I posted earlier about if Self Publishing Worth It?, and the first question was: Is it profitable?
I know there’s a lot of numbers out there of people stating how much money and how many books they are selling, but you must remember something, and keep it clearly in your head: their numbers won’t predict your success.
I was reminded of that on a Kindle forum. And I wanted to reiterate what success REALLY is. In my posting on How To Find Readers For Your Novel–ACTUAL STEPS! Honest Answer, I made some statements on success and I’m just going to copy and paste them again in this posting.
STEPS TO SUCCESS
My numbers are small potatoes to some, but these small potatoes met my life-time goal of actually having strangers reach into their pocket and consider paying their hard-earned cash on one of my stories. I just wanted to share, and I always kept wondering if someone, anyone, would enjoy what I wanted to tell. And that goal was well met.
You might say, “Well, you’re not successful! You’re not selling thousands of books!” To me, that’s the same thing as saying, “Well, you’re not a millionaire! So, you’re not successful!” And to both of those statements I’ll say, “Successful? Why, yes I am!” Because I met my goal to being successful in life. I have a house. I’m debt free (meaning, no credit cards and everything paid in cash); both cars paid off, student loan is history, a little savings, a daughter, a cat, and a wonderful husband who cooks my breakfast, lunch and dinner (I do the cleaning); and I can travel twice a year for vacations; and we’re not living from paycheck to paycheck. Now that’s successful in life for me. And it took years to build it–from elementary to college to temporary jobs to professional experience, to giving up cable, to saving and not spending on things that are not “needful”, and doing a lot of stuff myself (my hair, my lawn–though now we can afford someone else to do the lawn–ironing instead of dry cleaning, etc. etc.). Today I can afford to pay an editor and a Cover Designer, when I couldn’t 12 years ago with my current day job career.
This is the same as self-publishing.
My novels? I have a few strangers buying…and it’s slowly building. And I got a few more books that I’m working to release. I’ll let you know if I’m still not successful in a few years, and even then, I’ll tell you the same thing: “Why, yes I am!” Because I wrote my first book in 1997 (finished two years later) and didn’t decide to self-publish and do the “Do It Yourself” project and get it out there until 2008. I wrote more books over the years, and now can see them in print and on Kindle, Nook, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Book-A-Million, Sony eReader Store, Kobo, and Apple iTunes. And my books are being bought! Something that wasn’t happening several years ago.
You understand what I’m saying now? Remember your first job? I do. Mine was at Del Taco. Am I still working there? Heh. Heh. Not in your life. So that’s why I can honestly say, if you ask if I’m successful in a few years… my answer will still be: “Why, yes I am!”
Your goal is to be successful, and to do that, you have to make your own way and find and define your own answer, because it’s the uniqueness of things that are popular.
And that’s it. Basically, you have to look at success differently and be happy with each step and progress that you make.
Again…Take the time, take the STEPS, to your personal success and be happy.
Until Next Time!
