A Message of Encouragement to Struggling New Authors.
One of the main problems facing the writing community is a lack of upfront honesty. A lot of people tend to think that when you publish a book, the hardest part of the process was writing it. As many authors learn too late, one of the most difficult parts of becoming an author is simply finding your audience. One of the top suggestions when you search “How to Become a Full-time Author” is usually to write what’s popular at that time.
I don’t argue that this isn’t true, but for those of us who tend to prefer less common genres, this can be an issue.
If you prefer to write, for instance, mystery or thriller, that’s great! But nobody should ever write something they aren’t interested in just for the sake of sales. The journey will be harder if you publish something less popular, for instance in my case horror novels. It can be difficult to find good reviewers for your novel since the general public may be biased against you. The same goes for those who publish non-fiction work about specific topics. It’s hard. Something to remember is that there are lots of free options for getting reviews. I would never recommend paying for review sites, although offering a free copy in exchange for an honest review is always a good idea.
My point is, don’t be disheartened. You get what you put in the work for. Market, maintain a website, reach out to people that you think would enjoy your novel, and repeat. Everyday that you work towards your goal, you will get closer. Even those who publish traditionally will always have to do this. Also, don’t focus entirely on your first novel. It’s very unlikely to make it big off of your first novel. Give yourself a small break after publishing the first book to start fresh, and then move on to the next one. Successful authors are those who normally publish around one book every one or two years, usually. There are exceptions of course but this is the model you want to try to follow.
Best of luck to those struggling. Someday you’ll look back and be amazed at how far you’ve come.
