Don’t Give Up
I recently received a very bittersweet email. A mentor of mine and I were commiserating over low e-book sales. I confessed to letting a few disappointed tears leak out before moving on. Apparently, my lamentation caused him to think I would give up writing!
Immediately, he responded by telling me not to give up. His own sales were down 30% between this December and December of 2009. That’s dire, especially when he’s been working toward a full-time writing career. After twenty years, he was there in my imagination. That goes to show what I know.
Still, he gives advice on what else I can do. One of them is to bundle three related short stories for a Kindle book. I’m even told that his colleague would be willing to do the cover art for me. She is both very talented and extremely affordable. I swear they’ve both taken me under their wing.
So that tells me I should just keep plugging away. Honestly, to stop writing altogether is unfathomable. It feels good to know that’s the right thing to do. Write? Right. Best of all is having someone halfway around the world pulling for this fledgling writer. Thank you, my friend.
I think it's excellent advice, Darla. It's very painful when we don't get the external validation we want. Julia Cameron calls this the "fame drug." We begin to gauge our success by our sales or publicity, rather than by our production; then we begin to create for production rather than passion. It's a slippery slope.
I'm really pleased to hear you're keeping on, keeping on. I love your creativity and enthusiasm. Publishing is a tough business, but writing is life.
~hugs~
"Writing is life" – so well said, my friend. Thank you!!!