Reply
Honored Contributor
Posts: 24,108
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

@LoriLori 

 

Yeah, I'll be watching Survivor. Parvati is one of my favorite players. Boston Rob and Sandra, not so much. I think I may rewatch episodes for the first few weeks to try and get a better feel for the players. I'm typically a little lost in the beginning. I still have my All Access so I can rewatch them as much as I want.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to shoot for the moon in writing, but the reality is there are a lot of people trying to get big who only get bankrupt. The most successful legitimate writers typically get successful by getting lucky. Colleen Hoover is a great example of that as is the writer of "Fifty." When you get successful, you sort of get trapped into writing the same thing all the time. I like variety. Even JK Rowling had to write under an alias when she wanted to branch out into more adult themes.

 

 A lot of the "successful" self-published writers buy their audience and may spend ten to twenty thousand dollars in advertising/promotions to sell five thousand dollars worth of books. You see their sales figures and it's impressive, but when you look at the bottom line, they're losing a lot of money. I've sold over a thousand books at virtually no cost other than my own time. You hope the right book finds the right reader on the right day, and takes off, but there are no guarantees.

 

The ABNA had ten thousand entries each year, many of whom participated in the ABNA forums. You met thousands of other writers, some with Masters degrees in English and literature. Some were housewives, some were teens, and some were people much older than me. Some got agents, some got traditionally published. Some had books held in limbo for years as a publisher would get the rights, but then just hold the book forever without ever releasing it. Some had agents who would just sit on their book and never try to sell it. It was a great way to learn a lot about the publishing industry and writing in general. 

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!