There is one thing of which every professional author can be certain—writing is going to be a lot harder than they imagined. Being a professional author is not for the faint of heart. There are so many challenges that authors face.
First of all, there’s the actual writing. Many people get a great idea for a book, start to write, and then peter out after the first 15-20 pages. If they’re really good, they’ll write 50-100, and then… well, things get hard after that and they give up or lose interest.
If they actually make it through the whole book, they are then faced with the problems of what to do next. Learning how to publish a book – either traditionally or self-publish – is an entire endeavor on its own. It’s not unusual for people to give up when they learn all that’s involved in publishing a book—from getting it professionally edited, to finding a cover designer, not to mention the actual uploading itself.
An important part of publishing is actually sending your book out to be read critically. Some people take the easy way out and send it to friends (who may or may not be completely honest with them) and family (who might not want to risk hurting the author’s feelings by telling them what they really think). If they share it with a critique group or beta readers there are going to be people who don’t like it or think it needs work. And should we even mention that professional editor who is going to find a lot wrong with that first manuscript (anything from writing craft to punctuation and grammar).
If the author makes it all the way through the editing process and the laborious challenge of publishing they then have reviews to contend with and let’s be real here, reviewers are not always very nice people. They say it the way they see it and if that’s not good, they’ll let the world know.
All of these things hurt. All of these things are trying on a soul. All of these things take a great deal of stamina and perseverance to get through.
If you’ve gotten through all of these things and have published a book or three you really need to give yourself a hearty pat on the back and maybe buy yourself a drink or two. You deserve it!
The thing is, once you made it through that process once, your most likely going to do it again… and again… and… well, you get the point.
So how do we do this? How do we deal with all of these roadblocks that are challenging us as we go through this incredibly difficult process?
Tenacity—pure and simple. It takes a great deal of stubbornness to publish a book. It takes commitment and determination. There is a reason authors are passionate people—it takes all of that passion and drive to get through the very long, very trying process of publishing a novel.
My family teases me because I’m a very stubborn person. My husband has a mix of awe and annoyance at how tenacious I am. The thing is, I need to be that way in order to do what I do. You do too.
If you are struggling with any of these aspects of going from idea to writing your second (or third, or fourth) book don’t hesitate to contact me. I am an excellent cheerleader. I will encourage you and help you get through all the hard parts – and yes, all the parts are hard. Either that or you can join in my Discord server where there are a whole bunch of us working our way through this process and we all cheer each other on because even after thirty books I still need that boost to keep me going too.