Bob Mayer had another great post about self-publishing, outlining what it takes to succeed. As we work to improve our first novel, I find myself more and more thinking about all of this. Bob has some great advice:
- Be consistent.
- Be positive.
- Slow down and do things right.
- Change when needed.
- Be disciplined.
- Look forward and focus on the long term.
Of course, he discusses each of those points in more detail, but I direct you to his post if you want to read the whole thing.
I need to work on all those things, of course. The discipline is coming, but I need to be much more diligent about it. It is easy to find excuses as to why we didn’t start sending the book out to agents in February, when I wanted to. But actually, the book wasn’t ready then. It isn’t ready now. But we are making progress.
At the same time, we are also working on developing a website for the books. And we are working on the second book. I think we are really trying to do things right. And hopefully, we will be able to do that.
I love reading Bob’s blog, Write It Forward, because it offers me good advice from an author I really like. His Area 51 books were the first ones my son and I read together and are, in a way, part of what led us to write our own book now.
