Hi Everyone!
I’m doing a special blog post today because it’s my three year authorversary! Three years ago today, I woke up to see my first book, Little Samantha’s Choice published on Amazon. I can’t believe it’s been this long. Heck, I still can’t believe that I’m an author. No matter how many books I publish, I’m still shocked that people want to read MY stories. I wonder if that feeling will ever go away? I kind of hope it doesn’t. I think it keeps authors humble.
I’d like to give a shout out to Stormy Night Publications for publishing my first story. Looking back at the original story I submitted to you has me covering my eyes in embarrassment. It was awful, but somehow, they saw the awesomeness of it and gave me a chance. So, thank you. :-)
I’d also like to give a shout out to our author community. I absolutely love how supportive, encouraging, and happy for each other we all are. Seriously. I would have had to given up being an author on like day one if I didn’t have the support and encouragement that I receive on a daily basis from our community. It always makes me so touched when I know that I can go to any author and they’ll be willing to help me out with something I don’t understand or encourage me to keep going when I’m having a difficult time. It’s awesome! This community is what really makes being an author so much fun! :-)
Of course, a huge shout out to my readers! None of this would be possible without y’all! <3
Since it’s been three years since my first story came out, I thought I would share three pieces of advice that I’ve learned.
The first (and most important, in my opinion) is: you are your only competition. It makes me so upset when I hear about authors fighting because one person’s book did better than the other one’s. Or, when I hear that one author is jealous of another author for the same reason as above. Each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses. Our writing styles are all very different, even though we write in the same genre. We all have different likes and dislikes when it comes to kinks. So, for an author to compare themselves to another author is like trying to compare an apple to an orange. Sure, they’re both fruits, but that’s the extent of it. So authors, don’t waste your time looking at how another author is doing and feel bad because your book doesn’t do as well. Just focus on your writing and keep at it because with each book you put out, the better author you’ll become.
The second piece of advice is: don’t let bad reviews or pirated books upset you. This is kind of a two parter. No matter what, every author is going to get a bad review on their books. Lets be honest, bad reviews suck! As writers, we put so much time and effort into our stories, getting any criticism on them can be super tough. The thing to remember is everyone gets bad reviews, so it’s not like you’re alone in this. After you settle from getting the 1-2star rating, go back and read what the reviewer wrote. Most likely, you could learn something from it and better your writing for it! If the review is simply something like, “Gross” or “Eww” then no, obviously you can’t learn anything from that. But, if the reviewer took time to write down why they didn’t like your story and what you could have done differently, I’d consider remembering that for future books.
When it comes to pirated books, there’s nothing good about them. They’re lost royalties to authors. However, there are a few things to remember about them. More than likely, the people who read pirated books, weren’t going to be paying for our books on Amazon or another website in the first place. I’m not excusing these people for their actions, but it’s something to remember. Secondly, pirated websites are filled with horrible viruses and malware, so people *might* be getting a free copy of one of our stories (most times, websites that pirate books, don’t actually have our books. It may look like they do, but they don’t), but they’re also likely to be getting a nasty virus with it. Lastly, an author can spend an entire day combing through the Internet and getting one hundred websites to remove their pirated books, but the next day, I bet one hundred different websites will be pirating your book. Unfortunately, this is another reality that authors have to face. Our books are going to be pirated and instead of fighting the websites, it’s best to just ignore them and continue to write.
My last piece of advice is: never give up on your writing career. I know, circumstances come along and they can make it very hard for authors to write. For instance, if your family is low on money and you’re working a twelve-hour day, then have to come home to your kids and husband; it’d be a bit hard to write then. Or, if you’re going to school full time and can only write five hundred words a week, that’s perfectly fine! It’s okay to write slowly or even take a break from writing to take care of more important matters. A time will come when things settle down and you’ll be able to devote more time to writing. No matter what, while you’re waiting for that time to come, don’t give up on your dream! When the time comes and you can write as much as you want, you’ll be grateful that you didn’t walk away!
Those are my three pieces of wisdom! Well, really four pieces. The second point was a twofer. This is why I write, I’m horrible at math. I can’t even count correctly. ;-)
Thank you all again for making these past three years incredible! I truly wouldn’t be here without my readers, the encouragement, support, and positive vibes from our author community and my publisher, Stormy Night Publications. :-) Here’s to another year of fun! <3
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