Hope springs eternal . . . for all writers, whether large or small, and with each newly published book the resurrected hope for a bestseller reappears. I confess it would be "loverly" if one or more of my teen books or travel books would rise to the top of the bestseller lists and with two new books coming out this year I have my fantasies.
Some of you may have similar hopes for achieving bestsellerdom. Jacqueline Blais and Anthony DeBarros wrote an interesting article for USA Today on how a book becomes a best seller. It looks like my best shot is the "slow but steady" method. Of course, that requires a lot of people to buy my books over a long span of time. The additional stats offered in the article is interesting, too.
My favorite tip at the end of the article is John Grisham's: "The best advice I ever got was to write at least one page a day. Until you write a page, nothing is going to happen."
With more than 100 million of his 18 books are in print in 26 countries worldwide and in 23 languages, he surely speaks with some authority. While I may not even have one million books in print, I definitely agree that nothing will happen until you pick up the pen or pencil or hit the keyboard and type. Talking and thinking about it won't make it happen. If it would I'd have even more books published. Writing is not easy. It's physically, emotionally and mentally demanding. Showing up at the keyboard on just a regular basis, let alone a daily one, can be difficult.
Writing is also rewarding. The daughter of a friend of mine received a copy of Divided Loyalties, my teen novel, for Christmas. She came up to me a few weeks ago and said she loved the book and wished I had more for her to read. (Naturally I told her Video Magic will be out at the end of summer.) Since she's right in the targeted range of the audience I'm aiming for, her comments really gave me a boost. Later her mother told me that she had the book on her nightstand and had read it at least four times. Learning that something you've toiled over and written is so treasured by someone is a great boon . . . and pretty much indescribable.
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