What Are Your Goals?

As 2015 comes to an end, I like to reflect on the past year, and of course, watch The Twilight Zone marathon. While this year may not have been my year, I feel like I finally came into a complete realization in what my goals are.

Part of me has always hoped that I would be a best seller. That people would adore my works and that I could make a living at writing. Those were probably the last fantasies of a youthful fool. Now as I’ve read various posts about other writers, I know that I wasn’t the only one. A lot of those writers were disenfranchised by not selling thousands of copies right out the gate. Over the past few years, I’ve come to realized that I’ve stopped caring about numbers.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe I sell an all right amount of books for an unknown and for someone who writes in a “dead genre.” But as I put together my books, I learned something. I can’t control how many books I’m going to sell. Sure, I can influence a bit with interviews, giveaways, marketing, ads, etc. Yet no matter what I do I still can’t force people to buy my books even if I physically put copies in their hands. The only thing I can control is putting out the best possible books. And before I knew it, that became my goal.

Money comes and goes, but creating something that has impact, value, and entertains people weighs far more to me than making a living writing. Though the two aren’t mutually exclusive, and it would be nice to be able to do both. While I’m thankful for those that have read my works, I wish more people would give it a chance. I believe they would enjoy my books and be entertained.

Now that I’ve finally realized my true goal of putting out the best work possible, it’s freeing in a way. It’s one less thing to worry about. I can just focus on my work now. That said, it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop promoting or marketing it, but if it never blows up, then I’m not going to cry myself to sleep. I already have enough things to worry about.

See you next year!

Marc Johnson