Dance like no one is watching . . . and fall flat on your face.
Have you ever have one of those days when you felt like if you wrote down your name, someone would be standing over your shoulder to critique it? I’m not sure who to attribute the quote about dancing to, but whoever it was, probably wasn’t a writer. Well, neither am I if you believe the reviews for my first book.
Today is one of those days when I feel like my mom is monitoring barnesandnoble.com and whenever someone writes a bad review, she tries to counter it with a good one. (Thanks mom). Under Abnormal Conditions is my first book and it was originally published in 2003. I know that it was not my best work and I should have been more patient in seeking a publisher. It was raw and unpolished, but it was me opening a vein on paper.
So do the bad reviews hurt? Of course they do! The thing about it is that I’ve grown so much as a writer since then that I’m not the same person I was in 2003. Since then I’ve dealt with four significant deaths in my family, single fatherhood, career change and a diagnoses of multiple sclerosis. In reality, I needed this book to be a relative failure to keep myself on the right path.
In 2012, I will publish at least four books, each better than the last. So does success necessarily translate into book sales? No, but I still feel successful. My goal since high school was to become a writer. I’ve achieved that. I am a better writer now than I was, and isn’t that all that counts? Sure, I want to sell a billion books, but will that make me a better father, husband or son? No it won’t. The failure of my first book will forever keep me hungry as well as grounded.
I know from experience that anything worth having is worth working for. That doesn’t begrudge writers like Amanda Hocking or E.L. James who have found tremendous success in a relatively short amount of time. Their success keeps me hopeful that I will find my audience and the accolades that come with it. That just wasn’t my path. This is a journey that was tailor made for me and I thank God for it. I mean, I may end up a barista at Starbucks, but I’ll be the happiest, book writing, coffee drinking barista in the world!
That’s some pretty bad stuff, but at least they took the time to read the book and submit the review. The only thing for me to do now is write for those who do enjoy my work (thanks mom). So from now on, my attitude is:
“Dance like nobody’s watching. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening, and write like my mom’s my only reader!”
Even if I fail at that, she still loves me (and she has cookies.)
