One of the hardest parts of my journey is that I have to do it alone. Sure, all writers have to be alone to write, you say. I'm not talking about that alone. Because when I'm writing, I'm never alone. I'm in the company of my characters.
I'm talking about alone when it comes to support from my family and friends. Sure, my friends have enccouraged me to write, sort of.
"You're a writer? That's nice. Is it going to rain today?"
My family? Uh, no, not really. I know that people who don't write don't understand what it's like to have stories pop into your head, to write them, to develop characters and then go through all the mishigosh (Yiddish word there meaning "mess") involved in editing and publishing said book. I get that.
But my friends and my family, with one exception, have never bought any of my books. Not even a novella, not even a $0.99 ebook on sale. Buying, reading and leaving positive reviews for my books would be amazing. If it happened. But it hasn't. And I don't even mean reading all of my books. I have just over 70 books published, so that would be WAY too much to ask of anyone. I mean just one lousy little book. Um. no. That hurts.
And I believe I'm not alone. I have writer friends in the same boat. So that's why writers, especially romance writers, hang out together, join groups together, have adventures together. Because we read each other's stuff and we get how hard it is to write that book.
With Thanksgiving here - and I have so much to be grateful for - the one thing that would make my holiday complete is if just one friend or family member got one of my books, read it and said, "Hey, I read such-and-such. Not bad. Really. Better than I expected." That would make my holiday complete.
Stay safe,
Jean
No comments:
Post a Comment