I spent a great deal of 2020 feeling like no one was listening to me. Was my volume switch not turned up enough, were people too distracted to pay attention to me, or did they even want to hear what I was talking about?
I put so much time and effort into publishing a book that didn't sell. I'm not talking hundreds of copies. I would've been happy with 10.
I sold less than 5.
In 2 months.
I keep telling myself that it doesn't matter. My goal is an entire collection, not making big bucks on one book.
But I was devastated.
I still am.
And it leaves me wondering:
Do people even want to hear what I'm saying?
I saw my motivation to write blog posts at the end of 2020 plummet. I just felt like I was repeating myself. Maybe it was just my voice and how I wrote, but I found myself "learning" the same lessons and sharing the same advice. I felt my post begin to blur.
So I hit a wall. I didn't want to give average regurgitated advice. I didn't want to spend hours writing the "best" post- that ended up sounding exactly like the last.
If I didn't want to write it, I just KNEW no one wanted to hear it.
Then I started listening to other authors and their experiences through 2020. Each one had such a different story to tell. Some publishing novels, others poetry. Some keeping their sales online and others sneaking into stores. And although I was only getting snippets of each story I wanted to know more. I was interested. I was intrigued. I was listening.
What is Your Story in 2021?
This year I want to hear more stories from other writers around me, and I want to share those stories with you.
I want to talk about stuff other people aren't. I want to shine a light on the things we all skim over. Not in an intense hard-hitting journalist kind of way. More like in the way we say "traditional published" and "self-published" as though a) those are the only two categories and b) the processes for each are the same for all under the umbrella- i.e. all traditionally published books take the same path and all self-published authors make the same choices.
And rather than doing a bunch of research and then telling you what I did "right" and "wrong", wouldn't it be better to share with you what others around me have done "differently"?
This year my blog will be entirely made up of the journeys, wisdom, stories and advice of other authors. I will be interviewing someone new every month, and I am so excited to get to know them all a little more.
Maybe we'll all learn something new along the way.
First up we have the delightfully talented, and just plain delightful, Whit Munroe.
As an author, artist and photographer, Whit is a triple threat- and I can't wait to share with you my interview with her.
Come back on 10th February to learn all about Whit's story.