As I watch the success of fellow self-publishers, I try to maintain a sense of calm. I have one book, Dark Mountain, published so far and have had a mediocre first two months. I have learned a ton. Perhaps the biggest thing that I have learned so far is to be patient.
Failure tends to demand that reaction, doesn't it? The Colts have a miserable season with Manning in the stands and the ownership flips the entire organization on its tail. Be patient. The economy is in the toilet, unemployment is rampant, drug use on the rise, housing prices plummeting, foreclosures skyrocketing. Be patient.
So, the only remedy I can truly see is more production. Write. Write some more. I wrote recently about a difficult scene in my current work-in-progress, Cry Me a River. What a bunch of whiny dreck. I just wrote it. Powered through it and ate up 15,000 words in three days. Finished with a 8,000 word flourish.
The remedy, you see, is to get behind a keyboard and do what you do best. So, with another productive week ahead (20,000 words should get me to the end of the book), I will get the next book out before November. And, soon after that, I plan on having the first of a series of adventure/suspense novels, my Jake Monday series, ready for editing.
The more novels you have, the more legitimate you seem as a writer. It is then easier to cross-market, to brand, to develop a fan base that no longer just reads your books in obscurity but recommends them to friends and family, tweet about them, adds them on Goodreads, and buys the merchandise.
This is truly a wonderful time to be a writer. We can never lose sight of that. But, in this new world of publishing, production is king. Do you find an author with a "long tail" (multiple books published, big back-list) to have more legitimacy, or does this even factor in when looking for that new book for your Kindle/Nook/Kobo/Ipad?
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