No One Cares You're a Writer

At some point along the path to publication (or after), you're going to realize that no one cares that you are a writer. It may happen when

1. your new neighbor asks where you can buy your book, never imagining it might, well, be in a bookstore.
2. your brother jokingly says he'll read your book when it's made into a movie.
3. people talk about your other hobbies as if they are your job.
4. people talk about your writing as if it were a hobby, perhaps even asking you if you would like to submit to a talent show.
5. people ask what your job is, and you say you're a writer, and they ask the question again.
6. your children beg you not to make them go to another book signing to be your talk buddy if no one shows up.
7. your spouse points out that you spent more last year on buying other people's books than you made on your own.
8. your book comes out and it's not in your local bookstore to get a photo to post on line to celebrate.
9. you never earn out
10. your book is remaindered and out of print (OP) before it's been out a year

While this can be very depressing, I have decided it is also liberating. It teaches us writers a very important lesson: the writing is for us. I know, I know, people are always saying that we write to be read, that we write for readers, that readers make the books real. But actually, they don't.

I don't trust writers who tell me they write for their readers. I also worry for them because what happens when their next series or the one after that doesn't have readers? Are they going to give up writing then? Maybe they will, and maybe I'm crazy because I just keep writing whether people are reading me or not. I know because I've gone long years without a contract and nearly decided my career was over. And I was still writing.

No one cares about your writing more than you care about it. Or at least, that's the way I think it should be. You're the last word on every edit. You're the one who ultimately decides when it's over (and don't let other people pretend to take that role, because it belongs only to you). You're the one who decides if something isn't good enough, if you're going to give up on an idea forever, and if something is so good you can't let it go and you're going to keep pushing it until something happens with it.

No one cares about your writing because it's yours. It's your world, your viewpoint, your characters, your plot to die for, your favorite everything all combined in one. Yes, there are people out there who will hopefully like it as much as you do. That's nice when it happens. But it's not the same as the fire that burns inside you. It has to be a fire or else it will never get written. Writing is damn hard, and revision doesn't make it any easier.

If they haven't heard of you, or think writing is useless, that's not your problem. Maybe it's even a relief. You don't have to explain why you did this or that. It's your book. Your fans may complain about where you took it, but you are the only one who can take it there. And if doesn't find a single reader, it's still the best book you could make it, and that means it has a value to at least one really smart reader: you.