The Name of the Game

I’ve mentioned before how regularly I get comments from people on how thrilling being an author must be. And I often say how blessed I feel to be doing something I’ve dreamed about since I was nine years old. However, even dreams come true sometimes aren’t as sparkly once you get up close and personal. The truth is, being a writer is often a lonely, frustrating, demanding pursuit that requires diligence and discipline as you try to allow your mind to wander to that creative realm where none of those things impede on a story that will whisk your readers away from their struggles with the same.

About the time you’ve become comfortable with locking yourself away from the rest of the world to finish a manuscript, it’s time to shift into what I affectionately refer to as promo overdrive. There’s dealing with editors, publishers, an agent, if you haven’t been politely declined to the point of sticking needles into your eyes, and can no longer query the thousands out there. There are blog tours, online signings, and nightmares about bookstore signings in which only your mother shows up out of the same sense of obligation that had her sitting on the front row at your elementary school Christmas pageant. You’ve spent months with fictional characters who do and say whatever you want to now be thrust back into the real world…where people have opinions…about the heart and soul you stuffed into a novel. They’re called reviewers. And they are not your mama!

From the moment of beginning a novel to the giddiness of release date, the roller coaster ride can leave an author paralyzed with fear one moment and then jumping for joy at the realization of a dream that can sometimes feel like a scourge on the soul. Like most industries, the name of the game in publishing is meeting customer demand. Resting on the laurels of one title every so often rarely yields a career. So even while navigating promo overdrive, there is the urgency to begin the next novel that will start the roller coaster ride all over again. Just when wondering if the vicious cycle might be too much to bear, a reader emails to inform she’ll be naming her baby girl after the heroine in your last book, or the reviewer who got an advanced copy of your title months ago gives a glowing appraisal that was more than worth the wait.

The world of an author becomes all sparkly again, though the essentials are the same as with most professions. Hard work, diligence, discipline, dedication to readers, and developing a thick skin for reviewers who are not your mama are the name of the game, especially while making dreams come true.