the world is a great place. Authors live their lives alone in the confines of their own minds. Let the business mind tell you a few things and help you over some art mind hurdles (the perfectionist syndrome – there is no perfect).
Peace, fellow humans.
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