It’s Not Getting Easier

Being a writer is full of fun and promise when you sit down and start writing your story. I didn’t start out to be a writer. It was never my life dream. I wanted to be the best elementary school teacher there ever was. And my first year was wonderful. My second year was even better. My third year I got moved from teaching first grade to fourth, and teaching became more challenging. SO many subjects to teach! So many kids at different levels of achievement. And believe me, that matters. It takes students with D levels of mentality three months to learn what an A level student might learn in a few days. Add that up with five years of education, and that poor student is WAY behind. But I still loved it.

Writing had sort of a similar journey. I took a class, WRITING FOR FUN AND PROFIT. I turned in an assignment, and my teacher said, “You can sell this.” And two weeks later, I did. Happiness! I started writing short stories and found homes for a lot of them. More happiness. Then I decided to try a novel. OMG. What was I thinking?

I’d send in books. You could back then, and editors would look at them with no agent required. And I’d get wonderful letters back, telling me they loved my writing, but this wasn’t exactly what they were looking for. Over and over again. The letters helped sustain me. The rejections were discouraging. It seemed like I was always writing the wrong thing at the wrong time. The markets were glutted. Cozies were dead. Serial killers were a dime a dozen. Then I got a nibble. Then I got another one, and they gave me hope. But let’s face it, I’d have made more money if I made $2/ht. as a waitress. And there aren’t too many waitresses who get rich. I know. That’s what I did for my first two years of going to college. I worked as a checkout girl for a grocery store for my next two years. They don’t get rich either.

There are a lot of jobs in this world that are hard work and people put in lots of hours and don’t always make much money. Writing is one of them. Yes, there are the authors who sell thousands of books. They make a great living. But that doesn’t happen to most of us. A lot of us struggle to find enough readers to make it worth all the effort.

The thing is, we still write. Maybe it’s an addiction. I’m not sure. But we all have hope that someday, we’ll click and sell more books. But there are SO many authors and books out there now, it’s getting harder to find an audience. I listen to some of my fellow authors and it’s discouraging. A fellow blogger, Jan Sikes, wrote about how hard it is lately. https://jansikesblog.com/2023/05/19/friday-free-for-all-are-readers-burnt-out-freebies/ I read her blog and wondered, is it true there are fewer readers? Or are there just so many more writers and books offered up each year?

What do you think? Have you found new authors downloading free books? Do you ever really READ the free books if it’s an author you don’t know? That’s not a leading question. My Kindle has lots of free books on it that I’ve never gotten to. I read my favorite authors first. These days, TIME has almost become more valuable than money. Do you agree? How do you decide what books to read? How does a new author tempt you enough for you to give him/her a try? I’d love to hear what you think!