This will be a short post about my experience with my last full-length book. This last book was difficult to write. The process was different because I felt a lot of expectation to get it just right. I know I’m not the best writer out there. I know there are people who have a way with words that I don’t.
Honestly, I realized there are people who do not take what I do seriously because I’m self-published. I’m not talking about people in the industry but my own friends. I expect that attitude with people in the industry, but not the people who encouraged me to write but fell silent when I self-published my first book. I have not received the reception I thought I would receive from some friends since I started writing and publishing.
It is so hard to traditionally publish. I don’t think people realize how hard it is to get a physical book on the shelves of Barnes & Noble or any other nationally recognized bookstore. I’m not sure if they don’t realize it or if they do and that’s why they think what I have done as a self- publisher has been insignificant.
I am both excited and disappointed for the release of my novella on Friday. This book won’t have as much fanfare and that’s OK. There is apart of me that just wants to be done with all of it because only a handful of people care what I do anyway.
The disappointment is because I don’t feel like I have done my job to market myself to the right people. The people I have been marketing to don’t care about what I’m doing. I need to find the people that will care and who resonate with me.
I was working with the wrong strategy the past four years and didn’t realize it until now. It’s been a really tough lesson for me to learn. I have a different plan for 2023 but I’m not sharing it. I will be around though. I will get out more and share my work with the people who will care about it and want to share with others.
I know all of this sounds like bitterness but I don’t mean it to be. I really don’t. I wanted to share this because it’s been a HUGE lesson for me. I have had to really understand everyone is not going to care or appreciate what I’m doing and I need to learn to let it roll off of me. I take my work so personal sometimes and I need to have thicker skin.
This is called learning. I’m learning a lot about myself in this writing and self-publishing world. Let’s just say 2023 is going to get interesting.
Mindful Impressions 
That’s so awesome you’ll be switching things up in 2023! I feel that too as a self-published author. A lot of people tell me “Keep writing!” or ask “What are you working on now?” yet they’re the ones who won’t actually buy my books. It can be super frustrating, but promotion can help and do wonders. Wishing you the best with your new novella! I really enjoyed your book 13 Lessons From A Morally Wounded Woman and just wrote a review today.
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