You’ve just spent four months or even two years putting your story together. Woken up early to create excited dialogue. Spent hours doing your research and reading other novels in your genre. Spent hundreds if not thousands of pounds or dollars on various types of editors to clear up your embarrassingly poor spelling, grammar and punctuation. Employed an illustrator and graphic designer to go over your cover so it looks like a pristine canvas you could hang on your wall. If a graphic novel then you’ve hurdled more money into the hands of an illustrator and colourist. That’s other capital you’ve had to scrape for if you’re struggling financially to keep everything together. And finally you have it up for sale on any one of the current platforms, maybe all, or at a market stall for customers, even for those that it’s marketed to, to snub your hard work and spend their money on a more established writer. This is the reality you’re likely to come across when your first book is on sale. Even your second novel could face the same treatment.
Don’t Take Failure Or Their Dislike Of Your Work To Heart
If this is you then dust yourself off. Sure you’ll get sales, from some loyal friends or family just don’t expect your book to be a bestseller. My book is currently on the market and has only gained a few sales in the several days it’s been active. Think of it as a business and businesses fail. You could own a shop with various products. Your shelves always stacked with tins of food because no one will buy. Your book can be hard to achieve sales and other more established, honest writers will tell you this.
Not Everyone Has To Like Your Book
You’ve achieved this milestone and shown you can write and publish a book. So what? People may read it but don’t expect it to be well liked or well received. Think of your book as a person or even a representation of yourself. Does everyone like you? Are you everyone’s friend? People will have a dislike even a strong one against you for absolutely no logical reason. You could be the friendliest, humblest individual and still be ostracized at your school or place of work. You consider your book to be the best, your precious baby. Appreciate your hard work but drop the ego. Not everyone is required to like your book or even take the time to read it.
Accept Criticism
Everything gets criticized. Even the best books and movies, those that have a strong following, get criticized. You may not even hear the criticism about your work, but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there. People will find things to pick you and your story apart. When I was at university I created three A1 painted illustrations about a poetry show. I presented it in front of the class only to have the lecturers pick it apart. One said I wasn’t putting enough work into my illustrations. the other asked if I’d read the brief. I felt embarrassed and became very defensive to their cretic. I learned a lesson, one which I’m thankful of now. Years later, as I was finishing off my book, ‘The Tribulations of Kharman’, my martial arts teacher read it and warned me of an ‘antagonistic review’. I knew exactly what he meant. All these experiences are preparing me. Toughening me up to develop a thick skin and in the creative world you defiantly need to have that thick skin.
Don’t Give Up
Look into different ways to promote your book. Persuade your friends and acquaintances to share your work and leave a review. Above all continue to write. It could even be years before others discover your book and you build up a following as the market is saturated with many other books in your genre.