Perseverance – the real secret to self-publishing success.

With all the talk about self-publishing lately it seems that there is one little piece missing in most of the discussions. It’s a question I get asked all the time – How did you do it? My answer – perseverance. The dictionary says – Perseverance – per·se·ver·ance (noun) steady and continued action or belief, usually over a long period and especially despite difficulties or setbacks.

If you decide you want to be an author, or an independent publisher, or even a success in life, you must be prepared to do your research, work hard, put in long hours and stick with it. That’s where perseverance comes in. We all know the wisdom of making sure you write a good book, get it edited and don’t forget good cover art. Everyone talks about social media and how to “whore your wares” or “pimp” your stuff. Many are ready to share how they did it, but there is no real secret formula to success, it’s plain old fashion hard work, persistence, doggedness, determination and the will to persevere.

Publishing houses are full of authors who, “just want to be published” and are just fine with low sales, as long as they can see their book in print. They languish in the back of the room, throwing a book out there every once in a while. But they’re published and that’s all that matters, to them. Many will eventually fall off, writing fewer and fewer books until they’ve decided they can cross one more thing of their bucket list. Of course there are those authors who work hard for their publisher and peddle their wares to books signings, book events, readers clubs and the like. We see them on FB, on Twitter and in email groups making their publishers lots of money.

Self-publishers know that to be successful, they must work hard to educate themselves and be persistent. They must show-up and be counted. To languish in the back is the kiss of death for us and not an option. To put this in perspective, I raised three sons all by myself for ten years. Someone asked me how I did it and my reply was – You mean I had options? I guess I forgot to check the options box. I’m proud to say that they beat the odds, graduated from high school and are all at the same university, my alma mater.

It’s all about perseverance.

Isabella