How to Kill Your Writing Career

An uncounted number of writers start out on fire for their craft. Their mind blazes with new ideas and fantasies. This is it, their time to shine. Then reality strikes. Hard work follows. Rejections and criticism stings. Roadblocks ensue and enthusiasm wanes to a spark. It goes out.

Why?

         

Negativity. Telling yourself, you’re not good enough, that no one likes what you do. Criticism takes its toll and beats you down. “I can’t do it.”

It is hard work, this writing gig, but every day you continue is another day of improving your skill. Let you creativity out and give it free rein to do its will. Write every day, something. Anything. Join a writing club or guild. Listen to crits and accept them as sign markers on the road to Published.

Make good thoughts your journey not your destination.

Take a hint from Taylor Swift and Shake it off, Shake it off.

Free Books. It has become an industry standard, pricing

books at $2.99 and below. Or free.

What is your time worth? Devaluing your work is a plague in this industry. Amazon seems to run on this marketing ploy. Does it work? Or does it cheapen writers.

My Kindle books are regularly priced at $4.99. I will initiate sales from time to time but I won’t go below that amount. In my opinion, to price a book below $3 slots it into the category of Desperate and Inferior. Your books deserve better.

In Cruise Mode. The manuscript is done and you’ve polished it to a high shine. You submit it and an agent wants to know your marketing plan.

You scratch your head. You don’t want to learn how to market. You barely know how to format in Microsoft Word. Social networks leave you disgusted. Besides, it’s time consuming, and you don’t want to take the time to network, blog, or maintain a website. All you want to do is write.

Well, it don’t work that way, minion.

To survive in this World Wide Web market, you must learn to make a name for yourself, to create a platform, and be more than a puff of air. Tech—how to use Google maps, create a website, use Word or other word processing programs, how to Facebook—is unavoidable. You need to continue to improve your writing skills and blog, blog, blog.

This is your resume. It shows the potential agent/publisher/reader that you are serious and worth their time.

Otherwise, you’re just another skiff of cloud scudding across the sky, wind-blown and quickly gone.

Not a hobby. The day you finally have the guts to tell an acquaintance that you are a writer, everything changes. When you make this a business and not a hobby or a feather

in the wind, you become a Writer. It is your job, your career. 

Not a sideline.

“Make it so.” – Captain Jean Luc Picard, Star Trek, the Next Generation.

Marketing. This is the pinnacle of the mountain we are climbing, the last step of the plank. And if you can show me someone who loves this aspect of published author, I would gladly scream, “Are you nuts?”

To promote myself is painful. At family reunions, I’m the quiet introvert in the corner, watching people. I am NOT the one standing in front of a classroom and giving lections on how to become a published author...

...oh wait. That was pre-Wilder Mage. Now, I do give speeches. *shiver*

You must swallow the Nerd and force the Diva into the limelight. Make a name via branding, website, blog. Have a social network. Join a local writers club. Call the schools. See if they need someone to give a lecture on how to write. Do press releases and book signings.

Learn how to YouTube, comment on other blogs, and create email signatures. All of this lends to making a name that stands out. It sells.

Summary. Be and act like a professional writer. Believe in yourself. Never stop learning your craft.