Not so long ago, Kahlen Aymes had an article appear in Indie Author News entitled Writing … for Money or Love?
Ah. That is the question.
Which writer hasn’t dreamed of writing that ONE book and thinking of it as a winning lottery ticket? I have.
Writing: the urge to write, the need to write, to tell a story, to express myself, flows through our veins. It’s part of our DNA. It’s what we live for.
And I’m not ashamed to say I want it to not just be profitable, but make me rich.
But is that a realistic expectation?
Kahlen says writing is hard and publishing is harder. How true. Who hasn’t spent years on their book, their baby, only to have it rejected by the gatekeepers of traditional publishing? I remember the day I said “I can do this myself.”
Boy, was I in for a surprise. The editing. The marketing. The social media. The business side of being an indie author. I wake up mornings knowing my book is ranked about 1,200,000th on Amazon because I haven’t sold a single copy for over a week. Or a month.
Where is the love? Where is the money?
I believe it has to be inside you. I write because I love it. It’s as simple as that. Whatever anxiety I feel about the writing, or business of writing, the overwhelming need to be an indie entrepreneur when all I want to do is sit in my pajamas and drink tea and write — well, that’s life.
There are two sides to everything. For every moment writing, there is a moment of reckoning that comes down: if I want anyone to read this, if I want to have an audience, I have to do something about this. And that’s where art meets commerce.
Or as I like to call it, living on the corner of Creativity and Opportunity.
And that’s why to answer Kahlen, it’s both. Love and Money.
What about you? Which is it?
To get a copy of my latest ebook mystery “The Gangster’s Son” click here . To get the latest news on my Shig Sato Mystery series, visit my website www.josephmarkbrewer.com and sign up for my monthly newsletter. See you soon!
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