One of my friends at work keeps telling me I won’t be working at that job next year. She means that she thinks I will be successful with my books, that I won’t need to work anywhere next year because my writing will take off so spectacularly.
I thought she was being waaaaaaay too optimistic about that — and then I thought about it a little harder.
What if she’s not being too optimistic, but I’m being too pessimistic?
The bottom line is, I have no idea how long it might take me to create success with my writing. I keep thinking in my head that it will take years probably, and that it might never really happen. But I’ve talked to people online who’ve got 2 books out and are writing full time because those books are doing well enough that they can. I’ve talked to others who have 5 or 6 books out and are making a few hundred dollars each month, not enough to live on but nothing to sneeze at, and I wonder what the difference between them is.
Is one writer just that much better than the other? Has one writer found a magic place where readers wait and hungrily lap up every word they write? Is it the cover art? The blurb? The author’s name? The friends and family surrounding one author over another? Who knows? Not me.
So I decided to make it my goal: I don’t want to be working my day job this time next year. I don’t like my job much, and I’m not (on paper) qualified to do anything other than this sort of work. Or write books. I’d rather write books.
I have 3 books that are done, they just need final edits. I now know how to format both an e-book and a print book in an afternoon, and I have a better, cleaner idea of what a finished manuscript should look like when it goes up for sale. I have a great cover designer and a small fanbase of loyal folks who love me, and who I love right back. I should be able to get 3 books done in a year. My fans should be willing to snap those books up. That won’t be enough to sustain me, but figuring out how to find more fans is part of my goal.
I want to be a full-time writer. Can I do it by next year? I’m not sure. Maybe that goal is ridiculous, out-of-reach and foolish to try. Or maybe it is possible, with some hard work and luck. But I won’t know unless I try.
A lot of the time, I feel I’m over-excited about my own book. Why am I querying top agents and the biggest publishing houses first? My book is probably pants! I guess you need to have that belief or you’ll never get traction. We all feel pessimistic at times – sometimes it’s just a survival technique. I know I will feel better failing if I told myself that I knew it all along…
Isn’t that the truth? I’m trying to beat myself about the head and shoulders and snap out of it! I can DO this! ALl it takes is hard work! I’m not scared of that! You shouldn’t be either!!