We’ve only just begun…

To live, to write, to make it happen, to fight… pick your poison. I’ve realized I’m just at the very beginning of this new writing career- and that this also is a realization for me, that this is what I’m being called to do Now.

This doesn’t mean that I’ve given up preaching. It just means that I’ll no longer be looking to ministry to earn a buck. I’m making tents now, and I’m going to get really good at it. My tents look a lot like books. Especially when they’re open and lying face down. Or maybe my books look like tents.

Regardless, I just got my butt kicked over at  Amanda Hocking’s blog. She’s writing on the secret of her success–except it isn’t really a secret ’cause she’s just blabbed it all over the internet, and it isn’t a secret because it’s common sense stuff that any schlep can implement.

Including me.

In a nutshell, here’s what she appears to have done to be so successful.

a) She writes like a frickin’ machine. She turned out a novel in two weeks. Two weeks! Talk about word-count envy. I’ve spent a year and a half on The Elixir of Life, and almost a full year on Patriots and Tyrants. She has a work ethic that makes me look like a pathetic wimp. I guess I have been, too. The Coppersmith took me two years to write. I did The Lost Scrolls in a year and a month. I’ve just got to get better at cranking out words.

b) She published in print first, then kindle. I don’t know if that made a difference or not, but she did both very close together. That probably had a lot to do with it. She claims that she edits like crazy. I believe her, but I also know that she was able to publish multiple books at a time because she had several stuffed in her drawer that she’d tried submitting the traditional way before going indie. This points out the third thing:

c) She’s published multiple books. That’s a big secret, one I’ve suspected for a while now. You can’t make it on just one novel, even though it may be a single novel that puts you over the top. I’ve never wanted to publish just one novel as it is, so I’m cool with that, but I also know that I have so many books to write in my life, and right now I’m so far behind I will never die (thank you, Bill Watterson).

d) Blog tours were the secret to her marketing success. I haven’t really tried this yet, though I’ve been mentioned on a few (three, to be precise.). My thanks to Joy Tamsin David for sending me the link with all the blogs she’s researched ahead of time. That’ll make life easier.

I suppose this just means I have to knuckle down all that harder and learn to WRITE MORE. It is fairly simple, actually. That’ll be the key to my success as well. Heck, if my nephew can crank out 375K words plus in four years, I oughtta be able to handle doing more than a book a year.

Just have to knuckle down and make it happen.