Joan Reeves: Writers, Make This Your 2018 Mantra

Writers, Make This Your 2018 Mantra

I love writing, but there's a vast difference between writing and publishing.

We who write and hope to make a living doing that often feel as if we're treading water--barely keeping ourselves from drowning in this huge sea of millions of books as we compete for a reader's attention.

It's easy to yield to the feeling that you'll never make enough to pay the electric bill much less make a living at this. That's a terribly depressing thought.

When I find myself thinking negatively, I make a conscious effort to stop it. Immediately. I think it's too easy for negativity to invade your thoughts and discouragement immediately follows.

I'd like to give you some ideas or truths that I wrote back when I started this. You may have heard all these before from different people, but I encourage you to read this again, print it out in a huge font. Make a poster of it and hang it where you can see it every single day.

Internalize these thoughts. Make them your Writing Mantra, not just for 2018, but for the rest of your career. I have.

My Mantra

Ebooks are forever because shelf space is infinite.

You'll always be selling once you're published and your ebook stays available.

Ebooks are here to stay.

Ebooks AND print books will always be in demand as long as people have the desire to read.

Ebooks are global. There are more than 50 countries where your ebooks can be sold when you distribute through Apple via one of the aggregators like Smashwords or Draft2Digital. A few here and a few there can add up to some nice sales.

Sales fluctuate. Get used to it. Christmas sales can be huge; middle of summer sales can be discouraging. New books can hit big--so can old books.

Being an ebook writer/publisher is a marathon, not a 100 meter sprint.

I’m a writer, and I’m in this until the day I die.

As long as I continue to write good books, I’ll find readers.