Wednesday, March 11, 2015

How to Be a Not-So-Best-Selling Author

"Today I made peace with the possibility that my cause of death might not be listed as 'kung fu'."-Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics

  I , among other things, write books. Let's just get that out of the way.  I  wrote a book about the 2012 election and it sold fairly well.  I wrote a commentary on Genesis, and it sold more than a few copies.  I did  a Kindle Comic reboot of an old webcomic of mine , and it...well, let's just say I've given hundreds of them away.  I've got  2 or 3 books in outline form, waiting to have flesh put on their bones.  I also , obviously, write here as the  occasion arises.
  By now we've all heard the stories about the housewife who finally  self-published the book that she'd been pecking away at for years and now she's a gazillionaire.   I  am unashamed to admit that the thought of  being self-sufficient based off of the fruit of my brain is more than just a little appealing. I'm sure some of you that read this  blog have done the same thing I've done;  skulked around all those 'how to make a fortune writing books' blogs in an attempt to figure out what the magic formula is to make it  big.
  I've  heard the old saying "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life".  Sounds great, doesn't it?  The problem has always been that nobody is willing to pay me to do the things I love, so I  wind up doing the things  I have to for money, and the things I love doing for free. 
  I've heard the  writing adage "write what you know" but the few things I do know seem to be of little interest to anyone but myself.  I  know that I could  write about things I don't care anything about, but I'm pretty sure my disinterest would find it's way into the writing.
  I look at all this and  I look at what sells and I look at what's popular in our culture and I am amazed at how some people manage to parlay stupidity and emptiness into  a prosperous career. There are people who are rich and famous for being rich and famous. I wasn't aware until recently that  being a woman with a large backside was considered a skill set. 
  So here I am, writing about the things that are interesting to me and  neglecting the things that aren't.  If because of this, I never make it 'big' whatever that means, I have decided I'm ok with it. Now, if somebody  backs a dump truck full of cash up to my house, I'm not going to  argue with them, but dear reader, as much as I value you, I refuse to pander to you in order to build an audience.  I hope you understand.

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