Why I'm Not Doing Business in Writerland

You can’t throw an internet rock without coming across a someone talking about the business aspect of writing. While it’s awesome that so many people are willing to share information this was a big pitfall for me. Back in the day I was all in to the advice side of puplishinglandia. I read every blog and tried to take it all to heart. Then I realized that I was so stressed by my non-existent platform that I wasn’t writing.

Somewhere along the way I realized that I just wasn’t ready. I spent months querying my first novel, Products of Power, to no avail. Reason being that I think it’s possible that I was sending out the worst serious query of all time. Once you sift out the autobiographies of penises and the people getting direct requests from God, I was at the bottom of the pile. I didn’t see at the time. I just wasted a ton of money in postage sending hardcopy query’s to everyone who didn’t really want them. My work wasn’t to the caliber that it needed to be to sell, and that was showing in my wooden queries. I was worried about the marketing, platform building, audience seeking side without having the writing skill to craft an interesting novel.

Obviously I’m not strictly holding to the no business aspect. I did finally start a blog (after two years of dithering about it). I’m still steering away from the final aspect. That means not only querying and marketing but also things like self publishing vs traditional publishing and other difficult questions. Some amazing people can multi task like that. I need to take this time to focus on being the best writer I can be.