ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER

ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER Finding time to write is hard, but you do it. Improving your writing is time consuming, but you manage. Its hard to find critiquers for your work, but you keep searching until you do. You never think youll find a publisher, but its doable. Then you hold a book in your hand, and you beam with happiness. Youve done it, and you want to whoop your achievement to the world. Friends pat you on the back and others email you with congrats. And the hard part hasnt started. Promotion is harder than all that combined. Surely she jests, I hear you say. Nope. Im serious as a heart attack. In all my years of writing, editing, researching, and building a platform, Ive never run into anything as frustrating as promoting a book. Ive been tossed Ive had my magical moments of selling 20 books in one night. Ive had my down evenings where I doubted what I was doing trying to establish myself as an author. Then I always tell myself that each and every author was a nobody before he became somebody. He sold one book at a time, hoping whoever bought it would spread the word until books sold he wasnt even aware of, the number adding up until he realized the hellacious journey he traveled over the years was finally beginning to show results. You dont see success coming. It just shows up one day, asking you to let it in . . . unless you quit along the way. Then it goes and knocks on somebody elses door.