I have this sneaking suspicion.
On the surface, the world invites and encourages people to be writers. "You can do this." We all say it to people, in person or in articles meant to be helpful. And yes, I think it's mostly true.
There are lots of things you can buy to help you. From proofreaders or proofreading programs, on through to the absolute best SEO search terms and people to manage PR.
We all imagine that we are good enough, our material is interesting and desirable and the world is waiting.
It isn't.
We think there's a wormhole.
We think there's a way around the huddled mass of other writers. A shortcut. It may be the myth of getting an agent or locking on with one of the big five publishers. And it does happen. My talented and hard-working facebook friend Anna Quinn slam-dunked all those things a couple of years ago with her very well-reviewed book, "The Night Child." Check it out.
Mostly it doesn't.
There isn't a short cut. Things that claim to be shortcuts turn out to be entire other journeys that a writer never wanted to take. The Facebook journey, the Instagram or Twitter journey, the blog journey. Give your life over to mastery of these other things in a desperate attempt to succeed at what you originally wanted to do, write the damn book.
The Encouragement part
Here's the deal. Writers need to write. They need to be their best, do their best. And they also need, patiently and systematically, to push their books in front of potential readers and reviews. Amazon currently lists 32.8 million books. It's a lottery that, like most lotteries, most of us will never jackpot.
But there are smaller prizes along the way, and these are where we need to focus. The letter that says, "I couldn't go bed without finishing your book." That's one of my favorites. Or from the reading teacher who says her reluctant readers sneaked to read ahead. Or when one of my readers raves to a friend or librarian about my book. That's the greatest!
But this is about more than (just) feeling good. I want to make some money, dammit, even if it's not a lot. I recognize money. It has meaning in my life. I get it!
So, on the more material plane, the fact that I can turn selling two or five or even ten books a month into selling twenty, twenty five or even thirty. And forty is out there!
It's developing your own tricks to get ahead, and then having them work. For example, I go to lists of books in my category, that I should be on but am not, and I write to them and say, "Hey, consider me for your list." If they do, and I get on, then every one of their readers becomes my potential reader. How great is that? And it's free.
What's the lesson for writers? It's something like Garrison Keillor's famous sign off, "Be well, do good work, and keep in touch."
To that I would add "All ahead, full—faithfully, patiently... maybe occasionally joyfully."
