Got Another Letter…

Writer Thinking of Quitting…

They told me they thought no one liked their writing. They had been really working on their writing, had a bunch of short stories and about eight novels and two collections. No sales.

My first thought was to write back and tell them they had not reached real discoverability yet of twenty major books, but their letter was about thinking they could not write stories.

I went (not to this person) “No sales means no one is reading the writing.”

But the writer had missed that sort of simple point and was blaming their own writing for no sales. Uhhh, no…

I know the thinking… “I write it, if it is a good story, it will sell.” Uhh, no… Not in this new world.

So I looked up the writer’s books and at first glance I knew the problem. No reader in their right mind would ever buy any of the books. The stories inside could be award-winners and bestsellers and not one person would ever know.

Author’s name was so small, and at the bottom so that in thumbnail it looked like there was no name.

Titles blended in with the color of the PHOTOS for fantasy and science fiction books. Uh, no… Not photos!!!

And then sales copy told me in a very dull way the plot of each book.

So no name branding, no branding cover to genre, and horrid sales copy. Three strikes, writer makes no sales, no one reads their work.

And the writer was about to quit because they thought no one liked their stories.

You know, there was a ton of stupidity in traditional publishing and people constantly out to screw you or dumb down your work. But in indie publishing, it’s the writers who set out to stop themselves.

No sales actually means NO ONE IS READING YOUR WORK. Duh…

You know the thinking… “I’ve learned all this writing stuff, that’s good enough. I don’t want to learn the basic sales stuff as well. It’s just too much.”

I wrote the writer a letter back, explaining the problem, but I have zero belief the writer heard me, and since they were looking for an excuse to quit, will blame their writing and vanish without anyone but a first reader or workshop knowing anything about their stories.

There are a lot of elements to learn to become a successful indie fiction writer. Writing great stories is the most important, but the learning can’t stop there. You have to get your work in readers hands and not being able to learn basic branding, basic genre design, basic sales copy makes sure no reader reads your books. Period.