If Nobody Reads Your Book, You Still Win
Keep writing.
I think a person who makes keys is the happiest person on earth. People have locks — you make keys to go in those locks. It’s a great position to be in.
“Oh, thank you, thank you, for helping me unlock my lock!” they say. “You’re welcome,” you reply. “Know anyone else that’s got a lock that needs opening?”
It’s much harder if you make locks. Then you have to find someone who wants a lock. And by the way, you have to make keys for those locks.
That’s a lot more work.
If you’re a writer and you make keys, you’re going to do very well. “Oh, you need a book about a dragon? Gotcha!”
“Oh, romance novels involving twenty-somethings who are into funerals is hot right now? I can write twenty of those. I’ll get right on it.”
You figure out what the lock is, and you make the key. Happy. Successful.
Unfortunately, most writers make locks.
They wake up in the morning with this great idea: “Oh my God! Pancakes with eyes! I GOTTA WRITE THAT!”
Then they spend their time trying to convince everyone that “pancakes with eyes” is the thing they’ve been waiting to read.
Now, I’m not saying that “pancakes with eyes” isn’t the thing they’ve been waiting to read. It may be the very best book ever written. The whole world might never have realized what they were missing until they found “pancakes with eyes.”
It’s just much, much harder to prove to someone that they need to buy your lock, and then purchase the key that goes with it. Seems like you have to convince them of a need, then offer the solution.
Every marketing book ever written will tell you how to do this.
I’m just saying, that’s what the problem is with your book. You’re competing with a LOT of lock-makers, and most people don’t even want a lock. Is there any hope?
Well, if you’re like me and you just have to write your very own ideas because…because…they’re coming out of you, and you gotta make them breathe…because…these characters want to be born, they exist, and if you don’t finish their books, they’ll die…then you have a long road ahead of you.
It’s okay. Take that road. Be willing to tolerate whatever you feel in that life as a writer.
The journey may take you places you never would have gone. Even if you never sell that book.
Think of the people you’ll meet, the places you’ll go, the things you’ll learn as you write your book.
At the end of your life, you’ll look back. Maybe the book you wrote is just sitting there in the closet and nobody read it. But take that book away and see what your life would have looked like instead.
A life without trying, a life without hope, a life without a dream. Maybe less despair, but less hope, too! Less friendships, less dreams. And those characters of yours, they get to live! In your imagination! In you!
You take them with you wherever you go. You are your characters. What they learned, you learned.
You can’t argue with that, can you?
Just do the work. Do your best. And remember that being a writer (or a musician or an artist) is a very special thing.
If you need help, and you think I can help you, come find me at https://acole.net
Love,
Adam