I advocate and believe in the power of reflective writing to heal. My own writing life has richly blessed me; I’ve been able to go places and do things that I never would have even thought possible without the opportunities with which writing has provided me. Thus, I am grateful for the ability to write and I count myself more than lucky to have a writing life.
But, the writing life can also be, at times, very frustrating. Not because of the writing part of it…but because of the selling part of it. When I started out in the publishing world, I dreamed (naively) that just writing a book and getting it out would lead to sales and a career and maybe even a new car. But, it didn’t. Not yet anyway. Before Journey to Aztlan, I had already published two books and while have sold a few copies over the years, I still have to slug away at an eight to five gig to make ends meet. Really, over the years, I’ve heard the, “writing is a nice hobby” line so many times that it probably should be my epitaph, “He was a writer – nice hobby.”
It’s frustrating to look up sales figures on Amazon and see “No sales to report during this period.” Journey to Aztlan has been available in Kindle format for two weeks and not one has been sold or downloaded. Not one. Seems like someone in the vast universe of the Amazon marketplace would stumble upon it and purchase it down to their device. But, nope. Not one Amazon account holder has gotten their copy of Journey to Aztlan.
To be realistic, selling anything requires focused attention to potential buyers. Also, in any undertaking, the question that we all have to ask ourselves is, “Have I done everything in my power to become successful?” In my case, the answer is a resounding, NOPE!. I haven’t hit the streets with the necessary force to convince people that this book can, in fact, change their life. I’ve only had one reading in support of Journey to Aztlan (though more are scheduled) and I haven’t really gotten the word out about my Amazon author page. I haven’t even produced a book trailer (though one is forthcoming).
So then, I have not done everything in my power to make Journey to Aztlan a success. How will I define success? I have milestones that will tell me how well it’s done (the first milestone is 250 copies). I will continue to work to convince the world that they should buy, read, and recommend this book because of what it does: It shows that Depression can be overcome. I overcame it through writing. My writing life has been a blessing.
I guess it’s a lot like Eminem said, “its like an F – you for Christmas;” in that it’s both a blessing and something that can be frustrating. But, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. Writing saved my life. It’s just that I do wish someone would download the Kindle version. Is that too much to ask?
