Learning Something New
I’ve recently learned something very fundamental. Everyone has their own agenda. No matter where you turn, someone is on the prowl, looking to influence you with their ideals, marketing, and/or popular opinions. They desperately want you to purchase certain products, believe in a specific value, or embrace a particular trend. I know what you’re thinking, you’ve just learned that? In my defense, I’ve never had any real reason to care until now.
I’m not saying that any of these traits are negative, by any means, they are after all the basis of our free, democratic, capitalist society. But they can also slowly make you forget what it is you stand for when you are constantly bombarded by those who think you can be or do better, if you just “try this” or “buy that” or follow whatever it is that happens to be popular. There are a slew of “experts” who believe that if you take their advice you will become the person you were always meant to be, a superstar at the particular goal you are hoping to reach.
When I decided to sit down and write my first book, His Second Chance, I had no illusions that it was going to be the next great American novel. Of course, I wished and hoped for success, but ultimately for me It was just a dream I wanted to fulfill. After I completed the manuscript I was so incredibly proud. I accomplished a very important goal that I had set for myself. Seeing my book published on Amazon for the first time was a truly awesome experience.
Sadly, I was blissfully unaware of the baggage that went into the book after the writing process. Quickly I was inundated with a barrage of “how to’s” for making my book more successful and myself a better writer, as well as the “do’s and don’ts” of social media and marketing.
Drowning in unwanted and overwhelming advice I began to doubt the months of hard work, concentration, love and (yes tears) that I had put into my dream. I began to think the story plot was not compelling enough, that my cover lacked a professional appearance, and that my book description left the readers passing me by. All of these things of course, had solutions… a plethora of e-books filled with advice and author communities that, for a price, would provide services to fix all of my problems. Unfortunately, they weren’t problems for me until, I started listening and paying attention.
Hesitantly I finished my second book, hoping that I would find the inspiration that I had lost. When the sales for that book weren’t as great as other’s in the field predicted they could be, I went back and slashed the story, added a new cover, rewrote the book description (after weeks of researching the thousands of rules on writing the perfect book copy), and I’m still not sure it made a difference.
I have to say, at the end of this whole process, I have learned a lot about myself. Number one being, I must tune out all the noise that bombards me everyday when it comes to unsolicited advice about writing. Number two, I started writing because it made me happy. And for that reason alone, I need to remember that being an author has to be for the “write” reasons. If it’s for fame or money, then you should possibly reconsider your dream. Not to say, I wouldn’t love to have both of those someday. But even if that never happens, it’s okay because I accomplished my goal and no one can tell me that I didn’t do it the right way.
