Cat Grant's Blog: Memoirs of an Amnesiac - Posts Tagged "thinking-thoughts-about-success"
Blog tour and giveaway, and . . . thinky thoughts!
Today's the official release date of Black Dog, and the official start of my month-long blog tour! I'm kicking it off with a visit to Cup O' Porn, where I talk about what moving house after nineteen years taught me about writing.
Be sure to comment for a chance to win a brand new Kindle Paperwhite!
And while you're out and about on the 'net, check out this thought-provoking post by my esteemed colleague Aleksandr Voinov.
This is one of those posts that came along exactly when I needed it. Black Dog hasn't exactly charged out of the gate guns a-blazin', which has had me in a bit of a funk the last few days. But Aleks' post made me realize I've been looking at my publishing model all wrong.
"Bestseller mode" - aka, selling a fuckton of books at the outset, hitting all the lists and riding that wave for months - has never worked for me, yet I keep clinging to it because it's what we've all been told success looks like.
But, to paraphrase Aleks, for most of us this is a marathon, not a sprint. I would much rather write books that sell slowly at first and build over time. My Courtland series didn't do much when I released the first couple of books last winter, but now they're bringing in two-thirds of my income.
No, I'm not selling thousands of copies, but I'm fine with that. Sure, it'd be nice to have an honest-to-God best seller under my belt, but unless I start writing YA or mainstream fiction, that's probably not going to happen.
How do I define success? Being able to do what I love, and put a roof over my head and food on my table doing it.
By that measure, I'm already there. :)
Be sure to comment for a chance to win a brand new Kindle Paperwhite!
And while you're out and about on the 'net, check out this thought-provoking post by my esteemed colleague Aleksandr Voinov.
This is one of those posts that came along exactly when I needed it. Black Dog hasn't exactly charged out of the gate guns a-blazin', which has had me in a bit of a funk the last few days. But Aleks' post made me realize I've been looking at my publishing model all wrong.
"Bestseller mode" - aka, selling a fuckton of books at the outset, hitting all the lists and riding that wave for months - has never worked for me, yet I keep clinging to it because it's what we've all been told success looks like.
But, to paraphrase Aleks, for most of us this is a marathon, not a sprint. I would much rather write books that sell slowly at first and build over time. My Courtland series didn't do much when I released the first couple of books last winter, but now they're bringing in two-thirds of my income.
No, I'm not selling thousands of copies, but I'm fine with that. Sure, it'd be nice to have an honest-to-God best seller under my belt, but unless I start writing YA or mainstream fiction, that's probably not going to happen.
How do I define success? Being able to do what I love, and put a roof over my head and food on my table doing it.
By that measure, I'm already there. :)
