- Why do writers continually go back over work to make it perfect?
- Why do writers nitpick every 1-star review while ignoring or discounting 5-star reviews?
- Why do writers for the most part say blogging is a waste of time?
- Why do writers not write what they want but what the market wants?
- Why are writers so unhappy?
I don’t really have the answers to these questions so if you want to hit the ‘back’ button right now, I won’t begrudge you. But what I will do is offer some insights and analysis and probably a fair amount of BS as well.
Here we go.
Obscurity
That’s why you need to push the boundaries. I mean, no one’s going to read your shit anyways.
Look at all the shit I have. I’ve got 48 books, and most of them aren’t read. Some books haven’t sold a single copy this whole year. I’ve written some books that haven’t sold a single copy except to my parents.
And promoting doesn’t always help. I’ve done Kindle Countdown Deal promotions where not a single copy moved. I’ve even done free promotions where just a few copies are downloaded.
Yes, people even noticing your work is something you should be more concerned about than them saying it sucks.
The Truth
Of course you think you can. You check your Amazon Author dashboard every hour or every day to see if there’s a new review. If it’s 5-star it’s not good enough…if it’s 1-star they’re a troll…if it’s 3-star…what the hell?
People don’t want to be told their work sucks, which let’s face it, it does. Maybe I haven’t sold many books this year because my work does suck – many reviews do say that after all.
But people read my website and read my free stuff a lot…so…what? I don’t know, I guess I should just quit and not worry about this at all. Then all this shit will just magically go away, I’ll have no worries or concerns, and that idyllic life I’ve always dreamed of will finally flit down to me.
But maybe it’s really great work but it’s just that no one cares. History’s littered with examples of great work that wasn’t discovered until the poor bastard was already dead – maybe you too’ll have that distinction!
Laziness
Many writers spend a year on a book because, let’s face it, no book written in any span of time less than that is ever worth a damn – it is known! And if it can’t be perfect, well fuck, why bother at all?
Again, most people do not know who you are or that you just spend all that time on your baby. Why should they? All that time on social media and the forums never amounted to any sales or platform growth, and if you do have a website, people aren’t visiting.
You're an Artist
Many artists rely on their senses but they so often turn a blind eye and a deaf ear that it’s a wonder more of them aren’t living in dark alleys and hole-in-the-wall apartments.
Some writers do art for art’s sake, and this makes them very important and integral to society. They’re like the axle grease that keeps the wheels turning. It doesn’t matter that they’re not rewarded now – they’ll be recognized in the annals of history.
Pish-posh-ala-ma-gosh is what I say to that, which is about what you should say to someone with the mentality and outlook of a 3-year-old.
Many writers are scared because they don’t want to look hard at themselves, don’t want to make changes, don’t want to…work. And that’s why I just smile and nod and let them suffer for their ‘work.’