To become a successful author, whether you are published traditionally or independently, you must follow a few key concepts.
Success Is Up To You!
First and foremost, you must realize that your success is up to you. Don’t wait for your big break or for good luck to shower down upon you. You must actively pursue it. Don’t wait for the next breakout novel to skyrocket your writing career. Instead, build your business on the back of these core principles, and you will reach your goals.
Pace Yourself:
Think like a marathon runner. They don’t start out running as hard and fast as they can. If they did, they would burn out a mile down the road. It’s all about pacing. This concept works for authors as well. While it’s exciting to launch a new book and host launch parties, it’s time to get back to work on your next project as soon as the parties are over. Don’t waste too much time in between. A successful writing career is about building up an audience and building up a backlog of books that fans love and will continue to share. While everyone wants to be the next JK Rowling with Harry Potter, it’s not likely that that will happen. And if it does, good for you. In the meantime, all of the successful Indie Authors are out creating valuable content and carving their own path to success.
Bring Value to the Reader:
Remember, you don’t get paid for time or products. You get paid for bringing value to the marketplace. When you are writing your book, keep this in mind. There are hundreds of thousands of authors out there that you are competing with. How is your book bringing value to the marketplace? You might ask, I’m writing a fiction book. How is that valuable? Entertainment is extremely valuable. Why do you think Hollywood gets paid so much? Is your book bringing value to your reader? If you’re writing for the fun of it or writing for your own amusement, then do yourself a favor and keep it in your notebook on your shelf. Otherwise, turn your focus to your reader. Write for them. Publish for them. Market for them. Sell for them.
Discipline Yourself!
Self-discipline is the master key to your success. No one is going to barge into your writing space and beat you with a rubber hammer until you sit down at your keyboard and start typing. It is your job to make yourself sit down and write regularly. You do not have a time clock or a boss to push you. You must push yourself. Create your daily writing schedule and stick to it. It’s up to you. Remember your success is your job.
Create Positive Habits:
Habits will either lead you toward success or keep you from it. Create a steady writing habit. Humans are habitual creatures. It may take a little bit of self-discipline to make yourself create a new habit, but once you do, you no longer have to fight to make yourself do it. Set aside the next 21 days to create a new writing habit. You will find after three weeks, this habit is already implanted into your habitual nature, and you won’t have to fight so hard to make yourself write.
Goals. Goals. Goals:
I know you’ve heard it before, but you must have goals if you want to reach success. Create short-term and long-term goals for your writing career. Take the time to sit down and imagine what you would like your writing career to look like in 5 years. Then write it down so you can refer back to it periodically. When you find yourself distracted, you can pull out your business goals, review them, and get back on track.
Remember, whether you are traditionally published, or Indie published, marketing your book will be up to you. Your success is up to you. Are you going to be self-disciplined? Are you going to build the habits you need? Or are you going to wait for someone else to hand you success on the tip of their magic wand?
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Can a local writer build a big enough audience to attract Hollywood? I did.
Can you publish independently and build a large platform that attracts the attention of a traditional publishing house? I did.
Can an indie author make six figures a year? Yes!
This go-to guide will show you how I built a business so large that a publishing house came to me and offered to buy reprint rights to three of my books. I got the chance to tell them “no” for one of the books. I made too much money.
Have you ever been able to send a rejection letter to a publishing house? It’s a lot of fun. Trust me.
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